Fake Puerh Tea
I sometimes wonder how many teas in my collection are actually fakes. I’m sure a couple have slipped through. Fake puerh tea may not even be from Yunnan. They can be made for as little as $1 a cake. This is how an EBay seller may sell a fake Dayi for only $10. While you can realize that if the price is too good to be true it probably is and buy from reputable sellers you can never be sure. I came across this interesting blog post from White2Tea.
http://www.white2tea.com/2015/01/08/8-tons-fake-dayi-puerh-seized-puer-tea/
Interesting article Allen. A lot of teas are faked in China and some associations are trying to bring attention to it and fight it. Outside of puerh I know that Rizhao green tea is faked with people taking tea from the south and in some cases dying it. Tanyang teas are often faked as well. There are definitely others but these are two producing regions that attempt to do something about it.
I had not heard of green tea being faked except for non Dragon Well being sold as Dragon Well.
I’ve read better articles and you need to use a translator but this lists a some of what is done to fake rizhao teas. http://www.rizhaogreentea.com/news/tea-298.html.
I wonder if my Rizhao tea I got off Aliexpress is fake. It certainly tastes good. I noticed Rizhao tea is fairly hard to come by on a lot of tea websites. It must be a rare tea.
The problem with finding Rizhao tea is it is often named Sunshine Tea or Sunfall tea as a crude translation of Rizhao. As well but all Sunshine teas are Rizhao you have to read the description.
I don’t think there is more production than Laoshan teas but the tea has been produced since the 60’s and in 2008 one of my sources said the yield was @6200 tons and it has grown since then. If you bought the tea from the same place as me. I was able to track the first teas I bought from him back to the original supplier and producer and the packaging was the same on the teas I bought this year. Rizhao also has several districts and the teas are subtely different between them. As well you can also get it in a longjing style as well.
I must have missed this post. Just reading your reply now. You are so informative on the Rizhao tea! The tea I got off Aliexpress from the Han Xiang Ecological Tea.
So if I went looking on Ebay or Aliexpress for Sunshine or Sunfall tea, that would be Rizhao? Hmmm I’m going to take a look.
To clarify not all sunshine teas are Rizhao for some reason that got lost from my list that’s why you need to read the description. I’ve seen it applied to other regions but most of them are and most of them are lusted on Ali as this. Sunshine black always has been so far.
It is a starting point for searching down more Rizhao teas though. Thanks for the info. Nothing still comes up on Ebay but Aliexpress has loads of Sunshine/Sunfall teas.
You’re welcome. I haven’t seen !much Rizhao on eBay. I think I found it once and it was very expensive. I’ve really only found Laoshan there.
Remember the following Chinese consumer goods scandals?
- Counterfeit CDs & DVDs and famous label consumer goods
- Contaminated pet food that killed numerous pets in the US
- Children’s toys with lead paint
- Worst of all – Contaminated IV Heparin that killed many patients in US hospitals
Such a pattern of total disregard in the name of greed erodes the credibility and trust of all Chinese-made goods including one of their most precious cultural traditions spanning numerous generations – TEA.
The above examples are why I try to purchase only highly-regarded Chinese tea from Steepsters favorite tea suppliers such as: Mandala, Misty Peaks, Tao Tea Leaf, TeaVivre, Whispering Pines, Verdant, etc. I don’t want my cup of tea to contain potentially cancer-causing pesticide residues.
If unethical companies are willing to offer counterfeit tea to make a profit, how likely are they to have any concern for pesticide residues in tea?
I would not want to pay high prices for fakes but I’m all about pasted brands and white labels if the tea is good and the price is fair for the quality. I always feel bad when people get upset just because they think they have a fake when in fact the tea is quite tasty and a reasonable deal.
I don’t get too upset over a possible fake if I like the tea. It does make me wonder however. I got two teas from Dragon Tea House that might be fake Dayis. The one was a high end cake at a reasonable but not dirt cheap price. My main evidence that it might be fake was it had no security marking. I don’t know for sure, however, that all Dayi 2010 teas had security markings.
Dayi is the real issue because really no other tea these days is faked as often as this company. I would contact Wilson at travellingteapot, he has the 2010 Dayi catalog.
http://teapotnews.blogspot.com/2013/06/2007-7542-701.html
The fake tea is a problem in much of the tea industry.
A lot of fake Darjeeling is sold worldwide, powdered teas being labeled as matcha (many not even made in Japan), fake organic teas, etc.
The recommendation is to buy from a trusted seller.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.