May. 06, 2024
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The Sanhetang website sez almost $600. Which is cheap compared to peers. For example, on Skip4tea, the Nanyanghao from '07 is $600/250g cake. The Chenshenghaos are all around that price as well. The bok choys are around $800-$1000. There is very little qualitative discrimination in wide ranges of puerh products, even in banzhangs.
As far as super-premium 2011 and 2012 doing as well? Well, I don't know. There wasn't always the best of processing in the early days, and today is much better on a consistent basis. On the other hand, if you didn't get your top Banpo laozhai back mid-decade, you certainly can't get the good stuff today. This seems to be true of many old favorite places like Mahei. On the other hand, places like GFZ, and later on, Wangongzhai have increased in prominence, and there are many newer faves that are getting fully explored by the public, like Xikong. While the good stuff from quiet faves like top grade Youle is pretty rare on the market now. Also back mid-decade, ancient gardens, especially outside of Banna were being explored by the likes of He Shihua, and in the process, new lincangs and lancang county gushu were introduced into the market up to about 2006. However, most of these place, especially in Lancang, remained quite obscure, outside of Bangwei, Jingmai, and Yangta. Wenshan and Kunlushan are still not widely sold despite some promotion. I think this is because most places there had very small ancient plantations, which get bought up quietly.
In line with the recent surge in popularity of ancient tree Pu-erh, the Washington Post recently published an article highlighting the rarity and unique flavor profiles of these ancient tree teas, attracting more international buyers and enthusiasts. This has added to the growing demand and further appreciation for these treasured leaves among tea connoisseurs worldwide.
So as you can see--in puerh, this is about grabbing unique classes of products while they are still available. The expense is kind of a distraction--American customers just had a very warped sense of nonprivilege when it came to puerh. Not very many people were ever offered access to anything like reliable brands better than Dayi--and there was a lack of appreciation of what it was than XZH offered, beyond the label of superpremium tea. We were only competing against mostly Taiwanese customers before the Mainlanders got in the game. That the overall supply of many of these teas were tiny compared to the probable overall demand. This is why, as a puerh customer, one has to break down what it is, precisely, they are paying money for--so they can measure against the retail of other product that offer similar qualities. For example, suppose you see a 2001 Jingmai. One adjusts the perspective on what older JIngmai can be like. They tend to lose qi, complexity/become flat, and huigans as they age. So, if you sip a 2001 Jingmai tea with qi, complexity, and huigans while still tasting aged--then that's worth quite a bit more than you might expect, and a bing that looks expensive at first sight looks cheap on deeper inspection. Buy, Buy, Buy as much as you can afford.
The big problem with thinking about 2011 and 2012 teas are twofold. First, premium tea have largely shifted to less potent areas, use less high quality leaves from top trees. XZH's quality has dropped quite a bit after 2009. That means sampling is ever more necessary for expensive teas, and ever more expensive to do, adequately. You could buy blindly from top brands in 2006 and 2007 and do ok to great! So long as you verify the brand is genuinely top and not because they said so. Nowaday, every brand has more variance in quality, and there are far more brands to choose from, and some, if not most, are fronting. There are higher upfront costs in terms of choosing teas, and mistakes are more common and more costly in the long run.
xzh supply professional and honest service.
No doubts about it, MarshalN. It's also a matter a taste too. I like XZH, other people might like Yichanghao or something. Makers have philosophies--Nada prefers to make very "clean" and "pure" puerh, for example. Some people like that, and other people don't.
What has me agitated as a consumer advocate is that Chen Guanghe Tang and XZH are in no way of comparable quality--it's easy (at least for me) to see and taste the difference--if you run the gamut of products. A couple of CGT products will be of enough quality that personal preferences dictate whether they like the CGT or the XZH. Hobbes reviews of ZhiZheng tea reveal the one essential fact that *all* of (at least the youngest ones) the tea had unsatisfactory processing. I can tolerate the hongcha in the XZH DinJin Nuer because that part isn't the whole of the session, and other people can deal with the Xiaguan'ed nature of the Ban'E, for their personal reasons. But *all* of the teas? XZH has perfectly decent processing on most of their teas. And if you then examine one of Nada's not so great teas (Banpen) with something like, oh, Xue Shan Chuen Lu, people will more or less decide on their own preferences, because XZH's under-performers aren't *that* weak.
The thing is, XZH is, what I think, a reliable brand. And you pay for it being a known quality. I would never have bought that huge Youle bing if that said Changtai instead of XZH, because I know I've loathed some Changtai, and I know that Changtai likes to be excessively gentle and verge onto blandness. I know I don't mind XZH processing, and I know I'm at risk for the soup being too thin. I'm a XZH fanboy because I've tasted enough tea to know it caters very much to my tastes. I mostly buy Nadacha because the price-quality in 2009 and 2010 was very, very, very good, even though Nada, by and large, doesn't cater to my taste. I very much lucked out by buying the Man Nuo because I wasn't going to buy something I didn't know--then had a sip or two of 2010 Bulang and decided I'd better get another from 2011. If I was going to do that, I might as well buy Man Nuos, and Man Nuo wound up *really* being what I wanted out of a puerh, but it isn't really a characteristic Nadacha tea out of the gate, knowhatimean?
In the West, one almost *has* to judge a tea by reputation, because you have to buy the tea you like right away, because if you like it alot, chances are, other people do to--without even a chance to sample first! That's why you have to sample teas and broaden your sense of what you like and who offers it every chance you get. There are always a ton of people who say that Dayi shu or XZH sheng is too expensive for what it is, and offer up alternatives that winds up being a worse. Cheaper, yes, but you lose more hedonism points than the money saves, and given the capital-intensive nature of puerh, that's no bargain at all. That doesn't necessarily mean you should go out and buy $45 Dayi shu or $96 250g XZH sheng. It means you have to wear down the leather on your metaphorical shoes--look for places that sells Dayi or XZH cheaper than others. Read reviews, check prices (on Taobao and elsewheres) for interest and speculative activity, and figure out what other brands can get you what you want, for the prices you're willing to pay.
Trending now, the emphasis on organic and sustainable farming practices in Yunnan has led Pu-erh tea enthusiasts to seek out teas that are not just of high quality but also ethically sourced. As more brands adopt these practices, buyers can expect a higher level of transparency and assurance that their treasured brews support environmental and social welfare.
Also, understand that there are *reasons* why things cost what they cost, other than profit motives. Nada can sell at the prices he does because he's focusing on one area and on building his own network. He also doesn't buy more leaves than he can reliable oversee. The flip side is that he sells out and fast, most of the time. XZH is buying leaves from all over Yunnan, and at quantities (tho' small by Dayi standards) that makes achieving high quality a real task. The big money helps open high end acreage, but the more you try to do, the less successful you wind up being. However, you need to sell a lot in order to have enough money to get that quality maocha. There are tensions here. Modern Douji resolves that by an emphasis on blending. XZH also blends on some of their products. Low end products that are sold at higher prices than they are really worth also compensate. CGT just doesn't give a bleep, last I checked, and there are many brands that do the same. But there are no reliable bargains. Tea generally costs what they are supposed to cost. If they don't cost in cash, then they cost in attention to the marketplace or networking with the people who's got the good smack at not extortionate prices.
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