A long time later, I suddenly remembered an experience of being scammed when I went to West Lake before, and I want to share it for a laugh.
Last New Year's Day, I took a stroll around Hangzhou. After visiting Lingyin Temple, I took a taxi to West Lake. There were many taxis lined up waiting at the foot of the mountain, so I decided not to call a ride-hailing service for convenience. Once I got in the car, we started chatting...
Driver: I'm preparing to get married and need to bring some gifts for my father-in-law. I want to buy some tea, and I'll put it aside for you. You can take a taxi later...
Me: Longjing tea?
Driver: Yes, this area is famous for Longjing tea. My father-in-law likes to drink tea, so I'm buying some.
Me: Oh~ then we’ll take a look too. (The most I had paid for tea before was around 200-300 per pound.)
So we chatted along and ended up at a "farmer's" self-built house. As soon as we entered, there were four large jars of tea leaves, each jar probably holding about a liter. I saw the driver and the owner greeting each other warmly, and then the owner started introducing the tea: black tea (I can't remember if it was Da Hong Pao or something else), green tea (Longjing), and two others I forgot. Each type of tea was brewed a cup, and it did taste a bit different from what I had bought before; it might be that the previous tea had been stored for a long time.
After tasting the tea, the master was about to buy a pound, and that’s when I noticed the jars were labeled 2000-3600 yuan per pound!! Ah😧? Authentic West Lake Longjing is that expensive? Well... it should be like that. Since I was already there and the master was buying for his father-in-law, I thought I’d bring some home too, so I spent 1500 yuan on half a pound.
When I got home, I let my mom👩 taste it (she had learned tea art before and is quite skilled). After tasting, she said it was about the same as tea that costs a few hundred per pound, no big difference. She asked me how much it was, but I didn’t say.
I only mentioned that this tea was bought from a farmer next to West Lake, authentic Longjing...
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