Find the thread, cohort, or reader who already wrote about it

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.

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. We draw on Phoenix Mountain fieldwork to outline a repeatable alert protocol.

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.

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.

Reading Hong Kong storage marks on vintage cakes

storage knowledge

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.

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.

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. We share field notes on spotting true vintage through weave, date marks, and storage character.

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.

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? We draw on field experience across Yunnan and trans‑Siberian tea routes to separate the bargains from the traps.

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.

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? We open the conversation.

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.

started 2026-07-01

Vintage authentication cohort — six months

six-month cohort

A deep, cumulative study of aged pu’er teas. 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. Each session trains sensory calibration — from Kunming dry to Hong Kong traditional storage — building your tasting database at tea.dog.

started 2026-09-01

Q3 auction results debrief

exclusive online briefing

An online quarterly review of the most significant vintage tea auctions from July through September 2026. Each major lot is broken down — 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 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 · past

HK storage tells — physical workshop

workshop

Spend three hours in Saint Petersburg 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 · past

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, and take home a sample of each.

2026-11-21

Yiwu vintage tracker — quarterly online roundup

Online quarterly roundup

Ninety minutes 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 · past