That’s good, people should be experimenting with new ways of using tea like this. Just because Japan picked up a method from China a thousand years ago, doesn’t mean that everyone has to keep repeating that forever. To see more steamed green teas from China, and more ground green tea like matcha, would be great.
Also, Lu’an Guapian is not necessarily expensive. Like all famous Chinese teas, there is a huge range of quality, and an even huger range of price. I have seen packs of Lu’an Guapian being sold for 10 yuan and for over 1000 yuan. Once you get into the 30-50 yuan range, you should be able to expect that the tea won’t be junk. (As long as you are getting tea that has been properly stored.)
The funniest buy I have had was an 8 yuan pack of what is simply labelled “fresh green tea.” I wasn’t expecting much of anything (just curious), but actually I found that the tea was very pleasant and nice without any bad qualities.
However, I’ve seen loose leaf teas in the USA that are of such abysmal quality that they should be reclassified as “fish food” rather than tea. The markets are totally different, and unfortunately Chinese are still generally much savvier than westerners about tea.
So basically, my point is that you have to know the market that you are shopping in, and what quality you can expect wherever you are. 🙂
