Hi everyone,
Some of you may have seen the Anhua heicha group buys I’ve organized — a couple in 2022–24 and quite a few this year. As these buys have become more frequent (and since the way these teas are sold often doesn’t allow much advance notice), I’ve decided to change the format a bit. Going forward, I’ll simply be picking up a bit extra of whatever I’m usually getting for myself and offering it for sale. You can find information about what’s available here: anheituan.com.
There is a markup on the teas I offer (as explained on the site), and I won't be trying to invent a euphemism for "vendor" to describe my role. Unlike typical vendors, though, I don’t offer samples, and given the unit sizes of the slices/bricks I list, I don’t expect a lot of sales. The amount of stock will reflect that (though it might grow if there’s more interest than I expect).
In any case, have a look if you’re interested, and feel free to ask questions here or elsewhere. I’ll use this thread to post updates whenever new teas become available on the site.
Anheituan
awesome! i am a fan of qianliang, although i have only tried one log from 2011. i have some slices, but this is tempting me to try other examples.
@Balthazar nice site and site structure. Those compressed Heicha logs are so beautiful, I didn’t realize they’d be so large! Thanks for sharing your teas.
Cool, good luck with the project! I've wanted to try one of these ever since I first saw you post about them. What's holding me back at the moment is the size of the exploratory purchase--650g-700g is a lot(~100 sessions worth, right?). That, and knowing how difficult it can be to import from China to the EU/my country. If the package doesn't slip through customs, I might need to contact you to request forms/emails for the courier, which can get overwhelming, esp. for a new seller over $60-65 worth of goods. From experience, it feels like heavier packages are more likely to get flagged for inspection, and this seems like exactly the kind of shipment that would.
It seems you are offering a great service, likely at less profit than would be reasonable, more out of love for this kind of tea than anything else. I really admire that, and of course you should not feel obliged to do anything outside of what's comfortable in that context--but, if Anheituan's diplomatic mission towards newbies ever becomes a priority, offering half or quarter slices might help people like me take the plunge. (Once/if I know I want larger quantities, I'm more willing to let me & you suffer the customs consequences
).
It seems you are offering a great service, likely at less profit than would be reasonable, more out of love for this kind of tea than anything else. I really admire that, and of course you should not feel obliged to do anything outside of what's comfortable in that context--but, if Anheituan's diplomatic mission towards newbies ever becomes a priority, offering half or quarter slices might help people like me take the plunge. (Once/if I know I want larger quantities, I'm more willing to let me & you suffer the customs consequences
).Thanks for the kind words, everyone!
@teatray: The points you are making are all very good. I too believe that the unit size of these teas will the biggest barrier for most people, and it will probably be a rare occurrence when anyone who hasn't already bought something through me makes an order. I also believe the demand will saturate fairly quickly. After all, if you have already ordered a couple of slices (=kiles of tea) you'll be set for a long while, even if you drink lots of this genre.
I might look into the possibility of offering smaller quantities at some point, but it would be much more logistically demanding than the current situation is and probably require another warehouse solution than the current bare-bones setup. So unlikely to happen in the short term.
Shipping wise, keeping the total weight at below 2kgs (so that Guangzhou ePacket becomes possible, for most destination) will typically be the bets bet in my experience. But you're right that it's sometime a lottery with different countries' customs (and it seems you have first-hand experience with pains of dealing with Bulgaria's, I haven't shipped there yet )
@teatray: The points you are making are all very good. I too believe that the unit size of these teas will the biggest barrier for most people, and it will probably be a rare occurrence when anyone who hasn't already bought something through me makes an order. I also believe the demand will saturate fairly quickly. After all, if you have already ordered a couple of slices (=kiles of tea) you'll be set for a long while, even if you drink lots of this genre.
I might look into the possibility of offering smaller quantities at some point, but it would be much more logistically demanding than the current situation is and probably require another warehouse solution than the current bare-bones setup. So unlikely to happen in the short term.
Shipping wise, keeping the total weight at below 2kgs (so that Guangzhou ePacket becomes possible, for most destination) will typically be the bets bet in my experience. But you're right that it's sometime a lottery with different countries' customs (and it seems you have first-hand experience with pains of dealing with Bulgaria's, I haven't shipped there yet
)New tea available on the site
2014 Gaojiashan “Qianliang Jinhua Fuwang” Fuzhuan
I do not expect to be offering many fuzhuans on the site - despite it being by the biggest (as in highest sales) category of Anhua heichas by far, it's probably my least favorite overall. This one caught my interest though, and it's the first time I've seen this "in the wild" (the mentioned 2018 version I've seen for sale once before).
Blurb:
2014 Gaojiashan “Qianliang Jinhua Fuwang” Fuzhuan
I do not expect to be offering many fuzhuans on the site - despite it being by the biggest (as in highest sales) category of Anhua heichas by far, it's probably my least favorite overall. This one caught my interest though, and it's the first time I've seen this "in the wild" (the mentioned 2018 version I've seen for sale once before).
Blurb:
Gaojiashan (高家山) is a fairly big operation — not in the league of Baishaxi, Zhongcha, or Xiangyi, but in that tier of medium-sized Anhua heicha producers one level below. A common assessment is that their teas were more consistently good before the two brothers who ran the company split (around 2013), and that their productions have been more hit-or-miss since then. I haven’t had too many of their newer teas, but the ones I have tried support this idea.
That said, interesting productions do pop up from time to time and this is one of them. There’s definitely a gimmick factor to this first batch of their “Qianliang Fuzhuan” (not a qianliangcha with jinhua, but a fuzhuan made to the size of a qianliangcha!), but it uses good tianjian material from Yuntaishan (though take the “wild and ancient trees” claim with a qianliang of salt) and has seen a nice transformation in the 11 years since it was pressed.
The 2014 production was limited to 50 bricks. Another batch of 50 bricks was made in 2018. That number may not sound all that low when you consider the weigh of these bricks (~1.5 tonnes of finished tea per batch), but for qianliangcha logs of similar size production numbers of three or (more commonly) four digits is what you typically see.
Note: This tea contains golden flowers (Jinhua/金花) which may have been inoculated using wheat flour. Individuals with Celiac Disease or severe gluten allergies should exercise caution.