Just had a long and interesting conversation about wrappers and tea names
with Dave from Silk Road.
Get this - he was surprised that Mini Menghai did not have "menghai" on the
wrapper at all. When I translated the whole wrapper for him, he was also
very surprised that it has a "7 sons" in its name (you know that means 7
cakes in a bundle) because he said that this type of tea is sold by the
bunch of 10, not 7 cakes.
The fact that wrappers can just be anything is very disappointing. He said
that the Chinese will put anything on the wrapper if they feel it will sell
the tea. So I guess we have here the absolute opposite from French
traditions of wine and cheese naming and labelling and that is very sad,
because the high quality and consistency of the product is what makes
faithful customer base.
It is actually good for us, the affecionados, because we are willing to try,
compare, listen to each other and spend time and effort doing so, while the
prices will likely to stay low because there will never be a "brand" or
"name" craze, that can only happen if general public is involved.

Sasha.


"Mike Petro" > wrote in message
...
> Welcome to the quagmire.... This is not at all unusual.
>
>
> On Tue, 21 Sep 2004 02:04:49 GMT, "Alex Chaihorsky"
> > cast caution to the wind and posted:
>
>>Guys,
>>
>>I bought several puerhs from Silk Road. One of them was Gold Bud. But then
>>I
>>read the wrapper and there were no mentioning of anything even remotely
>>resemblin "gold" or "bud". So I asked Dave. Dave told me that sometime the
>>wrappers have no connection with puerhs because a small factory buys
>>wrappers from somebody else, etc. I asked him is there any connection
>>between the tea and the name and his answer was not very categorical. So,
>>I
>>guess we have to understand that buying the puerh with the name "X" in one
>>catalog may not be teh one with teh same name "X" that we liked from
>>another
>>catalog.
>>I also looked an the wrapper of " Mini Menhai Beengcha 1999" that was
>>discussed many time here. Surprise, surprise - I did not find the
>>"Menghai"
>>on the wrapper (Menghai actually is a county in Yunnan). What it does have
>>is "Yunnan 7-stack beencha" and words like "Old trees, famous name, large
>>leaf, arbor tree" I have not identified the manifacturer but there is a
>>name of Yunnan tealeaf export-import company. But no mention of Menghai.
>>I am a bit lost here. Shouldn't a tea called "Menghai" in a catalog have
>>at
>>least the word "Menghai" on its wrapper? Why dave named it Menghai? Thius
>>is an excellent tea, I love it, no complaints, but should't there be a
>>system in naming teas?
>>
>>Sasha.
>>
>>
>>
>