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Hello and thank you for the opportunity to post

It's a pleasure to introduce our official website https://ChenYuanHao.shop, where you will find all of our recent teas and a selection of aged and semi-aged teas.

Chen Huaiyuan founded Jia Mu Tang Tea Shop in 1989 and went to Yunnan in 1993 to participate in the International Pu’er Tea Symposium, and immediately started importing and sharing well-known old Pu’er tea from Hong Kong.
Over the last 30 years, he has won many prize and awards, and is likely the most influential person in the renaissance of old-style Pu’er and further development of “100% pure ancient tree” (gushu) Pu’er.

(more on our about page: https://chenyuanhao.shop/about/ )

You may be familiar with our original "old tree" tea cakes from 2003-2005 (single origin and the 6 mountains blend shanzhong chuanqi), but we've come a long long way since!
Although those teas are aged and are some of the very first aged "boutique" old tree teas that started the trend, the quality of our more recent tea is even higher.
By "higher quality" we mean both the fact that most of our tea is 100% pure ancient tree, and that aftertaste, sweetness, depth, aroma are stronger.
Of course this is not cheap tea, but we believe we offer a standard of quality that's rarely, if ever, matched. Most of our tea is from Yiwu, with few exceptions (such as Lao Ban Zhang)

Among the semi-aged tea we recommend trying 2014 Chen Yi Hao (https://chenyuanhao.shop/product/2014-c ... u-chawang/ which is currently priced at about 40% less than its list price for Taiwan.

We also have some rather excellent Shou Pu'er and a few Sheng Pu'er are available as 8 gram balls for you to try.

We're still selling teas at the 2022 price (for the rest of august only), on the 1st of september we will update to newer pricing or replace with 2023 cakes.

Enjoy!

PS: use code GRANDOPENING10 for 10% off until the 10th of august.

for the sake of transparency, can you please clarify your relationship with CYH/JMT? do you officially represent them?

i notice your website is brand new with newly registered domain, and you claim a business presence in the UK. are you not paolo of puerh.uk?

Curious to see why a specific tea would be 40% of retail sold in Taiwan?

pedant wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 05, 2023 11:47 pm

for the sake of transparency, can you please clarify your relationship with CYH/JMT? do you officially represent them?

i notice your website is brand new with newly registered domain, and you claim a business presence in the UK. are you not paolo of puerh.uk?

Lol. The whole page screams Paolo, including the lack of transparency.

Anyways, the handful of teas I've had from CYH have all been great or excellent, which I guess is what matters.

Btw. When I access the site from Canada I see prices in $ but no indication if it is USD or CAD. Only after comparing the prices with Puerh.uk (which has the same issue but I already know it is CAD), I am led to assume it is CAD as well. Is it correct?

Bok wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 8:16 am

Curious to see why a specific tea would be 40% of retail sold in Taiwan?

Even after the generous discount it's still significantly more than for how much the tea can be (occasionally and unofficially) purchased in Taiwan.

.m. wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 3:09 pm

Bok wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 8:16 am

Curious to see why a specific tea would be 40% of retail sold in Taiwan?

Even after the generous discount it's still triple of for how much the tea can be (occasionally and unofficially) purchased in Taiwan.

That would make more sense business-wise.

It is also not reasonable to expect any major wholesale prices on Puerh for an occasional foreign tea-sourcer-er. So probably purchased at TW retail, possibly even a bit more and then with a margin to make it economically viable.

Never mind.

I like that the website uses words like "investment", "world class", "true exclusivity", etc., which seems more honest than let's say "enlightement"

Bok wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 3:14 pm

.m. wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 3:09 pm

Bok wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 8:16 am

Curious to see why a specific tea would be 40% of retail sold in Taiwan?

Even after the generous discount it's still triple of for how much the tea can be (occasionally and unofficially) purchased in Taiwan.

That would make more sense business-wise.

It is also not reasonable to expect any major wholesale prices on Puerh for an occasional foreign tea-sourcer-er. So probably purchased at TW retail, possibly even a bit more and then with a margin to make it economically viable.

My assumption would be that these are the prices as set by Chen (with some margin) based on how the prices compare to puerh.uk and teaswelike.com. The extent to which those prices represent the "market value"... like .m. said, I think I remember yiwu chawang being more like $1/gram, and that might have even been the fancy calligraphy wrapper version... Anyways in I would guess the high prices are mostly on Chen's side as opposed to a massive markup

i've enjoyed the CYH teas i've tried, and i have some cakes.

.m. wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 2:58 pm

Btw. When I access the site from Canada I see prices in $ but no indication if it is USD or CAD. Only after comparing the prices with Puerh.uk (which has the same issue but I already know it is CAD), I am led to assume it is CAD as well. Is it correct?

idk

https://chenyuanhao.shop/product/2014-c ... u-chawang/

this shows $600 for me browsing from usa

.m. wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 3:27 pm

I like that the website uses words like "investment", "world class", "true exclusivity", etc., which seems more honest than let's say "enlightement"

While the store owner isn't looking, may I pick up this argument and reshuffle it as both, promise of wealth and promise of wisdom (not a correct analogy but I didn't have a better term and this one just rhymes better at the same price ) are marketing strategies catering to different folks. There is potential for fulfillment of both, but they aren't used here in some objective fashion here but rather to nudge you towards that big blue button (or whatever color it is there). This kind of blatant marketing feels to me boring and thus irksome. Why not craft an immersive AR journey, or some dodgy double-your-puer-cakes or something along the lines to make it at least fun? This isn't such a huge market (at least it doesn't seem that way outside Asia), I thought sellers have to be more inventive to gain a foothold in these cases.

...conjuring the message to self-destruct should the venue end up being legit...

pedant wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 4:14 pm

.m. wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 2:58 pm

Btw. When I access the site from Canada I see prices in $ but no indication if it is USD or CAD. Only after comparing the prices with Puerh.uk (which has the same issue but I already know it is CAD), I am led to assume it is CAD as well. Is it correct?

https://chenyuanhao.shop/product/2014-c ... u-chawang/ this shows $600 for me browsing from usa

$810 in Canada, is more expensive here

.m. wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 6:34 pm

pedant wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 4:14 pm

.m. wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 2:58 pm

Btw. When I access the site from Canada I see prices in $ but no indication if it is USD or CAD. Only after comparing the prices with Puerh.uk (which has the same issue but I already know it is CAD), I am led to assume it is CAD as well. Is it correct?

https://chenyuanhao.shop/product/2014-c ... u-chawang/ this shows $600 for me browsing from usa

$810 in Canada, is more expensive here

And $900 list price down here (with no indication that that's been converted to AUD)...

The website appears to be affiliated with Slow Tea: "It’s always best to book earlier to secure our time as we might take up to 24 hours to reply to a last minute booking request. We also host open days both for our brand and via Slow Tea. Please signup to the mailing list to be notified of new events in Brighton, London, UK and beyond." (https://chenyuanhao.shop/visit/)

Paolo Panda names himself as "Magician-In-Chief at Slow Tea" as well as working for puerh.uk (https://www.facebook.com/paolo.linus/), and Paolo is named as the person behind puerh.uk (https://puerh.uk/about/)

The images for CYH appear to be shared between this site and puerh.uk at least in part (https://chenyuanhao.shop/product/2014-c ... u-chawang/ and https://puerh.uk/product/2014-chen-yuan ... hawang-t4/)

The puerh.uk page states that "This tea is now sold on the official Chen YuanHao website: Chen YuanHao 2014 Chen Yi Hao (Yiwu Chawang)." (https://puerh.uk/product/2014-chen-yuan ... hawang-t4/)

I think that indirectly answer's part of @pedant's question regarding Paolo's relationship to this site (though not the part about the site's affiliation or relationship with CYH).

Andrew

i think it's good to share the CYH love and make it more available to western buyers!
good to have more competition as well. not meaning to attack this vendor at all.

i just saw the website though and wasn't clear on what was going on because, imo, it projects a strong 'official CYH vibe.'
so naturally i think it's fair that a customer would wonder about that status and also the provenance of expensive, aged tea he/she may be buying.

pedant wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 06, 2023 10:03 pm

i think it's good to share the CYH love and make it more available to western buyers!
good to have more competition as well. not meaning to attack this vendor at all.

i just saw the website though and wasn't clear on what was going on because, imo, it projects a strong 'official CYH vibe.'
so naturally i think it's fair that a customer would wonder about that status and also the provenance of expensive, aged tea he/she may be buying.

Oh, no, don't worry - I agree with you completely regarding the lack of transparency. Until there's a response from the vendor, perhaps the trail of breadcrumbs that I mentioned above might help people form their own view. Sorry if my response came across differently.

The reference on puerh.uk to this site as "the official Chen YuanHao website" suggests that there is an official distributorship or similar arrangement between this vendor and CYH. Hopefully the vendor will respond and confirm if that is the case.

Andrew