Ordering tea directly from farmer's shop! From farmer, to your house! (especially Wuyi rock teas!)

Cindy and her family are Wuyi locals and have honed their craft for generations. They are real masters at Wuyi tea making. The lack of smoke in their final product is a good quality indicator. Nothing wrong with liking hints of smoke in tea (to each their own), but since we’re talking about quality, smokiness (particularly Wuyi oolongs) is an indicator of poor processing.

Of their Wuyis, I’ve tried: 2014 lao cong shui xian, 2016 qi lan, 2016(?) rou gui
- All are stellar, but their rougui is truly something to savor. It’s deep, textured, complex, and has a great body feel.
- I would purchase each again.

Of their Dancong, I’ve tried: 2016(?) mi lan xiang [old bush], 2016(?) xing ren xiang
- Both are quite unique, but I would purchase the milanxiang again for sure. I’m excited to try their other Dancongs, as well. Cindy’s in-laws have been making dancong oolong for generations!

Thanks for this post.

2017 teas are available on the site, most in quantities as low as 25g. Just placed an order, and looking forward to trying them all.

Take a look at Cindy’s website now. You will find various quantities listed for each type of tea, the smallest being 25 grams. New Dancongs are in as well. I purchased several teas a couple of weeks ago ( my 2nd purchase) and am looking forward to seeing what the green tea is like. Undoubtedly my favorite is the lao cong shui xian and rougui.

I’ve already said a lot in different places but I’ll just add a little more.

Any teas vary in quality level and price, so as far as value goes the issue is how those match up. I tend to get teas from more direct sources or else physical shops so I’m not the best person to relate how the top 10 online vendors compare to each other. cindys teas are better than most other wuyi yancha I’ve tried, with few enough even comparable, so at a guess in that same price range you would tend to end up drinking teas that aren’t nearly that good. A better question might be how teas that cost more through other online sources compare, but I can’t answer that based on much either. I’ve tried teas that cost more that weren’t nearly as good but others have sampled more typical sources.

Dan cong is different; the typical price range runs higher. Cindy’s aren’t sold as higher level versions, not supposed to be as good as $1 a gram teas, and you get a feel for how they’re represented from price. Styles vary, in addition to quality, and it can be tricky factoring that in at first. With dan cong so-so versions can have unpleasant forms of astringency, and flaws in wuyi yancha tend to relate to teas tasting like cardboard. That’s not really what I mean by style variation though.

I haven’t been to Wuyishan, or to any tea growing area in china.

I think Wuyi Origin’s teas compare very favorably. I’ve tried Wuyi oolong from YS, Verdant, and some unmarked samples from other tea lovers. I’ve tried dancong from YS, Song and Red Blossom.

If seeing photos of the operation would give you some comfort, they have an active Instagram account. I’ve had wonderful conversations with Cindy via Messenger, too, and I cannot imagine that she is anything but the real deal.

Thanks for the thanks and recognition! Given that this has ventured into the range of meaningful discussion I’ll add a little more about sourcing issues, which others can correct based on their own experiences. Vendors making false claims versus not charging a fair price is a funny thing; it works out to be expressed as a continuum rather than clearly defined cases. To some extent market value is setting prices, where supply meets demand, so if they can charge a price and get it that’s what is fair, although product claims being vague allowing space for them to be overly positive can be problematic. Also they would know, roughly, where their products stand in relation to a lot of what else is out there, and would know if they’re charging more than average based on marketing reach being effective for whatever reasons. In some cases paying more is justified by reasons that may not be immediately clear, for example, physical shops need to cover more overhead, so along with receiving a different range of service (talking to a person) you might pay more there, and to some extent should do so.

I think the negative side of some of that is why people might seem to overreact in rare cases a claim can be clearly identified as false, for example related to tea tree age claims. They’ve sat through lots of examples of people pushing that edge by overstating tea quality, whether they’re buying those teas or not, and when a claim is clearly wrong it might serve as a chance to vent.

On the other side, related to consumers, learning and preference curves are interesting things. Initially people might naturally value very different aspects in teas, so flavored teas and blends might appeal more than other more sophisticated teas, but the next couple of steps are a different sort of thing. It’s not only that everyone would appreciate better teas more, although that generality does tend to hold, but also that the page someone is on identifies specific aspects they might like. An example will help clarify where I’m going with this. Aromatic components tend to be more present in more subtle versions of teas that one would learn to like over time—or not; people experience things differently.

It’s hard to be clear on what “aromatic components” even means since most flavor is carried by volatile components identified in sensors in the nasal passages, therefore all but basic tastes—sweet, sour, etc.—are technically aroma or fragrance. But it means something; there is a different break-down of types of aspects that can be experienced, and appreciation for those may well change with experience. Or something more straightforward could transition, eg. preference for a different level of roast in a roasted oolong. Later on someone may really appreciate adherence to a very standard type or variation from that type, interpretation, when early on in the process none of that would be clear at all, it would be about teas being good or bad.

It’s best to not take all of it too seriously, to not try to swallow the ocean and ramp up exposure and learning too quickly, because the journey is the point, not any particular stage of arriving. No one can learn it all; it doesn’t work that way. For me it helps to see learning background and the actual experience as different things, and it just works out that I have an interest in both.