Hi Melinda:

I don't know how much help I can do but I can copy two of my recent
post from teamail and RFDT to clear it up a little more. The tea world
is very confusing. Yes, the Long Jing(LG) from Teaspring was the best
one when I tried that one but then one of my Chinese friend send me
another LG and it was even better. I still believe Teaspring's LG will
be very good. It takes long time to realize which tea is the best. when
you start trying tea from different sources, you start realizing- there
is no end of quality. All you need some time to try tea from different
sources.

We have some very knowledgable tea vendors like Seb(Jingtea),
Daniel(TeaSpring), Linda(teahub) etc. etc. Tea is such a wonderful
thing- once you start buying tea from the vendors again and again then
you also start feeling a friendship and bond with some vendors. Seb,
Daniel became my good friends. Linda also indulged me so many times
with her valuable tea information. I am in a point right now, where
most of my tea comes from Chinese vendors. I buy few little tea from US
vendors now a days though I am still a big fan of Imperial tea court.
Your tea taste and knowledge grow with tea vendors if they are more
open, friendly and honest with you. Through this relationship, you also
start enjoy better quality tea. When customer and vendor both work
together, the result is much better. Some vendors don't try to
understand this and at the end they loose valuable customers. I was
burned many times with Long Jing but now I am in a point where I get a
standard quality LG. You can be fool once or twice but not forever.
All you need time and obserbation.

I am pasting one of my recent post , I have blended from teamail and
RFDT:-

I will add one more
Chinese way classification of LongJin. Will also talk about how to
check the
quality of Superior LongJin tea and the season to buy this tea.

Before posting this thread, I steeped ShiFeng, Meijia and Xihu LongJin.
All
of them are good but the shifeng is the best one(mine is
Qiqiang<Flagged
Spear> types)

All of this three types has smooth, delicate, chestnut aroma/flavor,
mouth
full buttery taste but the difference come during multiple steeping.
Shifeng
contain and release the aroma, flavor much longer then the other
two(Meijia
and Xi Hu). The tea leaves has also different appearances.

In China, they also differentiate LG three different way:

-Quing(natural)
-Lu Dou(green nut)
-Huang Dou(yellow nut)

The real Shifeng LonJig is Quing type.

I have also got this two high grade ShiFeng LongJin. My Chinese
supplier
gave me this two description(according to his description):

-First sample(Qiqiang|Flagged Spear|): The Finest grade of ShiFeng,
only one
bud and one leaf. The interesting part was, when I steeped this tea in
a
tall transparent glass- really it was one bud and one leaf. The bud was
floating in the water with the leaf pointing upright, just like a
spear.

-Second sample(Queshe|Sparrow's toung): This was also an excellent one
but
after the Qiqiang one with one bud and two leaves.

Above both LG were Shifeng LG but two different fine categories. You
see,
their is no end of tea grade.

Of course many LongJin teas are fake, I believe it. Processing high
grade LG
green tea needs very skilled hand. I will talk a little about the
complex
processing-

During pan frying the leaves requires match the temperature to the
tenderness of the leaves which only certain tea masters know how. For a
pound of high grade LG, Tea processor need 25,000-30,000 bud and leaf
sets.
The skilled hand snipped off individually. It is not easy to produce
high
grade LG by mass production system. It is a full hand made process.

--------------------------------------

Your concern is very much practical about pricing of good teas.
Example, Long Jing or Lung Ching(Dragonwell green tea) has many
verities and the price comes by quality and different tea processing
plant. There are many confusing information about the quality-
Imperial Shi Feng Long jing and regular Long Jin has far difference in
taste- their in China, they classified LJ in three different
categories-


1.Quing(natural)
2.Lu Dou(green nut)
3.Huang Dou(yellow nut)


I got more information about the quality but after drinking more then
ten different LJ- I found out Imperial Shi Feng Long Jin was the
best(It is my personal experience). Right now, I am also drinking
another kind of LJ- Named Xi Hu Long Jin, also a good one but far
thinner then Imperial Shi Feng Lon Jin. I don't know, how they price
this teas.


Melinda, sorry I can't provide you a straight forward answer because I
am not a tea master. I like to drink tea, maintain tasting note,
collect tea information from around the world and compare different
teas from different sources. I can tell you one thing- there is no
absolute answer for tea because tea processing methods are always
changing so do the vendors. We just need few good man to help us to
choose high quality tea with fair price. Don't just order tea from here
and there- ask for sample, ask them many questions. Soon you will
realize, who can full fill your quality tea with fair price. Believe
me, there are only few vendors who offers good tea with fair price.
After all very high grade tea production are limited, rest are lower
quality tea only when you are familiar about quality tea. In my case, I
have found some. I consider them as my friend not as a tea vendors
anymore. I believe one thing, they try their best to find good tea for
me.

Ripon
Maputo, Mozambique