What is an adequate price range for a good yellow tea?!
There is a tea shop near me which seems to be knowledgeable about teas. I've bought a lot of different teas through them that turned out to be great. Today I asked them why they offer so many different teas but not a single yellow tea and they told me that it is very expensive and they are still thinking whether it will be profitable to bring it here. This seems to be in line with other web sources that describe yellow tea as a highly rare and expensive one.
I mentioned to them that I saw yellow tea at some online store and the prices were comparable to green teas and they told me that it can't be true, those yellow teas must be fake. However I didn't have laptop with me so I was not able to show them exact yellow teas and prices to receive an accurate judgment about them. Now that I am at home, I've found these yellow teas. Here they are
http://www.teaspring.com/Meng-Ding-Huang…
http://www.teaspring.com/Jun-Shan-Yin-Zh…
http://www.teaspring.com/Huo-Shan-Huang-…
In short, the prices are 20-50usd for 100g. Compared to the teas sold in my local shop, these prices are closer to high end but nothing special, they have high quality green teas that go for 60-70usd per 100g and old pu-erhs that go for around 100usd per 100g. So I don't think they would consider 20-50usd/100g as something very expensive. Also, TeaSpring is the only online store where I was able to find yellow tea.
So now I am confused. Who is correct? Are TeaSpring's yellow teas of bad quality? Or do they simply offer some low-end non-expensive types of yellow tea? Or is my local shop wrong and that's how much a good yellow tea really costs?
Answers:
I know of several online stores that sell yellow teas, but they're not always in stock. The 3 following links have yellow in stock and the first 2 are in the same price range as the yellow teas at TeaSpring. The last one is quite a bit more expensive. I don't know how "authentic" any of these are. I've read that some yellow teas are not technically yellow teas even though they are exported as such. Instead, they are green teas which have a deep yellow liquor and were historically cultivated and offered up to the emperors because yellow is the royal color. I don't remember the source of that little factoid, but I'm sure a little research online would find something.
Generation Tea sells Gu Zhan Yin Zhen (Silver needle yellow tea from Gu Zhan village)
http://www.generationtea.com/store/defau…
Upton Tea sells Huo Shan Huang Ya (Yellow Bud from the Anhui province)
http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/item.as…
Seven Cups sells a Yin Zhen from Jun Shan that's labeled organic, and is a lot more expensive.
http://www.sevencups.com/tea_shop/produc…