Historically tradenames used among traders and not sellers. The
terminology has creeped into retail. I buy Imperial Gold Oolong from
my local tea shoppe but really is a lightly oxidized TGY. I recently
conjectured that Dong Ding and Green Jade Pouchong is the same tea.
The only consistency there is no consistency in names. I don't mind
the names but to paraphrase Sasha, It's the taste stupid. My green
bings arrived from China with the wrappers in shreads. The cakes were
intact but some flaking so I got a nice green potpourri blend courtesy
of the Post. The seller included a commercial sample of sweet tibetan
yak butter instant tea. He said the salty version was only good for 10
thousand foot plus plateaus.

Jim

Mydnight wrote:
Ok, now this is something I'm fairly serious about, so bear with me.

What is the deal with the funky adjectives that tea dealers use to
hook
people into buying? Around these parts, South-east China, we never
see
"special grade" Longjing, "emperor's" TGY, or whatever else
descriptors
that can be thrown onto the beginning of the name of the tea. I've
probably been to around a hundred or so shops around southeast China
and I've seen TGY, no matter what the grade or price, as simply TGY
or
Anxi TGY; been to Hangzhou twice now and I've only seen Shifeng or
XiHu
Longjing (sometimes Meihua Longjing...supposedly the other place
around
there that produces LJ).

Am I missing something or is it just marketing?