Mei Leaf / Chinalife - 1600 Year old Pu-erh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaOnfJjXpdw
A new “gushu” tea from Mei Leaf and another curiosity. This time a roasted puerh. I know I will get a decent but overpriced tea at best but curiosity might dig a hole in my pocket again.
Is roasted tea even puerh anymore? Well, the definition is less important here, especially since this is meant to be drunk young. I know they just posted this but I’m curios if anyone had this and what are they thinking on it.
I saw a video of someone roasting loose leaf puer in what looked like a mug over fire. Then steeped it in the same mug. Looked like it was being done in China. I’ve been curious about roasting since, but haven’t tried it yet.
Most of the fun to me would be seeing how the roasting changed a know tea. Personally I’d pass on this and just play around at home.
https://youtu.be/K-4_eXuB0do
The Art of fermenting tea.
This guy knows his fermented pu-erh, and who wouldn’t having produced the Sacred Owl (Ba Da Shu) – Ripe pu-erh from 1000 year old trees!
I’ve tried the tea in question. It wasn’t sold ready to drink and needed a few years to age. Nice rustic loose compression. 1000 year old trees? Great story
The tea in the video is actually, After Party Enchanter:
https://meileaf.com/tea/after-party-enchanter/
It’s from only 100 year old trees ;)
King Plum Yiwu 800 year old raw 2005
https://meileaf.com/tea/king-plum/
This one sounds genuine, but only samples are available.
Reasons why I think this is genuine:
They are confident of their source: The ageing of the tea trees is always a matter of contention but we know the level of expertise of our sources and believe it to be accurate.
It would be £1000 a cake if they sold it by the cake. Higher price means more likely to be genuine.
The price they paid was astronomical. They must be confident it’s genuine to pay so much for it.
At more than 14 pounds for a 5g sample it passes the price test. The problem for me is he has been caught either lying or being badly fooled before so I don’t tend to trust him.
I can’t fathom why you would bother with a company that has been quite clearly shown to lie to their customers before. It baffles me that some people are so tolerant, it is counter-productive and encourages poor ethics. Vote with your friggin wallet.
“They are confident of their source”
Yeah, they were equally “confident” abut their 1600 year old tree. Zero friggin credibility.
Didn’t you know that all the trees in the area Verdant gets tea from are over 800 years old so the farmers can’t get the price they want. There are just thousands and thousands of 800 year old trees there.
@AllanK I keep thinking of that MarshalN post where he tells the story of a 600 year old tree that was upgraded to a 1400 year old tree a few years later and then died. But the next time his friend visited there was a “new” 1000 year old tree on display. I think Mei Leaf and Verdant could do amazing business in that area.
In the world of trees hundred year old is fairly common, but only the giant redwood trees in my understanding commonly get to 2000, and you cannot make good tea from their leaves to my knowledge.
Normally I don’t like to comment on this stuff, hence my previous silence, but some things are blatantly misrepresented and this is technically falling within my home territory.
“This is Yiwu at it’s best, with all of that sweet, syrupy and easy drinking pluminess that the area is known for which lasts for over ten infusions.”
As a guy who specialises in sourcing Yiwu, if the flavour only lasts 10 infusions, he’s either misdescribing the tea or it’s not good material. As most real Puer lovers know, good-quality material holds up to many more infusions, even decent quality young tree material. It’s not good gushu if it can’t hold up to multiple steeps.
If you want a real dry-stored 2004 blended Yiwu gushu, I can get the real stuff out of Yiwu storage. I’d need to buy the whole case though – that’s 42 cakes at just over 924 pounds each cake… it’s fair to say I just don’t have that kind of money to float, but do let me know if you have interest in this type of tea. :)
@Philip Lee You could always organize a group buy but I don’t think any one person will buy a whole case.
I don’t think it’s intentionally, this is part of an email i just got:
“we are proudly proclaiming that our Diamond Peak Junshan Yinzhen is NOT from Junshan. It is picked and produced in the lovely region of Pingjiang close by Junshan in Hunan. It is an exemplary yellow tea which is very close to the flavour of the island tea without the crazy prices and we are proud to have it in our collection”
(Many sellers apparently claims their Junshan Yinzhen IS from the island)
That being said, i would request tests about radiation particles from their teas from Japan since he does not/ did not take official paperwork serious enough. I too am here now because of one of his videos. He also gives his customers the chance to rate and describe his teas, something not many sellers do. So, he should be more careful and not make bold claims. But he helps people appreciate good tea and I personally don’t believe there’s malicious intent. But these (extreme) claims do hurt the industry, and if you make a living selling puerh I can understand not just the anger but also the frustration.
It seems a little odd that it is not from the region he is naming it after? While I appreciate he is being honest about it why didn’t he call it something else?
Why shouldn’t he get a pass when people are willing to give Bana Tea a pass for “Little Bingdao.” >.>
http://oolongowl.com/2017-little-bingdao-sheng-puer-bana-tea-company/
According to this review, Little Bingdao (from Bana) isn’t actually from Bing Dao. Not sure if there were discussions on it.
I suspect so people know the type of tea we’re talking about and what flavor profile to expect. From the site, under product information, the first thing it reads is:
“This tea is NOT from Junshan island, it is grown and produced in Pingjiang which is very close to Junshan Island in Hunan province. I say this upfront because Junshan Yinzhen is one of those teas which is widely marketed falsely.” And a bit further down:
“In neighboring plantations on the mainland, high quality Junshan Yinzhen is being made by excellent producers. Whether you can technically call it Junshan Yinzhen even if it is produced outside Junshan is a fair argument but everyone in the area does and most wholesalers will pretend that this tea is from Junshan to increase the price.”
Btw i wouldn’t call it very close either.
The world’s most rare and expensive tea:
https://meileaf.com/tea/diamond-peak/
https://youtu.be/rGPjrQVacpA
In the video he admits it is not the real thing. On his website he appears to be claiming it is the real thing. Again, I find I don’t trust him.
No, on his website he is very clear it’s not the real thing.
“This tea is NOT from Junshan island, it is grown and produced in Pingjiang which is very close to Junshan Island in Hunan province. I say this upfront because Junshan Yinzhen is one of those teas which is widely marketed falsely.”
This is from the website, it’s the first thing you see when you scroll down. I understand if the lay out of the page takes a bit getting used to, but all his pages are like that. If it’s false advertising, of course, address it, but if it’s not that has to be clear as well. Whether or not you trust him is up to you, but credit where credit is due.
Honestly this is pretty deceptive. I understand this is his website but he could have called it NOT Junshan Yinzhen in the title. Someone could theoretically read the title, buy it, and never scroll down. And as a professional writer, I know how little people tend to read big walls of text.
So if you know what the real deal is and how expensive it is, you just click it, don’t read anything and just hastily purchase it? I personally am not familiar with the real deal and I only care about price/quality ratio. But having NOT or something like SIMILAR TO in the title would improve it. So i’m not saying it’s a non-issue but i wouldn’t call it deceptive.
Its giving him cover. He puts it in the title for people who dont read, and then puts it in the description to give himself cover. “See I was honest”.. its actually pretty smart.
The search engine thing i understand, but seriously people need to read things. If people refuse to read a manual or the contract they sign it’s on them. American cheese isn’t even cheese and that’s not considered false advertising but no one seems to care about that, this is tea at least (and quality tea if his story checks out). Maybe you’re right but i personally don’t see it as much of problem.
I would have no problem paying $80 for 10 grams for the real thing, if I could find it…
@Shine Magical 25g is $108usd. I can send you the way if you truly want legit stuff, let me know.
Where can I get some? I would like to try authentic yellow tea from Jun Shan Island, but I have no connections to the Chinese government.
Don from Mei Leaf is such a good salesman in his videos I am tempted to order from him but then I remember the obvious fakes and the other deceptions and I spend my tea money elsewhere. There are plenty of good US sellers who are telling the truth about their products who I would rather order from and not pay international shipping. I would prefer to buy from someone like Mandala Tea who is honest about what he sells without any deception that I have seen.
Mei Leaf is the company that really inspires me with loose leaf tea. I had ordered their dong ding and milan xiang as my first order. Then I was sold. At this point I still did not know much about loose tea, let alone puerh tea ripe/raw. Mei leaf had this ripe tea cake called Sacred Owl. Intrigued I ordered it after seeing his youtube video of Don tasting it. This ripe tea still to this day is the most tastey ripe puerh I have in my cabinet. I still have about 60grams of it left because I like to drink it sparingly because I like it so much. I know very well the controversy of this tea. It is a advertised as 1000 year old Gushu material, and many people claim this to be impossible. The story told is that a farmer did this as an experiment using 4th,5th,6th leaves to make this tea. The leaves in this cake are huge. Do any other teas use the 4/5/6th leaf? I don’t think he had tried to deceive anyone with his teas. I like Mei Leaf tea, and I personally think you will like them, if you try them. I think Mei Leaf is a good value honest tea company. I have tried most of the 70 different varieties he has offered and really enjoy them. If you do order from them I think you will love what you get.
Question, how many fake accounts have been created for the purpose of defending Mei Leaf? If the man would just admit he lied and ask for us to forgive his past transgressions I would be willing but there is always something new and fake with Mei Leaf. I will continue to spend my money elsewhere. I seriously doubt his puerh is better than that of Yunnan Sourcing anyway so why should I not continue to buy from Yunnan Sourcing over Mei Leaf.
My real tea journey started with Mei Leaf. Before that I was buying from David’s Tea in Canada, which had a couple teas I liked. Just relaying my experience with Mei Leaf has been very satisfying, and I think many people would enjoy their tea. I buy from many other vendors as well as I am very interested to see what others company’s have to offer. Ive bought from UNYtea, @wuyiorigins, @wudongtea, Teabook , crimson lotus, liquid Proust. I love tea and all these companies mad they have much flavor and quality to offer. If you are happy with a supplier by all means stay with who you are comfortable with. Feel free to check out my Instagram @wesdashman if you think I’m fake. I’m just a father of 3 boys and a construction work who loves and enjoys the world of tea. I don’t think Don’s been dishonest, but we all have our opinions on the matter.
The leaves from 1600 year old tea trees are pretty much not available at all, perhaps if you are a high party official, and perhaps if you are willing to pay a large sum of money, but not for what Mei Leaf was selling it. And it is so rare it is unusual to find any production run from such a tea that is more than a few bings at most. The number of 1600 year old trees documented in China can probably be counted on one hand, maybe two.
Those kinds of accusations have been made before in this thread and it’s incredibly rude. It’s possible fake accounts were created but you can’t just drop that here without giving a strong argument for why that would be. Who do you think are fake accounts? Do you think I am a fake account?
I went through this same thing last year. I was “fake” because, like many, Don Mei pointed me in the right direction and showed me what real tea was. It doesn’t matter that I have since bought most of my tea from a multitude of sellers. A few of whom I’ve had many interactions with. It doesnt matter that I’ve “hooked” quite a few people by giving them real tea, and they also now buy from many vendors. None of which, to my knowledge, is Mei Leaf. All that matters is I refuse to agree with the masses that Don Mei is a cheat. Most of whom have never had the teas he offers, and because of that, I’m fake. I gave up fighting it, and you may as well give up too. They’ll never believe you. It doesnt matter to me anymore because I know who to thank for showing me the world of real tea, Don Mei, and that is his goal. I don’t buy much from him these days, I have way too much tea already, but if he has a tea I want, I know it’s quality tea, and will happily but it from him.
An account newly created for the purpose of defending Mei Leaf counts as fake in my book. By defending this company you are doing a disservice to many.
I am sure mister Mei leaf would recommend people not to buy his Japanese teas because they might contain radiation particles since he doesn’t (or appear to) take official documents too seriously (this is what I wrote, remember?). You can be dismissive, but I am Dutch, I am not mister Mei and you need some manners. You’re mistaken in assuming this account was created for the purpose of defending him or his brand. (Because of his videos I now love tea way more than coffee, which is was very into, and signed up for numerous fora and of course, i’m interested in topics about him)
The basic fact of the matter is the man sells fakes. His so called Tiger Spirit was certainly not from 1600 year old trees. In my view since he has been proven to sell fakes in his puerh department I don’t trust the man. Anyone defending his sale of fakes is in my view a fool at best.
Damn, you really are a nasty person AllanK. I may be a fool, at best, but I would never attack people the way that you just did. Nice job buddy. You just lost all respect in my eyes. Not that you’d care if a fool, at best, cares about his opinion of you.
I never defended his “1000 y/o tree” tea. I’m skeptical about that as well. But the matter of fact is most tea sellers sooner or later sell something which isn’t 100% as described, because it is impossible to check everything and there are too many variables. He should not make claims like that unless he’s 100% certain, BUT his role into getting people into tea and to the forums, and generally good quality tea that’s affordable cannot be overlooked. I don’t think it would be fair to advise people to never buy anything from him. Your position seems to come from anger a lot. I believe people should vote with their wallet and if they believe his tea has a good price/quality (maybe better than some competitors in Europe) then why not let them vote with their wallet? Sure inform people about puerh claims, but don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.
If you are not defending his sale of fakes I did not call you a fool. If you are defending his sale of fakes you are a fool. Credit where credit is due. The man lost all credibility when he claimed his tea was from 1600 year old trees. And if you think I am a nasty person for wanting people to know that the man is not trustworthy then that is your problem. There have been too many false claims. No one should trust the man. Just because he produces slick internet videos does not mean the man is trustworthy.
To this I will add that I have long suspected that the man sells good tea, I simply have a problem that he has been proven to lie about it. Why does he lie about it? Perhaps Tiger Spirit was plantation material that was worth only $40 a cake but by lying about the age of the trees he was able to get people to pay 150 pounds a cake. That is why the man lies, to increase his profits. Because he lied about the age we will probably never know the actual age of the trees. And as it has worked before he will probably continue. No one should defend the man lying about his tea in order for him to make more money.
I would also question the theory that Sacred Owl was 4th, 5th, and 6th leaves. There is a simple reason why tea farmers don’t do this. Picking too many leaves stresses out the tea tree too much. It would be very strange if a farmer who owned a 1000 year old tree was willing to do thins at all. Again, I simply think Sacred Owl was another clear fake. Any tea trees over 500 years are incredibly, incredibly rare. Any tea trees of 500 years age are incredibly rare but they do exist. However if you find tea from one expect to pay in dollars per gram not grams per dollar.
Another fact, nearly all his gushu products fail the price test. Real gushu is expensive. His Bingdao 600 year old tree gushu he is currently selling is too cheap, around the same price Yunnan Sourcing sells a bing of Bingdao plantation material for but Don is able to get 600 year old gushu for the same price. Either he is lying, being duped or duping and ripping off the farmers.
I don’t know much about tea tree age, but the sacred owl ripe puerh is a very delicious ripe and I still pull it out of my cup lord and enjoy it very much. When I bought it I didn’t know the significance of tea tree age. Is it possible a farmer did this and an experiment? People experiment all the time. Experimentation lead to innovation. Without inovation how can their be creation of new thing, products. I don’t think it’s too far fetched. As far as the tiger spirit, I have not tried it.
What price would and 2017 Bing Dao ancient arbor go for per gram? 2017 young gushu goes for 48cents a gram.
Wes Brinkman wrote (now deleted):
By the way. Mei leaf young gushu is 48cents a gram. Yunnan sourcing 2017 Nan Po Zhai is 35cents a gram. Where are you getting you facts from? Making them up. You’ve lost credibility. Are you a share holder of Yunnan Sourcing (sarcasm). Both these tea say they are ancient arbor from Bing Dao.
Thanks for reposting my deleted comment. I try not to be rude when I comment. I apologize.
So now someone thinks it is acceptable to post another person’s comment after it had been deleted by the OP?
Yeah that’s not ok, and whether or not this person may or may not agree with your position is irrelevant. This thread could use some moderation. And let’s not forget: attack the position, claim or argument, not the one making it.
I think good discussion is merited. I just wish this one wasn’t going into attacks by both sides of the coin. Most of us are real tea drinkers and we know a lot more than what was known on our side a few years back. I know the majority of you on a personal friend level. I hate to see it get tot his point.
Wes Brinkman, the Yunnan Sourcing tea you mention is not Bing Dao, does not claim to be Bing Dao but near Bing Dao. He does not make any specific detail for the age of the tree just that they are Ancient Arbor, generally meaning about 200 year old trees, a little more or a little less. Don from Mei Leaf was claiming his Bing Dao was from 600 year old trees. I bought a spring Bing Dao cake from Yunnan Sourcing last year. It was no gushu and made no claims to be gushu and cost about $170 for a 400g bing. You need to do your research a little better before you start making accusations. Ask anyone from China who is a trustworthy source and they will tell you you can’t buy 200 year old tree Gushu from Bing Dao for that price let alone 600 year old tree. Also, on top of all that the tea from Yunnan Sourcing you seem to be referencing is Autumn. These leaves are much cheaper and explain how Yunnan Sourcing can sell Ancient Arbor tea for that price. It makes a world of difference that the tea was from near Bing Dao. None of the teas from the neighboring villages of Lao Ban Zhang can command the high price there and the same thing goes for Bing Dao.
I have never seen it offered anywhere else but if it was offered it would be more expensive if genuine. Another thing is that the super super rare tea in China is usually reserved for the party elites.It doesn’t even get into the tea markets at all in most cases. These are teas that are so rare that a production run may be five or six 100g bings too.
Ok, time for a thread lock…
The discussion hits some turbulence. It has been here before. Not everyone agrees about everything – that’s life. One thing I think we can all agree on is that Mei Leaf get people talking about tea.
I have never even claimed that Don at Mei Leaf sells bad tea. I simply claim that the tree age he is claiming for a number of his puerh teas do not pass the price teas. You cannot go into a tea market in China and get these teas for the prices Mei Leaf sells them for. Therefor either he is lying about the age of the trees, he has been duped by someone that these are truly Ancient Tree leaves, or that they are ancient tree leaves as he claims and he is ripping off the farmers in order to sell them cheap. The simplest explanation is that he is lying about the age but it is also possible that he was duped. He would probably not actually be able to trick a farmer into selling him the leaves from super old trees for that price so that possibility is unlikely. There is virtually no possibility that Tiger Spirit had any 1600 year old tree material in it. Sacred Owl might be a very good ripe but there is no possibility it is from 1000 year old trees. His 600 year old Bing Dao gushu is just way too cheap. In saying this I am not even claiming that any of these teas were not good teas, just that they were misrepresented. Ancient Trees up to about 200 year old are fairly common, while no wheres near as common as plantation trees. Anything older than 200 year old tree is so rare it should automatically be questioned. Does it pass the price test? Spring gushu is expensive. If the seller is claiming extreme age can he back that up. To my knowledge Don at Mei Leaf has never backed up any of his claims. At least Verdant tried to back up their claims before being debunked by people in the know.
I’m with Allan on this one.
There is no question at all that Mei Leaf either sells / have sold tea in bad faith under false marketing OR are so incompetent that they should not be selling tea. This is not an opinion, it’s just a fact and it has been documented again and again.
The only people who keep the “fight” going are those who for inexplicable reasons defend Mei Leaf (whether they are sock accounts or people who have blown lots of money on MF’s fake products and feel a need to justify it, I don’t know).
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