Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company & Fake Pu Erh

Worst part is that shill account was used right after the BTTC guy said he was always as honest as possible…

Don’t want to wade into the Reddit drama either but that’s the most blatant shill account I’ve ever seen. Every single post is a plug for BTTC. This Reddit user also subtly dissuades people from their competitors, Taiwan Tea Crafts and Eco-Cha. That’s really unnecessary when BTTC already has an established online presence and their oolongs are generally well regarded.

I have no opinion on the age of their puerh cakes as puerh isn’t my thing.

It’s not just one cake though—all of their pu is priced far too low to be real. I didn’t want to comment on this issue but it’s just too blatantly obvious they’re pushing fakes. Did you check out the shill account?

A dealer would have NO trouble moving 90s pu in Taiwan! $20 for 90s pu is laughably cheap. There is no such thing as a no name 90s cake either!

I did indeed see the shill account, but I’m neither surprised nor angered by it seeing as how I’ve seen a number of confirmed shill accounts and other possible/likely shill accounts on reddit. Calling out one person for it seems pointless when it seems to be a much larger issue. And understand that I’m not justifying the practice. Oh, and yeah, I happen to agree about the cakes likely being fake. I often just assume, however, that the age and stated production region of many pu-erh teas are misrepresented, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try them anyway. To be frank, I just see threads like this pop up regularly and it gets tiring even if the issues brought forward should at least be considered. Still, harping on this stuff is not going to stop any questionable practices. People are going to do what they’re going to do.

I think there should be a list somewhere of people who are playing dirty. A lot of people are going to get ripped off otherwise, and may even be drinking dangerous pu made by ‘factories’ that don’t have to meet pesticide standards set by the Chinese government.

I think if enough people get caught, we’ll see this kind of thing die out and the game will have to improve. I see a LOT of fake pu everywhere nowadays, as well as fake Yixing and all kinds of other stuff. Knowledge is power and there’s a lot to learn yet for all of us!

Pardon for asking, but @TeaLife.HK aren’t you a tea vendor? How can we trust your motivations?

You didn’t start the discussion on there, but you did start the Steepster thread so that you could (selflessly) crusade against BTTC. The issue is your motivation for posting on steepster and saying things like “I think there should be a list somewhere of people who are playing dirty”. It seems like you are playing dirty by attacking other vendors. I read the BTTC stuff and I don’t disagree with you, but don’t you think it’s unethical for you as another tea vendor to be doing this?

I noticed this recent post on reddit where you tell someone all their teapots are fake.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tea/comments/7lzkpc/would_you_suspect_any_of_these_to_be_fake_yixing/drqhv1v/

How do you know that? And don’t you think its kind of shitty to do (on Christmas no less)? I also think you have alot to gain by telling everyone that such and such stuff is fake and although you don’t say it, you are trying to make yourself seem like the most knowledgeable and trustworthy. If you weren’t also selling tea and teapots then that would be fine… BUT YOU ARE!

Maybe if you convince enough people that BTTC and others are “playing dirty” that will provide a windfall for your business.

You are obviously quite knowledgable and I am sure you have some great products to sell people, but your motivations are far from being altruistic.

Feel free to think whatever you like. I’ve only been a vendor for 18 months; I’ve been a teahead for much longer! I also buy from some of the same vendors my buyers do. I thought about whether to post or not before I did and decided to go ahead and do so. I’m not telling anyone to buy from me on any of these threads, I’m just pointing out where people SHOULDN’T buy tea.

I got burned on fake teapots to the tune of $1,300 last year, which has spurred me on to learn more about Factory 1 Yixing pots. I’d hate for others out there in the English-speaking tea community to go through what I did, be it on tea or teapots. I can tell fake pots much easier now after my experience and from comparing fakes to the real thing. I still have a great deal to learn, of course, and I’m enjoying the process, but it certainly isn’t cheap to do so!

I wasn’t the first one to tell him his pots were fake either—I just corroborated what steanze said and added that the last one was a fake too. I’ve learned a great deal from steanze over the years as well and hope to continue to do so!

Again, your opinion is yours and feel free to think whatever you want. I will call out bs when I see it. Those of us who don’t play dirty are at a disadvantage when others DO play dirty. The market is so saturated that it just means people will go to other vendors (not necessarily me)!

As for my motivations, again, your opinion is worth whatever you think it is…to you. To me? Not so much. Merry Christmas! :)

I just think that you as a vendor don’t have the right to attack other vendors. No matter what you do in this capacity it will be tainted by possible ulterior motives. Bringing the reddit thread over here to Steepster to shame BTTC is really shady unto itself. Why would you do that? What’s your motivation? You can justify it however you want but it seems to me that the more vendors you put on your (public) dirty list, the more enemies you make, and the more divisive the tea community becomes. Some consumers will invariably see you as biased and self-promoting, others will be swayed by your criticisms of other sellers. With a lesser number of “legitimate” sellers in the market, the greater benefit to your business. Don’t you see the conflict created when a vendor behaves in this manner? Maybe you have not thought this through well enough to see the negative outcomes for yourself and the community at large?

America actually allows companies to go after other companies in advertising (combative advertising) which I thought was amazing in business school. I’m not even trying to compare my offerings to theirs, nor is this airing on primetime TV! ;) If I really wanted attention, I would’ve started a thread on Reddit vs Steepster, which is much less active.

I actually did not intend to speak on this issue at all until I saw that shill account right after Mr BTTC had said he was always as honest as possible. That was just too much.

Feel free to think whatever you want of my motives. I think for the community at large there are only benefits to pointing out what is basically scam-like behavior so buyers can make their own decisions and avoid vendors faking the (wo dui?) funk.

Again, you don’t have to like the way I do things or buy from me. I’m not at all bothered by that. Thanks for your two cents though!

Oldhand72, have you ever heard of Coke and Pepsi? They attack each other directly all the time. So do Ford and GM. What is wrong with one vendor speaking out against another, especially when there are relevant facts. In America business competitors speak out against each other even if they have nothing truthful to say. And it seems that TeaLifeHK had something truthful to say about BTTC although I don’t know all the details. I would also ask you if you created an account on Steepster just to argue against this thread as you follow no one and have no followers. You clearly have no history on Steepster.

Hmmmm, could be another BTTC shill account.

It is, they added a profile pic later ^ . First comment had no profile pic

I have lurked on steepster for a couple of weeks but really do find fault with @TeaLife.HK as a vendor attacking other vendors, so decided to make an account and post. I do think BTTC is guilty as charged, there is no way they can be selling 20 year old Pu-erh at that price and they obviously use fake account on reddit as well. I guess @TeaLife.HK having been educated in business and more specifically “combative advertising” knew exactly what they were doing bringing their scam to our attention. Thank you for your selfless actions!

I see oldhand72 used Pu-erh with a capital P in the middle of a sentence.

“Did you notice that the font used in this Zhong Cha production is quite unique? This 1992 edition is one of the only times it was used. The name “Mei Shu Zi” (美術字) is used among Pu-erh aficianados in Taiwan to designate this tea and refers to the the font (literally “beautiful calligraphy”). It’s a blend of Daye leaves and buds."

https://beautifultaiwantea.com/collections/pu-erh-teas/products/1992-zhong-cha-raw-pu-erh

“The leaf heritage of this tea is Yiwu mountain, one of the most famous mountains of Yunnan province for Pu-erh tea.”

https://beautifultaiwantea.com/collections/pu-erh-teas/products/2003-zhong-cha-yiwu-imperial-grade-ripe-pu-erh

Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

Im going to put one thing forward just because no one has. Very obvious shilling could be a set up. Tea selling to the US/West market is hyper competitive right now because the market is growing but slowly.

Also fudding isnt a great long term strategy, it works great to break competition initially, but eventually it leads to new consumers trusting no one, and assuming everyone is lying about everything.

This is why I wasnt happy about the Verdant Tea/mei leaf bashing if you take those out, they are a big gateway to the people who will be buying from other dealers later, especially Mei Leaf because of his newbie guide videos.

Just Googled
Pu-erh Tea – About 858.000 results
Pu Erh Tea – About 689.000 results
Puerh Tea – About 560.000 results
Puer Tea – About 410.000 results

The most popular search term is Pu-erh Tea! You are quite the sleuth!

I get the most results for ‘puer tea’ actually—3x as many as the rest. Results seem to vary depending on region.

Also the capital P in the middle of a sentence is unusual enough that I’m pretty confident it’s you, Paul. Couple that with a dummy account. How bout just not selling fake tea and disparaging other vendors with your fake account and coming clean? Apologize, lose the fake pu and stick to your TW oolongs, which apparently are good enough that people keep coming back and feel they can stand with the rest.

I think this is another fake account actually. You mentioned blooming teas negatively in one of your three posts on here (including this one) and also did with one of your fake accounts (with three or four posts) on Reddit. How many dummy accounts do you have? Damn! I think we’re done here.

“Gaiwancutie said 6 months ago
Blooming tea are more so for decorating tables than drinking. The amount of over steeping it takes to make it bloom makes them always taste bad.”

“TeaVendorAltAccount • 1 point • submitted 1 month ago
Blooming teas sell well but they don’t taste good.

It is hard to buy for someone who has a big collection and knows what they like. I suggest to go on Etsy and find a potter who makes teapots or tea cups. It is a little too late in the year for a custom."

I have found Liquid Proust’s fake account

tealifehk 5 points 1 month ago
FUR? This is a really cheap cake and if you found fur in it, I’d take that frisbee outside and throw it as far away as I could

https://www.instagram.com/p/3xNSziRYBK/?hl=en&taken-by=liquidproust

I have heard good things about your Sheng Olympiad. Is there any left?

That’s actually hilarious man. :D Do you do any kobudo or just the karate?

I don’t know what Tylenol tastes like, but that sounds somewhat concerning :o

Tylenol is a tradename for paracetamol.

It had the acrid, medicinal bite that would be similar to having a paracetamol tablet on your tongue – not like the more pleasant medicinal notes of camphor, etc. Most of the session really was just dirt-like flavors. https://steepster.com/apefuzz/posts/356389

It could be that it just wasn’t suited to my palate, or it could be a “fake” as mentioned in this discussion thread. In either case – I don’t see how a 1990s Yiwu is selling for $160: https://beautifultaiwantea.com/collections/pu-erh-teas/products/1990-zhong-cha-yiwu-spring

Either it is simply not what it says it is, or it is being sold extremely cheap because the taste is off. Anyway, don’t take my word for it – grab a sample and see what you think.

To be honest, I will likely grab some more Taiwanese oolongs from them, because I had such a great experience with them. I will also likely check out a few more of their pu’erhs, just to see what’s going on.

The clean wrappers and bamboo say it all. Purchased 30 years ago and stored in Taiwan? Sure they were. Likely to be from this decade.

For the record I know what Tylenol is—I just don’t chew the pills much. :D The strong acrid bite sounds bad, and the dirt flavors indicate accelerated wet storage. It’s possible the tea had water poured over it to speed up aging so they could try and pass it off as 90s. This would’ve been done before the wrappers were put on.