Buying Tea From Ebay (First Post On Steepster)

I will second Berylleb. Excellent seller. Mainly factory productions but that will give you a grip on puerh in general.You will branch out to others in time but that is a good place to start.

Welcome as well.

Thank you both for the input. I will look into Berylleb.

I’m looking for a good green tea in particular. I just ordered the Premium Nan Yue Yun Wu Cha Green Tea

It’s a little late in the year for green tea as it is harvested in spring for the most part, but there is some autumn harvest too. At this time of year I’d be looking at Japanese greens as the storage tends to be better (nitrogen flushed)

I didn’t think about that, but I assume tea quality doesn’t go down that much over the course of 7-8 months due to the roasting/dehydration phases of production

depends on who you talk to. Some people i’ve heard consider weeks/couple of months to be the shelf life for some teas

I think green tea degrades pretty quick even with good storage. I store my greens in a cool room in a dark cupboard. Some are canned but most I keep in the zip-lock package it came in. I notice a difference after 6 months but it’s not much. After 1 year, it can still be good but a lot of that freshness it had with certain notes is gone. More than one year and a good green just turns totally flat.

I get some exceptional greens from the Aliexpress seller Han Xiang Ecological tea. He’s set up a new website since Aliexpress is no longer allowing tea sales in 2017. Here’s his new website:
http://www.dhgate.com/store/18272721?extId=gmppyndbOH749m2Wsu8pRCU9RxLW9iGVNJ/PBWsAV5uRqX1jhCqUlg

Try is Rizhao and Laoshan greens. His black teas are very good too.

Also my dry room changes some teas pretty quick – it can clear wet storage funk in six months but also seems to flatten some sheng. I need pumidor!

I see. Thanks for the suggestions. Considering that I just ordered 500 g, I’ll note that for future purchases.

Thanks for the link Ubacat!

Berylleb isn’t going to send it until after the Chinese New Year (early February). They have offered me a refund if I don’t want to wait that long.

Considering that it’s green tea and that the latest harvest comes out in 1-2 months, do you think I should order from another vendor?

I’m also looking for White teas. Any recommendations are appreciated

I would suggest if you want to order and try out green teas right now to keep them in sample sizes or small amounts. Some that have been vacuum sealed for 2016 teas are still pretty good.
Taiwan Tea Crafts has an amazing white: Fragrant Jade Jin Xuan Organic White Tea. However it’s sold out for last years tea. Here’s the link to their website if you want to order in the spring. They have good greens in the Fragrant Jade collection too and they sell in 25g sizes. I know it’s not an Ebay seller but just wanted to mention them for great oolongs plus some great whites and greens.
https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com/shop/product-category/tea/white-and-green-tea/?v=3e8d115eb4b3

Streetshop88 has a great moonlight white tea which you don’t have to worry about aging.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/100g-Premium-Organic-Moonlight-White-Buds-puer-Puer-Puerh-Tea-Loose-Leaf-Raw-/231441192716?hash=item35e2f8570c:g:Uv0AAOSwkNZUp4g6

Thanks for the suggestion. I ended up ordering that tea but from Rebeca_Li. She has very good feedback.

Ubacat I took your suggestion about green teas. Just ordered 50 g of Bi Luo Chun and Yun Wu green teas. That way I can see what I like and order more in Spring when the new harvest comes in.

From Taiwan Tea Crafts or from Streetshop88? I can’t remember if I’ve tried any of the greens from Streetshop88.

Just browsing tea vendors right now, and Tea8HK2013 is correct. He seems to have some interesting puerh cakes.

Thank you! I just added Streetshop to my favorites list.

I’ll wait for my Nan Yue Yun to arrive before I go bankrupt ordering from these vendors :). They have such amazing selection.

Yes I have put in a couple of orders with Tea8HK2013 now and liked the tea. I only bought one raw and a number of ripe. I found that some of the fairly young ripe he sells has completely cleared of fermentation taste much to my surprise. I think it was a 2012 brick.

I’d put money on that vendor not being from Hong Kong and just having a Hong Kong eBay account—there are companies in China that specialize in shipping Chinese products through our postal system since it is more efficient than China’s.

That is something I never considered but I like their shop regardless. It is possible I suppose.

Well apparently Tea8HK2013 sells a “Puke” brand tea (普克)

http://imgur.com/a/WdNU8

I am tempted.. ;-)

What website do you buy from instead of ebay? It seems that ebay prices are better and quality is better than most stores

If you are looking for a non EBay website I suggest Yunnan Sourcing. They have two websites, www.yunnansourcing.com and www.yunnansourcing.us. The .com site ships from China and has a better selection. The .us site ships from Oregon. It is run by an American who lived in China for many years so there is no language barrier if you have a question. www.white2tea.com is also very good. As is Crimson Lotus Tea. Another US company was very good Mandala Tea but they shut down operations months ago with a promise to return. If they ever return they are very good.

Actually I’m pretty sure YS started on ebay but eventually got so big he got his own website.

Thanks! I appreciate it

Also, what tea are you after? The sites Allan mentioned stock chinese tea, not really Taiwanese, certainly not Darjeelings or Japanese or any other parts of Asia.

An excellent site for Taiwan tea is actually run by the owner of Yunnan Sourcing and called Taiwan Sourcing at www.taiwanoolongs.com. An excellent store for Japanese Tea is Yunomi. I should mention about Yunomi is their EMS shipping is really fast, generally 3 to 4 days from Japan if you choose EMS at check out.

I find Taiwan Sourcing a bit pricey. I know all their oolongs get great reviews though.

@Babble it wasn’t that we got big, it’s that we got sick of eBay, which is a nightmare to sell on. It’s just me and my wife, her mom, cousin and another girl in China. We have a part-time employee in Oregon who ships things from there.

Hey Scott, how do you guys ship? From your store do you declare them all gifts? What about from eBay? Did you have to do that when shipping from China as well? I’m confused how so many people do it without all the FDA stuff.

I never got customs from my YS premium tea club.

@DongBei depends on which country we are shipping to. Each country we have adapted our methods to make it smoother for the recipient. This is something we have honed over 13 years! For entry to US there is no need to use the FDA PN system to ship to individuals.

I have had Yunnan Sourcing and other international packages go into US Customs but they have yet to open one. Most international packages, however, never go into US Customs. They somehow choose, perhaps randomly, which packages they will look at. For most packages “customs” functions are actually performed by the USPS at one of their ISC facilities. I believe it stands for International Service Center and all international packages coming in to the USA go through one of them.