Imperial Tea Court

I have not tried this specific tea, nor can I speak to whether it’s truly old bush (I will say that demand for shuixian from 100 year old trees is high, and that a manufacturer would probably be more likely to sell such tea loose), but I think the price seems a bit high, especially since it doesn’t seem like samples are available online — it might be great, but if it’s not, you’re stuck with the rest of the cake. If you are local, I’d recommend asking if they’ll let you try some before committing.

Compressed yancha, while not as common as with pu’er, has been around for a while (often, it’s sewn into pommello skin or compressed in brick form). Usually the tea used is average quality, and while it ages a bit differently when compressed, and can often be tasty, usually these teas are not that expensive.

The Wuyi Star brand compressed shui xian (in both brick and cake form) is quite a bit cheaper. While I haven’t been the biggest fan of Red Blossom’s yancha, they also carry a shui xian cake that’s a bit smaller in size, however, it doesn’t appear that they offer samples either.

In general, it is wise to take claims about exact place of origin and age of the bushes with Wuyi yancha.

Thanks for the reply Will.