2006 Xiaguan FT Te Ji sheng pu'er tuocha

 

On a recent visit to my favorite local Bangkok Chinatown shop, Jip Eu, the owner, Kittichai, gave me a Xiaguan tuocha.  They'll often pass on a sample of something interesting, but I don't remember them giving me that much tea like that (100 grams; not so much, but a significant amount).  It's very kind of him.  I suppose it's partly in thanks for me writing here about them, and steering some business there, which to me is about helping others find decent tea, not really about benefitting me.  I typically mention other shop options as well, as I did in the last post, discussing how Sen Xing Fa--another nearby shop--is set up better for doing extensive tasting.

I probably found what it was, more or less by chance.  A King Tea Mall listing looks exactly the same, down to all the numbers listed, and Chinese text (as far as I can tell).  Of course there is also Google Lens translation, but that helps less than one might imagine.  It's probably this:

2006 XiaGuan "FT-Te Ji" (Special Grade) Tuo 100g Puerh Sheng Cha Raw Tea

Listing for $26 for a 100 gram tuocha there.  That probably is market rate now.  You can buy the newer ones, that need another 15 or 20 years to age more, for more like $10, but someone holding onto it to cover that part costs you, with varying storage conditions inputs giving different results.  Then it's probably also an above average quality version, outlined in detail by that King Tea Mall listing:

Description:

The 2006 XiaGuan "FT-Te Ji" Tuo is part of the esteemed "Te Ji" series, denoting "Special Grade" in Chinese. This line of Puerh Sheng Cha, initiated in 2003 by XiaGuan, aimed to exceed the quality standards set by the JiaJi tuo cha. Renowned as "TeTuo" ("特沱"), an abbreviation of "TeJiTuoCha," this series underwent an official renaming in 2016, underscoring its prestige.

Distinctive Features:

The wrapper bears the trademark design of a "Pine tree and Crane," emblematic of the series' heritage and superior quality.

Variants of the "Te Ji" series include the general version and a higher-quality variant distinguished by a red-eyed crane.

The "FT" (Fly to Taiwan) version employs slightly superior tea materials, featuring more young buds and tiny leaves.

I had thought FT stood for "for Taiwan," but that doesn't change much either way.  This shop, Jip Eu, doesn't carry this tea anymore, per my understanding since they've sold out of a large batch they would've bought back in 2006 or so.  I do keep buying another 2012 Xiaguan tuo version there, which they still sell.

Review:

first infusion (after a rinse):  flavors are nice, subdued, clean (as this range of tea goes), interesting and pleasant.  The distinctive flavor that reminds me of aged horse saddle leather is there.  Harsh edges have largely aged off it, in those 19 years.  That would have to do with the hot and humid storage here; that wouldn't be true of the exact same tea stored in a cool and dry area.  

second infusion:  feel is thick, oily, and viscous.  I really do like that odd earthy range of flavors, especially in a version that's closer to ready to drink than I usually try.  I re-tried a 2012 Xiaguan tuo (from Jip Eu, the one that they still do sell) over the past week and it's close enough to enjoy, but not this far along for fermentation transition.  Beyond the leather--or at least what I interpret as leather--there is good depth of other range, mineral content, towards medicinal dried herb, and a little towards dried longan or tamarind fruit, it's just not overly fruity.  Feel is pleasant and the overall effect isn't harsh at all.

third infusion:  it reminds me a little of smoke, brewed a little stronger.  Often if a tea has contacted smoke that input will come out strongest right away, and keep fading.  This might well just be a natural related flavor, which does kind of match with the rest.  I'm not sure if this is a positive transition or not, related to my own experience just now.  I'm open to teas tasting like smoke, natural (inherent) or added, and it does match the other barnyard scope, but it's not necessarily better for including it.  Or worse either, as I see it, so just different.

fourth infusion:  quite balanced at this level; everything I've mentioned is still going on.  It's got decent intensity, of course.  I'm brewing this using a moderate infusion proportion too, for me, maybe only 7 grams in 100 ml gaiwan, versus the more typical 9 or so (typical for me).  Mind you not everyone would like this; to others it could be harsh, or off-putting.  The 2012 was more so, with so much of the earlier rough edges standing out.  I had my daughter Kalani taste it, and to her it was awful.  She asked why anyone would drink that.  I liked that version too (yesterday, I guess it was), but it wasn't quite ready, maybe by those extra 6 years.

her, posing

It's hot as Hades here, trying this tea in Bangkok at noon.  I should at least turn a fan on, but I've not even done that.  It was so nice living in Honolulu where the temperature is between 75 and 80 F all the time, maybe 25 to 28 C, and now it's back to 30s / around 90 F all the time.

fifth infusion:  the complex balance of flavors keeps shifting, the proportion, but the range isn't changing.  Smoke isn't gone but it was only a main flavor input for that one infusion.  Sweetness is nice for this; to me that one input helps tie all the rest together.  Feel is nice, and intensity, and aftertaste expression.  Layers of leather, barnyard flavor, medicinal herb, and some dried fruit really complement each other.  But only for people who like aged Xiaguan, of course, and it's hard to imagine someone preferring newish, untransitioned versions.

sixth infusion:  not different.  I might even drop taking notes here.  There probably will be some degree of interesting change as this wraps up, around infusions 10 to 12, or it could be pleasant and interesting up to 15 rounds or so.  Intensity is high enough for this that I'm using short infusion timing, 5 seconds or so, which will enable it lasting longer than if I was soaking it for longer.

Seeing a Tiger Balm pack of balm on the table reminds me how someone might interpret this as including quite a bit of camphor.  I suppose that it does, as people use that term.  I've never been completely comfortable isolating that as a description very often, but it's there.  Food range makes more sense to me; you get chances to eat those things, and it associates more naturally as a flavor.  Something like smoke is familiar enough from foods that this connection often makes sense too.  

Then I just can't remember specific floral ranges or incense spices.  Maybe this tastes a lot like one of them, and I wouldn't know.  Interpreting it as including incense spice would make sense too, but it would be helpful to be familiar with a half dozen of those, to break it down to that next level.

seventh infusion, comparison tasting with a Dayi (8582):  I was re-trying a standard Dayi cake with breakfast, not to see if it was ready, because it wouldn't be, from 2016 (9 years old).  It's pretty far along for spending that time here in Bangkok, but it needs at least another half dozen years, and it will level off closer to where it will be in another 10.  I keep trying the teas to see the transition patterns, because they're interesting.  It's not even about education or learning, it's just interesting.

The Dayi tea is harsher; it's not there yet for age transition.  It includes a green wood component, and a harsher form of astringency.  This is much better than it was two years ago when I first bought it (reviewed here then), becoming more pleasant.  Positive warm-toned flavors are developing.  

It's interesting how that "barnyard" range stands out in the Xiaguan.  It's not just that it's further along for transition, and it is that; the basic flavor range is also different.  There's a nice sappy effect that goes along with that, crossing over from flavor to feel.  I'm not sure what I expected this comparison to highlight.  The flavor and other character differences are interesting, but not informative.  It was sitting on the table beside me doing the tasting, so it seemed as well to try both and mention it.

This stopped short of guessing where the Xiaguan stands in terms of being relatively fully age transitioned, fermented, or how it might change over some of the following years.  19 years of transition in Bangkok storage is a lot, but it will keep changing over the next decade, probably mostly for the better.  It's definitely not going to run out of intensity.  Most of the green wood type flavor range and harsh-edged feel is gone, so it's fine to drink now, but it might still be a good bit better later.  I'd have to try it in another half dozen years to know.  I suppose that I probably will mostly set it aside to see.

Benchmark reference:  Liquid Proust now carries a similar Xiaguan tuo

I remembered seeing a mention of a Liquid Proust (vendor) Xiaguan tuo of about the same age, and that will help set what a market rate is for this.  Here is his listing:

2006 Xiaguan FT7653-6 100g, THB 1,016.95 (around $30)

Out of all the storage I've had there was always the Yang Qing Hao and Wistaria house notes that couldn't be rivaled. Then comes along this 2006 Xiaguan random tuo that has been pushed in warm and humid conditions in Taiwan. The depth of the tea with the smoke notes that are matured into something new with the puerh... it's a treat that I will miss dearly. This might be one of those extremely lucky finds.

Per the comments it's the aging conditions that give the tea great value, and the one Hong Kong shop that James of Tea DB keeps mentioning, Yee On tea, carries something similar for about double that cost, so $60.  

So market value is somewhere between $30 and 60?  That's a good bit for a Xiaguan tuo.  Next one would need to compare storage inputs to determine if the one I've just reviewed is really as good, or better, and personal preference would enter in so much in making that determination that it really wouldn't work, as an objective finding.

Thai minor deity tea cups, in the MBK mall; something different

New to the tea world! Any suggestions?

 

This title is taken from a Reddit post title, which states an obvious, repeating request, that turns up there a few times a week on r/tea.  They could just program a bot to respond that this is asked multiple times a week, so scrolling back through posts, even without searching, would turn up another half-dozen related threads.

I've been considering writing a basic, thousand word length answer to this question, so why not.  Years ago I wrote about this same post theme already, here, but that might've been based on a less "starting from scratch" perspective, more about moving from owning a dozen boxes of tea-bag teas into better loose tea.

that person's starting exposure (from the Reddit post; they said this):

I got myself one of those tea/fruit infuser bottles. I know loose leaf is probably the best way to go but I seen videos where it seems like you have to brew like 3 times over for that cup of tea. So I’m wanting to get more info and maybe places to look to get a good sampler to expand my pallet. But again besides tea bags that’s all my knowledge I have.  (For context celestial brand of green tea peach, hibiscus tea seems like the only ones I have gotten and often drink),

So they're kind of starting from only having tried Lipton before, and that herb tea / tisane; that comes up a lot.  This won't get too far into explaining what Celestial Seasonings herb blends and tea and herb blends are all about (both highly processed material in tea bags, essentially flavored tea).  That's a decent range to start on, but it's not "real tea."  

It's a really minor point but it's palate, not pallet; one is your sense of taste, the other is a wooden frame structure used in shipping and warehousing, and a pallete is an artist's range of paint colors that they're working with.

Real tea is any processed variation of a Camellia Sinensis plant, of variety Sinensis or Assamica.  It's generally in these broad type ranges:  black tea, green, oolong, white, and hei cha, with pu'er either a type of hei cha or related to it.  People tend to include yellow tea but you can skip over that; it's just partly fermented green tea, steamed and left to change some.  There's also no need to worry about oxidation levels or roast inputs early on; later you can sort all of that out more.  Drinking flavored teas or teas mixed with herbs is fine, but I'm not covering that here.

a current favorite Thai black tea; not all that similar to Lipton

initial types to explore:  people in discussion threads always suggest what they are into, so there probably is no clear answer to this.  Different answers work for different reasons.  One response is to get into better quality tin teas, like Harney and Sons (for blends and flavored teas, or some plain teas), or Ahmad (for Indian teas).  

I usually suggest flavorful, easy to brew, broadly appealing types, like light rolled oolong (like Tie Guan Yin), or Dian Hong (Yunnan black tea).  For some people shu pu'er is easy to approach and appealing, and for others it's way too earthy.  That and well-roasted Wuyi Yancha (Fujian oolong, like Da Hong Pao or Shui Xian) both make for a good cross-over from coffee experience, matching parts of the flavor.  Shu pu'er is earthy and has depth and rich feel like coffee, it's just not the same, and highly roasted "rock oolong," Wuyi Yancha, matches up with that roasted effect in coffee versions like French roast.

Then others recommend almost anything, white teas, green versions, other oolong, Darjeeling; whatever they're into.  Sheng pu'er is not a good place to start, a little too intense, bitter, astringent, and varied in character to pick up quickly.  But most of the rest of the range could work.  In general more whole leaf teas are better, representing a higher quality level, and those will be lower in astringency level (less rough in feel, which seems like bitterness to people who aren't clear on the distinction).  But early on seeking out high quality examples doesn't matter as much as trying out different types range, and exploring from there.

2006 Xiaguan tuocha (sheng pu'er); about a decade away from being age-transitioned enough

brewing advice:  there are two types of brewing, Western and Gongfu, and it probably makes the most sense to start using a Western approach.  The limitation with that is that some tea types don't work out as well prepared that way, especially sheng pu'er (the one I said to avoid initially), and high quality twisted style oolong (Wuyi Yancha, Dan Cong).  Really any very broken leaf or flavored tea is better prepared Western style, and a lot of other range works out better Gongfu brewed, but it matters less for some types, and for lower quality teas.

What are the differences in the two processes?  I skipped over that part.  Western brewing is the one teaspoon per cup method (or using about 3 grams per 250 ml, put another way), and Gongfu brewing uses a higher proportion and many short infusions.  People typically brew 6 to 8 grams of tea in a 90 or 100 ml device, using short infusion times (10 to 20 seconds, versus 3 to 5 minutes for Western brewing), and brew a dozen rounds or more.  Or less, if they use a lower proportion; the proportion and timing balance with each other.

a gaiwan and some cups, in a Japanese small bowl style, but Chinese cups can be similar

For someone very early in moving past tea bags just exploring Western brewing would be enough, but if someone, even in that situation, wanted to delve into the whole experience range they could explore both brewing approaches.  That leads to the next topic.

what gear is required?:  you need some way to heat water, and using an electric kettle is standard.  But putting a pan on the stove also works, and for more aesthetic, ceremonial Gongfu brewing people tend to use charcoal and a cast iron kettle device, even indoors, even though that sounds crazy.

a favorite tea friend and her family, with a lot of very aesthetic teaware around

Next you need a brewing device, a teapot, or the equivalent.  Old-style ceramic teapots, like someone's grandmother or aunt would use back in the 20th century, would still work well.  Or glass versions are equivalent, or there are lots of other options for Western brewing.  I use a single-serving, for-purpose ceramic cup and basket device, with a saucer that doubles as a lid.  But I used a French press at work for years, and those work well, and own a glass teapot and tea bottle that are also fine.

basket style Western infuser devices; one I used from a glass teapot's basket insert

For Gongfu brewing there are three main options:  a gaiwan (lidded cup), clay pot (yixing is one well-known clay type), and the Japanese version of a small teapot, a kyusu.  A friend used a small glass teapot, shaped like the traditional Chinese clay versions, that worked just as well, for brewing 100 ml or so at a time.  A gaiwan is a nice option to start with, especially because a basic, fully functional, 100 ml, white porcelain version typically costs about $10 through Western online outlets.  They take practice to use, since you can pour it across your fingertips before you get it, but not very much, and there are lots of online video references about that.

To be clear you can use anything as a brewing device.  You could heat water in a pan, then put the tea in the pan, or brew in one mug and strain it into another.  Other options would probably seem appealing even early on, but the differences are minor.  Later subtle differences do tend to matter, factors like heat retention.

Cups are a complicated subject.  You can use a coffee mug, or small British style teacup, or something plainer and a bit rounder, but it's natural to shift to small Chinese or Japanese style bowl themed cups before very long.  At first setting this aside would work.

sources (where to buy tea):  this is really complicated.  At a local loose-leaf, specialty tea shop, or Chinatown shop works well, but for most people there isn't one nearby.  So it's on to the long list of online vendors different people see as natural starting points.  Yunnan Sourcing is one; a market-style Chinese tea outlet.  Rishi and Adagio are American plain and flavored tea outlets.  Commercial tins or boxed of tea are ok; Ahmad really is decent, or Dilmah is for Ceylon.  

market-style sites can be a bit much; Yunnan Sourcing sells thousands of tea versions

To me buying good quality tea at a good value makes the most sense, and overseas outlets can work even better for good value.  Hatvala and Viet Sun are good Vietnamese options; something like that.  Or Yunnan Sourcing's competitors can work out; King Tea Mall, or Chawang Shop, or White2Tea for pu'er.  Years ago I wrote about producer-direct sourcing options, here, and Wuyi Origin (for Wuyishan rock oolong) is the main option not mentioned in this yet.  It's better to start with more basic versions of teas than they sell.  For people seeking out good quality Wuyi Yancha and Wuyishan area (Fujian) black teas that's the place.

At the next level a lot of different kinds of curator vendors or type-specialists make sense.  Seven Cups is well regarded (a generalist source in the US), or Essence of Tea or Tea Encounter in the UK, again leaning towards pu'er specialization.  Pu'er is a common final-stage type preference, but again I'd try out oolong and black teas first, and maybe dabble in white and green before moving on to that.  Shu pu'er, the pre-fermented type, versus sheng / raw, is approachable--not bitter and astringent--but also quite earthy.

Then the list of decent sources never ends.  I think Liquid Proust is worth checking out (with some emphasis on pu'er; that never drops out).  In the EU Tea Mania is a good small outlet, based in Switzerland, and Moychay based out of the Netherlands is a good Russian market-style vendor.  

To jump ahead to high quality range the Trident Cafe and Bookseller is a great curator option, but again I'd avoid starting out at the top, even if budget isn't a concern.  There's no going up from there, and there's no harm in exploring teas with some quality limitations earlier on, to see how the whole range works out.  If you start out with Wuyi Origin Wuyi Yancha you are ruined for drinking Chinatown shop Da Hong Pao or Shui Xian, it just won't be good enough, and that's an interesting exploration phase to go through.  Learning about typical flaws is part of your experience curve; you lose something giving that up.  Not just something abstract either; it can help you place limitations in other tea types later on.

Chinese online sales is a strange range.  Teasenz is a good example of a Western-style outlet based out of China.  ITea World and Oriental Leaf are newer forms of outlets, focusing a lot on sample sets to get people new to tea introduced (or hooked, more pejoratively).  Farmerleaf is a popular option (based in China), again focused mainly on pu'er, but you can buy great black and white tea from such a source, usually.

teas from different production areas, and related sources:  I've not mentioned Japanese tea; in any list of source references, or any type discussion, most of the range has to drop out, or the discussion runs so long.  Yunomi is a popular Western facing option, and Ippodo is a Japan based larger distributor that's well regarded.

I live in Thailand most of the time (and in Honolulu the rest), and there are good Thai teas, and good Thai sources.  Tea Side is the main Western facing, higher end option, and 101 Plantation works as a way to check out what large scale producers selling directly are like.

And I've glossed over Indian teas.  Golden Tips might be a good generalist source, Gopaldhara is my favorite Darjeeling producer, and you can try Assam directly from a producer from Halmari.  Of course options keep going; there are countless small Indian tea vendors.  Herbs and Kettles is a US based on ran by an online friend.  I would check India-based options before doing too much with US sources though; you can buy teas at volume for not so much if you work around a large shipping cost addition.  Whenever you buy from abroad you just need to buy a bit more to get the lower per-volume rate to be more of an input than shipping, which is why most set minimums for "free" shipping around $100 or so.

Good tea comes from other places, from Nepal, Indonesia, Georgia (the country); the list keeps going.  Of course no one is going to start there, so it's all out of this discussion scope.  What-Cha is probably a good vendor option for checking what else is out there, if they're still around.

Tea is made in the US but I'd set that aside until later too.  Not much is, so that only relates to some quite ordinary mass-produced range from South Carolina, one specialty tea vendor in Mississippi (the Great Mississippi Tea Company; their tea is good), and tea from Hawaii, which is really expensive.  Of course every absolute generality I express here is partly wrong, as that one was; lots of people are growing just a little tea in the US, mostly in the South, and nothing stops them from selling some.

learning, mastering brewing technique:  this just takes practice.  If you want to take up learning background information as a secondary interest that's fine too though; it can complement your own direct experience, which is by far the main input.  I've written about tea reference sources here , covering some of what changed over the years after that first sources post, one part of what was covered in that beginner's guide.

Watching Youtube videos can help with parts you really need to get down quickly (eg. burning your fingers using a gaiwan), or they might shed light on brewing temperature issues.  For Gongfu brewing most people just use boiling point water, all the time, maybe except for green tea, but it's more common to use a range of different temperatures for different tea types when brewing Western style.

varying approaches to tea:  this is a higher level sort of theme; people approach tea in vastly different ways.  Early on many people want to try a good selection of all of the range, and to master basic brewing forms, and learn about storage issues, etc.  That's fine, but it can be like trying to drink the ocean.  You see lists of the ten basic or most famous traditional Chinese teas, so it sounds like just trying 10 versions is a clearly defined milestone, but no two lists identify all the same teas.  Almost no vendor would sell all ten, of any given set, and quality level varies a lot, and so on.  

Sampling works as a good approach early on, but most often those large market-style vendors offer samples to purchase, and buying a set is much easier than sorting through 2500 versions to identify where to start.  That's why using a region-specific vendor like Hatvala early on works out well; you could buy a half dozen of 30 or 40 Vietnamese tea types they carry, and that set would represent some of the rest.  It could include black tea, green, oolong, pu'er, or whatever you like, and you'd see what you had left behind, you could scan their whole product list.  The other curator site I'd mentioned, Trident Bookseller and Cafe, works for viewing a lot of tea range in a half dozen web pages, but their typical cost range would be around 50 cents per gram, instead of 10 to 20 for more intro-oriented, moderate quality level range.

cost as a factor:  I can't really help clarify how this works, because there are really dozens of types of vending outlets, and thousands of types of tea versions and products.  In general higher quality level teas will cost more, but value--quality in relation to price--varies by vendor.  In physical shops you tend to pay a little more for the extra service level, and to cover the extra overhead.  Some online sources represent a great value, and others terrible value; they can set the mark-up however they want, or they can even lie about what a tea actually is.  With quality levels also varying so much you can't get any feel for value within the first year or so of exploring tea.  You can accept others' input about this, and later confirm or reject their input based on your own experience.

It's a lot cheaper to buy more volume of tea at one time; that stays the same across most vendor types.  Then I also just said that sampling is a good approach to try a lot early on, buying tiny amounts, maybe 10 or 15 grams at a time.  There's no contradiction there, if there seems to be.  You end up paying a little more to try more range earlier on, usually.

You can buy really cheap tea at high volume from atypical types of sources (at a Chinese or Indian market, direct from producers, from some market-style vendors, through online auctions, whatever it is).  I've bought a kilogram or more of a tea for each of the last two years, basic black teas from Thailand and Vietnam.  I don't necessarily recommend this.  Until you know what kinds of tea you like, and how to evaluate sources, you might just buy awful tea, or decent tea in a style that you don't like.  If you are spending $20 on a kilogram it's only so much money wasted, but if it's the absolute lowest quality tea on the market there may be health issues to be concerned about, eg. pesticide contamination.  The highest exposure risk occurs when you drink a lot of one unsafe kind of tea, just that set of circumstances.

So this part everyone needs to sort out for themselves.  People tend to explore organically, to try a couple of types of tea and keep going from there.  Some people never move beyond Harney and Sons flavored versions of tea sold in tins, and that's ok.  Most British people aren't aware that not all tea comes in tea bags, which is fine.  It's a shame to never try better black teas, and oolongs, but it's just a drink choice, just one that a lot of people value quite a bit, and explore at great length.

rolled Tie Guan Yin and twisted Dan Cong oolong, both very much worth trying

what I'm not mentioning:  most of the other related factors, most of what a tea enthusiast would learn over the first two years or so.  This hasn't touched on tea storage issues yet, concerns related to using water with a low or high mineral content, how long you can leave damp leaves sit around (for half a day is ok), and many other things.  Cold-brewing is a nice option, and thermos brewing can work, or even simmering some versions of tea, but I'd advise against starting there.  Masala chai is nice, spiced black tea, similar to the "pumpkin spice" theme, which usually is simmered, and you can make that at home, but again it's no place to start.  Versions of hei cha could work out even as a starting point, but someone might as well try basic black teas and oolongs first, or move on to green and white versions.

I'll mention a few other issues in relation to photos that are handy, but in general the idea here is to support getting started.  The rest will come.

In a Chinatown shop, or anywhere else I guess, one might wonder if large-jar storage is ok.  It's not ideal, but it's still ok, especially for buying mid-range quality tea.  For early in exploration quality issues are a lot more of a concern than storage form.  Better tea tends to not be sold like this, but then you don't need to focus on high quality tea early on anyway.  

I'd go for it, exploring through this form of purchasing, even though I've had some really bad experiences doing so (especially related to the shop pictured; a Lapsang Souchong was made with fake smoke scent added, that was so strong and foul that it threw off the smell of all my luggage).  That's part of it too; the learning curve involves trying bad tea too, and other directions that don't work out.  A lesson learned from that experience:  even if you are in a hurry, and trying inexpensive random things, and a bit thrown off by walking around NYC in a snowstorm, you should take a whiff of the large jar, to make sure nothing is really wrong with the tea you are buying.

This shows how I brew tea, using a gaiwan, a cup, and a thermos (along with our cat and my daughter).  That's all you need, and for Western brewing a single stainless steel basket and a mug is enough.  There's no need to worry about using a scale, strainer, thermometer, brewing tray, tongs, sharing pitcher (gong dao bei), or any of the rest.  

Comparison tasting, trying two teas together, is a nice learning tool for later on, but it will make more sense once the basics are clearer, what types are, how to brew, and what some basic versions should taste like.

There are countless other brewing devices, gravity feed versions, simple pitchers (like this), tea bottle based; it never ends.  You can use any of them you like.  The small stainless steel ball version isn't ideal because tea leaves can't expand, and you can't put longer, whole leaves in them, because they won't fit, but most other forms are similar in effectiveness.

Loose, whole leaf black tea.  This style is similar to Dian Hong, Yunnan black tea, but this version is from Thailand.  Teas like this can be entirely different than tin-based ground up material versions, and are generally much better.

that one friend again; she visits Bangkok this week, and this is my favorite Chinatown shop

If you go in a Chinatown shop, or any shop, they'll first ask what kind of tea type you like.  If you don't have an answer for that things can get a bit stuck.  Just make of any given situation whatever you can, and more helpful vendors will be happy to help you sort through some basics early on, mapping roughly what sounds good to what they sell.  

In general you don't need to buy anything at any shop, regardless of how much tea you've tasted, but out of consideration I'll always buy a little if I've tasted more than one tea version.  If I try something and it's not good and staff isn't helpful I might just walk back out instead, buying nothing.

Some teas take different pressed forms, or can appear different in other ways, ground up, or varying in color.  This is sheng pu'er, the version I've been saying people shouldn't try right away, since oolong and black tea are more natural places to start (to me).  People shouldn't be put off or afraid to try anything, though, if they feel interested.  White tea cakes look similar to this, most often shou mei, and those are very approachable, another nice starting point.

The only storage form that you should absolutely avoid buying tea in relation to is when it's sitting out in open bins.  This degree of air contact is way too much; this tea will go dead fast.  For your own storage at home that doesn't matter too much, as long as the tea is well sealed, but the ziplock style bag form of plastic (also in this picture, in the lower right) isn't as good as it might seem, since that can "breathe," even the freezer-use versions.  Mylar or multi-layer bags are good.

There is no natural place to end this; I could reference another 20 photos and the part of the story they tell about tea experience.  I'll end by sharing a picture of the one thing I most typically leave out:  me, sharing tea with a favorite friend.  It's even the friend you've seen twice here, while visiting from Vietnam last year.

Pu'er vendor source options and branding

kind of an ad image version copied from a FB page

Recently discussing how tea vendors use social media led me to consider branding theme issues, what it is that makes some vendors appealing, or to stand out.  This is mostly about pu'er vendors, and it does make a difference, related to different tea types being perceived differently, and target audience varying.  But this is also just more familiar range to me, and it supports narrower discussion better by just focusing on pu'er, even though the same themes repeat for all types and vendor specializations.

A Reddit comment, in a post discussing starting points for switching from coffee to tea, recommending sheng pu'er vendors, works as a start on this context:

Top vendors for puer tea:

white2tea.com - I'd vouch for anything they sell and their monthly club is also great

essenceoftea.com - totally trustworthy as well, also happens to be #2 candidate for monthly club if you want a second one in addition to W2T

liquidproust.com - great samples and diverse teas

Mr Mopar (reddit user, track him down)

(All of these are 100% trustworthy IMO)

It's always odd not seeing Yunnan Sourcing make such a list; it's probably the main outlet in terms of being known and their total sales volume, both in the US and globally.  Maybe not within China but that's a different subject.

Why are these top vendors?  They're trustworthy, this person thinks, and they've had good experiences with all of them.  They're into tea clubs, and a sample set theme from Liquid Proust is sort of related to that.  Mr. Mopar is a tea enthusiast who sells some teas; he's a nice guy, and a good reference, and probably is a reliable and good-value source.  He joined one of the online meetup sessions we held awhile back, and has been helpful in answering questions about teas for years prior.

The style or type of all of these vendors is completely different.  That kind of contradicts the approach I was initially going to take here, claiming that people probably relate to a certain form of vendor, one who presents their vendor role, ethos, and brand in a certain way that resonates with them.  It could instead be that after exploration people cut across such thematic divides to use whatever sources have worked out best, with more focus on the teas they are buying.  Or maybe a shared theme, like tea clubs, does link these sources, and only the rest of the form is different.

At any rate I'm going to outline how I see vendor branding and type here, what seems to work for each vendor to communicate to customers that they are a good source, and even more so what else they represent.  

To be clear a lot of what I'm communicating about brand themes and the tea versions being sold is hearsay I'm passing on; I'm not a routine customer of a dozen different pu'er vendors.  I've bought tea from Yunnan Sourcing, Farmerleaf, and Liquid Proust related to who I'm discussing here, so surely parts about typical offering range, quality levels, and brand themes are either limited or partly wrong.  I've been active in discussing tea themes online for a decade, longer than really makes sense to stick with that.  Maybe that's partly related to being a main Facebook group moderator, and I guess it also could tie back to tea blogging.

Yunnan Sourcing:  the original online broad market source, based around Scott, the owner and founder, working in the Kunming tea market awhile back in the early 2000s.  If I remember right they started out as an EBay outlet, and quickly moved to independent website sales, back when that wasn't really so common.  Browsing their sales site is like a visit to a large market space, where you will never cover most of what is there; they must sell over 1000 version of teas.  They wouldn't be "reliable" in the sense of 1000 (or 2000?) tea versions being consistent; that doesn't match the market theme.

In part growing and building up a customer base as pu'er (and other tea types) awareness and demand also ramped up sets them apart as unique.  It's interesting considering what even existed before Yunnan Sourcing, how people bought tea in the very early 2000s.  I think local shops played a larger role, and that the specialty tea industry in general was much less developed 20 years ago.  Just as individuals only now exploring better tea have trouble knowing where to start entire enthusiast circles were surely a lot less grounded in background experience then.

That part isn't entirely hearsay, or guesswork.  We can still go back and read old tea blog posts from 2000, if they're still "up."  In one of a series of meetups friends and I met with David Lee Hoffman of The Last Resort and Phoenix Collection, and founder of Silk Road, one of the oldest tea sourcing businesses from the 1990s.  His take on tea options and vending in the 1990s could easily be biased or adjusted by later perspective filtering, but a shop manager friend confirmed that there just weren't very many options to buy specialty teas we now see as standard options on a wholesale level in that decade.  I'm talking more here about relatively directly sourced endpoint retail vending, but surely that came even later; that's what Scott of Yunnan Sourcing helped develop.

A Facebook Yunnan Sourcing fans group works well for discussion, and brand promotion, but Yunnan Sourcing was a well-established business long before that came up.  Youtube videos also made Scott seem relatable, and their product descriptions are generally good, quite clear if a bit short (in product listing versions; the video reviews go into detail).  

Altogether it seems like they really know and understand their product scope, which I take to be accurate.  I've bought bad versions of tea from them but the proportion that were quite positive was very high, so that reliability carries over to what you purchase.  Unless your luck is bad, or you have no idea what you like yet, and then maybe not.  It's conceivable that tea scope outside their core (Yunnan versions) could be less reliable, but I wouldn't know.

a shu version separated out candy-bar style; normal enough now, but quite novel earlier on

White 2 Tea:  It's my understanding that along with Global Tea Hut White 2 Tea initiated the monthly tea subscription theme awhile back, a decade ago or so.  It was a good way to bump sales, charging $30 or so back in the day, I think, letting people try unique offerings and feel like they're a part of something, exploring tea without putting lots of review and discussion time in.  

Then their product theme ventures into selling blends of different inputs, and a broad range of offerings at different price points, in different styles, along the line of what the owner happens to like.  Oddly not including any information about the products worked around controversy or complications with that range; the products are named in abstract ways.  So maybe many aren't blends of different materials?  Mention of hearsay information about what versions really are come up in online discussion, but the accuracy of those would be hard to evaluate.

Catchy new pressed forms or mixes of product inputs add more novelty.  It all seems to work as a counter to the oversold traditional themes approach, making dubious claims based on individuals' authority and tea culture history.  For some side-stepping a long (endless) learning curve must be a main positive outcome; if you generally like what they sell you only need to interpret how they describe products, which isn't based on much background description content.  They would still pass on some idea of what things are, experienced aspects and such.

It seems possible that not adapting what other vendors present as traditional cultural forms may resonate with many; no Chinese terminology, no one is wearing a robe in marketing content, little discussion of cha qi (but some), no need to memorize production areas and typical types.  Teaware and tea drinking are two different things but some other content could imply a degree of buy-in to aesthetic themes, owning gear, emphasis on setting, and elaborate brewing process, and some people might want to stay distanced from all of it, to focus on the tea, without memorizing a broad matrix of background information.

This drifts off topic a little, but it's interesting to consider that selling conventional tea types as something unique makes them unique, as the only place across the entire internet they can be purchased.  An example:  Jing Mai sheng pu'er often has a bit of a pine flavor aspect, and if a vendor took that and presented and branded it as "Pine Forest" product, not Jing Mai, you could only buy it from them, even if it's common enough.  Some people might sort out what it is, but even then if you are selling a good quality, good-value, extra piney version even in that case they might not have any interest in shopping around for a different character or better value version.  Maybe most of what White 2 Tea sells really is narrow source origin material, the most common current theme.  Some background hearsay accepts they sell a lot of material blends, but that could be wrong.  It's not that unusual for typical online discussion to be off the mark.

Essence of Tea:  to me this was a clear example of part of that older theme White 2 Tea was reacting against, a traditional style vendor offering clear information about products, selling versions based on curated quality levels and trueness to type claims.  Pricing was always on the high side, adjoining an implied or direct claim that the quality level justified that (and the tea probably is good).  For White 2 Tea it can be hard to compare pricing to standard market value, since the products are identified as unique and abstract individual offerings.  

Maybe it's more accurate to say that White 2 Tea was reacting against other vendors, who tended to come and go, who really leaned into the Tea Master / old plant material version / wild growth / highest quality level / most authentic themes.  Essence of Tea draws on some of that, but they're mostly only presenting products as much better than average tea, tied to quality, not so much framed in those other catchy story-oriented ways.  

This would be a good place to "name names," and blame a couple of vendors for excessive reliance on those themes, or being caught out lying about them, or at least getting parts wrong, but I'll skip that part here.  Vendors sharing authentic interest in parts of Chinese or other background cultures can work, but it generally comes to light at some point when those angles are being manipulated instead of genuinely appreciated.  Of course there's a grey area between the two, or both can happen at once.

Liquid Proust:  Andrew Richardson is basically some guy that got into selling tea, not that the founding of Yunnan Sourcing and White 2 Tea weren't a lot like that (and Crimson Lotus, and Bitterleaf, etc.).  He was into making up novel blends at first, Dian Hong French Toast and such, then passed through an aged oolong phase, getting mixed up in pu'er, the main natural end point for tea preference.  

He was focused on bringing tea to the masses through sample sets, early on giving those away, I think it was.  One is about to come out soon; they're still very value oriented.  It's possible to critique the practice by saying that they're just ordinary tea versions, but that's the point, that you can try a half dozen different ordinary, decent sheng versions for very little expense, many aged.  You can get started, without going through a learning curve or spending much.  Sample sets through other vendors serve a similar purpose, but that tends to cost significantly more, and to not capture the same random sample of standard and unusual offerings.

Now that I think of it I wrote an interview post about Andrew's subsidized sheng sample set theme (the Sheng Olympiad, before that naming dropped out) back in 2017, and we did an online meetup with him in 2022, so together those might capture his perspective transition over 5 years of selling teas.

Mr. Mopar joined that day too, included in summary. 

Is Andrew more reliable than Yunnan Sourcing, White 2 Tea, or Essence of Tea?  Hard to say.  They're all doing different things.  EOT is more of a curator vendor, and they may be the most consistent, selling the most uniformly high quality teas, which comes at the cost of them costing the most (although I've never tried teas from them, so I really wouldn't know; again I'm passing on general hearsay here).  

White 2 Tea might be a little all over the map; that ends up getting mixed into the limited information they provide about their teas, that they are exploring or even creating new options.  For Yunnan Sourcing selling a thousand or more teas you have to sort it out yourself.  Maybe their in-house brands work as a short-cut to narrowing that quite a bit, or buying samples can offset exploration costing hundreds of dollars.

Andrew is sort of curating, just in a different sense.  He sells what he likes.  This reminds me of an even better regarded modern vendor form and example, Teas We Like, with the theme mentioned right there in the name.  I expect what "they" like is pretty consistent, in line with what experienced tea enthusiasts like (I've tried at least one version of what they sell, but if the same tea is from a different source, as in that case, storage input differences can mean the tea from the same production batch wasn't actually the same).  

In the past tea blogger reviews and online group discussion would serve as ample background reference, but text blogging is generally finished now.  You can check out Mattcha's blog for an example that ran late in ending, or maybe hasn't yet.  Just bear in mind that any tea enthusiast, including bloggers, builds up bias towards vendors selling what they happen to like.  If your own preferences somehow match very closely you can draw on those opinions directly, but otherwise some sorting is required.

Other branding themes tied to social media marketing:

So we have a website version of a Chinese market, a personal choice and style blended creation outlet, a traditional vendor form, and guy who sells what he likes, passing on his own exploration outcomes.  Surely "Mr. Mopar" is close to the last; he literally is a guy selling some of what he has collected over a long time to fund buying even more.  What else could work?

I think Crimson Lotus may not be too far from the White 2 Tea case, just more open about what teas actually are, and more centered on a limited style range (drinkable when young sheng and shu pu'er, which the business founder has mentioned in tea podcast discussion before, so that's hearsay from a decent source).  They make blends of inputs and surely also sell narrow-origin products, but I have no idea which matches their most standard product theme.  I think I've only ever tried one version from them, in a sample set from Liquid Proust, appropriately enough.  I've only ever tried one version from Kuura too, an Australian outlet that's more or less an interpretation of White 2 Tea, offering blends that aren't marketed based on what the inputs actually are (or at least they had seemed to be that earlier on).

Farmerleaf is maybe the main brand version I've not mentioned yet, related to general awareness and buzz (or Bitterleaf; I could mention that I'm also skipping them).  William, the Farmerleaf founder, ran an earlier vending outlet closer to these other forms earlier on, and became more location-based after moving to China.  And marrying a Chinese woman; it's unusual how most of these other vendor cases are structured around that form, I guess except for Andrew, and I don't know the W2T backstory.  That helped William to present teas as tied to Jing Mai origins, with lots of source information, so that he could also produce ample video information content about the background and products.

This is a shift from brand-theme (image) to marketing forms though, right?  The two end up linking naturally.  The type of vendors who passed on second-hand information about old plants, traditional tea styles, and Tea Master inputs could only make that so convincing, based on showing a photo or two and quoting people.  If any of it was ever proven to be inaccurate, which kept happening in isolated incidents, it would all come into question.  William is there in the videos on-site, talking to people, showing the plants and processing steps.  Some of that could still be a little off--what those people say doesn't necessarily have to be true, or the whole truth--but it's quite convincing, and almost all of it matches my understanding based on experience and other source input.  That makes exceptions more interesting, but there are already too many tangents here.

The same happens with group forms and communication outlets, beyond Youtube informational videos showing background.  Crimson Lotus produces and interesting podcast version, not at all focused on their own products, but learning and feeling a connection to them as a source vendor can go together.  Farmerleaf hosts a Discord server, as others must now (Liquid Proust also does), a place for vendor source "fans" to discuss experience, an indirect form of promotion.  

For a more traditional form outlet like EOT a tea club fostering connections would also seem to make sense.  They have a website blog section; that's traditional.  In their About Us section essentially every paragraph mentions their focus on selling good tea, a good summary point for a curator vendor.  Their tea club description probably works as a general summary of what those tend to be about, how they can go beyond selling some samples on a monthly basis:

As with our web store, the tea club has a focus mainly on Puerh tea, but also features Liu Bao, Wuyi Yancha and other interesting teas.  We try to make it enjoyable and educational, with exclusive pressings, comparison tastings & small batch teas.  There are also discounts for club members on featured teas and special promotions.

Other themes:

What else is even possible?  Wouldn't there be a way to reach out to younger people, to combine tea and technology themes, or to couple tea interest with other social sub-themes?  Not so much, for a few reasons.  Let's start with an exception though, of a new type of communication or social networking channel.  Tea apps tend to replicate what other forms of groups had been doing for awhile, with Steepster and Tea Chat standing out as main earlier examples.  Adding a timer or notes function could seem different, but those don't change much, since there are plenty of ways to time infusions or take notes.  

I've ran across discussion of three tea apps under development, and I've written about one in this blog, but as far as I know only one experiences significant uptake, with that one shifting from function themes and networking onto also selling tea.

Steepster still exists, but it's quiet now

Tea interest and potential customer base is still narrow enough that vendors would need to keep focus on that shared interest, and could branch further into source variations, or outlet character themes, but they would have to avoid filtering potential audience, eliminating appeal to broad ranges. 

Global Tea Hut had sort of did that, by mixing the Eastern religion and "progressive" perspective themes, but they never really were a conventional vendor, limiting sales to their subscriptions, as I understood it.  Branding would always involve themes that attract or put off potential customers, but for tea vendors it would seem best to not have that point towards a narrow target group.  I suppose that could still work, if targeting and reach was effective enough, if that group was big enough or enough of them bought in.

photo credit this FB post by Sergey

Moychay, a Russian vendor, maybe their equivalent of Yunnan Sourcing, successfully combines interest in tea itself with aesthetic interest in teaware and specific forms of tea drinking spaces, and to some extent with "Eastern" perspectives.  I think this works better for them related to the intersection between Russian cultural perspective and tea, or more generally to Eastern or Asian themes.  They include tea tasting areas in stores and run "tea clubs," not all that close to a Western cafe, I suppose hard to describe in theme.

To back up a bit I'm in Asia right now, having lived in Thailand for most of the past 16 years, only not being here for 4 or 5 months over the past year (and I've visited essentially all of the main producer countries, except India and Nepal).  Does Thailand seem generally Asian, as people might interpret abstract Asian culture themes?  Sure, or maybe of course not, depending on what someone would mean by that.  It's absurd to narrow cultural patterns down to one broad strand of mixed themes like that.  

So what is Moychay tapping into, related to Asian culture, that may or may not be authentic?  Do people sit on cushions on the floor and use low tables, and use bamboo matting or soft and warm natural colors for background?  Are the elaborate Gong Fu equipment set-ups something any significant number of Chinese people use?  Not really, although the first part of all that probably works better in Japan, sitting on the floor.  Same for emphasis on wood or rock aesthetic, use of natural building materials.  I might add that traditionally people did sit on floors quite a bit more in Thai culture, and made use of outdoor spaces for meals or places to rest, covered patio areas, which later converted to enclosed and more Western indoor AC cooled rooms.

Wooden paneling could come up in lots of places, in a barn in the US, in an old Chinese teahouse, or in design of Thai houses from 50 years ago.  It's comforting and pleasant, regardless of how traditional a designed form ends up being.  Maybe the style being traditionally grounded doesn't matter as much as there being a consistent and pleasant style.  Regardless of theme people need to "get it" and connect with it.

Here in Bangkok a local vendor tried to do something a bit equivalent; Peace Oriental tried to combine general Asian forms into one non-distinct aesthetic style, selling a range of traditional teas.  To me it ended up being pretty close to a modern adjusted form of Japanese aesthetic.  I'd rather have tea in a garden than in a wood paneled or off-white walled space, and at home instead of in a shop, so it's not relevant to me.  It's my impression that such local businesses generally end up selling flavored, sweetened take-away tea versions to draw on better overlap with current local demand.

I think the first Peace Oriental shop iteration; this is the place I visited

later location aesthetics may have evolved a bit

A Westerner might wonder, why use "oriental," a term now rejected in the West as negative in tone?  Political correctness doesn't have the same reach and influence in Thailand.  They're not going to go out and rename a bunch of hotels and spas--and tea shops--because some progressive Americans cancel a word.

Unique vendor themes, support by content

What if a vendor had already established sales of good, basic, well above average quality teas through an online outlet; what could they draw from all of this, or what could they add to a brand theme or story to support that range of options?  It would really depend on what they value.  I like that EOT keeps it simple; they sell "good tea" (and they probably really do).  Or that Andrew sells what he likes and finds interesting.  And that Yunnan Sourcing makes a broad range available to customers, not narrowing that in any helpful way for them, adding work to their selection process, instead offering a crowded market as a unique resource form.  All these approaches are their own thing, based on communicating what the vendors are about.

The other parts and background that can be added, about sourcing themes, organic teas, valuing traditional styles, or non-traditional styles (those blends, different pressed shapes); all can condense into brand theme patterns.  Something simple like cake (bing) wrappers can add to that.  A tea wrapper should say what the tea is, or else it's confusing, requiring a customer write on them or add another label, but beyond that artwork is arbitrary.  

a Crimson Lotus cake; this one

Subscriptions or sample sets are great examples of how to make the same product themes unique, and even more attractive.  Discussion group spaces can do the same, adding background and a sense of community without adding anything substantial at all.

Content is something else though, isn't it?  With text on the way out and photos vying for attention among millions of Instagram accounts it's now down to video.  In a way this is ideal, because the personal perspective connection comes across best in this medium.  Who is William of Farmerleaf, or Sergey of Moychay?  They're right there in their Youtube videos, telling you what is interesting to them, and what they value.  William is a tea geek and Sergey is into Asian culture (Chinese, mostly); if that resonates with you maybe their teas will too, or the opposite influence could occur.  Don Mei of Mei Leaf is the most divisive example of this; to some his persona and enthusiasm really sell his teas, and others feel the opposite effect.

Note that very little of what I'm describing relates to anything like a "cult of personality" effect, as Don Mei is drawing on (not necessarily in an entirely bad way; he's personable).  Andrew talks about himself quite a bit, maybe more so than the teas, but in general these are all unconventional individuals promoting the teas more than their own charisma-based pitch.  Paul of White 2 Tea has shared his own perspective in a tea blog but in general he is all but Google-proof, not putting any focus on himself versus the business.  It's admirable, to me; that also demonstrates consistency and commitment. 

One thing that doesn't seem to work well is keeping it all too generic.  10 years ago having a developed website, broad product selection, decent value, and limited descriptions of products was enough.  That was already a theme.  Now there are hundreds of similar tea outlets in different places.  Offering just a few catchy products can go much further, something that seems unique and attractive, mixing product brand themes, uniqueness, and tie-in to general branding.  

I suppose the industry can thank White 2 Tea for helping develop that, for positioning a lot of what they sell in such a way, even without the same degree of product descriptions.  Back at the beginning that comment on Reddit said about them "I'd vouch for anything they sell."  Can it even work that way, that everything one vendor sells can match well with any set of preferences?  Not really, but one customer's likes can match unusually well with one vendor's sense of taste.  Or bias could also enter in; if you think you'll love every single tea you try under some circumstances some just seeming ok could still spin as more positive.  

People are also inclined to sort themselves into teams in all sorts of odd ways now, in many cases related to liking certain product ranges, or owning certain things.  If you like wearing a Japanese robe or martial arts clothing why shouldn't your tea vendor look like that too.

This must be a main factor in how branding now resonates with customers, right?  Do the expressed values align?  Two vendors with very different look and feel, brand images, could sell identical teas and they could be perceived much differently related to that context.  Value gets folded into that; in some cases selling good quality tea at good value is a main selling point.  Now it's even more common for extensive claims of exclusivity to seem to be supported by high price points, almost more than the opposite, the quality justifying cost.  Those two things aren't necessarily complete opposites, quality and value, since some teas selling for over $1 a gram can still be a great value, but to some extent they can be.  

Related to video content, a vendor presenting content in an aesthetic backdrop might charge significantly more than a Westerner wearing normal clothes in a normal room.  Sometimes the tea would be better in the first case, but it's also possible that it might not be as good.  Again a half dozen examples come to mind related to this very thing happening, to the hype just being hype.

Do people seem to tend to get it all sorted out, trying different tea sources and teas, eventually "seeing through" these less supported claims and context additions?  Yes and no.  Vendors have definitely faded from prominence for weighting brand themes over what they actually deliver, and not offering great quality or value, but even most of those are still around.  In the long run I think vendors who really walk the walk fare better, but the few exceptions where the opposite is true are interesting, where it can be broadly understood that a vendor is selling ordinary tea for a poor value based mostly on spin; how can they do it?  By mastering branding, and use of social media channels and content development, accepting that customer turnover is a part of that approach.  

Disruption of earlier centralized tea discussion--back to Tea Chat, Steepster, and a half dozen main text blogs--limits a narrowing of shared interest that had occurred before.  There are still a couple of dozen main vendors that come to mind, or come up in discussion, as respected and high quality sources, but the field seems more open than ever for well-developed, novel sales approaches.  Standard modern marketing might work better than ever now, using Google and Facebook ads to get the word out.

Building a large Tik Tok following might be enough, even though that's an especially odd example.  A more standard path is probably what Farmerleaf did; start as a conventional source, add in more of a narrow theme (regional tie-in, source-type related, or other), develop content and social media marketing channels, move from sales based on value to much higher price points and focus on quality over time, and put a face on all of it through a main founder image and backstory.  If you can get that to resonate with one or more specific customer types or groups all the better.

Can a brand or source skip all that and put all of the focus on tea (as White 2 Tea isn't actually doing; not using a standard approach can still be a theme)?  Maybe.  Have you ever heard of Trident Cafe and Booksellers?  Probably not, but they source the best possible tea, and go really light on any form of brand-image or broad online promotion.  I would imagine their sales volume would be double or triple where it currently stands if they had taken up a couple of these approaches, putting more of a face on their business, letting online content communicate who they are, expanding reach through social media exposure, giving people more to go on for self-identification connection.  Maybe taking a longer path and letting the tea remain the focus is positive; all the image themes only go so far.

As I read back through this maybe one critical distinction isn't really clear:  a divide between background information and stories or imagery tied to cultural context.  William of Farmerleaf is showing how tea is grown and processed in videos, talking to farmers or people who make the tea.  That's different than emphasis on ceremonial brewing practices, aesthetic teaware or elaborate trays and tables, or historical or mythological stories.  Each could seem attractive to different people, or some people wouldn't care about either.  For sure all tea was made from very specific plant types (even if it was several), grown in one or more micro-climates, and processed according to a number of steps, so the difference here is that you can either value or ignore all the background that made your tea into what it is in the end.

What I'm seeing as the main central theme here is that as long as a vendor can communicate their own genuine, developed tea appreciation forms that can resonate with some others, just not everyone.  Examples come to mind of people (vendor sources) "tapping into" both sets of ideas and themes entirely for marketing purposes instead of communicating their own experience and interest, to actual production background and other parts that can be added.  It always ends up seeming a bit thin, watered down, in comparison with what is presented by more genuine and experienced enthusiasts and vendors.  They're trying to copy something.  In common cases they're literally copying content and images, the equivalent of a high school kid using AI, Wikipedia, or image search to fill in what they should've actually researched on their own.  It's not hard to spot.

To be absolutely and completely clear I'm not blaming anyone I mentioned here for any of that; I think they all did the exact opposite.  Even Don Mei is communicating a slightly exaggerated version of his own experiences, and mixing valuable and functional background information in along with sales pitch.  He doesn't push culture-based aspects; historical stories barely enter in, and he advocates use of simple brewing approaches.  These other vendors I don't intend to critique even to that limited degree (the reference to some exaggeration in descriptions).  

I think they all communicate their own genuine interest in tea, in different forms, and it works, it really comes across.  Surely product uniqueness, consistency, pricing mark-ups, and final value varies for all of them, maybe even within their own range, but sorting all that out is part of the fun of exploring pu'er.