What our customers say

I decided to order this Gaiwan to answer my curious soul.
It looks different from what I usually see in my local teaware stores and I was surprised by it’s superb ergonomics. It ticks all the boxes for what a good gaiwan should be especially for smaller ones.

I also like the 5-petal flower motif in body and lid design. It’s neat, clean and understated.

My First Wuyi and What a Ride!

Travel a scenic road and you never know what beauty awaits around the next bend. The same can be said of Meizhan Classic. It is full of surprises at every twist and turn. First, the dark and gnarly leaf sticks make music as they chime into the gaiwan. Water on the hotter side of Tea Hong’s suggested temperature range yielded a bouquet of violets growing on a wet forest floor.

The fawn-colored liquor in a cha hai offered a second aroma: the promise of a ripe melon before it is cut. Tasting the tea gave yet another impression of chocolate mocha and clear quartz with linen-crisp notes that stayed at the juncture of the nose and throat – is it a smell or a taste or both?

Subsequent infusions with slowly cooling water made Meizhan Classic a pure study in texture. Along with the faintest impression of field clover, this Wuyi delivered a joyride of round, buttery, creamy, silky indulgence. The journey ended with the pleasant appearance of the infused leaves, which unfurled into full, unbroken foliage accented with tinges of dark purple.

A beautiful tea

I heard about this only a few years ago. Before I bought it, I thought it maybe sth gimmick (just like those blossom tea; yeah, they may look beautiful in the water but taste nothing! Why waste money on sth tasteless?). However, this Taiping Houkui tastes much better than I expect. Though its depth is not as good as other green tea like longjing, it has its own character. And it is truly beautiful with its bright green colour! Lovely!

Immediately my favourite oolong … it is just so mellow and flavourful, easy to drink with lovely sweet notes and aftertaste. Soft on the palate. I have to reorder this… as my new staple oolong tea to which others will be compared.

What a magnificent example of Xing Ren. I compared this directly against six other Xing Ren, all from different vendors – two of which were competition grade, one of them allegedly won second place in 2022 at the Chaozhou Tea King Competition, or something like that. Living in the United States makes it difficult to confirm such things, I suppose it comes down to trusting your vendors…

Anyways, Tea Hong’s Orchid Gratus stands out as being right up there with the competition-grade and old-bush Xing Ren that I sampled, both of which are literally two and a half times more expensive per gram. This one has all of the right overlap in all of the correct places, but also carries with it some unique attributes that make this feel like an elevated expression of Xing Ren.

Honestly, I’d rather have Orchid Gratus over the two competition-grade Xing Ren. It’s clear that the active phases of the processing; such as the baking, were executed perfectly, and also the resting phase, where patience is required for the maocha to catch up to the masterful techniques applied to it. This is the real deal, whoever made this tea is exceptionally skilled.

As a result of the expert-level crafting, the flavor profile is exquisite. To me, it tastes like vanilla-bean infused plums and seared pineapple flesh, soaked in apple juice and then caramelized in a pan with herbaceous spices like star anise or fennel seed. As the flavor profile melts away, I’m left with distinct overtones of honey drenched florals that linger in the aftertaste for a long time, along with a pleasant minerality that is characteristic of high-end dancong.

There’s a lot going on, and the soft edges this tea has make for a very pleasant overlap in the flavors that accentuates the whole experience as they mingle with one another. The texture is buttery-smooth and the mouthfeel is exceptionally rich; it brings with it a kind of pungency that creates a very expansive and long-lasting aftertaste with undertones of stewed and spiced apples. The aftertaste has its own complex and unique set of characteristics which sink very deeply into the palate, and make for an unforgettable experience.

This is an extraordinary tea! To say that this Song Cultivar raises the bar what tea enjoyment and appreciation are all about is an understatement. Even an overly simplified comparison.

The sensation and emotions of its bouquet, taste, aftertaste and mindfulness it affords long after the last sip surpasses one’s expectation of what a tea plant can achieve when nature is complemented with the passion of tea farmers/makers to augment an already extraordinary tea plant into a brew that is so ethereal and so exquisite. A Mona Lisa of Fenghuang dancongs.