Wistaria (website) is an iconic, Taipei teahouse. The building itself is nearly 100 years old and lived through its share of history. As a teahouse, Wistaria and it’s proprietor (Zhou Yu) have played an important role in the development of modern chayi (tea art) and tea culture in Taiwan. For tea folks or people traveling to Taiwan looking for a tea experience, it’s usually one of the first places on the list. The tea menu is a mix of Taiwanese tea, older teas, green tea, pu’erh, etc. It’s also relatively English friendly with an English menu and a conversationally fluent staff. (more…)
Category: Article
-
How Much is Your Vendor Marking Up Your Pu’erh?
No one wants to pay for unnecessary things, but even so very few of us know the actual cost of goods, or actual item cost that the vendor bought the tea for. We’re often left clueless about what their markup might be. There are inevitable costs of running a business that we as consumers don’t really think about. Certainly not often. Storefronts, sourcing, marketing, sample costs, a living wage. The money you pay for the tea will go towards not just your tea but as presumably some amount of profit for the vendor.. Are you paying for fancy boxes, marketing material, padding the vendors pockets or is your $$ going to the actual tea. Pu’erh has the advantage of being sold as a labeled cake, which makes it easier to cross-check prices against the Chinese market and help to determine if we are paying a fair and reasonable price. (more…)
-
Mature Pu’erh Report [March 2016]
I drank through these teas in March of 2016.
The last mature report was about 16 months ago, but with my Taiwan trip approaching I figured it was about time to drink through my lingering pile of samples.. This report is a mix of teas I own, teas still available from western vendors, and other teas that have since sold out. After traveling through Taiwan and Hong Kong in October my feelings on the market have changed a bit as the limitations present in the mature pu’erh market out west (really a subsection of already a niche market) have become increasingly obvious.. (more…)
-
Yangqing Hao Profile & Interview
During my recent trip to Taiwan, I had the opportunity to visit Mr. Yang (Yangqing Hao, 楊慶號) and his family at their home base in Tainan, Taiwan. Yangqing Hao is a Taiwanese boutique producer of pu’erh tea, and is one of the earliest boutique producers to make its way to the west. Mr Yang’s teas have been generally well-received and have been covered here in a couple reports (1, 2). Having made pu’erh in Yunnan since 2004, it was a pleasure to ask Mr. Yang about a number of topics, ranging from some of his earliest productions to to the ever-changing landscape in Yunnan. Big thank you to Emmett and Sandy for coordinating, Sandy for translating and the Yang family for organizing, facilitating and hosting me! (more…)
-
Shopping for Tea in Taiwan FAQ
Since my first trip to Taiwan, I’ve been frequently asked about what to do and where to go for tea in Taiwan. This is an attempt to answer some of these questions.. I should also preface this with a warning. I’m by no means an experienced sourcer and have had my share of purchasing errors and regrets, so please take this all with the proper context with appropriate reservations.. These are more or less the answers I’d typically give venturing off to the island of tea. (more…)
-
Pu’erh as RTS Resource Management
According to Youtube’s analytics, TeaDB’s video audience is 87% male, nearly half falling into the 25-34 demographic. Denny and I also fall squarely into the middle of both of these categories. From this data we could theoretically cross market things that “normal people” like.. Movies, cars, fantasy football, etc. However, given our status as nerds, I’m more likely to draw a different conclusion.. That many of you grew up playing a Blizzard RTS.. Starcraft or Warcraft 3. (more…)
-
Loose vs. Compressed Tea & A Riff on Aged Loose Pu’erh
There’s lots of tea that doesn’t strictly fit the definition of pu’erh. Border tea grown from the neighboring Laos or Burma does not technically fit the definition for pu’erh, likely excluding things like 1990s Tongqing Hao. Some definitions of pu’erh also restrict the plant to being the large leaf varietal which would make some of the traditional growing places technically not pu’erh (i.e. Yibang, Jingmai, etc.). However.. There’s no such exclusion for loose tea that’s grown in Yunnan and processed as pu’erh but left in its loose form. Pu’erh was originally compressed principally for ease of transport and not necessarily for shape. The issue of transport is a lot simpler in present day than the six famous mountains days and it’s a lot easier to ship loose leaf tea around the globe inexpensively and quickly. Still loose leaf pu’erh is not fashionable and often excluded from western vendor’s catalog as well as most meaningful discussion. Why is that? (more…)
-
Budgetary Committee: What My Tea Budget Actually Looked Like
I spent too much money in 2015. Emmett’s group orders and the Asia trip being the large culprits of pushing me from a little over to wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy over.. I’ve compiled some data from purchases from 2015 and without divulging exact teas and $ amounts, here’s some data that is ambiguous enough to save me embarrassment.. This includes all cakes purchased that weren’t intended as sample cakes. 30 different cakes (all raw) in total with 67 different cakes.. (more…)
-
The Box. Aged Oolong Report
The aged oolong market in the west leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the time the teas are usually significantly flawed (re-roasted/sour), overpriced, or more often than not both. A couple years ago, I was lucky enough to sample a number of aged oolongs from Tony of Origin Tea that were offered off-shelf. This helped to give me some perspective on aged oolongs, but also move me into the cranky, old curmudgeon category of a drinker who seems constantly dissatisfied and cynical with the online tea scene at least for this tea genre. Don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere near an expert but I have gotten a taste of the Taiwanese market to at least know that the idea of aged oolongs being good value teas with consideration to age (true in TW) is not extended to the western market. (more…)
-
Pu’erh Blogs & Resources
It’s a lonely world out there for those discussing pu’erh. We don’t have the same accessibility to in-person tea or pu’erh communities like urban centers in the east. This is a straightforward post detailing a few different resources and blogs that you might find valuable or useful. (more…)