Most people who purchase anything online are accustomed to the faceless and communication-devoid nature of the transaction. The best transactions usually are those when the product simply arrives as expected. So anyone new to buying puerh tea surely does not expect the type of communication possible and often expected by long-time collectors and buyers. The fact that puerh tea lovers enjoy discussing tea vendors
is no big secret. Puerh tea is unique in that customer service very often
includes communication with tea vendors and even over time developing a buying
relationship with that vendor.
But how do people get to know tea vendors? I decided to
present a little bio on vendors and agents that I know. By “bio” I mean just
some small bits of info to help you distinguish one vendor from another, and
perhaps to make reaching out a little less daunting. First, a bit of explanation
about the list of people here: obviously I cannot list every single great
vendor or agent. The ones in this article are mostly people who:
1) Do
puerh full time. Or most of the time. Really that means 24/7 and they do not
sleep.
2) Are
approachable for beginners.
3) Answer
messages promptly and enjoying discussing puerh.
4) Are
people I have had some communication with OR many people have.
5) People
who will handle special requests with personal service.
6) People
generous enough to forgive if I get any info incorrect.
The Madmen of Puerh
Mr. Wilson has lived in Yunnan for almost two decades, and
now at least for part of the year when he is not traveling for business to
other tea regions. He has fluent language abilities. He has described his
businesses to me as “a family business, my wife, some relatives and a handful
of others.”
My first experience communicating with Mr. Wilson was well
before I started this blog, and memorable to me because of a purchase of a
teapot with a special design to celebrate my son’s college graduation. I was
also in search of tea gifts for Son’s professors in thanks for their mentoring,
and selecting teas for the graduation party. I emailed with Mr. Wilson over my
choices, and he was very patient and helpful.
Our family celebration of my son’s graduation was one of the
most profound family events we have ever had. We shared tea, food and because
my son was a Music major, we had classical musicians sit down to play for the family.
I still remember the warm haze of the day from sunshine, food, tea and loving
friends. This day carried our family forward when my mother died the following morning.
Without that day, I do not think I would have survived the coming months
myself. Of course I have purchased a lot of tea and tea ware from Yunnan
Sourcing since then, but this experience of personal assistance at a key family
time is memorable for me.
I have a persistent fantasy of raiding the YS dumpster in Bend, OR. Imagine all the half steeped tea leaves in there. |
Paul Murray, white2tea.com, teaware.house
Mr. Murray is one of the more shy puerh vendors in person
and online, as he prefers not to show any photos of himself. This is truly due
to shyness, and it is no big secret I attend his tea tastings and look forward
to meeting up with him and his wife Karen once a year.
Paul left the US for China shortly after finishing his art and
languages degree more than a decade ago. He began a love affair with puerh tea
while working a job in another career area. He reportedly accumulated a very
large collection during those years, and found his tastes moving into higher quality
teas. As a result, white2tea was born in 2012 to share teas that he feels are
the best he can find. People archly make much over his wrapper designs, but
keep in mind his background training is in art; it’s not just marketing with
him but creative expressions of his personal views on tea. Every wrapper has
something he wants to say, not merely decoration to sell tea. And they are the
truth as he sees it through art, so he probably does want to have sex with the
Bosch lady.
This fantasy is of the new Guangzhou warehouse with two-headed guard dog. |
Peter Stanik, pu-erh.sk
I have not communicated much with Mr. Stanik although I have
ordered plenty of tea and tea ware. Other buyers I know enjoy their
relationship with him, as he focuses mainly on gushu puerh tea and high end tea
ware. His website is in Slovakia, so you may need to hit the language button
options to access his blog and some areas of the website. On Facebook, he
describes starting out on green tea and oolongs before a trip to Yunnan took
him into a lifetime relationship with puerh tea. He opened a business in 2010.
Pu-erh.sk offers samples of nearly all of their teas and has
earned a reputation of selling some of the best puerh teas accessible to those
who try to respect their budgets. Just because you can’t afford a whole cake,
no reason to miss out on great teas when pu-erh.sk offers sample sizes. The
site also offers extremely fine tea ware, including Japanese hand forged
tetsubin and a specialty of creations from European potters. This makes
pu-erh.sk a great resource when you are ready to bump up to investment quality
teas and tea kettles. You can find Peter on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube
under Pu-erh.sk.
Honza Brož, chawangshop.com
Mr. Brož lives in Yunnan with his wife where he maintains a
tea shop and web business, but is originally from the Czech Republic. I can
admit Chawangshop is a website that causes me a certain amount of awe and
mental illness, because I adore the teas so much. This site is unique in many
ways, such as the selection of vintage tea wares at low prices, and craft
products like rougher heicha that I cannot find anywhere else, and Chaozhou
clay teapots.
2016 Yibang by Chawangshop |
Mr. Brož is active on Instagram and Facebook, as well as many
tea websites and discussion forums such as Teachat. He offers special ordering
and will track down teas or tea ware for private customers.
The Couples
Eugene Chew and Belle Sun, teaurchin.com
This husband and wife tea team is based in Shanghai, China.
Eugene moved to China from Australia and stayed after meeting his wife who is a
government accredited tea grader and tea ceremony expert. They founded Tea
Urchin in 2011, and they design some of the most beautiful tea wrappers, as
well as pressing their own teas and sourcing factory teas. Their teas are
usually single origin, and they offer some tea ware as well. You can find them
on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
I have had a few Tea Urchin teas, they are a regretted omission from my blog, not for any reason other than my money runs out too
fast. But I have liked everything I’ve tasted from teas sent to me from tea
friends and from traveling tea boxes.
David Collen and Yingxi Chen, essenceoftea.com
Essence of Tea hit the western puerh tea drinking world by
storm in 2008-2009. If you don’t believe me, read the back pages of the Sheng
of the Day forum on badgerandblade.com, a puerh discussion topic that dates
back well before most western facing vendors got their start. People who had
access only to factory teas got their first tastes of truly fine fresh puerh
teas with cleaner processing than people were accustomed to. The Half-Dipper
blog has extensive coverage of this company’s teas over the years.
Essence of Tea started out in England but now they are based
in Malaysia, so the teas have access to what is probably one of the best
storage climates in the world. Their teas also sell out quick due to the
enthusiastic fan base. This tea business is a good resource for the real-deal
vintage Yixing tea pot. I mean the real Yixing mud and vintage factory tea
pots. When you are ready to go past your first $30 Yixing purchase into an
investment tea pot, their site is the first one to try when you are looking for
assistance with this big purchase. Essence of Tea maintains a Facebook and
Twitter presence, and they answer emails promptly.
Glen and Lamu Bowers, crimsonlotustea.com
Mr. and Mrs. Bowers have a truly inspiring story. They live in
Seattle, WA and spend at least three months a year in Yunnan. Glen described
himself as an avid coffee drinker for many years. After his engagement to his
wife Lamu, he quite accidentally tried shou puerh while on a business trip to
California. He felt so impressed by this tea immediately and talked to his
wife-to-be, who happens to be from Yunnan, China. “Of course I know about puerh
tea, I just assumed everyone did,” is a paraphrase of her response to him. I’m
amazed to think that Glen and Lamu were engaged to be married well before Glen
even started drinking puerh, I can only describe this as a spiritual
connection. Glen and Lamu offer a unique service in Seattle: they hold tea
tastings for married/partnered couples and sell tea sets designed for newly
married people.
When in Yunnan, they live with Lamu’s family where they are
able to commission Jian Shui teapots and genuine silver tea ware. Glen and Lamu
also work closely with their tea farmers, investing time and money to help
these farmers improve their processing and purchase equipment with the goal of
cleaner tea. CrimsonLotus tea is active on Instagram, Reddit, Facebook and
Steepster and they accept private email order requests for tea and tea ware as
well as wedding sets. Glen is always available to help new puerh drinkers and
answer questions.
Jonah Snyder, bitterleafteas.com
Mr. Snyder is relatively new to the puerh scene, and lives with
his wife and her family in Yunnan. He has an advantage of living in Yunnan full
time with a father-in-law who likes to drink puerh in the traditional Yunnan way
of green and fresh. Thus he has an expert puerh taster in his family.
Bitterleaf Tea has only been around for two years or so, but their specially
commissioned white and wood-fired Jian Shui zitao tea wares, and vintage cat
tea pets, are a big hit with social media puerh folks. I see them everywhere
now, and their wares sell out fast. The website has gorgeous photos if you are
in the mood to just browse.
Bitterleaf's 2016 Yiwu |
John Hou, kingteamall.com
Mr. Hou is based in hot and muggy Shanghai, China and began
selling puerh teas on Aliexpress in 2014. At the end of 2016, Aliexpress
prohibited vendors from selling tea on their platform, an unfortunate decision
on the part of Aliexpress that led to Mr. Hou opening a website. I’m certain he
does not regret escaping all those fees he once paid to Aliexpress, but having a
website requires a lot more outreach to buyers. He offers a large selection of
Taetea and other factory teas, aged and new. He also sells tea ware, and you
can often find puerh factory tea ware. If you want a gaiwan with a Taetea logo
he might have it in stock.
King Tea Mall's 1996 Dayi Laochatou |
Mr. Hou offers the best customer service. Not only will he
accept private order requests, he offers repeat customer discounts anywhere
from 5-20% for repeat purchases. He emails tracking updates on your packages so
you don’t have to wonder where your tea is. If anything arrives damaged, you
can expect a refund or a future coupon or a replacement. He is a very friendly
person to chat with, one of the few vendors who will do live chat. He has
started a blog on his website, and recently I noticed he opened an Instagram
account. Mr. Hou will track down pretty much any factory tea you might want. If
it’s out there, he will find it.
Puerh Obsessives servicing tea community
Jay Khilnani, tealifehk.com
Mr. Khilnani is a go-to person for traditional Hong Kong storage teas
and heicha. He grew up in Hong Kong and moved back there after college. He has
been drinking tea his entire life, and went down the rabbit hole of puerh
collecting before deciding to sell tea online. In addition to his selection of
teas entirely stored in Hong Kong, he has a selection of teas which underwent
Kunming dry storage for most of the tea’s life, but then a year or two in his
storage to open them up more.
This selection will continue to grow, as Jay
acquires more dry stored tea which will then have 1-2 years spent in humid conditions,
something rather unusual online. Usually what you see are teas either with many
years of Hong Kong storage, or teas with all drier Kunming storage. Jay’s
selection includes the wetter teas, but is unique in that you can get teas with
some benefit of humid storage for a short time, but without the overly musty,
cooked-out flavors.
Jay is active on teachat.com, Steepster and other social
media platforms. He accepts special order requests for puerh teas coming from
anywhere in China. He will do the work of tracking down what you want, but a
sample of his own teas will be well worth it. I hope to try his Fuzhuan bricks
someday, as I imagine his will be full of golden flowers just the way I like
and better than what I can do with my drier storage.
Emmett Guzman, @emmett_guzman_iv
Mr. Guzman is an important person to know because he is a
liaison for Taiwan producer Yan(g) Qing Hao premium puerh teas. He coordinates monthly
tea buys of this brand via Steepster and Facebook. Yang Qing Hao is a often-faked tea brand, so Emmett is the person who has access to the real tea from the company.
Also, he has recently started a courtesy of selling premium puerh tea for private collectors. That is, if you have a premium collection he can coordinate discrete anonymous sales, collector-to-collector for a small fee. By premium collection I mean teas that are $500/beeng and up. So, in other words this is not the person to contact to sell your EBay teas, but a good way to buy or sell the best of the best to people who can afford to buy.
Also, he has recently started a courtesy of selling premium puerh tea for private collectors. That is, if you have a premium collection he can coordinate discrete anonymous sales, collector-to-collector for a small fee. By premium collection I mean teas that are $500/beeng and up. So, in other words this is not the person to contact to sell your EBay teas, but a good way to buy or sell the best of the best to people who can afford to buy.
If you want to venture into trying the really, really pricey stuff, Emmett’s group buys are a good way to start. He can also track down
special tea requests. I expect that the longer he continues to coordinate
premium tea buys, he will acquire more and more connections with very private
collectors. For something truly special, it might be worth contacting him with
your requests so he can keep you in mind when he obtains a unique opportunity
to buy. The best way to contact him is message Emmett on Steepster, @emmett_guzman_iv on Instagram, or check out
his Facebook page.
James Schergen, TeaDB.org
Mr. Schergan is not a tea seller, but he has an educational
tea website along with Denny Chapin. James is avidly interested in helping
puerh tea folks via his videos, and he will assist people with navigating the
waters of puerh tea buying, especially with TaoBao buying. He can also hook you
up with names of Taobao agents, these are people who will buy off TaoBao for
you for a fee. Every week TeaDB has videos and articles geared to puerh tea
drinking and buying. It’s worth going through their back catalog of materials
to learn as much as you can. TeaDB has their videos on YouTube and maintains a
presence on Instagram as well.
As the dot org suggests, TeaDB is a good resource for any quick questions you have,
because you will get an honest and up-front answer to any question with no BS. They
will tell you straight-like, “that is a good tea,” or “don’t buy that tea pot.”
Andrew Richardsen, LiquidProustTeas.com
I have written about Mr. LP already. He devotes much time to
puerh beginners and is active on Reddit and Steepster. He does a lot of service in puerh tea though his own tea website is about teas other than puerh. LP coordinates tea group
buys and will help people with Taobao.
This year he is commissioning fresh puerh tea. He claims he is “getting out of tea” because he is getting married and starting graduate school. Riiight…we’ll see. :D
This year he is commissioning fresh puerh tea. He claims he is “getting out of tea” because he is getting married and starting graduate school. Riiight…we’ll see. :D
Cwyn,
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a detailed list and for adding your personal touches and experiences to them. Much appreciated!
Most importantly thanks for giving lots of love back to all the puerh vendors who offer us so so much!
Peace
yeah they deserve our love for all they do. I'm looking forward to what the year will bring!
DeleteThank you for the mention! I didn't think I'd get one, so it was a nice surprise to see my name on your list! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the time you spend assisting the tea community on Teachat.
DeleteExcellent! There were a couple here I've not looked at recently.
ReplyDelete(Just one thing - Paul's second link should teaware.house. teawarehouse.com isn't currently hosting anything).
Thanks for pointing that out, I had it correct in my draft but the "create link" button in Blogger added the .dot com on me. I definitely know the addy :P :P
DeleteI think you're missing Toby from your Puerh Obsessives servicing tea community category. His boxes have been a great chance to try some great tea for a relatively good price
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout out Cwyn. Hopefully better and better semi aged high quality tea can finally find its way into the western world. As my search for the best teas would usually end up falling short a few years ago, I hope I can continue to find the best boutique producer teas. As that's what I myself am after. And yes I'm working on a few new connections at the moment.. So more to come...
ReplyDeleteYes, I think with puerh collecting in a bit of a boom, the resale market will be a necessity. Right now someone with a track record coordinating resale is in a good position to offer discrete services as a private dealer. Maybe a website down the road?
DeleteHeheh Madmen... truly. I have a compulsion to collect tea and then convince others to buy some of it. I once joked to my Dad that there is an ancient Chinese proverb that goes "he who dies with the most puer wins". I promise I'll have a big sale atleast a few days before I kick the bucket.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, being just 43 years old and having a wife 10+ years younger than me who will inherit it all ya'all are gonna have to wait atleast 60 years for that 88% off sale.
My wife is truly a partner in this incredible crime against sanity. She has worked in the business for 10 years now and is now inseparable from the workings of the business. Many of the YS Pu-erhs were entirely sourced and chosen by her. Her palate is arguably better than mine. Can we apply for "Bonnie and Clyde" status?
Thanks for the spelling reminder! I could move you and the wife to "Couples" but then aren't you the one who does half nekkid YouTube tea videos? Thought so...might just leave it as is. BTW I almost, almost embedded that one vid...
DeleteHaha... it was really hot. I should not have sat there because I got chigger bites all over after that video!!!
Delete