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Great Value Phoenix oolongs and
rare quality ones
How about a “Song Cultivar” at less than one-third wholesale?
Or an Eight Immortal for half the price?
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Phoenix oolongs have come about a little later than usual this year because of the weather, but I have good news.
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A little side story
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Before the good news, allow me to share a little recent personal experience.
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We have been approached by many “tea farms” and exporters from China in the past few months, the most numerous ever actually. Most of them offer Phoenix oolongs, amongst other popular export varieties. Most said they are the biggest in their province, or with so and so huge annual export volume.
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A recent trip to London visiting all of the most reputable teashops to have found that their top price Phoenix oolongs being imitation qualities made me curious what kind of products these large vendors from China could really offer. I asked from a few of them for samples. Not surprisingly, none but one of the samples tasted like the real thing, regardless of quality level and price. The one that we thought was from the region and the correct cultivar was of a mediocre quality, but marked as a premium one.
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I have built a close relationship with farmers and producers in Phoenix since the beginning of my tea career in 1998, and visit their farms often. The characteristics of their teas in various varieties and quality levels are intimate personal experiences. That is why it is more upsetting to see other teas disguised as theirs, and for lowly ones as premium. This picture was taken in 1999 in a farm visit, when my hairstyle was still a crew cut.
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I guess sellers of genuine products, like us, do not have the muscle and volume to take on such powerful companies to reach those prestigious teashops in the West to offer the real thing. Or that the buyers are not aware of what the real thing taste like? Or have they been deluded by an alternative narrative? Or that only fake products can offer enough space for margins that we little tea wholesalers cannot imagine? Please tell me what really is the reason.
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Back to the current harvest of Phoenix oolongs
There is a Poor Men’s Song Cultivar — aka Da Bai Ye, which tastes somewhat like Song Cultivar, but a lot more price friendly — that passed our tasting with exceptional rating for its class but at a very friendly price: less than one third of our Song Cultivar.
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And a very good Ba-xian (aka Eight Immortals) from our master Phoenix tea baker’s own farm, which is located at an altitude lower than Wudong, for only half the wholesale price of that of our Eight Immortal Wudong.
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Most happily our all time great value Black Leaf Special is also arriving with great results. This easy tasting and delicious variety is very often sold under various other more heard of Phoenix oolong names.
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For the higher end varieties, Wudong Cassia, Eight Immortals Wudong and Orchid Literati (aka Ya Shi Xiang, or Duck Poo Tea) are fancily fragrant when so fresh. For me as an old drinker, I’d much prefer to have them aged, but you may have a mixed clientele like we do in our online shop, so launching them now will make those who prefer fresh teas happy.
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Old Master Wen doing "rattling of the leaves" by hand for a very expensive batch of single bush Song Cultivar. Wudong, Phoenix, 2 a.m. during a Spring harvest.
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Various levels of Honey Orchid from this Spring will need a couple more months of resting before our master baker can do the final baking. As I have repeatedly mentioned in various occasions, such practice is vital to achieve the kind of traditional taste quality we offer, and is a vanishing art that fewer and fewer people do. It is tempting to sell off fresh harvests as soon as possible after all, and there is always a market ignorantly pursuing the fresher the better idea.
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Speaking of aged harvest, we shall be launching a new variety, Jiangmu Xiang — the name translates as the Fragrance of Sweet Ginger Tea. It is from last Spring and rested for a whole year before we asked for it to be baked again for release. It is from Wudong and the batch size is only 12 kg. It is priced as our Honey Orchid Supreme wholesale.
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Place your order soon
This year particularly, we shall stop receiving wholesale orders on Monday June 17 until end of August. So please place your wholesale order soon if you would like the tea be sent to you before that.
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