Buying tea in China is not always easy, but these difficulties can be good learning experiences in how one shops for tea. Otherwise potentially disheartening experiences, being sold tea at inflated prices or teas treated to age quicker can also be great lessons, so it is important not to be too worried about making mistakes. Whether we have gotten angry or laughed, many of these experiences have resulted in us better understanding why certain tastes are superior or just how special properly cured teas are. To cite two examples, most Da Hong Pao tea sold is created through a mixture of three types of leaves, none of which come from the Da Hong Pao tree. Or in Hong Kong we were sold a sample of 30 year old puer only to learn that this had been stored in a room with elevated temperature and humidity, akin to a sauna, resulting in a white sheen covering the leaves and, most importantly, the flavors losing their distinction as the tea broke down through this forced aging, creating a taste dulled and flat. We didn't throw this tea away, and while we don't drink it, we keep it to show fellow tea enthusiasts. I like to think of these experiences being akin to the expenses and trials any student faces in matriculation and examinations.
Shopping for tea is like taking a course of study, and especially in China it requires time, a full chest of vigor, and a mischievous glint. Drinking tea should be an inspiring and calming activity, so it is paradoxical how easy it is to get angry when you know a little about tea and are tricked or sold inferior, sometimes fraudulent, even perhaps unhealthy, products. Tea has caffeine and other stimulants - in dark teas sometimes perhaps psychotropic elements - so after trying four different teas, a customer can loose touch with what she or he really wants, especially when an animated tea merchant is friendly, perhaps incompetent, and pushy. Often in China there is a period of testing when a merchant ascertains whether or not to respect a customer, and only after a customer detects fraud does the merchant fold and speak with new found directness, perhaps even then seeking the respect of this customer. So when a customer detects a misleading intention in a merchant, it is like passing a test and graduating to a new level of study.
We have come to believe this is simply part of Chinese tea culture, and as with any art or religion, for all the wonder there will be as much ignorance and fraud. For anyone wishing to learn just how complex and pleasing tea can be, another difficulty is that without tasting many truly remarkable teas it is not easy to know, and without finding an honest merchant one will never get to try truly remarkable teas. Even drinking great tea it takes time to learn to gauge what is in fact too thin or especially inspiring, and the sometimes disorienting effect of caffeine, etc in tea does not help. But don't despair - you don't want to learn to appreciate the best teas too quickly. We have been told that learning about tea is a double edged sword because unlike with alcohol where one can appreciate better and worse, with tea, having experienced good tea, it is much harder to then enjoy drinking inferior tea. There is much to learn in tea, and really there is no better way to learn than to plunge full of energy into the tea-shop neighborhoods and start drinking tea.
Tea shops in China expect to give away infusions of their teas. Indeed it is considered strange or ignorant that a customer would ever buy a tea without first trying it - unless, of course, the customer and merchant have a well-established relationship. So China’s tea shops lend themselves to any tea enthusiast's study. One can spend all day wandering among tea shops in tea wholesaling areas of town, spend nothing, and learn a great deal about the continuum of flavors that can be cured from the tea leaf. We generally feel we should buy a sample of those teas we enjoy drinking to try them again at home and to show respect for those merchants we like. And as we develop affinities for certain merchants, we return to them more often, perhaps in anticipation of a seasonal tea that will soon be arriving. Tea can be a profound social lubrication so it makes sense to discover merchants with whom one gets along. And to do this one should visit many shops.
A few guiding principles can help any student of tea venturing among new tea shops. Initially it is wise to establish a maximum price you will pay before going into a shop, and assume any price offered is about triple what what a knowledgeable customer will pay to buy that same tea. Establishing a maximum price you want to pay, empty the rest of the money from your wallet. If you find a tea you like you can honestly show the merchant the money you have to spend. You might be surprised to find that when you say you only have so much, and if you stay focused on that one tea you really like (and not on the cheaper tea that will be offered), then the price will come down as you walk out the door. Remain playful and buoyant but firm. A great thing about tea is that unlike when buying other types of art, like painting or sculpture, even books, as one learns to taste the full spectrum of tastes that can be cured from a tea leaf, it is much harder to make a mistake. Just beware your palate after too many cups of tea. Just like when it comes to cuisine, one really likes what one likes. And after you start tasting your tea, this sense will only refine itself. And finally, realizing you could be paying to go to a school that will (or won’t) teach you about tea, take your experiences as just that. There are expensive schools that teach tea appreciation, and many of them are not very good. So pay a little as you learn, and if you drink what you buy, you learn quickly not to buy bad tea.
Some shops hide their best teas until they think they will get the best price. And often a merchant will tell you every customer has a different palate. So once you have procured a tea you are confident is high quality, it can be very useful to bring some of this tea with you. You can couch your offering it in such terms as you want to show the proprietor what your palate, as a tea drinker, most appreciates. This might get you offered a better tea in return. Usually a merchant who has never met a customer begins by offering that customer the cheapest tea, requiring the customer work their way up the “ladder”. But beware, there is also a custom of showing a customer better and better teas, only at last to introduce a mediocre tea, insisting it is the best of them all. Others even mix inferior leaves with superior after allowing us to taste the superior leaves. For all these reasons it pays to stay aware, and frankly this is also why we like patronizing the farms that actually grow exceptional teas, especially returning to them year after year. While tea grows in popularity, most small tea producers have never met foreigners and are very happy to meet one who specifically likes their tea. Tea makers are much like artists, so to track down the actual maker of a certain type of tea can be a wonderful way to find a devoted teacher.
