Undoubtedly the most “heavy-weight” offering from us in Aged Puerh category this year – the 1963 People’s Coomunes Lao Lung Tuan (Old Draon Ball), from owner of Xi-Zhi Hao Mr. Chen.

The discovery of it was around early 2000 in one of Feng Ching Factory’s old warehouse. Several sacks of old mao cha were found underneath many other sacks of new mao cha. Due to the weight on top of them, they were compressed into irregular shapes. Mr. Chen acquired all of them in ~2002. And it was not until the opportunity of 2009 Taipei World Tea Expo that he finally put them into the spotlight and attracted a lot of attentions among pu-erh collectors in Asia.

Though no record left to pinpoint the date/year of their harvest, but a record of 1963 inventory check did prove their existence. And 1963 was right in the peak of Cultural Revolution in China, and the most common production unit were People’s Communes. Hence, Mr. Chen gave the precious a name: 1963 People’s Commune Lao Lung Tuan.

When I visited Mr. Chen in Feb/2010, this was the last tea that we went through in an 8-hour pu-erh tasting marathon. In the end, it was me who failed to be able to appreciate the full capacity of the 1963 gem: by the end of 16th steepings, I decided I was tea-drunk enough and my train back to Taipei was nearly due. Mr. Chen had wanted me to count its steepings to at least 30th!

It was so complex and ever-changing, that I must admit it’s beyond me to be able to remember every change and every aspect it displayed to me. My first impression of it: if blind-tasting, I would say it is 50’s Hun Yin. But there were something smoother, thicker, spicier, and more lively in it.

Mr. Chen used a Qing-dynasty zhu ni teapot of ~ 180cc to brew it. The enjoy of having such precious teapot to brew such a precious tea was beyond words.

You can see the display of the Lao Lung Tuan in XZH’s 2009 World tea expo at 0:37 of this Youtube, or Mr. Chen preparing to brew this tea in this Youtube clip.

The price of this tea is – kind of strange to say in such an economy – a lot more affordable than 50’s Hun Yin. The beautiful box with Mr. Chen’s hand calligraphy is for 500g. We offer size from 1oz to 4oz on Hou De. If you decide to collect the 500g piece, please let us know for a quote.

Guang

They are here! They are here! Just when I started to worry whereabouts are they, they showed up at the front door! Five exciting pu-erhs, big and small, cake and loose, new and aged, from Xi-Zhi Hao. Some more will arrive soon, finger crossed.

I will post them asap.

Guang

After the crazy price surging in 06/07 and the collapse in late 07/08, we have felt the market’s interest in pu-erhs has waned considerably but a positive and conscious attitude towards the real quality and value has also emerged.

We loved the 2001 MengKu Yuan Yieh Xian, especially the dry-stored thin-papered version. But there are probably thousands collectors all show interest in this cake, and the price of it has never seen any downside, and the availability is quickly dwindling. Irene had this goal as to locate this cake with a more reasonable price when visited Taiwan this summer. But the scarcity of this cake was quite surprising, and those who still have volume of it are not blind to the market price and pursuit of it.

Seeing the disappointment of Irene in her Yuan Yieh Xian hunting, a Taichung vendor suggested to her the slightly overlooked treasure – the 2000 Zhogn Cha Kumming “Lan Tie”. It quickly reminded me that I was very interested in this cake last year, but was distracted by the turbulent market situation. But the other fact was I had tried this cake in 2003 or 2004 in Taiwan, and was a bit discouraged by the smokiness it showed.

Re-visiting the sample Irene sent to me from Taiwan, this time I was impressed by the strength and intensity of its aroma/taste, and the smokiness has diminished quite a bit. In fact, this re-visit and the memory of its smokiness quickly reminded me of another cake – the “2007 5th Intern’l Aged Puerh Appreciation Memorial cake”. I guess I can understand better the original purpose Mr. Huang Chuang-Fan’s blending to make this 07 memorial cake.

Jou Yu – well-known for his sharp, precise and almost fastidious attitude in tea tasting – picked this cake as #1 in a blind tasting of 11 cakes of 2000 (p. 173. #1 The Art of Tea Magazine). While it was not the sweetest dear in other taster’s eyes, they all agreed on the strength, complexity and durability of it.

This is the cake we like to pursue – already has several years’ storaging history and shown promising aging signs, enough strength to guarantee aging potential, well-known and unique, and with an acceptable price. We have acquired some and expect to receive them by the end of this month.

Guang

After the crazy price surging in 06/07 and the collapse in late 07/08, we have felt the market’s interest in pu-erhs has waned considerably but a positive and conscious attitude towards the real quality and value has also emerged.

We loved the 2001 MengKu Yuan Yieh Xian, especially the dry-stored thin-papered version. But there are probably thousands collectors all show interest in this cake, and the price of it has never seen any downside, and the availability is quickly dwindling. Irene had this goal as to locate this cake with a more reasonable price when visited Taiwan this summer. But the scarcity of this cake was quite surprising, and those who still have volume of it are not blind to the market price and pursuit of it.

Seeing the disappointment of Irene in her Yuan Yieh Xian hunting, a Taichung vendor suggested to her the slightly overlooked treasure – the 2000 Zhogn Cha Kumming “Lan Tie”. It quickly reminded me that I was very interested in this cake last year, but was distracted by the turbulent market situation. But the other fact was I had tried this cake in 2003 or 2004 in Taiwan, and was a bit discouraged by the smokiness it showed.

Re-visiting the sample Irene sent to me from Taiwan, this time I was impressed by the strength and intensity of its aroma/taste, and the smokiness has diminished quite a bit. In fact, this re-visit and the memory of its smokiness quickly reminded me of another cake – the “2007 5th Intern’l Aged Puerh Appreciation Memorial cake”. I guess I can understand better the original purpose Mr. Huang Chuang-Fan’s blending to make this 07 memorial cake.

Jou Yu – well-known for his sharp, precise and almost fastidious attitude in tea tasting – picked this cake as #1 in a blind tasting of 11 cakes of 2000 (p. 173. #1 The Art of Tea Magazine). While it was not the sweetest dear in other taster’s eyes, they all agreed on the strength, complexity and durability of it.

This is the cake we like to pursue – already has several years’ storaging history and shown promising aging signs, enough strength to guarantee aging potential, well-known and unique, and with an acceptable price. We have acquired some and expect to receive them by the end of this month.

Guang

The owner of Xi-Zhi Hao, Mr. Chen, made a trip to Ban Zhan (Lao Zhai) and Yi Wu (Gua Feng & Din Jia Zhai) of Yunnan this spring with several avid collectors/customers. One of the guys posted many beautiful pictures of their trip onto Taiwan’s T4U forum (no username/password needed):

Click to see the 08 XZH Spring Trip on T4U forum

You can use Babel Fish to translate the pages into English (select Chinese-trad to English).

Jeeeze… if it had not been some uncontrollable family issues prevented me from traveling, I would be one of the guys Anyway… Beautiful leaves and beautiful cakes. I admire Chen’s effort to bring the facts and details of Xi-Zhi Hao’s producing to the public.

Guang

Recently there was a discussion on the authenticity of our 2003 MengHai Bulang Jing Pin offering. Now it seems the discussion has been more or less ended, I like to cross-post this thread from Jason’s LiveJournal community and bring to our cusromers’ awareness:

2003 Menghai Factory Bulang Jing Pin = Fake?

In case you cannot read the thread, here is my finding and explanation:

I called last night to the source asking the question of the 03 MengHai Bulang. I had acquired from him 01 Jin Yieh Hao, 01 MengHai Yi Wu Zheng Shan (the one with a green leaf), 60 GYG, etc. before, and none of them had any problem.

The answer I got was, “there were two different versions of wrapper when he acquired the 03 MengHai Bulang from HK source in early 04. They were all from the same source, and they were all genuine”. I know the answer could not satisfy any of you, including me, so I insisted to check with the HK source from where he acquired those. He of coz was very reluctant to tell. But when I was told whom was the original person/company that placed the special order to Meng Hai, I knew whom I should call next.

For the easiness of the progress of the timeline and to protect privacy, let’s call the original person made the special order Mr. A and the HK source Mr. B. B is the distributor of A.

B told me, indeed when he received the total shipment of 03 MengHai Bulang, there were two different versions of wrapper. But, initially he was not aware of this until about couple months later. He said, yes, there were all from the same person A, and all distributed from him to other vendors, including my source. But when I asked why there were two different versions, I could not get answer except, “only A would know”.

Then I called another insider. He told me the cake photoed in the Illustrated Yearbook was also from B. From his understanding, it was some licensing fee problem between A and MengHai. Obviously, with MengHai’s wrapper and logo the fee was higher.

So, the situation “could” be, that A wanted to save licensing fee, so only a portion of the mao cha were pressed and wrapped with neifei and wrapper of MengHai. The other portion, C’s opinion, at least the printing of neifei and wrapper were *not* done by MengHai. C said the cakes were sill made by MengHai. **But A did not tell the distributor**, and no one would guess this trick until later.

Of coz, the worst case, I think what is still possible, was that the mao cha were pressed by other factories (stone-molded for sure). But, honestly, only A would know the inside out. Had this be the truth, I would guess B or MengHai should be aware of in the beginning.

So, the dilemma on the market is: those who acquired both versions said both are genuine, and those who acquired the other version said only mine is genuine. And, the third case, did happen on an ad of an issue of Pu-erh Teapot, a vendor said one was 01 batch, and the other is 03. Of coz, the third is totally crap.

I think A just made everybody’s life a bit more difficult. I agreed with C not to reveal A’s name in public, but we had talked about him before, he was the on the WANTED list guy. If you want to know his name, send me a private email.

Honestly, when I acquired the 03 MengHai Bulang, I liked it a lot and did not cast a doubt on my source. Several years later, I have found the changing/aging of it really nice. It has the unique blended sweetness and woodiness aroma that is typical of MengHai young cakes. I feel sad and sorry that it could not have a clean birth certificate.

So, that’s as far as I can trace and detect. I will post this in my blog soon. If you want to return the cake(s) for a full refund, please feel welcomed to contact us. Of coz, you can return them even if we hadn’t unveiled all these.

If I could find any more background, I am happy to share.

I am still stunned by how tricky and technically challenge in making sure everything Pu-erh-related to be 100% worry-free and “leaving no stone unturned”. Somehow, I was feeling like watching a pu-erh movie adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon

Guang

Xi-Zhi Hao “Din Jin Nu Er” 200g mini beeng has arrived with two other 250g cakes!

All three mini cakes are Xi-Zhi Hao’s 07 limited-production offerings. Less then 500 pieces of Din Ji Nu Er beeng were made, and for other two about 10 jian (840 pieces) were produced. We are offering pre-arrival sale of these three fine cakes, so please make sure to check them out!

“Din Jin Nu Er” 200g

“Yi Wu Cha Hwang” 250g

“Xue Shan Chuen Lu” 250g

Guang

Xi-Zhi Hao “Din Jin Nu Er” 200g mini beeng has arrived with two other 250g cakes!

All three mini cakes are Xi-Zhi Hao’s 07 limited-production offerings. Less then 500 pieces of Din Ji Nu Er beeng were made, and for other two about 10 jian (840 pieces) were produced. We are offering pre-arrival sale of these three fine cakes, so please make sure to check them out!

“Din Jin Nu Er” 200g

“Yi Wu Cha Hwang” 250g

“Xue Shan Chuen Lu” 250g

Guang

Jing Mai Tang of Taiwan, is offering a collection of seven most famous arbor cakes in a specially designed box. I am sure you are already familiar with most of the cakes:

Each set is 2,000US$, and honestly not a bad price for such a collection. If you are interested, please contact us.

Guang