Note: this refers to the 2022/2023 TCE, for 2023/2024 see TCE². Some highlights from last year: #taiwancollectorexperience on instagram.
I used to be in Taiwan quite often for Puerh, it really is the place where modern high quality Puerh culture re-started (from the 70-80s) and with the highest density of tea masters, teachers and experienced drinkers.
Pricing for pure old tree and very old tea in Taiwan is better than anywhere else, and better than mainland China by an order of magnitude of 5-10 times.
This is helped by the fact that the rediscovery of Puerh being an older thing in Taiwan, many old timers bought tea at very cheap and now are quite happy to let go of it for “just” 3-5 times what they paid for it.
While China has a lot of investors that paid a lot for their tea in the 2000s/2010s and want to get even more out of it, Taiwan is home to many, many real tea lovers with interesting collections of Puerh in the region of ~100-500 tongs.
Availability of old tea is good (at least after years of nurturing our connections). However, storage can be often too wet, so it’s very important to try the tea and deal with people with similar ideas about clean/dry storage.
The market for Puerh in Taiwan has also been stagnant since covid and there are some really great tea (with both refined taste and profound Qi) available for a steal (if one looks long enough).
This will be the first time I’m back since covid and I’ll spend a whole month catching up with tea friends I haven’t met since years, people I met online and a few introductions.
So what’s the Taiwan collector experience?
I’ll be meeting friends and collectors and ask them to share some of the very, very best of what they have, it’s always easier in person for this kind of business-that’s-not-really-business (much more relationship based).
Some of these collectors just won’t deal with anyone through the internet, as they’re either too old or don’t care to go out their way to sell their tea. And for some others we already buy from we’ll get to try quite a bit of tea in a shorter time, so this will be a much more intense and interesting time than usual.
I expect the majority of our findings will be 70s-80s-90s dry-stored puerh cakes, with the a bit of more recent pure old tree puerh, and a bit of aged oolong and liu an. Perhaps some antique yixing pots and modern taiwanese pottery by one of my dear friends too.
As soon as I’ve identified something positively great I’ll post it in a special area of the website available to order and send a notification about it (this could be a few times a week, perhaps even daily).
A lot of it is going to be very small quantity and will sell out immediately, but there’ll be quite a lot of good teas in the few weeks I’ll be there.
Something truly extraordinary?
As far as I’m aware, this kind of quality for dry stored old sheng puerh is simply not available anywhere online (at least not without paying 3-5x as much), and will definitely beat buying old tea in China.
If you’ve noticed our quality and pricing are really solid by now or value clean storage in old tea, this is especially for you.
So please join me for the Taiwan Collector Experience, I’ll do my best for you to end up with some truly unforgettable (and otherwise inaccessible) old puerh cakes and other tea.
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Advance credit
We will be buying a lot of great tea in this period. Both for the purpose of helping us with managing cashflow and also to give a gift to our most loyal supporters, the ones that trusts us the most, we offer you this opportunity:
- You can buy advance credit and receive a 25% bonus. So for example for every £100/$100/€100 you will be credited £125/$125/€125 to use to purchase tea during the experience.
- I’ll select one of the best old puerh cakes I come across in too small quantity to sell. If you buy at least £210/$250/€250 of credit you’ll get a part of these legendary cakes + free shipping.
- If you buy at least £425/$500/€500 of credit, you will also receive (within the following 24 hours) a preview invitation to see and purchase some Mr Chen’s tea
- If you buy at least £850/$1000/€1000 of credit (before bonus), you will also receive early access (~24 hours) for all the releases during the experience
- Can be purchased during the rest of November only.
Should you somehow not find tea you like, you’re welcome to keep the credit for later use in the rest of the shop (except for products currently published). But I expect you’ll find tea worth jumping on pretty soon in the experience.
Get advance credit here.
How it works
- First release will be in the first half of december, multiple times a week, lasting for 4-6 weeks
- Buy what you like when it’s released (can use either advance credit or normal payment)
- It will be shipped all at once from Taiwan at the end of the experience (no later than end of January)
- Shipping will be free so long as total bought is over £200/$250/€250 (otherwise just £20/$25/€25)
Looking forward to share tea treasures with you!
