New Reliable AliExpress Tea Store for Puerh

Happy to share the resource. I do believe it is a very good one.

Yes be careful always. I am sure that many of us have had poor experiences with ebay and aliexpress sellers and we sometimes share those experiences here. That is why we tend to proceed with caution. Always more risk involved when purchasing older teas so you need to know what you are looking for and purchasing. Safer, lower risk with new 2014 and 2015 productions.
As for 2009 vs. 2010 date on the Haiwan you singled out, not sure how to confirm with out purchasing this one. I can say that even in new productions there is often a mix up with production date and official release dates as I just experienced with the 2015 Dayi Purple. Stamped in December 2014 but released in 2015. Is it a 2014 or a 2015 Dayi? Dayi officially considers it a 2015 tea (confirmed by Taetea representative).

$50+ for new productions, gonna pass on that. I don’t see any value in these teas myself. But to each their own.

DigniTea makes a point about dating that I was thinking about myself. We can really only be sure through our our own carbon dating.
Imagine if the value of the RMB were to double over night. On one hand we’d likely close mega stores and definitely stop having so many consumables come from China. At the same time, we’d still be paying about 1/2 of what these products cost the average Chinese, something which explains the function of the counterfeit mkt.

Are you talking about tea, or something else? Because it seems to me theses prices are double what the teas would cost to the average Chinese citizen.

Good question that ultimately comes down to currency conversion. The average Chinese makes 1800 rmb a month give or take. Let’s assume that that’s about what a person in US makes only in dollars. So both sides are making 1800 units a month. Since the seller is obviously reselling items on Taobao, not even bothering to change the logos from the sellers, you can simply cross reference the prices. An item selling for X units in China should sell, and will eventually, sell for X units in the States. Presently, people from Europe and N America are paying -X due to the advantage gained through currency differences.
Is there any wonder why there are scads of people from these countries touring places like Thailand or Mozambique and not the other way round? Obviously, it has to do with differences in currency valuation. In one day the value of the Thai Bhat fell in half due to the ingenuity of one man and inexplicably the value of the pound sterling remains strong. Oh the mysteries of the market.
Any way, the average Chinese would only be paying double if the currencies are converted, which given basic unit earnings on average seems unnecessary. So far, I haven’t run across any Dayi big cakes running for less than 50 units. As a consumer, it makes sense to seek advantage and presently the advantage is our favour. Fortunately, tea is a luxury item and people can take it or leave it.

But we’re also talking about marketing hype and leaf here, and dealing with fakes which is the big problem with factory labels. I don’t want to be the one to hijack Digitea’s topic beyond a cautionary note, but I’ll admit to hoping I’m not the only one feeling frustrated with this.

Not sure why you are feeling frustrated by my simple effort to share an Aliexpress resource which has been useful to me. No bias, no opinion, simply successful examples when purchasing newer factory produced teas made by well established factories. The recent Dayi products sold to me (and listed earlier) have been sourced from a Dayi/Taetea store. My experience with this particular Aliexpress seller has been positive. I know what I am looking for and I ask questions before purchasing. If this Aliexpress seller is useful as a possible resource for other people who buy factory teas, that is good. If it is not useful for you in particular OK. Message received. But some of us are interested in finding particular Dayi products and this particular reseller is helpful.

Yes, and anything more stemming from my reply post here would be another topic.

Another good pt Cwyn. I did a little reading about this on some Chinese tea posting sites to learn more. From what I’ve gathered, Taobao is cracking down on the sellers of fakes, actually removing them, though some fall under the radar particularly among the less popular sites. Ali portal is another story. The probability of counterfeits is far greater with older productions as mentioned earlier and as you well know. For this reason, many Chinese will only buy the new stuff online.
From what I can tell, none of the sites this seller is accessing deal in counterfeits. They have too much to risk and I’d figure that after 14mths DigniTea would be able to smell a rat if there were one.

That really isn’t true that older productions are solely the culprit, Google 8 tons of fake Dayi seized. And you probably missed the article by Nicolas Tang and too many Teachat topics to even post.

Great article, which is exactly why I just don’t bother buying Dayi and I avoid many of the more popular CNNP and Xiaguan. I’m sure Dayi is all that. I guess I’ll find a way to pull through.
For some reason, I find articles like this very funny.

The seller at King Tea actually sent me a photo of a ‘suspected’ fake cake shipped in from a wholesaler and I didn’t approve of it because from my point of view it was. He then sent it back and got a cake from another source that he also sent pictures of. It was a legit one and I let him send it to me. I think he is conscientious seller trying to make a good start and do it right. I think if there was any question he would reply to any differences. I built a ‘relationship’ with Berylleb I shared with others and I think DigniTea has done the same here. I think he will keep performing. If not I think like any other seller on a tea forum he would have much to lose. If he does well he will gain much in the same note.

Unable to explain the common name but I have dealt with both and they are not the same guy.

There are also two Dragon Tea Houses, one on EBay, one on Amazon. Different people same name.

oh okay, just a great coincidence then :) Then, I must try this new company out.

Berylleb is a separate entity not affiliated with King tea from Aliexpress.

this is confusing…esp the 2 dragon tea houses. are they differentiated on steepster reviews?

I think both the Dragon tea houses are the same. I think they operate shops on eBay and Aliexpress. I don’t think there is much differentiation of the two on here.

You find a mere two confusing?
Well how are you gonna deal with them actually being triplets!

ebay: http://stores.ebay.com/Dragon-Tea-House
aliexpress: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/726685
Their own website: http://www.dragonteahouse.biz/

They have reward points on their website, and coupons on aliexpress, which can work out to be about 10% discount in due course of time. My suggestion would be to purchase on aliexpress when they have promotional coupons – that should get you the best price with the safety of aliexpress guarantee.

lol. great!

We had a discussion about this some time ago. It is legit and it’s a good brand.

That’s good to know. I may have to try it the next order I place.

It is a tea company name, not necessarily the tea origins.

Mine should be here tomorrow. Allan that 750 grammer isn’t on there any more. I should have got one of those too.

It’s still there.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2008-TAE-TEA-DaYi-Happiness-Beeng-Bing-Cake-750g-Pu-er-Ripe-Ripened-Tea-Cooked-Matured/32284565487.html

looks mighty fine :)

i wonder what one can do with a moldy tea brick aside from drinking.

Paperweight
Start building a dollhouse
See who can throw it the furthest
The list is endless…

Doorstop
Propping up the leg of a crooked table
Chipping off the mouldy bits and carve it into something
Skipping over water like you would with a rock?

lol..keep on

Brush off mold hit with hot water rinse and steep after 2 washes.

I’m with mrmopar. I have had some interesting things in my pu already including a sample that looked like someone shaved a cat over the leaves before pressing the brick