Yancha Vendors: Highest Grade vs Bang for Buck Vendor Recommendations

[Youzi]

Hi Tea Friends,

Those of you, who love Wuyi Yancha, based on your experiences, who has the highest grade Yancha, and the best Bang for Buck Yancha.
Could be the same, or different vendors.

I've seen some comments about recommendations, but not a dedicated topic, so I hope we could collect everyone's favorites here.

Thank you for your replies.

[Victoria]

In the past year I have enjoyed quality yancha from;
LazyCat Tea (Shanghai)
https://www.lazycattea.com
FourSeason (Toronto)
https://fourseasonstea.com
Old Ways Tea (California)
https://oldwaystea.com
Wuyi Origin (Wuyi)
https://www.wuyiorigin.com
The Tea (Poland)
https://thetea.pl/en/product/2017-zheng ... shui-xian/
Tea Hong (Hong Kong)
https://www.teahong.com/product/oolong- ... ordinaire/

2+ years past;
Essence of Tea (Kunming & Malaysia)
https://essenceoftea.com/collections/wuyi-yancha
2088 Tea 2015 Wu Yuan Jian Ban Tian Yao Handmade (Singapore)
https://www.2088tea.com/

Would like to try;
Hojo Tea (Malaysia)
https://Hojo tea.com/img/tealineup10.pdf
Seven Cups (Phoenix, AZ)
https://sevencups.com/shop/handmade-rou-gui/

Not sure about ‘bang for the buck’ yancha, usually higher grades are just better. Seems, like with Gyokuro, better is best

[Bok]

I can only second Lazy cat, which is the only one of the above I had and liked.

Also agree with Victoria, there is no real bang for buck with Yancha. You get what you pay for mostly: cheap won’t be good and expensive is not necessarily good, but no such thing as cheap yancha.

Also worth mentioning that in terms of what is cheap for Yancha is already expensive in other tea categories, so the whole price scale is different to other kinds of tea. In my experience it’s the most expensive teas of all...

[faj]

You get what you pay for mostly: cheap won’t be good and expensive is not necessarily good, but no such thing as cheap yancha.

I guess it would be interesting to get a feel for how the informal quality/price "curve" looks like.

Let me start with what you said : "cheap won't be good". What do you think is the minimum price at which Yancha is worth a purchase?

At the other end of the scale, is there a price beyond which you think people without connections to guide them to truly exceptional teas are less likely to actually notice a return on their additional investment?

[Bok]

Price is always a tricky question...

I wouldn’t expect much of any Yancha below 1$ per gram.

On the other end I am not aware of any Western facing shop offering exceptional or premium Yancha, the few times I had these teas I was only a lucky beneficiary of generous friends, not on the buying end(I wouldn’t be able to afford it anyways).

[Hmm]

Can someone make a comparison to e.g. wine? E.g. there's plenty of decent drinkable wines that cost anywhere from $12-15. you can spend e.g. $30, and you will get a better wine, but after that in my opinion you start rapidly getting diminishing returns.

Where are the diminishing returns when it comes to e.g. Yancha or any other teas?

Are there no yancha daily drinkers that are much cheaper than $1?

[karma]

Can someone make a comparison to e.g. wine? E.g. there's plenty of decent drinkable wines that cost anywhere from $12-15. you can spend e.g. $30, and you will get a better wine, but after that in my opinion you start rapidly getting diminishing returns.

Where are the diminishing returns when it comes to e.g. Yancha or any other teas?

Are there no yancha daily drinkers that are much cheaper than $1?

To made a clumsy comparison: yancha is like bordeaux. Regionally isolated to a pretty small area, usually dedicated to craft over scale.

I disagree with Bok, although it may be a lack of experience on my part here. I have plenty of dailies sub $1/g that are worth drinking -- Old Ways and Lazy Cat have plenty in that price range -- but I would agree that the teas really worth savoring are more expensive than other areas of tea. Perhaps Dancong has yancha beat though.

[Bok]

Are there no yancha daily drinkers that are much cheaper than $1?

can not speak for others, but I don't think they are worth the money or drinkable... then I'd rather spend the money on another Oolong.

I think the demand for Yancha is just too high, so that teas in a quality that would compared to other kinds of Oolong only be a daily drinker, are already priced at premiums. It is a luxury tea for the rich, not for daily drinking.

[pantry]

I disagree with Bok, although it may be a lack of experience on my part here. I have plenty of dailies sub $1/g that are worth drinking -- Old Ways and Lazy Cat have plenty in that price range -- but I would agree that the teas really worth savoring are more expensive than other areas of tea. Perhaps Dancong has yancha beat though.

How expensive does Dancong get? I've seen $27/g yancha in China (not aged), and thought that was already quite absurd

[Bok]

I disagree with Bok, although it may be a lack of experience on my part here. I have plenty of dailies sub $1/g that are worth drinking -- Old Ways and Lazy Cat have plenty in that price range -- but I would agree that the teas really worth savoring are more expensive than other areas of tea. Perhaps Dancong has yancha beat though.

How expensive does Dancong get? I've seen $27/g yancha in China (not aged), and thought that was already quite absurd

Less expensive than yancha for the same quality. It's not as hyped and regulated by the government with trade marks as Yancha, so price is overall lower. But in China, expect to pay a premium for premium teas. Not like Taiwanese teas, where good quality can be found for more approachable prices.

[impromptuandy]

A couple vendors which stand out to me (which @Victoria has already mentioned):

Lazy Cat Tea http://www.lazycattea.com/
I've tried a few of their teas -- their "standard" Rougui, a zhengyan Rougui, and another zhengyan tea with the lovely designation "Space Cat Rougui."

The first is very much a budget tea (13.00€ / 50g), and I didn't expect to enjoy it. I was surprised however -- although the underlying material is obviously not Super High Quality (and Lazy Cat doesn't make any claims to that effect), the tea is well processed for what it is. It lacks durability, but the roast is well done, the flavors are well integrated, there is a pleasant aftertaste. It tastes clean. There are little/no off flavors. It doesn't have much of the qualities which make yancha special, but it is recognizably yancha.

The two zhengyan teas are much better, with those special yancha qualities coming through more clearly. Again, the processing is very well done, and these are well balanced teas. The Space Cat is particularly good, with nice fruit/peach flavors which are well integrated. I wish I had more of the Space Cat (I only got 50g and it's sold out ), as it's clearly going to age well and into something delicious.

Essence of Tea https://essenceoftea.com/
I've been regularly buying tea from EoT for the past 5 or 6 years. Their 2018 Lao Cong Shui Xian is/was in my opinion a very good value ($0.85/g), especially with the tea club discount of 20% (which put this tea at $0.68/g). I only got around 400g at the $0.68/g price, and it's unfortunately sold out now. With the discount, I can't think of another yancha in recent memory with a comparable price/value ratio.

I've also had from EoT the Lao Shou Xin (this was $4/g for a sample, $3.70/g for 100g -- sold out now), and a 90's HK-style Shui Xian (forget the exact price, also this came in the tea club, but well over $1/g). The former is in my opinion a benchmark tea, and the latter an exceptional example of aged yancha.

My impression is that both of these vendors know what to look for in yancha, and are trying to provide a good quality/value ratio in their selections. They're both high up on my radar.

Another vendor whose yancha I've enjoyed is Chanting Pines. Of the yancha I've tried, the Bu Zhi Chun stands out as really excellent. (I don't know if I should say that too loudly, as it's not sold out yet and you might've noticed a... pattern ).

Other vendors whose yancha I haven't tried, but would like to as they seem interesting/promising:

The Cha Tong https://thechatong.com/collections/yancha
Tong Xin She https://txs-tea.com/collections/yan-cha

@Bok's point about the price scale is true, and well worth keeping in mind. One just is going to pay more in general for yancha than for other teas of comparable quality.

Where are the diminishing returns when it comes to e.g. Yancha or any other teas?

This is a good question, and one I wish I could answer for myself, but can't yet with yancha. For me, the trouble is -- I can think of examples of other particular teas (I'm considering mainly puerh, liubao) which have no real substantial flaws, are excellent to drink etc but which cost well below $1/gram. Like, it's not just that yancha is on average more expensive, it's that, for me at least, it's easier to think about diminishing returns when I have a particular benchmark tea in mind whose price/quality ratio is exemplary.

Thinking about all this leaves me feeling I should spend the next few weeks focusing my tea drinking only on yancha...

[Victoria]

Other vendors whose yancha I haven't tried, but would like to as they seem interesting/promising:

The Cha Tong https://thechatong.com/collections/yancha
Tong Xin She https://txs-tea.com/collections/yan-cha

Curious how you heard about these vendors? I see Ton Xin She is in Wuyishan and Shenzhen, a huge tea shopping district, and The Cha Tong is somewhere between USA and Taiwan (at least their shipping).

[impromptuandy]

Other vendors whose yancha I haven't tried, but would like to as they seem interesting/promising:

The Cha Tong https://thechatong.com/collections/yancha
Tong Xin She https://txs-tea.com/collections/yan-cha

Curious how you heard about these vendors? I see Ton Xin She is in Wuyishan and Shenzhen, a huge tea shopping district, and The Cha Tong is somewhere between USA and Taiwan (at least their shipping).

The former was mentioned positively by @Youzi in the Yixing thread after someone linked to them with a question about their pots. The latter from Instagram, where they have an active presence.

[Victoria]

Other vendors whose yancha I haven't tried, but would like to as they seem interesting/promising:

The Cha Tong https://thechatong.com/collections/yancha
Tong Xin She https://txs-tea.com/collections/yan-cha

Curious how you heard about these vendors? I see Ton Xin She is in Wuyishan and Shenzhen, a huge tea shopping district, and The Cha Tong is somewhere between USA and Taiwan (at least their shipping).

The former was mentioned positively by Youzi in the Yixing thread after someone linked to them with a question about their pots. The latter from Instagram, where they have an active presence.

Former, later, from my reply, or your post? Easier if you just say vendor name

[impromptuandy]

Curious how you heard about these vendors? I see Ton Xin She is in Wuyishan and Shenzhen, a huge tea shopping district, and The Cha Tong is somewhere between USA and Taiwan (at least their shipping).

The former was mentioned positively by Youzi in the Yixing thread after someone linked to them with a question about their pots. The latter from Instagram, where they have an active presence.

Former, later, from my reply, or your post? Easier if you just say vendor name

After re-reading my reply, even I wasn't sure for a second.

Ton Xin She -- mentioned by @Youzi
The Cha Tong -- Instagram