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:
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
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.
