Yancha Vendors: Highest Grade vs Bang for Buck Vendor Recommendations

[Bok]

Both of those teas you just mentioned are claimed to be “Zhengyan” as well, despite costing less than $.50 per gram. Is the consensus here that all of these vendors (including Wuyi Origin and TheTea.pl, which folks here seem to like) are just lying about the source of their tea? Or are there different grades of tea from inside the nature preserve such that there are “budget” offerings that are not as good as the stuff from famous locations? I find it all very confusing...

I can think of two points for wuyiorigin. One is that they are the farmers, so there is no middle man and cost for sourcing the tea. The other is that i read they do vast majority of sales in china and have a well established position there already. Maybe this allows lower pricing for the west?

Why would someone let their own countrymen pay more and foreigners less? That doesn’t make any sense at all, it’s a business and not a smaritarian undertaking... if anything the opposite is usually the case.

And the market for Yancha is vast enough in Asia already they could for sure sell everything there. More likely the competition is fierce enough that they sell a fraction of their offering at better markup to niche markets (what the Western specialty tea market is).

As for the rest, I’d like to know as well... but I’m assuming names are just names: Take any Dahongpao... for sure the original DHP is legendary and will never be available in the open market. But everyone knows this and assumes correctly it’s just this, a name

[pantry]

Why would someone let their own countrymen pay more and foreigners less? That doesn’t make any sense at all, it’s a business and not a smaritarian undertaking... if anything the opposite is usually the case.

And the market for Yancha is vast enough in Asia already they could for sure sell everything there. More likely the competition is fierce enough that they sell a fraction of their offering at better markup to niche markets (what the Western specialty tea market is).

As for the rest, I’d like to know as well... but I’m assuming names are just names: Take any Dahongpao... for sure the original DHP is legendary and will never be available in the open market. But everyone knows this and assumes correctly it’s just this, a name

Agree with @Bok. It takes more work for Chinese vendors to venture outside of China. They have to deal with language and cultural (incl. shopping custom) barriers--why would they do all these extra works for less money?

The good news is, Yancha can be bought in small volumes, which makes sampling far and wide still somewhat affordable. That's probably the best way to make your purchase decision.

[Demea]

Both of those teas you just mentioned are claimed to be “Zhengyan” as well, despite costing less than $.50 per gram. Is the consensus here that all of these vendors (including Wuyi Origin and TheTea.pl, which folks here seem to like) are just lying about the source of their tea? Or are there different grades of tea from inside the nature preserve such that there are “budget” offerings that are not as good as the stuff from famous locations? I find it all very confusing...

I can think of two points for wuyiorigin. One is that they are the farmers, so there is no middle man and cost for sourcing the tea. The other is that i read they do vast majority of sales in china and have a well established position there already. Maybe this allows lower pricing for the west?

Why would someone let their own countrymen pay more and foreigners less? That doesn’t make any sense at all, it’s a business and not a smaritarian undertaking... if anything the opposite is usually the case.

And the market for Yancha is vast enough in Asia already they could for sure sell everything there. More likely the competition is fierce enough that they sell a fraction of their offering at better markup to niche markets (what the Western specialty tea market is).

As for the rest, I’d like to know as well... but I’m assuming names are just names: Take any Dahongpao... for sure the original DHP is legendary and will never be available in the open market. But everyone knows this and assumes correctly it’s just this, a name

@Bok But they are definitely not presented as “just names.” For example, Wuyi Origin’s website claims that “ At present we only sell teas that is processed by our family processes, so we know the background of our teas from ground to leaf to cup.” And on the product description page for their Melzhan, they explain that “They were grown inside of the Wuyishan preserve with a very thick texture.“ TheTea.pl makes similar, very specific, claims about the provenance of its tea.

Which leaves us with the possibility either that these claims are deliberate misinformation, or that zhengyan tea is not as rare as some here are claiming. I certainly do not profess to know which of those is right, but seems like is has to be one of the two?

[Bok]

Well Zhengyan is a highly government protected and regulated small area...

What is also true that the terrain itself is not guarantee of good tea either, still depends on the maker and his skills.

I was also told in confidence that some Western facing vendors who seem small, are actually part of huge plantations which target foreigners with part of their harvest.
I won’t mention which shop.

I’ve heard of others that are the younger generation of their farm, get allotted a quantity to market and sell on their own. IG has a couple of those.

[Bok]

Also:

For a Western shop sourcing tea it is next to impossible to be sure of the origin, unless they spent most of their time down there. Which in reality will be sourcing trips once or twice, or like now - none, a year.

The Chinese market on the other hand is way more suspicious of any claim whatsoever. They expect to be lied to. Western market is a bit more naïve in that regard, good faith prevails and many stories are taken as they are told.

[pantry]

I was also told in confidence that some Western facing vendors who seem small, are actually part of huge plantations which target foreigners with part of their harvest.
I won’t mention which shop.

I’ve heard of others that are the younger generation of their farm, get allotted a quantity to market and sell on their own. IG has a couple of those.

Way to end in a suspense .
At least we can eliminate Lazy Cat from the suspects since you endorsed him earlier and he’s a cat

[Hengchan]

Both of those teas you just mentioned are claimed to be “Zhengyan” as well, despite costing less than $.50 per gram. Is the consensus here that all of these vendors (including Wuyi Origin and TheTea.pl, which folks here seem to like) are just lying about the source of their tea? Or are there different grades of tea from inside the nature preserve such that there are “budget” offerings that are not as good as the stuff from famous locations? I find it all very confusing...

I can think of two points for wuyiorigin. One is that they are the farmers, so there is no middle man and cost for sourcing the tea. The other is that i read they do vast majority of sales in china and have a well established position there already. Maybe this allows lower pricing for the west?

Why would someone let their own countrymen pay more and foreigners less? That doesn’t make any sense at all, it’s a business and not a smaritarian undertaking... if anything the opposite is usually the case.

And the market for Yancha is vast enough in Asia already they could for sure sell everything there. More likely the competition is fierce enough that they sell a fraction of their offering at better markup to niche markets (what the Western specialty tea market is).

As for the rest, I’d like to know as well... but I’m assuming names are just names: Take any Dahongpao... for sure the original DHP is legendary and will never be available in the open market. But everyone knows this and assumes correctly it’s just this, a name

lower prices relative to other western vendors, not lower prices for the west compared to Asia. That would be ridiculous

[Bok]

Maybe. Although from experience with Taiwanese tea I tend to see that they still charge the same. They all do a market research before launching in a foreign market.

[Youzi]

Guys, TOP END AAAAA grade yancha.
Niurou

Niu Lian Keng Rougui

Maybe a group buy?

with a matching price

[Victoria]

Guys, TOP END yancha.
Niurou

Niu Lian Keng Rougui

Maybe a group buy?

with a matching price

Thanks for sharing. I guess you mean AAA grade. How would you describe the flavor profile? Assuming you tried it.

[Bok]

Guys, TOP END yancha.
Niurou

Niu Lian Keng Rougui

Maybe a group buy?

with a matching price

Thanks for sharing. I guess you mean AAA grade. How would you describe the flavor profile? Assuming you tried it.

I’ve had Niurou twice at a friends house(which is probably as much as I’ll ever drink of it). Difficult to describe, let’s just say it’s very far away from any other lower priced Yancha I’ve had, it’s like totally different teas to a level that if you had it for the first time would not recognise it. By the way the Niurou I had was not from the above but sourced by my friend.

Is the price increase proportional to wow factor? Of course not. So it is a much much better tea than lower end Yancha, but it is an absolute luxury... so instead of Lamborghini most people still need to drive Honda or if they’re more lucky at least an Audi

[Victoria]

I drive an Audi, great car.
@Youzi’s post regarding an expensive Niurou Wuyi oolong, reminded me of a 2088 Tea from @KyaraZen I got a while ago, so I added it to my original list at beginning of thread. It was described as having Siberian Deer Musk notes 39$ for 7 grams. He wrote a nice article about the artisanal tea maker at the time. I’ve been saving it to share during one of our tastings, although with this lockdown, I’m tempted to just go for it.
2088 Tea 2015 Wu Yuan Jian Ban Tian Yao Handmade (Singapore)
https://www.2088tea.com/

Also, interesting he recommended to steep this yancha with just 3.5g/120ml/off boiling/7,7,10sec. Practically half the leaf I’d typically use.

[Bok]

I drive an Audi, great car.
Youzi’s post regarding an expensive Niurou Wuyi oolong, reminded me of a 2088 Tea from KyaraZen I got a while ago, so I added it to my original list at beginning of thread. It was described as having Siberian Deer Musk notes 39$ for 7 grams. He wrote a nice article about the artisanal tea maker at the time. I’ve been saving it to share during one of our tastings, although with this lockdown, I’m tempted to just go for it.
2088 Tea 2015 Wu Yuan Jian Ban Tian Yao Handmade (Singapore)
https://www.2088tea.com/

Also, interesting he recommended to steep this yancha with just 3.5g/120ml/off boiling/7,7,10sec. Practically half the leaf I’d typically use.

I remember that tea. It did have the musk thing or at least I think that’s what it was as I have never smelled Siberian musk... (not sure how many could actually say that;) ).

But apart from that I found the tea fell short of the expectations the article raised... maybe I got it wrong, but there wasn’t any wow things going on like I experienced with the above Niurou or even more so Baijiguan, Laocong Shuixian and others.

[Bok]

Also heard through some back channels that the 2088 Yancha was pretty much a one off and won’t likely happen again.

[carogust]

Also, interesting he recommended to steep this yancha with just 3.5g/120ml/off boiling/7,7,10sec. Practically half the leaf I’d typically use.

I've gone through 100g of a 0.6 dollar/gram yancha from EoT. It certainly is very different from any yancha I've tried so far and claims to be "traditionally" made.
Anyways, the tea is very tricky because it brews blazingly fast. And its pretty concentrated and goes for a while. So if the 2088 taiwan tea is similar, or even more concentrated, the lower amount of leaf makes sense.
Yancha newbie here, so take what I say with a grain of salt.