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Counterfeit warning archive — named lots and vendors

Counterfeit Alerts

A community-driven, evidence-based archive of counterfeit Chinese tea lots, named producers, and vendor reports. Collected warnings, photo evidence, and known fakes from the field. Cross-referenced with factory codes and auction histories. Updated as new reports come in.

by amgalan chin

Phoenix old-bush dancong — alert protocol

collector intelligence

When a genuine old-bush dancong lot surfaces, the window to acquire is measured in hours — not days. How collectors verify provenance, navigate broker chains, and avoid the majority of claims that collapse under scrutiny. Mei Yang draws on Phoenix Mountain fieldwork to outline a repeatable alert protocol.

by mei yang

Dry-cellared finds — the Kunming and continental record

dry storage & provenance

A thread for collectors and archives of dry-stored puerh. We share finds from Kunming, Ulaanbaatar, and the Siberian pause — Buryatia — with documented provenance, because wrapper aging tells half the story.

by liu shenyang

Ethics of the rare-tea trade — what we don’t post

Trade ethics

A frank look at the lots tea.dog quietly declines to circulate — unverifiable provenance, suspect village 'discoveries', and the laundering patterns we have learned to recognise across two decades in Hunan and Yunnan.

by zhou xiang

Reading Hong Kong storage marks on vintage cakes

storage knowledge

Liu Shenyang opens a thread on identifying classical Hong Kong storage through physical markers on vintage cakes — wrapper foxing patterns, neifei darkening, and compression slumping — what they reveal about warehouse conditions.

by liu shenyang

How the alert system actually works

Watchlist craft

A working note on what tea.dog’s alerts actually catch, what they miss, and how to tune a watchlist so the signal you receive is the one you would have chased on foot anyway.

by amgalan chin

Aged Liu Bao basket finds — the Guangxi corner

thread

Aged Liù Bǎo (六堡) from Guǎngxī is turning up in its original bamboo baskets in Guangzhou and Hong Kong — but before you taste, read the basket. Amgalan Chin shares field notes on spotting true vintage through weave, date marks, and storage character.

by amgalan chin

Pre-2000 pressings — authentication checklist

vintage authentication

A field-hardened checklist for serious collectors assessing pre-2000 *Shēng Pǔ'ěr* (生普洱) pressings. From *nèi fēi* (内飞) positioning and wrapper paper oxidation to ink degradation patterns — the objective markers that separate genuine stored tea from opportunistic fabrications.

by amgalan chin

When a price is too good — under-priced vs suspect

pricing & collecting

Collectors often face a puzzle: is that improbably low price a once-in-a-lifetime find, or a warning that deserves a hard pass? Amgalan Chin draws on field experience across Yunnan and trans‑Siberian tea routes to separate the bargains from the traps.

by amgalan chin

Vintage pu’er — the condition language we use

Vintage pu’er — condition reading

Before you chase a wrapper photo on tea.dog, learn the condition vocabulary we use in the alerts — wrapper, neifei, compression, storage trail — so the description tells you whether a cake is worth the call.

by amgalan chin

Vintage tieguanyin — the quiet corner of the aged-tea world

aged oolong discussion

Beyond the well-trodden path of aged pu’er resides a quieter treasure — Anxi Tiěguānyīn from the 1980s and 90s. Who still hunts these surviving vintages, how do they taste after thirty years, and what does the market look like today? Fang Ting opens the conversation.

by fang ting

Aged-cake watch club — twelve months

Twelve-month cohort

One vintage cake per month, sampled in synchronised online sessions across the membership. A 10g sample arrives by post a fortnight before each tasting, with provenance notes from Amgalan Chin.

from €48 / month

Vintage authentication cohort — six months

six-month cohort

A deep, cumulative study of aged pu’er teas with Amgalan Chin. Over twenty‑six weeks, you will learn to read wrappers as field notes, recognise the chemical footprint of early‑2000s inks, and interpret *nèifēi* (内飞) placement with forensic precision. Application‑only — twelve seats.

from €680

Storage comparison cohort — quarterly

quarterly tasting cohort

A quarterly cohort comparing the same raw puerh cake across three storage climates. Led by tea master Liu Shenyang, each session trains sensory calibration — from Kunming dry to Hong Kong traditional storage — building your tasting database at tea.dog.

from €420 / quarter

Amgalan Chin

Cross-Regional Tea Expert & Technical Specialist

Amgalan leads the rare-cake watch club on tea.dog, tracing *Shēng Pǔ'ěr* (生普洱) along the old Kyakhta trade road and reading cellars from Saint Petersburg to Ulaanbaatar.

Russia–Mongolia

Fang Ting

Senior Tea Expert (Oolong, Green & Puerh Varieties)

Senior tea expert focusing on vintage oolong, aged puerh, and Henan greens. Fang Ting’s work lives at the intersection of provenance research and deep-storage tasting — guiding collectors toward rare tieguanyin vintages on tea.dog.

Henan

Liu Shenyang

tea master

A quiet authority on storage authentication, Liu Shenyang interprets the fingerprints climate leaves on Chinese tea. He leads the HK-storage tells workshop and writes the definitive threads on reading vintage marks for the tea.dog community.

Mei Yang

Senior Tea Expert (Oolong & Black Tea Varieties)

Mei Yang brings seventeen years of Phoenix Mountain expertise to tea.dog, verifying rare dancong and black teas before an alert ever reaches your watchlist. Her old-bush authentication protocol is the backstop for collectors.

Guangdong

Zhou Xiang

Senior Tea Expert (Green, Black & Yellow Tea Varieties)

Ethics editor at tea.dog and the quiet hand behind every provenance review. Zhou Xiang reads alerts the way other people read contracts — slowly, and twice.

Hunan

Q3 auction results debrief

exclusive online briefing

An online quarterly review of the most significant vintage tea auctions from July through September 2026. Amgalan Chin breaks down each major lot — what sold, what stalled, and what the numbers signal about the market’s direction. A live evening for collectors, traders, and the deeply curious.

2026-10-15

Cake cellar reveal — Saint Petersburg

members-only tasting

A two-hour evaluation session with Amgalan Chin opening five 15+ year *Shēng Pǔ'ěr* (生普洱) cakes from the Buryatia cellar. No purchasing pressure, no theatre — just slow attention to what age has done to leaf.

2026-07-19

HK storage tells — physical workshop

workshop

Spend three hours in Saint Petersburg with tea master Liu Shenyang, using 10 reference vintage puerh cakes to decode the tactile, aromatic, and sensory signatures of Hong Kong traditional and dry storage — a hands-on, intimate study for collectors and enthusiasts.

2026-09-28

Aged Liu Bao basket tasting

evening tasting

Gather around a single table in our Saint Petersburg studio for a quiet evening dedicated to three aged Liù Bǎo baskets — 1998, 2005, 2012. Taste how decades of bamboo-basket storage shape dark tea, guided by Amgalan Chin, and take home a sample of each.

2026-11-21

Yiwu vintage tracker — quarterly online roundup

Online quarterly roundup

Ninety minutes with Amgalan Chin walking through every Yiwu *Shēng Pǔ'ěr* (生普洱) listing that surfaced in tea.dog alerts across the past three months — pressers, pricing drift, provenance flags.

2026-06-30