Lapsang Souchong

[Sunyata]

I got it off the official store on taobao, which is cheaper than the international lapsang store.

I don't think tea labelled as wild in the yefang/semi-wild sense of the term applies to Wuyi yancha or Tongmu hongcha, since the good terroirs are properly managed to a greater degree than perhaps the majority of other tea plantations around China. I know for a fact that bushes in most of the sankeng liangjian of zhengyan as well as tongmuguan's JJM are picked only once a year every spring, giving a whole full year of time for the bushes to regenerate. In the case of JJM, what makes it so special is that firstly they are made from a specific qizhong (wild) varietal, fully hand picked and sorted across stages of the processing. Buds which are eventually selected are thus very uniform, as we know that differences in leaf maturity (some bushes and their buds sprout earlier than others), moisture content etc. will result in uneven fermentation/oxidation leading to a cup which may give a seemingly more "complex" brew but not a very clear and defined tea brew (clarity in the taste of tea liquor is most important). When all the "noise" is filtered out, we get a tea in which the processing plays a defining role, as much as the fact that the local government has pretty much identified and set aside the prime terroirs/sub-terroirs where JJM is to be made from, not some randomly selected young buds of any cultivar from any terroir.

By the way, I also got last year's Feizixiao and while it is more than a decent hongcha - floral and fruity sweet, not bitter or malty or chocolately, the JJM which is twice the price feels like in a different stratosphere altogether.

[teatray]

I got it off the official store on taobao, which is cheaper than the international lapsang store.

Taobao "penalized"* my account and doesn't let me in without completing ID verification which requires receiving a text, but their text never gets to my (European) mobile phone. Can't create a new account either (same reason). Are you using them without problems on a non-Chinese phone number?

(* machine translation; whatever it means, it was done for no good reason, as I have no transactions at all)
___

Edit: Jjudging from the taobao subreddit, it seems the currently suggested way for int'l users is via agent / package forwarder. This list from there:

TRUSTED AGENT LIST
Partnered agents: Mulebuy - Currently no restrictions on Replica goods. Check out our sidebar for a sign-up bonus!

Trusted agents: Superbuy Basetao CSSbuy ParcelUp Sugargoo

Avoid: Pandabuy - recently raided and not yet functioning normally

Tokcommerce - spammed the subreddit relentlessly despite multiple warnings/bans, no longer seems to functioning either based on their own subreddit.

Does anyone have experience using any of these for tea? Or should one dig deeper and find a way to use TB directly (create virtual phone numbers to receive texts, etc.)?

[Balthazar]

Does anyone have experience using any of these for tea? Or should one dig deeper and find a way to use TB directly (create virtual phone numbers to receive texts, etc.)?

This thread might be of interest.

I've only used shipforwarder the last few years, and that requires than you can browse and pay for the goods yourself. Taobao/Douyin/Xiaohongshu all work for me without a Chinese phone number (with some limitations on Douyin, though not on the shopping part of the platform), but it's been a while since I set this up.

Superbuy is probably the most common combined payment/shipping agent among tea buyers.

[teatray]

Does anyone have experience using any of these for tea? Or should one dig deeper and find a way to use TB directly (create virtual phone numbers to receive texts, etc.)?

This thread might be of interest.

I've only used shipforwarder the last few years, and that requires than you can browse and pay for the goods yourself. Taobao/Douyin/Xiaohongshu all work for me without a Chinese phone number (with some limitations on Douyin, though not on the shopping part of the platform), but it's been a while since I set this up.

Superbuy is probably the most common combined payment/shipping agent among tea buyers.

Great thread, thanks! (I should've searched before asking.)

So thought of going via Superbuy and maybe get that JJM 50g tin, but...

• It's CNY 1225 (USD 168) on Superbuy before any of their fees (https://www.superbuy.com/en/page/buy/?u ... 5095955117). Tmall product link confirming the price: https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=15095955117
• It's USD 155 USD on lapsangstore.com (https://lapsangstore.com/collections/zh ... nmei-zst01)

Am I missing something, such as different tea/quantity or have we misjudged lapsangstore previously. I kinda assumed it operated with huge markups from previous convos here.

[Balthazar]

No idea, but I've seen other examples like it. E.g. Zhang Hui Chun yanchas cheaper from EoT than their Douyin store. (I've seen examples of the opposite too, but quite a few positive surprises from Western vendors.)

[teatray]

I went ahead and just ordered one. $155 was inclusive of shipping, so a good deal? Will write what my impression is from a JJM newb perspective. In other off-topic notes, I got a small Hojo howl & just tried (last year's) Ali Shan which was nice without being as special as I remember it from a few years ago (but much better than the previous one I tried from 2023 I think, which was not good; glad I gave it another chance). Osmanthus Oolong (also Ali Shan) OTOH is apparently not for me (perhaps the general category, not just Hojo's version). His Snow Jasmine (Sichuan green) on the other hand is very in-your-face jasminy & kinda mesmerizing. At some point it reminded me of how I (positively) perceived the smell of petrol as a child--hopefully a feature of the ingredients, not the transportation. I liked it (and I don't usually like the jasmine tea served in spas/restaurants and such).

[GaoShan]

Does anyone have experience using any of these for tea? Or should one dig deeper and find a way to use TB directly (create virtual phone numbers to receive texts, etc.)?

This thread might be of interest.

I've only used shipforwarder the last few years, and that requires than you can browse and pay for the goods yourself. Taobao/Douyin/Xiaohongshu all work for me without a Chinese phone number (with some limitations on Douyin, though not on the shopping part of the platform), but it's been a while since I set this up.

Superbuy is probably the most common combined payment/shipping agent among tea buyers.

Great thread, thanks! (I should've searched before asking.)

So thought of going via Superbuy and maybe get that JJM 50g tin, but...

• It's CNY 1225 (USD 168) on Superbuy before any of their fees (https://www.superbuy.com/en/page/buy/?u ... 5095955117). Tmall product link confirming the price: https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=15095955117
• It's USD 155 USD on lapsangstore.com (https://lapsangstore.com/collections/zh ... nmei-zst01)

Am I missing something, such as different tea/quantity or have we misjudged lapsangstore previously. I kinda assumed it operated with huge markups from previous convos here.

I was also struggling with how to buy from Taobao. I've heard that some companies charge more to non-Chinese buyers, though I don't know if that's what's going on here. I assume buying from an agent would incur extra fees.

I've never bought from Lapsangstore because of the high prices. It's interesting that it comes out cheaper than the Taobao store. Lapsangstore also apparently has a loyalty points program that can give you some small discounts if you're persistent.

[Sunyata]

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=61 ... app=chrome

SGD$108 for 30g, which is USD$83, so its 2.7/g.

So yes, definitely cheaper than lapsang store from where I am.

[teatray]

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=61 ... app=chrome

SGD$108 for 30g, which is USD$83, so its 2.7/g.

So yes, definitely cheaper than lapsang store from where I am.

Hmm, that's funny. The price this tmall link shows to me is CNY 735 for the 30g tin. This is the same as CNY 1225 for the 50g on tmall (both CNY 24.5/g = $3.4/g) and worse than the lapsang store price ($3.1/g). The 30g price (735) is even embedded in the URL you linked to (probably for SEO purposes):
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=613563812975&price=735&sourceType=item[...]

Does this link show as SGD108 when accessed from Singapore? I wonder what it would say from China. Haha, this is so sleazy.

[Balthazar]

I think you just missed out on the "May 1st" deal. These teas are discounted until May 5th, but Superbuy may not pick that up (I guess they can't guarantee that they can make the order/payment for you before the offer runs out, they're probably on vacation too until Monday).

Prices from the TB app attached

Screenshot_20250503_072547.jpg (115.42 KiB) Viewed 391 times

(Customer service confirmed it's the same teas, just different sizes)

[teatray]

Thanks, seems to match exactly the diff we're talking about. Can't see these promos when accessing through the web (w/o being able to log in). If the resulting $2.7/g is a limited time promo (& excludes int'l shipping and any agent/forwarder fees), that makes $3.1/g (incl. int'l shipping) via official store (lapsang store belongs to ZST) sound kinda OK (+15%).

[Sunyata]

https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=61 ... app=chrome

SGD$108 for 30g, which is USD$83, so its 2.7/g.

So yes, definitely cheaper than lapsang store from where I am.

Hmm, that's funny. The price this tmall link shows to me is CNY 735 for the 30g tin. This is the same as CNY 1225 for the 50g on tmall (both CNY 24.5/g = $3.4/g) and worse than the lapsang store price ($3.1/g). The 30g price (735) is even embedded in the URL you linked to (probably for SEO purposes):
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=613563812975&price=735&sourceType=item[...]

Does this link show as SGD108 when accessed from Singapore? I wonder what it would say from China. Haha, this is so sleazy.

I got it at 588Yuan which converts to SGD108.

[Balthazar]

See my post above, you got it at the currently discounted price which is valid until May 5th. If I were to guess, a similar sale will appear around June 18th...

And yes, interesting/positive that they're offerings the teas for a similar (or even slightly cheaper) original price at the international website.