[Danny]
The majority of chinese only know 3 types of tea: green, oolong, and
jasmine or floral tea. Pu'er came into the limelight about 15 years back,
and it has been mostly a tea chinese immigrants outside China know more
about than the mainland Chinese themselves.

Yet on the other hand, I've come across Chinese in mainland who knows what a
Na Tie (Latte) is but thinks oolong is a green tea. Just as the best pizza
may not be found in Italy, I think the situation is the same here. Most
Laowai are more enthralled with the culture of tea than the Chinese - one is
learning a new culture with the wide wondering eyes of a child, the other
has been steeped in it for so long it couldn't be bothered to embrace the
culture.




"Mydnight" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> >You mean there is a thieves market where everyone wants to buy aged
>>pu'rh but can't because of the fraud. Why does it even exist if
>>everybody knows that. If you aren't shopping with the locals then you
>>are in the wrong place. I know it is a market and not retail. Price
>>gouging is the norm but that is just the starting point. I just don't
>>completely buy the story that the Chinese rip each other off because at
>>some point the seller needs the buyer and vice versa. I suspect that
>>the real problem with aged puer is that there is no market just
>>speculation. If nobody thought a tea worth drinking so many years ago
>>then only a fool would buy it today at higher prices.
>
> See, but one can't assume that because someone is Chinese that they
> know jack about tea. A good example of this is tonight I had a group
> of my students come over to my house and drink tea (age ranges from
> 23-28). Five out of ten of them had never heard of pu'er and only one
> of them had actually drank it before. I'm not exactly sure which
> locals you're talking about. The Chinese do like to drink tea, yes,
> but it's not as much in style as it is to eat at McDonalds around these
> parts. In fact, I think many people here on RFDT have more knowledge
> about tea, including yourself, than the average Chinese person that
> even consumes it on a daily basis. It's just hard to explain.
> Remember, this is a communist society so most shops have little
> understanding as to how markets should work or how market competition
> should work. You can go to 10 different shops, ask about a certain
> tea, and get 10 competely different prices probably ranging from
> somewhere near what the tea is supposed to be worth upwards to 500 or
> 600 yuan more expensive...if that makes sense. Unless you are buying
> wholesale, you will get cheated if you don't know what you're doing.
>
> Is there a market where people rip each other off....yes, that would be
> Fangcun or any tea market or any teashop. I can only think of one
> place around here where you can buy real aged pu'er and it's from a guy
> that is a collector; probably 99 percent, and Seb will agree with me on
> this one, of the pu'er on the market is not older than 2 or 3 years.
> Basically, the only way you can keep from being ripped off is to have a
> good knowledge about the tea that you want to buy; knowing the boss
> also helps.
>
> It's just so hard to explain...damnit, hop on a plane and hang out with
> me for an afternoon or something and I'll show you! hehe.
>