Buying Tea In China?

There are many things that affects how a tea can taste, and quality most certainly is one. As I said repeatedly in different articles, the quick wash infusion style popular in China is NOT a way to judge a tea. While you are a tourist, tired and thirsty, perhaps even a drop f water tastes much nicer in a shop where u could sit down and rest your feet and your bag.

While there are honest tea merchants in China, there are indeed quite a high proportion of dealers trying to cheat whenever they can.

There are also shops setup just to con tourists. They should be avoided altogether. These shops are easy to recognize. They usually have huge billboards or signs somewhere your tour bus stops, but they have to be accessed through not so obvious passages or stairs or gates etc. However, the most critical evidence is that you are taken there. No matter if it’s a personal escort or a tour group guide, it is the same. Most ridiculously, such shops almost always exist in places at or near famous tea origins, and definitely in all major tourist hotspots. Those in Hangzhou also feature an old man or a young woman doing the famous Longjing wok roasting at the entrance.

Next time you are in China, never buy tea at shops in the airports, train station etc, never buy in places where the guide takes you, and shop only where the locals shop. The easiest way is to shop in the few famous brand name chain store teashops. It will not be easy to get really great value or really great quality this way, but you will not have big ‘surprises’ either.

Another way to do it is to really spend time exploring the origins, taste tea at the farmers, and at the shops. Not one or two, but as many as you can spend time in. Buy tiny portions here and there. Compare quality and prices. This was how I began to really know my teas.

I will second Leo’s advice about trying tea at teashops. Often I will get a variety of tiny amounts of tea just to try. If I don’t do that, and I just blindly buy 50g or more of something, I may be disappointed, and then stuck with tea that I don’t want.

One of the difficulties of buying in China is that there are so many variations of one type of tea. For example, Huangshan Maofeng has a million different varieties, some of which may look and taste totally different.