Since diving back into tea at the end of 2024, I’ve done a lot of thinking on how the tea scene has changed and what the ideal intro to different tea types are. In many ways the ideal way to approach Taiwanese oolongs or Yancha is the same as it was in 2012. Identify specialized vendors in that tea type and sample a bunch. You’ll pay more and have less choices than someone based in east Asia but that is the reality of being based in a different continent. As is often the case, pu’erh tends to complicate things more, due to the variety and diversity of approaches. The easiest way to make sense of this is to break down pu’erh into simpler components and categories, like Five Types of Raw Pu’erh You Should Try. A decade ago the conversations mostly centered around young boutique and larger regions, like Yiwu. In reading about specific teas I was highly influenced by bloggers like Half Dipper and Jakub (Marshaln didn’t focus on reviews). Scroll back to what they were drinking in 2013, and you’ll see a wide array of young recently produced pu’erh many under western vendor’s labels. Factory pu’erh seemed to be an afterthought. Not to say it wasn’t around, Yunnan Sourcing sold some stuff or you could go to various ebay vendors who hopefully would sell the real deal. But factory teas simply weren’t a huge focus of conversation in the pu’erh community a 10-12 years ago. No doubt TeaDB was a part of this same movement pushing things in the young boutique. Looking back, I think this was suboptimal and perhaps even a bit strange. If someone came to me and wanted to get into pu’erh, besides directing them towards the different types I’d encourage them to get their baseline from factory pu’erh made between 2005-2008. Here’s why.
1. They Are Old Enough Now & Have Aged Good Enough to Give a Good Baseline
This is a math problem. Factory teas are mostly made to be stored and not consumed young. Back in 2014, teas between 2005-2008 were not even 10 years old. Now they are 17-20 years old, firmly semi-aged. The time allows these teas to darken, mellow and get to a more drinkable place. I’d still generally recommend people try them from places besides Kunming where they’ve seen real heat and humidity (Taiwan, Guangdong, Malaysia, etc.).
As production expanded throughout the 1990s and 2000s, there was speculation as to how the tea would age. Generally speaking it seems like factory teas has aged fine. While the 2005-2008 are not nearly as strong as their predecessors (say 1980s/1990s Dayi), they do exist along a similarish aging trajectory, unlike many boutique teas.
2. It is Easy to Find
Yunnan factories crank out a ton of tea every year. These are not boutique single tree runs and even the limited special products operate at a certain scale. But besides the handful of Dayi and Xiaguan that Yunnan Sourcing or other western vendors sold these products were largely unavailable from the western market. Sure you could risk Taobao, but that is a lot of hoops to jump through.
Now it is much easier. You have all of the original channels, the generally reliable King Tea Mall, Teaswelike, Quiche Teas, etc. Taobao is considerably easier to navigate than it used to be. There are multiple established Dayi flagship sources and there are a lot more people with taobao experience that can help you (join a Discord!).
3. Reasonable Prices
You’d think with another decade of storage these would now be extremely expensive. Teas that were 17-20 years old were not cheap in 2012. I’m happy to report that is not the case . A huge part of this is simply the quantity of pu’erh made. The last few years have not been kind to Dayi stocks and their prices remains at a bit of a low point, where you can snag a large chunk of cakes through reputable channels for under $100 cake easily. Xiaguan and other factories are generally priced even less than Dayi teas.
You may ask, why not go a bit older if prices are so cheap? Unfortunately it remains difficult to find reliable pre-reform (earlier than 2005) tea. These teas are generally considered stronger and better, an assessment I agree with, but because of the more limited quantity they are much more expensive than an average factory production from 2008.
4. Boutique Pu’erh is Complicated and Weird (Not Just Western Boutiques)
Boutique pu’erh is weird. It is easy to be allured by the promise of fantastic tea leaves from old grove trees. Seems like a simple enough idea. Unfortunately it has ended up being anything but.. Boutique products being smaller runs allow more variability in how the leaves are processed. In trying to create a product that can taste better young, the tea can be processed in ways that make it taste good but age poorly (underrolled, green tea pu’erh, honged). This is fine if you want to consume the tea young, but not great for those that prefer aged pu’erh. Conversations prop up regularly about certain products not aging well or being processed in a way that makes the tea taste good young but age poorly (see Green Tea Pu’erh). It has both complicated and expanded the variety of pu’erh by a wide margin. Now you have to learn about proper processing and be able to taste if there are processing flaws if you want the tea to continue being decent. It can be quite difficult and frankly tedious.
Being a pu-head in the 1980s/1990s would’ve been comparatively quite dull, choosing between a handful of traditionally stored productions. In 2025, the amount of productions, boutique and factory is quite overwhelming.. It is part of the rabbithole, but it is easy to get confused.. Factory tea from the mid 2000s (minus the wrapperology) is back to basics.
A veteran drinker complained about how drinking Taiwanese boutique pu’erh is generally not worth it because you have to drink through all their strangely, processed perfumed house note to even get to their base taste. Now that I’m semi-experienced with pu’erh I immediately understood what they were talking about. If I were to do over my tea hobby, I would not have focused nearly as much on boutique pu’erh from the get go and instead shifted it towards factory tea. In this alternate universe, I think I probably would’ve bought some boutique pu’erh at some point but I think I focused far too heavily on it for my first 5 or 6 years of tea drinking. Imagine getting recommended Xizi Hao from the start as some sort of endgame of tea and getting your baseline set with these teas. It will give you experience in a very specific little niche of the pu’erh game.
Many of my favorite pu’erh teas I own are boutique productions. These do have real upside if done properly. I tend to think of boutiques as a high potential ceiling, but also a low floor and an expensive price tag compared with factory tea. There are good boutique teas, but it can be a morass getting to them.
Which Teas?
So the list is still subject to change over time, but these are the recommendations as of Summer 2025. I think this list would be similar to one from 5-6 years ago or so as these teas are large scale productions and don’t skate in and out of availability as much as boutique pu’erh.
My advice is to focus on Dayi and then Xiaguan, with potential add ons from places like Mengku or whatever.
2006/2008 Dayi 8582
2006/2007/2008/2010 Dayi 7542
2005 Xiaguan T8653 Thick Paper (Early in the Year Batch)
There are a ton of factory productions but I think these three will give a steady foundation for pu’erh that you can use as a springboard to dive deeper into factory tea or branch out into the wild world of boutiques.
Where Should I Buy These?
It is easiest to purchase these from TeasWeLike or Quiche (dropships Taishunhe). For those brave enough, the lowest prices are probably on Taobao (you need you to use an agent like SuperBuy or ShipForwarder).
You can try some of the Dayi Flagships or Chentang for Menghai Tea Factory. For Xiaguan, MX is the most reliable and decent option.
Like the Yiwu Megareport this is a return to a couple reports I did in the 2010s. The first focused on Bulang and the second on Menghai County tea. The initial Bulang report had teas ranging from fresh to 12 years old with an average age of maybe 3-5 years. Coming back to the Bulang theme a decade later there’s a large chunk of teas at the 15-20 year mark, with just two teas being produced since 2020. The maturation of these teas has tamed the famed Bulang bitterness and made for a much more enjoyable drink through.
Banzhang is in Bulang so it is shoehorned in as are some teas that are Bulang adjacent.
Bitter to Sweet Conversion
Classic Bulang and Banzhang tea are famous for a punchy and potent profile with a quick conversion of bitterness into sweetness. A characteristic that is also oft cited for classic 7542. It’s a classical pu’erh note and not hard to spot in both factory and boutique versions of these teas. The speed of the conversion is another trait to note. Something like the 2002 Menghai TF Bok Choy had a very quick returning sweetness. There are also other teas that are much slower to convert or don’t convert at all which results in a pervasive lingering bitterness, something I’m not really a fan of. In ripes I’ve come to appreciate it on occasion or when it is well integrated into the tea.
Bulang Structure & The Value of Blending
There’s a fair deal of repetition in the profiles dealt with. I did enjoy most of the teas, but Bulang has a more narrow profile compared with the 6fm on a whole, which is why expanding it to Menghai County and Menghai area blends makes sense. After all these areas have a history of being blended together. When a factory or producer moved outside of Bulang for more of a blend, like many of the Dayi teas which don’t specify geographical provenance it can fix this problem by creating more dynamism.
Slower Storage Hasn’t Been Awful
In past reports I’ve talked about the importance of storage. For factory teas this absolutely matters. In particular something like Xiaguan really needs good storage to smooth it out. For Bulang teas while I would definitely prefer storage in Taiwan, southern China or the tropics over the US the slower storage hasn’t been nearly as awful as I anticipated. Something like the 2010 Gumingxiang Banpen has clearly mellowed especially when I look back at my notes from a decade ago.
Boutique vs. Factory
Western Xishuangbanna doesn’t have the same boutique prominence that Yiwu and eastern Xishuangbanna does. My Yiwu report was dominated by mostly boutique teas, with very occasional factory toss ins from the turn of the century. In Menghai County it is a different story. You have the factory (Dayi) based in Menghai County, cranking out different blends many of which could be roughly grouped with teas here. While I almost included a bunch of Dayi teas, most are not explicitly Bulang, and I decided to save some ammunition for 2026 where I’ll be doing my best to cover more of Menghai TF teas.
In my TeaDB 2.0 phase I’ve leaned a more towards factory than boutique, having done the vast majority of boutique buying 7-10 years ago. I think this preference holds true for most of the teas here. Another advantage to the teas I sampled a decade ago is that there is simply way more 15-20 year old tea available. The teas from 2005-2010 were about 5-10 years old when I tried them back then and now have reaped the benefits of time.
Goals:
Stash check.
What should the average (VOATO) and benchmark teas be? The Malaysian stored 502 Double Lions probably has the biggest reputation of any overtly Bulang tea. Is this deserved?
Ratings
As has been the case for previous reports I am rating purely on my own appreciation of the tea at the moment I drank it and the ratings are not a reflection on the potential of the tea.
Nanqiao/Liming
Nanqiao ended up being the benchmark for this.. Famously in the western scene they have the Double Lion whose Malaysian stored version remains a very solid benchmark and one of the better teas of the report. It seems like the one remaining state-run factory Liming (which I’ve always thought of as B-tier Dayi) made quite a bit of tea from this area.
Amazingly Liming has never been featured on a TeaDB video. It’s not really a factory I hold in high regard (B/C level Dayi) but some of their teas in this era are decent.
2008 Liming Yayun (A/B)
Sold by Quiche but also available on Taobao from a number of vendors for much less. Solid tea. The bitterness is mild, but the bones are strong. Thick, oily resinous. Retired smoke. Leaves a nice aftertaste on the back of the mouth. Very classical and I think this is entering a state of being drinkable. Perhaps reminiscent of the 7742 except more ready.
2007 Nanqiao Early Spring Tribute (C)
Decent overall. It isn’t as potent as most of the other teas here and instead leans more heavily into flora, sugarcane, and grassy notes. Still it is thick and hints at some past smoke. I’d say that this needs more time, heat and humidity, but for the price it’s a reasonable value.
2006 Nanqiao Double Lions (A/B)
I don’t know exactly what version this was, it might be the smaller 250g cake. Regardless it is a solid, often overlooked tea. Wood, oily. Takes a bit of time to open up. Definitely not as punchy and only lightly bitter. It has good aftertaste and coats the mouth nicely. The sessions on it are a bit varied with some being a little less satisfying and others feeling like the real successor to DL.
I also was able to session a CN stored one, which was also pretty good. Retired smoke, wood, incense, oily. Almost as good as the MY version. The 2006 is well worth pursuing if you want a great PQ ratio.
2006 Liming Arbor Wild Arbor King (B)
Pretty good tea, with a very classical Bulang/Menghai profile. Smoky, heavy BBQ, needs a lot more time but it has good bones. Decently oily with a good aftertaste. Wood, pine, resin. Needs heat/humidity but Kunming has chipped away at it.
2005 Nanqiao Double Lion 502 (A)
A very good standard. Woody, incense. The bitterness isn’t as strong as you’d think. Maybe for boutique bros. But it is very intense and concentrated. Good, booming aftertaste. I’ve struggled with how to rate teas like this in the past but the Malaysian stored in particular holds strong in a lot of aspects and I’ve risen in my own enjoyment of the tea over the past 7 or 8 years.
2005 Nanqiao Double Lion 501 (A/B)
For a tea I almost never heard about this was shockingly good. It does a very good impersonation of the 502 with just a bit less strength. Wood, incense, protracted mouthfeel, strong immediate aftertaste. Need to SbS with 502 to more fully parse out differences.
2005 Nanqiao Banzhang Tuo (C)
Unfortunately not everything Nanqiao made in 2005 was great. This one isn’t awful but doesn’t really impress either. In contrast with something like DL it is thinner and more narrow. Some light fruit and the aftertaste does resolve well but it’s not that pleasant to drink. It needs quite a bit more time and even then I don’t think this will get close to the NQ DL.
2005 Nanqiao Purple Peacock (A/B)
Southern Chinese stored. This tea is in a nice place to be consumed. I don’t think it is quite as Bulang heavy as other teas in the report or perhaps it is just more tamed. Thick, wood, leather. Mouthcooling early. Not too bitter but can get astringent. Goes down easier than Double Lions but with a little less potency.
2005 Nanqiao Liming Impression (B)
This one isn’t as good as the 2006 Liming Arbor but is a little more aged. Oily, woody, has a bit more depth but a little less oomph than the Arbor. Good thickness overall.
2005 Nanqiao Blue Peacock (A/B)
This is a good tea and undercovered compared to other Nanqiaos from this era. Very concentrated and oily. Still has some BBQ-like smoke. Good throat coat. Still pretty drying and not quite ready but this has good expansiveness and is aging well. I don’t quite agree that this is better than the best of DL, but it is operating on the same playing field.
2004 Nanqiao Double Lions (A)
I suspect most would put this above the 2005. I’m a bit more split and to me this feels like it is in a smoother state but also lacks the intense concentration and pungency that makes the 502 so memorable. It still has very similar notes, oily, woody, some incense. In particular those who prefer boutique over factory will go for this as it has certain refined characteristics the 2005 502 lacks.
2004/98 Nanqiao SEA (B)
A weird one. In some ways this looks like an extremely stellar tea. It is very oily, with heavy retired smoke, incense, and camphor notes. I don’t love the aftertaste as much as other Nanqiaos from the era. It is also less dense and just a touch hollow compared with things like the 502 Double Lions or even the Blue Peacock. There’s also some curious black tea type notes to it, although it mostly can be ignored. A decent enough brew but I don’t like it as much as some of the other Nanqiaos.
Dayi/Xiaguan
I probably could’ve included a lot more Dayi and it probably made sense as the primary benchmark here. But I wanted to avoid having this get way too big so as a result so I included those that are overtly labeled Bulang (7742, Bok Choy) and a couple versions of the famed 7542 recipe.
2011 Xiaguan Laobanzhang (C)
From Puerh NW. The tea is reasonably strong but I’m otherwise unconvinced about it. It has some thickness and oiliness early, but is eventually overcome with a lot of drying and bitterness that doesn’t convert very quickly. I think this tea probably would’ve done better with more heat/humidity but it’s not very close to being ready as of now.
2010 Dayi 7542 (C)
Not terribly impressed. It is somewhat oily and thick. It is not particularly punchy/bitter, although it does get astringent. Perhaps it is my expectations but I find this lacking. Due for deeper exploration next year.
2009 Xiaguan DX 7223 (C)
Commissioned by Dehexin who was partly responsible for the Double Lions and drew my interest. It is just OK. It is sweeter and more narrow than the other teas here. Way too little of a punch to really grip me. Tastewise woody, a bit of fruit.
2006 Dayi 7742 (A/B)
Supposedly aged Bulang material. This is good but needs more time. Actively smoky, BBQ, woody, oily, and pungent. This is a straightforward tea with a classical profile. Quite different from the 7542. Not going to be for everyone (I suspect I wouldn’t have liked this 10 years ago) but it is solid tea.
2006 Dayi Bulang Peacock (B)
Shockingly mediocre considering the price. Body is medium. Taste is wood, apple, a bit creamy. Doesn’t really have the big expansiveness of the better teas here. Does get a bit sour and somewhat astringent but the aftertaste is much worse than the 7742. Probably more of a collector’s item than a drinker’s drink.
2005 Dayi 7742 (A)
Really good and a bit different than the 2006, probably on account of storage. Much less smoky it does have a bit of a recently retired tobacco taste. Very refined wood, antique furniture like. Aftertaste is very quick and coating.
2005 Dayi 7542 502 (A/B)
Mine compared with Dennys is a bit further along. Smooth, not a ton of bitterness but still a fair bit of astringency. Wood sweetness, creamy, resin, leathery.
2002 Menghai TF Xiao Bok Choy (A)
From Houde. Good tea. Needs more time. Still pretty sharp but the aftertaste converts very quickly. Depth is pretty good without being great. Some resin. Longevity is OK. There’s some factory tea I like more than this, but I think some of that is the drier storage that this has gotten. I think if western storage may eventually be able to get some of these teas to a drinkable state but it takes a while.
Chensheng Hao
A Banzhang focused producer. They occupy an interesting space where they market themselves as a premium, luxury brand but are clearly operating at a fairly large scale. They are also a producer who really started to hit their stride in the 2010s rather than earlier like Nanqiao and Liming and their teas feel relatively less traditional than the aforementioned teas.
2022 Chensheng Hao Lao Banzhang (B)
I suspect this is getting into a bit of a more muted awkward stage as it is not as rich as it was a year or two ago. It is young, but I appreciate its clean, clear profile. It is relatively thick, has a moderate bitterness, and comes through with a nice but not super intense sweetness. Good longevity as well.
2017 Chensheng Hao Yi Hao (C)
Pretty good tea, but is still quite green in a way I don’t love. Oily, floral, nutty. Good intensity of aftertaste. There is some bitterness although not as much as the Bawang when pushed. Unfortunately this needs some pretty significant age, but I think this could be pretty decent.
2013/2016 Chensheng Hao Bawang (C)
Lumping in 2013 and 2016 since I feel the same about both. Very bitter tea with thick oiliness. The bitterness is slower to convert. I do have three of the 2019 aging away, but I see it as an extremely long term aging experiment.
2013 Chensheng Hao Jin Yin (Gold Mark) Banzhang (B)
This also needs time but it is closer. I’ve had this tea three or four times and my opinion has slowly risen. I think a good chunk of the enjoyment is it because it has been stored less dry than the other semi-aged CSH I’ve had. Like those it is very oily and has some strong bitterness. However, it’s considerably less green and starting to lose that sharper edge. It has a decent concentration of flavor. Tastewise brown sugar, wood.
2013 Chensheng Hao Organic Banzhang Arbor (B)
More standard and in my opinion likable than the CSH Jin Yin. Good body. The aftertaste resolves quickly it has a nice deep slightly heavy feeling to it. Good aftertaste. Tastewise it is around what you’d expect, florals becoming woodier.
2012 Chensheng Hao Yin Banzhang (B/C)
Measures up a bit worst compared to the Yee BZ. Partly because its been stuck in Seattle for longer. Still maintains green, floral notes. Has nice thickness. A bit bittersweet as a lot of younger CSH is. Similar to the Yee BZ the bitterness is a little slower to convert.
Western Boutiques
These are interesting to visit and revisit and predictably ended up being a bit of a mixed bag.
2024 White2Tea Astro Kittens (D)
Smells nice. Floral, nutty, sugar. The most bitter tea of these, pill like at times. Very protracted mouthfeel. The bitterness was quite slow to convert. I’m curious what this will be like later, but it is not something I would enjoy drinking anytime in the next 20 years.
2018 White2Tea Lucky Puppy (A/B)
My favorite of the boutique products. Has aged pretty well and is now simpler but pretty tasty. Wood, light fruit.. Very thick, moderate bitterness, sugarcane. Some mouthcool early. Very quick and good aftertaste that coats the mouth. Very sweet after that. Despite being young this is enjoyable.
On potential negatives, as one would expect from a modern production the rolling is on the lighter side of things. Perhaps this is why the tea is entering into such a nice phase so quickly.
2016 White2Tea Untitled 02 (B)
Thick, a bit oily. Moderate body, herbal, moderate bitterness. Lightly sweet and decent depth. Some resolution on the bitterness but it also has a lot that lingers more than preferred. This has fared OK enough and I like it, but I think it needs more time and I am ambivalent about the nature of its bitterness.
2012 Essence of Tea Bulang (C)
Malaysia stored and preferred over the 2010. It has a moderate body, is a bit herbal and gets quite bitter. Like the 2010 it doesn’t convert to sweetness much, which is more striking because this tea is much further along than the 2010.
2010 Yunnan Sourcing Jieliang (B/C)
Still pretty green, nutty. Thick, but not as much as the best teas in this report. Resin, strong mouthfeel. The conversion isn’t super fast, but it is there. This is getting there but still needs longer. Not bad.
2010 Essence of Tea Bulang (D)
Pretty dry stored. Antique wood. Fairly bitter, not a ton of conversion into sweet. Still quite burly, tart. Not a big fan of where this is right now.
Other
2013 Yee On Banzhang TFC (B)
Very thick, oily. Some mouthcooling. A touch of citrus. It is more bitter than most here. I think this will be quite a good tea at some point but still needs quite a bit of time. Has a strong protracted mouthfeel. The one hesitation is the nature of the bitterness which is a bit slow to convert although not overwhelming. Nevertheless I generally trust operations like Yee On to know what will age. Some solid potential.
2012 Hailang Hao 16th Anniversary (D)
The leaves here are clearly good, but I’m just not a fan beyond the first two steeps. Starts out nice, oily, syrupy texture. Still quite green, grassy. After that the session goes downhill fast. It gets somewhat bitter, but it also doesn’t resolve and the greener aspects really linger.
2010 Gumingxiang Banpen (B)
I have a much better handle on this tea than 2014 or 2015 where I gave it negative and mediocre reviews. On the negative it does feel relatively less blended and a bit more single faceted, which is what I think confused me when I’d had this tea before. The tea has a big body, it’s oily, and at this point only mild to moderate bitterness that converts. The conversion is a bit slower, but the tea is substantive enough that I feel decent about its future.
2008 Haiwan Lao Banzhang (A/B)
My only Haiwan. Picked up from Wilson at Adventure in Every Cup back in 2016. It isn’t quite as bitter as you’d expect and has more of a subtle power to it. Softer and a bit less resinous than other teas in this report. Less pine and more of a dark oak/cedar. Nice coating of the mouth. Soft, oily, good depth.
2006 Banzhang Laoshu Green Peacock (C)
Same cake as sold by TWL but a different storage, probably drier. This is stronger, has a big mouthfeel and more penetratingly bitter than the majority of other teas. The aftertaste is slower to convert. It is also not as oily and has a thinner focus. I am not a big fan of it.
2006 Zhongcha Six Side 8081 (B)
An overall decent tea that just lacks the intensity and expansiveness to be truly great. Nevertheless it has good structure/balance, oiliness, above average bitterness that builds, and some retired smoke. There are some light camphor notes and the aftertaste all resolves in a pleasing way. Just not quite as big as I want my Bulang tea to feel.
2005 Yunhai Banzhang (B)
This was sent by HappyGuy over on Discord. Thank you!
This is still a bit green and could use time but tastes proper to me. Dry wood, slightly oily. Pushed gets a bit sour. Has a decent enough aftertaste. Leans a bit towards the fruit/sweet direction but has strong enough bones.
2005 CNNP Big Yellow Mark (C)
I reviewed this almost a decade ago and it hasn’t really changed too much. The smoke is mostly in the past now. Has a bit of a softer perfume, pinewood, resin. Oily.. I’m a bit cooler on this than I was back then, partly because the aftertaste isn’t as good as some other teas and I’m not a huge fan of the softer perfumey (Nannuo?) aspects of this tea.
2005 Farmer Banzhang (B/C)
An interesting tea. Has a good amount of sweetness and is far more fruit forward than a lot of other teas here. It is also pretty astringent and drying, but it mostly all resolves. Despite being pretty oily and thick it also has a softer side to it. I’d take the 2002 Bulang brick that YS sells over this but it is respectable.
2005 Yuanyuan Tang Laobanzhang (A/B)
Taiwanese boutique ringer alert!! Thanks to Peter for sending this in. Apparently there’s some sort of relationship between CYH and YYT LBZs, although the details are hazy to me. Either way this is one of the better YYT I’ve had. The taste is mildly bitter and sour. A little oily but not as much as the NQs. The aftertaste is quite sweet and has a decent amount of depth. I’d originally put this at B tier but ended up upgrading it as it has significant appeal now. As you might expect from a TW boutique version it is a bit sweeter and a little softer than the other Bulang teas being made at the time. Still it retains a decent amount of thickness. Solid tea.
2005 Chenguanghetang Menghai Yesheng (A)
The Malaysian stored version. Amongst the most enjoyable teas in this report. Herbal, incense. Some mouthcooling. Very sturdy and thick. Strong mouthfeel. It is mildly sweet and if I had this after an Yiwu it might be a bit too strong. Good depth. Despite its strength I am pretty OK drinking the MY stored version semi-regularly now.
2004 Hualian Laobanzhang (B)
Decent enough tea. Still a little green and has some sourness. It has the proper Bulang structure (bitter then sweet, oily) and is a somewhat enjoyable tea. The downside is it’ lacks the potency and expansiveness to be more than decent.
2004 Mengyang Guoyan (C)
A bit dank. This feels closer to traditionally stored. Very mellow, creamy, woody. It’s an alright enough brew, but does not provide the Bulang thrills I seek.
2002 Bulang Brick (B)
This is solid old tea. Burly wood. Smells of smoke early but it quickly dissipates. Really not too bitter. Oily, rustic, quite sweet, very old school pu’erh. Has a good body throughout.
2000 Hailang Hao Bulang Mushroom Tuo (C)
This has good structure to it but its Kunming storage hasn’t done it any favors. Oily, hay. It’s aging fine but too slow.
VOATO & Benchmarks
Not sure I own enough tea to make the VOATO (Value Over Average Tea Owned) a decent metric here. The cakes I do own are the CGHT Menghai Yesheng, the 502 Nanqiao Double Lions, the Nanqiao Purple Peacock, and the Chensheng Hao Bawang. Those are amongst the best teas of the month and I think the average tea would be the Purple Peacock, IMO a solidly reliable tea. A reminder to keep standards high for future pickups. The teas here are also in pretty direct competition with good old Dayi teas, especially from the mid 2000s.
Thanks to Pedro and TeasWeLike, the 2005 Malaysian Stored Double Lions 502 has probably the largest reputation in the niche pu’erh scene, a reputation that seems well deserved. Like most teas that get some hype, it’s not a value budget banger but it is a very appropriately potent Bulang that I think deserves its place and should be experienced.
Final Thoughts & Why No S Tier?
I prefer the top end teas in my Yiwu report more than the top end teas here. I think there is the potential for some teas, like the 2002 Menghai TF Bok Choy to rise but it’s not there for me at least not yet. If you think the top should always be S, just add a grade scale up to every tea, making the 2005 NQ DL 502, 2004 NQ DL, and the 2005 CGHT Menghai Yesheng the top teas.
Although the brasher Bulang style often takes a bit of a backseat to my Yiwus I do enjoy drinking most of the teas in this report. Many of them are also decent enough value. The sweet spot falls in that mid 2000s range where many of these productions are still relatively attainable and smoothing out. I did not include many Dayi products here which would probably be in direct competition with these teas like the standout Nanqiao and Liming products.
I don’t know who came up with this. Maybe LP? It’s a pretty random size. Why not 15? Or 10? But you know what. I like it. Getting locked into 25 grams is overkill, and 10 grams can often be not enough. 16 grams is enough for three smaller sessions or two medium ones. If you’re a 5 gram-brewer, it gives you a little extra buffer in case you lose some leaf here or there.
Tea Businesses as Side Hustles
This is a like and a dislike. One thing I didn’t fully grasp in my return to blogging was how big and influential TWL has gotten. The niche western pu’erh scene has been heavily shaped in their image and the teas they source. Yunnan Sourcing and White2Tea are no longer the only options to start out on pu’erh tea. What I really didn’t expect was that so many people would end up sourcing similar and in some cases the same teas. The imitators are no doubt annoying to TWL, but for consumers they offer more options and places to get samples and teas that are otherwise sold out. The TWL level of curation is something that these vendors have a hard time replicating however.
The downside is that this creates negative incentives towards sourcing more original material as it is now much easier to undercut the vendor doing the curation. These undercutting operations may be trading immediate gains (lower prices) for worst access and prices down the line.
Marshaln’s Hong Kong Tea Travel List
Next time someone asks me for Hong Kong recommendations I will just send them to this fantastic list by none other than Marshaln. It has pretty much every HK shop I was aware of, plus extras. If I find myself back in HK, I’d probably just go straight down this list. I’d previously used this list from Nicolas Tang but I think this easily beats it.
Different Tea Sub Cultures & The Tea Discord Ecosystem
A lot of the interesting tea chatter happens in Tea Discords these days. If I’m honest, I only half paid attention to CommuniTea (one of the larger Discords) from 2019 until more recently. Since then, I’ve joined some of the smaller ones as well as The Tea Table (the other large Discord, started by LP). Despite being smaller on paper, The Tea Table has quite a bit more chatter going on and has also taken on a pretty different culture than CT (CommuniTea).
If you’re just starting out, depending on which discord you join you’d likely end up with similar but different samples and vendors recommended to you. I think this is mostly healthy as people can choose which one resonates more with them. When something is also more or less unanimously liked or disliked by both, that also says something.
TeaDB as Documentation & Rediscovering Teas
In what should be unsurprising, I have archivist tendencies and am temperamentally inclined to record and document. Most recently, I put every pu’erh we’ve drank on the show into a google sheet. This took a bit of time as we’ve been doing the show for over 10 years. (It also now needs to be updated again.)
In drinking more tea and rediscovering some of them, I’ve been pretty happy with the past documentation we’ve done on teas in the form of the recorded show as well as some of the tea reports. Rather than judging sheerly against memory, having stuff written down and recorded makes it much easier to jog my memory and recall. There were some teas I thought I liked but had more mixed feelings on as well as vice versa. If you’re in it for the long haul having some sort of system to log thoughts is highly recommended. Personally, I’d opt for something relatively simple that doesn’t ever become too much of a chore.
This post was original planned as an update to the Pu’erh Vendor Guide which was published over a decade ago and is now hopelessly out of date. However, politics, tariffs and the back and forth trade war made me give that more all-encompassing article a (hopefully temporary) delay. If the tariffs do continue, importing from mainland Chinese sources will be more expensive and likely more difficult. It will also have trickle down effects felt further down the line, specifically with vendors who are based outside of the mainland but source their pu’erh directly from China. This should impact almost every pu’erh vendor to some degree, but not equally. In particular vendors who commission and press their own pu’erh and sell a lot to the US will be hit the hardest, places like White2Tea, Essence of Tea, and Yunnan Sourcing.
Taiwan based hobbyist vendor. Teaswelike has a very high level of curation and a strong track record and high batting average. They source from everywhere, but have a strong Taiwan and Malaysia focus. Good for mostly semi-aged and aged pu’erh with a variety of boutique and factory tea.. Also a very good Liubao vendor. Their selection has drifted mid to higher-end over the years but you can definitely still find well priced budget tea. The downside is no samples and they frequently run out of stock. Their restocks are mini-events with teaware and some teas selling out quickly. TeasWeLike has had a large influence on the niche tea scene, many of the previously unknown to the west brands they sold are now regularly sold by other vendors.
TWL is also one of the few vendors I’d trust with sourcing more aged teas (pu’erh, Liubao), which can be a bit of a trap for less savvy vendors.
A new merchant dropshipping Taishunhe (a Taizhong based pu’erh merchant) and some boutique teas. The markups are low so the prices are quite good if you know what you want. Taishunhe is good for mostly Taiwanese stored factory tea and there’s now a portion of the site that has more boutique teas, primarily Chenyuan Hao. In general Quiche Teas cover the whole spectrum of budget friendly tea to more expensive offerings. Like TWL, no samples.
Ran by Taipei based potter, Emilio Del Pozo. The Jade Leaf was originally more of a teaware and Taiwanese oolong hub but has gradually ventured out into selling a wide variety of pu’erh. Sells a lot of Taiwanese boutiques (BYH, CYH, YYT) as well as factory tea with Taiwanese storage. One big advantage over TWL or Quiche is The Jade Leaf sells samples.
Tainan based boutique vendor, that has always been somewhat popular in the west. XZH was originally brought to the west by Houde about two decades ago and have started selling online. XZH is usually on the pricier side of pu’erh.
Thai based collector who sells mostly older, expensive pu’erh and heicha.
North America Based Vendors
Since pu’erh is not grown in North America, these vendors will be hit unevenly by tariffs depending on how their supply chain is setup. A place like Yunnan Sourcing who sources directly from the mainland is far more likely to be impacted than someone like Yangqing Hao, a Taiwanese boutique.
Remains one of the largest, widest selections of pu’erh. Fortunately their US site makes them a viable option. These tariffs unfortunately are likely to have a big impact on their ability to restock tea. YS teas are well priced and their selection is huge. They also have several years of producing their own line of raw and ripe pu’erh. For these YS products, the best value is almost always something made in the last couple years. They do annual price hikes around March which can add up after a few years.
Ohio based vendor who sells a variety of tea, but usually has a very healthy selection of semi-aged pu’erh stored in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. LP has historically sourced from a pretty wide ranges of places, and the selection rotates regularly. He’s a good vendor to subscribe to for his monthly drops, in case there’s something that piques your interest. Because LP’s sources are diverse and not mainland dominant, I’d anticipate small shifts rather than drastic changes.
A curated, often underrated, long running California vendor. Similar to TWL, a very high batting average. There’s a wide range of pu’erh from younger teas to much older ones. Generally their teas are on the higher-end. A handful of their teas offer experiences that are very difficult to find in the west (Evening Fragrant Jade, Kunlu). Bana does sell samples which helps to make some of their higher-end stock accessible. They have close ties to Hong Kong, specifically Best Tea House, so I’m not sure how well they’ll be able to restock.
US based Yangqing Hao store run by Emmett Guzman. Yangqing Hao is a Tainan based boutique pu’erh label that’s been pressing pu’erh since 2004. Emmett originally started coordinating group buys about a decade ago and his operation eventually grew into being Yang’s distribution partner in the US. Like XZH, YQH generally sells higher-end products and while they initially focused on Yiwu tea in the mid 2000s, YQH has pressed tea from all over Yunnan. Unlike YS or Bana their connections are entirely Taiwan-based, so they should have less issues restocking.
A Texas based reseller of a variety of popular Asian based vendors. They source regularly from Taishunhe and Yee On. The Steeping Room sells samples and their markups are generally reasonable making them a good, accessible choice to try and sample teas. Their ability to restock from Hong Kong, might be restricted.
A well known mainland pu’erh producer that lies somewhere between factory and boutique. CSH was created in 2008 and most of their tea is sourced from Menghai area, with a lot of Banzhang productions. They famously signed a contract to monopolize LBZ tea in 2008. CSH does also press some Yiwu tea and make a number of regular blends (Bawang/Emperor, Yihao). While they are mostly mainland focused they do have an outlet in Canada. CSH regularly raise prices on older stock so most of their better value tea are younger.
Washington-state based vendor who presses their own tea. Although they have their footprints in the mainland, they keep a good sized stock state-side so they should be able to sell for a while before running out.
Long running Houston based vendor with Taiwanese ties. They sell a variety of mostly US stored factory teas and Taiwanese boutiques (XZH, YQH, CGHT) from the 2000s. They don’t restock their shelves often, but because they’re old players in the game they have teas that are not commonly available when they do.
UK-Based pu’erh vendor selling mostly tea from the 2010s and 2020s, with a focus on Zhensilong productions as well as Tea Encounter’s own commissions. Both ZSL and Tea Encounter productions tend to be Yiwu focused and have drier storage.
Newish UK based vendor who sources tea from a wide range of sources from Taiwan, Malaysia and mainland China. Puerh Guy sells a lot of boutique as well as some factory tea. Boutiques include CYH, BYH, XZH, YQH, YYT, BHYJ, etc. A lot of overlap with Teaswelike, Liquid Proust, and Puerh.uk. Most of the tea is semi-aged, ranging from 2000s to 2010s.
Sells a range of younger boutiques to older more anonymous aged pu’erh. Mostly Taiwan and Malaysian stored tea. A particular emphasis on CYH. They also run the official Chenyuan Hao distribution for the west.
Russian/Dutch vendor that used to be compared regularly with Yunnan Sourcing. Their selection isn’t as big as YS anymore, but they do still sell some pu’erh.
My Top Picks
It is very difficult to go wrong with Teas We Like. The other two Taiwanese based vendors (Quiche and The Jade Leaf) also would be amongst my top recommendations. Not to be mercenary, but many vendors sell a lot of the same boutiques, so you can shop around if you want something specific. A place like Yunnan Sourcing remains good for stocking a variety of teas while LP is definitely amongst the most interesting domestic US vendors. For the tea type that will probably become somewhat harder to find (young pu’erh) you can still go to places like Yunnan Sourcing US, Crimson Lotus Tea, and Tea Encounter.
This episode, Denny and I drink one of the most powerful teas we’ve brought onto the show, the 2005 Nanqiao Bulang Double Lions. The tea has been stored very well in Malaysia and packs strength powerful enough that indicates it could be aged for another 15 years!
In this episode, I give the 2005 Chenyuan Hao Shanzhong Chuanqi another go. This is a six famous mountains blend I’ve sampled a few times and each time my own impression of the tea has shifted. The tea is dark, strong, with an undercurrent of energy. Thank you to Marco and the folks over at Teas We Like for sending another sample my way.
We drink a very high-quality, small-production Yiwu tea. The tea is made by Biyun Hao a Taizhong based pu’erh vendor. Unfortunately this tea is not available but a few are.
Thank you to the folks over at Teas We Like for providing the tea. You can check out TWL for other BYH products.
This episode, Denny and I drink a traditionally stored tea from Menghai Tea Factory, the 7432. No that is not a typo. This is a recipe that isn’t frequently produced, but the tea is quite legit. It is traditionally stored but overall quite clean. Would make a great introduction for anyone curious about this sort of storage. Sample provided by Marco at Teas We Like. Thank you Marco!
This episode I drink a tea that I own quite a lot of, the 2013 Xiaguan Love Forever Paper Tong. This tea has become fairly popular in the specialized western pu’erh in the last couple years. Despite being pressed six years ago, the tea material is older (from 2003) making this a tea with significant age on it. The tea is also special to me as my wife and I were gifted a tong of this on our wedding day from the tea community.
The tea itself is quite strong, with a very dense taste and a long lasting mouthfeel. It is also not really like other Xiaguan teas as it was made by Feitai (FT) under the Xiaguan label. While it is semi-aged, this is a tea with a lot of potency to be aged in the future. In the video I also go over a bit of the history of this tea and talk a bit about the bamboo tong version, which is not as good.
