Raw Pu-erh from 2020 costs more than Raw Pu-erh from 2016

[Konrud]

I've found 2 Raw Pu-erhs from the same village Bing Dao

1.) Bing Dao Ancient Tree Raw Pu-erh Cake Tea 2020 (from teavivre.com link)



2.) "Autumn Bing Dao Lao Zhai" Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake 2016 (from Yunnan Sourcing link)




I was wondering, how is it possible that relatively young raw pu-erh from the same village costs more than aged pu-erh from 2016?


Would be happy, could someone clarify that to me?

[Balthazar]

1. Do you really believe either of these are real Bing Dao?

2. One is autumn, the other spring.

3. There are many, many other factors that influence price than the origin of raw material and the year of production.

[Konrud]

@Balthazar
Do you really believe either of these are real Bing Dao?

I don't really know, that's one of the reasons I've created this post.

As far as I know, https://yunnansourcing.com/ is thought to be a trusted website.

Do you know something else?

Could you share where you get your real teas then?

[Tyler]

They are completely different teas from different producers so you can't really compare like that. As to why young puerh can be more expensive than aged, the price of raw material depends on the market and it tends to go up, so depending on how a vendor does their pricing the older cakes might end up being less expensive or the same price as the current year ones.

[aet]

as already said by others above , I'll just add that these days the marketing is like that except the Bingdao village it self there are another 4 villages which are "counted" as BD : Nanpu, Dijie, Damao, Nuowu.
Literally I went to the tea shop on our T market ( Xiong Da ) in specialized BD tea shop and asked for Bingdao. They asked me : " and which village you want it from ? "
They have 3D model of the mountains with those villages. I actually have video of this shop , I took back then




Let alone, the villages which are not included in those Famous 5 , also using BD name . Like Na Mei for example ( which is around 50km from BD lao zhai ) .

Here you can see the price list : viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2311
冰岛老寨：古树 Gushu：一类56000-70000元/公斤，二类28000-35000元/公斤，大树Da Shu ( big tree ) ：7000-8000元/公斤，中小树 ( arbor / small arbor ) 3500-4000元/公斤..prices per kg , directly from farmers ( no pressing / packing fee included, no vendor's margin included ! )

[Konrud]

They are completely different teas from different producers so you can't really compare like that. As to why young puerh can be more expensive than aged, the price of raw material depends on the market and it tends to go up, so depending on how a vendor does their pricing the older cakes might end up being less expensive or the same price as the current year ones.

Thank you for your reply.

Could you possibly share any sources (websites) to buy good quality teas from?

As for now I only know very few of them
namely:

https://www.teavivre.com/

yunnansourcing.com

and recently I've also found

https://thechineseteashop.com/

looks promising.

But still haven't tried to buy anything from it.

[Konrud]

as already said by others above , I'll just add that these days the marketing is like that except the Bingdao village it self there are another 4 villages which are "counted" as BD : Nanpu, Dijie, Damao, Nuowu.
Literally I went to the tea shop on our T market ( Xiong Da ) in specialized BD tea shop and asked for Bingdao. They asked me : " and which village you want it from ? "
They have 3D model of the mountains with those villages. I actually have video of this shop , I took back then




Let alone, the villages which are not included in those Famous 5 , also using BD name . Like Na Mei for example ( which is around 50km from BD lao zhai ) .

Here you can see the price list : viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2311
冰岛老寨：古树 Gushu：一类56000-70000元/公斤，二类28000-35000元/公斤，大树Da Shu ( big tree ) ：7000-8000元/公斤，中小树 ( arbor / small arbor ) 3500-4000元/公斤..prices per kg , directly from farmers ( no pressing / packing fee included, no vendor's margin included ! )

Thank you for this comprehensive answer.

Do you know any sources (websites) to buy good quality teas from?

I only know very few of them:

https://www.teavivre.com/

yunnansourcing.com

and recently I've also found

https://thechineseteashop.com/

looks promising.


Would be happy to hear from you.

[Balthazar]

I don't really know, that's one of the reasons I've created this post.

As far as I know, https://yunnansourcing.com/ is thought to be a trusted website.

Do you know something else?

Could you share where you get your real teas then?

It depends on what you mean by “trusted”, “real”, etc. As pointed out by aet, terroir designations have become more watered out, and this is particularly true for more famous villages. Myself, I don’t focus much on puer terroir at all and I almost never drink (or buy) young puer, so I can’t be of much help when it comes to suggesting a source for terroir specific teas that are really 100% what the wrapper or the vendor or the vendor's sources would have you believe.

Most of what I consume these days are big factory blends with at least 15 years of relatively hot and humid storage. Less trouble for the stomach, less trouble for the mind

[polezaivsani]

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Puerist became my only purveyor (or is it puerveyor? never mind) of young puer. You might want to sample the cakes first (not sure if it possible via etsy, but the man behind the counter will likely help you out with it). Essence of Tea is well know, but I have tried only one or two of their cakes.

The only problem starting big from the get go (other than a dent in your budget) is that it'll be a lot harder to get significantly better tea afterwards.

Compulsory notice—nothing beats first hand experience, nobody could tell you what's right for you other than yourself. Sample here and there, make up your mind and don't forget to report your findings!

[Konrud]

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Puerist became my only purveyor (or is it puerveyor? never mind) of young puer. You might want to sample the cakes first (not sure if it possible via etsy, but the man behind the counter will likely help you out with it). Essence of Tea is well know, but I have tried only one or two of their cakes.

The only problem starting big from the get go (other than a dent in your budget) is that it'll be a lot harder to get significantly better tea afterwards.

Compulsory notice—nothing beats first hand experience, nobody could tell you what's right for you other than yourself. Sample here and there, make up your mind and don't forget to report your findings!

Thank you.
Didn't know about essenceoftea.com.
I see they have quite a collection of pu-ers even 1990's Special Order Red Mark
although not sure if it's a real one and still of good quality.

But do they really have tea from 1990?
Like this one 1990's loose leaf raw puerh

Do you believe it's safe to buy this kind of tea from them?

[Konrud]

I don't really know, that's one of the reasons I've created this post.

As far as I know, https://yunnansourcing.com/ is thought to be a trusted website.

Do you know something else?

Could you share where you get your real teas then?

It depends on what you mean by “trusted”, “real”, etc. As pointed out by aet, terroir designations have become more watered out, and this is particularly true for more famous villages. Myself, I don’t focus much on puer terroir at all and I almost never drink (or buy) young puer, so I can’t be of much help when it comes to suggesting a source for terroir specific teas that are really 100% what the wrapper or the vendor or the vendor's sources would have you believe.

Most of what I consume these days are big factory blends with at least 15 years of relatively hot and humid storage. Less trouble for the stomach, less trouble for the mind

Thank you for your reply.

Would it be possible to ask where you buy your tea?

What's your favorite aged ( >= 15 years old) tea, perhaps not one, that you consume?

Would love to discover trusted (by the by, by trusted I mean the one that it's safe to buy from knowing you'll get the best quality product possible) websites to buy tea from?

[polezaivsani]

But do they really have tea from 1990?
Like this one 1990's loose leaf raw puerh

Do you believe it's safe to buy this kind of tea from them?

Not sure about the 1990 leaves, but 1970 ones make some amazing soup! The viewtopic.php?f=12&t=12 topic should have some notes about it among myriad others. The 'what X are you drinking' topics are treasure troves!

[aet]

Would be happy to hear from you.

Stuff like BD requires to be at the present of the harvest trough the processing till the end.
I have only something what is some blend of near by villages and offer it only for sampling.
https://www.yunnancraft.com/en/sheng-pu ... 6-bing-dao

I'd also recommend to read short intro about situation ( still evolving ) here in Cihna.
https://www.pageoftea.com/tea-marketing

and spend some time with google finding other people blogs.

As already mentioned here. Sample here sample there. Take your time , don't try to speed up your learning process by drinking tons of samples a day ( sometimes takes few times to drink same tea to understand it ) .

Don't drink sheng on empty stomach ( especially the young ones ) .
Try also different storage ( wet / dry ) to find what are you into. If you like learning , sample systematically , not randomly.
You can create another thread for your questions related to your learning / sampling process , so it's not in this Bingdao one.
Should you have any question about our shop, please do not hesitate and PM me.

[Bok]

@Konrud aet is too humble, but Yunnan crafts teas are very nice and very reasonably priced… also probably the most transparent vendor out there (to his own detriment : ) ).

If you’re EU-based I can also recommend Anmo Art cha out of Düsseldorf for Sunsing sourced HK stored Puerh. Really clean stuff.

[.m.]

teaswelike.com and puerh.uk are both good vendors selling quality puerh.

For reference, here's another youngish Bingdao https://puerh.uk/product/2014-bhyj-excl ... d-bingdao/
- Is it worth the price? For my preference too much money for too young tea. Is Bingdao in general worth the price? Not sure.