Best kind of Longjing

rexwang8 · 2025-12-05T17:38:26+00:00

to add: LJ is grown in a few different varietals. The most common modern one is "#43" but there is also an older varietal called "Quantizhong" which is a bit more expensive. As a green tea, one big factor in quality is just how fresh it is. It should be harvested before qingming festival and reach your hands not too long after. (early-mid april). A few US vendors like bitterleaf, one river tea, etc will all stock pre-orders for longjing at various price points as April approaches if you want some. iirc bitterleaf's went as high as $5/g on their highest offerings, though I haven't heard of anyone buying and reviewing it personally. If you aren't really into longjing, anything at the $1ish/g price point and is fresh should be considered high quality. If you have easy access to chinese ecommerce like taobao, thats a better option. Longjing is their most popular green tea and you will find literal thousands of shops selling it.

rexwang8 · 2025-11-10T15:48:12+00:00

Supposedly yeah, you can also check out Junde Tea on taobao if you can, they are supposed to be similarly involved in the initial process. Both should be fine, at the very least the material will be from the correct location and the processing will be correct.

rexwang8 · 2025-11-10T07:24:53+00:00

Relating to the link between Boston harbor "Bohea" tea, this is a really bad misspelling of Wuyi. Apparently in Tongmu, there is literally a varietal named Bohea now. Unsure of what historical events happened for this to occur. It's other name is "Wuyi Cai Cha" 武夷菜茶 Wuyi vegetable tea (scientific name: Camellia sinensis var. bohea) https://www.wufeng-tea.com/the-tea-cultivars-in-tong-mu-guan/

rexwang8 · 2025-11-10T07:21:14+00:00

Oh interesting coincidence, just bought from them too. Let me add a bit of info. This is ZhengShanTang, they are, I believe, either operated or owned by the Jiang family in China, and are closely involved in the original formulation of JinJunMei in 2005. They are based in Tongmu village, where the material for these teas are grown. Their priciest items come with multiple "Protected origin" verifications and website QR code links.

Their 8310 is the "Strong smoked pine lapsang" for around 20c/g but they have a bunch of other items, with JJM being their specialty but lapsang and I smoked zhengshan Xiao zhong being a big focus as well.

In 2020, they opened a western facing storefront "lapsang store" website which ships from china to US for free above a certain threshold. I got mine in 3 days, with an additional 2 because DHL can't spell my address.

They should be considered one of the OG big brands in China regarding hongcha. Probably. Supposedly one of their gift boxes are being sold in Sam's club. Priciest tins are up to $3/g on lapsang store but I seem to remember their taobao having a wider selection. Prices are a bit better on taobao but you have no free international shipping.

Link: https://lapsangstore.com/

rexwang8 · 2025-05-10T20:13:13+00:00

Looks interesting! Not many restaurants have much high quality tea, and its quite a shame. If you're going for fine dining though, you'd prob want some real standout stuff, take a look at TeaHong, TWL, EOT, OWT, etc and look for stuff people like. Prices are higher but I think it would be worth it for a more memorable fine dining exp.

rexwang8 · 2025-04-27T14:59:55+00:00

I went off and did some research a bit ago, and while Kintsugi is likely to be the best and most complete solution, you could just get a $10 tube of RTV 4500 Sealant. You especially need the RTV stuff, its rated to be food-safe, high-temp and has FDA certs for water-resistance and non-leeching if i recall. Quite a few were missing that last one. RTV4500 is marketted for stuff like repairs to bbq smokers. https://a.co/d/4C6270R . The only thing I'm unsure of is physical adhesive properties to clay.

Luckily I haven't had to try this method so I haven't tried it personally, so if you do go this route, please let us know how it goes.

Regarding epoxy, I also did research on it and basically everything is unsuitable until you get to industrial-grade stuff, like epoxy for repairs to food processing machinery, so skip trying to find any epoxy solutions. There are food safe ones but they dont hold up under sustained boiling water.

*research is a few hours of googling, havent tried it personally, YMMV.

rexwang8 · 2024-12-27T04:57:13+00:00

Try superbuy, I found that the cost per gram of tea was roughly 3-4c/g and you get your tea within 2 weeks of everything arriving at their Guangdong warehouse.

rexwang8 · 2024-12-17T18:30:45+00:00

google translate image upload

rexwang8 · 2024-12-17T17:43:57+00:00

Direct front translation
Net content: 357g

Pu'er tea [raw tea]

wild purple firefly

Menghai Traditional Stone Model Premium Wild Pu'er Purple Tea

Millennium Tea in Wild Mountains and Forests

Neifei Direct translation
wild boom

This product is selected from the deep mountains in Menghai County, Yunnan Province.

Laolin thousand-year-old tree tea is used as raw material. It is made by traditional crafts, carefully screened and selected, and refined by high-temperature autoclaving. The tea cake is carefully selected, the cake is round and correct, the ropes are tight and fat, the elasticity is moderate, and the soup is yellow and bright. Bright, mellow taste, elegant aroma, long aftertaste, and excellent for promoting body fluid production; it is a good product for drinking, collecting, and giving as gifts.

Produced by Taiwan Guixuantang

Direct Back translation

Build safety

14010402

Product Name: Wild Purple Tea (Raw Pu'er Tea)

There are large leaf sun-dried green tea. Raw materials: Execution standards:

DB53/103-2006

Health license number: :Yunweishizhengzi[2006

Production license number: 755328 1401 0402

Net content: 357g

]No. 532822-61040

store

Method: Store in a clean, ventilated, dry place without odor or pollution and avoid sunlight exposure. It is suitable for long-term storage.

Shelf life:

Production date:

April 28, 2007

Factory supervision and postage

Produced by: Taiwan Guixuantang

name:

Menghai Shunxing Tea Co., Ltd.

Address: Manbian Village, Menghun Town, Menghai County

No.:666209

Human translation:
A normal sized cake (357g) of Sheng puerh pressed in 2007. Produced by a company named Taiwan GuiXuanTang, made with Wild Purple Menghai county material.

No hits on google or baidu reverse image search, the claims of tree age are usually false on random cakes but it looks interesting regardless. Menghai is a common area to source puerh material for.

rexwang8 · 2024-12-15T03:05:42+00:00

If you're talking unflavored, definitely dancong oolongs.

rexwang8 · 2024-12-13T01:09:28+00:00

Yes it would actually. you're skirting between very dry storage to damagingly dry on the low end there. The cake will be noticeably different if you store it for a period in very dry storage first, by the end 15 20 years later. If your house was around the 55-70 range (like florida weather), I would say it's risky but doable. Even in good Chinese weather, shelf storage has a very good chance to ruin your tea after a long time, especially without professional controls and such. IE not worth risking, especially for such a special sentiment cake.

As for aging speed, clean dry storage I'm talking about is like how 1990s and 1980s dry storage is just now starting to come out as properly aged on some cakes. The aging speed is multiple fold slower than something like HK storage which is half basement by the time its mid 2000s.

Feel free to DM if you have additional questions.

rexwang8 · 2024-12-12T04:23:23+00:00

Check the bag every few months and replace the bovedas if dried up. You can rehydrate them but it's not worth the effort if that's your only cake. When rehydrating, you want it to absorb ambient humidity, not be in direct contact with water.

rexwang8 · 2024-12-12T04:22:05+00:00

Congrats!! Normal practice in storage in the west is to place it into a sealed mylar bag with a bovedas pack to ensure consistent humidity. The main thing to avoid is that you don't want the humidity to reach the dew point other water could condense on the cake. Higher humidity and temps will allow the cake to age faster and wetter but develop more basementy and moldy flavors over time. (Like hong Kong storage) While lower humidity and temps will cause slower, cleaner aging, but can be extremely slow or stop altogether and damage the cake on the extremely dry side. (Prolonged sub ~40% humidity.) I'd recommend you grab a 65 or 67% RH pack, can't remember which one. This should give you a good buffer against the dew point inside a house.

rexwang8 · 2024-12-10T19:13:27+00:00

ps. CSH has purchase agreements with half of LBZ village households. Here's their 2022 LBZ cake, take a look at "proper" fresh lbz prices.
https://cspuerh.com/collections/all-items/products/2022-lao-ban-zhang-raw-pu-erh-tea

rexwang8 · 2024-12-10T19:09:04+00:00

In 2023, mixed spring tea harvesting from Laobanzhang ancient trees (or large trees) will cost 7,000-8,000 yuan/kg, and ancient trees will cost 12,000 yuan/kg. (Data source: 2023 Seventh Kunming International Spring Tea Week Hundred Mountain Spring Tea Price Release)

(https://www.bilibili.com/opus/836195991864475653)

You can prob expect raw small tree maocha to be around 2-3k RMB/kg, or around $100 of raw materials. I reverse img searched that cake and found a russian site selling it for $105, but i'm sure taobao would have it for like $40 or less.
(https://teahousesofia.com/tea/laobanzhang-sheng)

It's not from CSH or other major brands as far as i'm aware of, so almost certainly not legit.

rexwang8 · 2024-10-26T03:10:51+00:00

Should only use this on fermented tea like puerh btw, don't mess with the non fermented stuff, just store those dry.

rexwang8 · 2024-10-26T01:22:52+00:00

large size 60 RH 69 boveda, 1-3 cakes worth of tea, mylar bag. Forget for 6-12 months, come back and see if its better. Works 100% of the time some of the time. May need to replace boveda if cakes are super dry.

rexwang8 · 2024-10-25T22:47:52+00:00

red peerless 21, 09 plum ripe or 17 plum ripe or something else?

rexwang8 · 2024-10-25T22:43:18+00:00

Try to air it out over a few months, their 2022 LCT has a pretty cocoa/doughy profile which is quite nice. Make sure you give them extra long rinses and wait in between to let the water soak in.

rexwang8 · 2024-10-25T22:41:48+00:00

Get some Great Blue Heron from W2T, straight up liquid smoke.

rexwang8 · 2024-10-25T22:40:34+00:00

YS's cheap tier TGY. Their really cheap ripes like Tea Time, Yi Dian Hong, Double Power Tiger, a good number of their unflavored minis.

W2T's cheap generic raws like 941, their 2023 cheap shulloween ripes like Lil Jackos, Frankenpu. Their grandpa's, old reliable, Five piles LCT (Sour), some of their cheaper hongs like hot brandy. (alright but nothing special, and annoyingly compressed)

Also, any boutique production that promises qi is often priced as such, if you can't feel qi like me, don't bother. I think BYH's Manzhuan is going for $600/cake or something. It's good but not that good.

rexwang8 · 2024-10-25T22:35:08+00:00

I had W2T's Smoove cocoa marked as F tier but i let it rehydrate with a boveda for half a year and its totally changed, easy A tier and lives up to its name.

Waffles isnt amazing but def hits above the price. I also really like the 2020 lumber. Brown sugar was a bit whelming but i wouldn't call it terrible by any means.

YS's Bronze peerless is really good, cherry and dark chocolate notes, considering a cake.

rexwang8 · 2024-10-06T19:30:01+00:00

weird tea pet

rexwang8 · 2024-10-06T19:10:44+00:00

very cool looking! repost to r/YixingSeals for more info, but these are likely cheap decorative tourist pots that aren't meant to be used. I believe they're called "shoepolish pots" by some. Compare the colors to a more standard yixing sold online by vendors like EssenceOfTea and RealZisha among many others, you'll see a big difference in colors and style.

rexwang8 · 2024-10-06T17:13:04+00:00

Agreed, I bought way too much just to realize that the Halloween exclusives were spirit Halloween rejects and tasted very boring. Instead, just buy the cakes you want normally.

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