Yes I am scowling. Finding out a lot of tea industry shenanigans all in one afternoon is stressful even if I have nothing to do with it. There is the long discussion on Jin Zhun Mei, that ridiculously expensive Golden Eyebrows tea from ‘Wuyi’, that is hack tasting and about $1,000 more than its actual worth. They let me in on a little secret- there is no such tea from Tong Mu village and all made in Jiangxi or surrounding regions and not even Wuyi. It’s all marketing inflation. I never liked that tea and had no respect for it, and if I said anything before, it would just piss off a lot of fellow tea industry folks.
But the truth about tea is what we should care about, and if one doesn’t care, why bother to be dealing in tea. Making a mistake or just plain not knowing is one thing. Once I find out, it just gets more irritating. Now, if I report it, I will be hurting other fellow tea merchants who carry such teas, and it’s not my intention. Just like the fake White Peony from Guangxi, or the Ya Bao. And even worse, some producers are putting sugar into black teas and burning it to look shiny, and sweet, masking any astringency. They figured that Westerners are going to add sugar anyway, and the Chinese black teas don’t look as glossy as Indian teas, so what’s the harm?
One thing’s for sure, once they figured out I was able to discern, their respect changed and then they spill all the beans- on others, and on themselves. But what do I do with that information, other than to scowl?
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