Tea Encounter Is Pressing Their Own Brand of Puerh!

This summer I happily accepted an unsolicited package from the owner of Tea Encounter, Tiago aka  Curigane.  Readers of this blog will know his generosity and I, in turn, try to give back to you readers with some honest reviews.  I have already reviewed a chunk of the standard 2019 Zheng Si Long on offer at Tea Encounter a few months back (I still have some left to review). I also received 4 other samples labeled “Tea Encounter” in that Royal Mail package.   Was this just some of Tiago’s personal stash or was it a sneak preview of an upcoming launch of Tea Encounter brand puerh ?…. It turns out it was the later… Sweet!

The first 4 on offer from the premiere launch of the Tea Encounter brand are 2019s from some of my personal favorite puerh producing areas or areas that I have a connection to from way back- Bangdong, Gua Feng Zhai, Laos, and a wild tea from Lincang.  All exciting prospects.  One thing that I noted right away was that they are priced to hit a sweet spot in the Western puerh market around or under $100 for a full cake.  In reading the descriptions on the website, it sounds like the maocha was purchased from farmers rather than the whole production being completely overseen from start to finish.  This seems like a reasonable way to start pressing your own puerh especially if you are not located full time in Yunnan. I was initially curious as to whether these puerh would exhibit characteristics known from these producing areas and how they would fare considering their budget prices.  The next week I hope to post on these affordable offerings and then draw some general conclusions about what I see as the overall feeling of the “Tea Encounter house brand”. Enjoy…

Peace