In the world of modern Puer there are a few names that are surrounded by hype and awe: Lao Ban Zhang, Bingdao, Xigui, Yiwu. This year, we have tracked down high quality, single origin samples of raw tea from each of these locations and are excited to share what we hope will be an informative tea sampler with regards to taste, quality, and transparent pricing.
These are all teas that we would not trust phoning in an order for. With so much hype, there is a lot of shenanigans that go on when people see and sell these teas, be it substituting, blending, or outright lying about pedigree. Thus, it is only after years of sourcing on site that we finally have the confidence to offer such outstanding teas directly sourced from gardens from our hands to yours.
In the sampler are the big four:
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6 grams Lao Ban Zhang (Dashu)
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6 grams Bingdao Laozhai (Zhongshu)
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6 grams Xigui Manglu Shan (Gushu)
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6 grams Yiwu Guafengzhai (Gushu)
This sampler falls into the Solidarity Product category due to the price transparency. We will openly disclose the prices we paid for these teas and the markup we have included to pay ourselves for the labor of sourcing, displaying, and shipping these teas. The ultimate goal is to improve consumer-market literacy when it comes to these often overblown famous teas.
The Lao Ban Zhang comes from a garden in the Chawang area of Lao Ban Zhang leased by our Bingdao Laozhai friend. They selected a few dozen trees in 2024 and have been buying every leaf for the past few years. The grade we purchased was from their Dashu (or Big Trees). The price we paid for this Dashu Lao Ban Zhang was 6,000 RMB for the KG (about $880 USD), meaning that the wholesale price of this tea from tea farmer to tea company is $0.88 per gram). Keep in mind that this is not Gushu Lao Ban Zhang, which often sells for $1,500 USD per kilogram.
The Bingdao comes from Bingdao Laozhai, or the Old Village of Bingdao. There are several areas in Mengku that can call themselves Bingdao, but the true heart with the tea that fetches the true high dollar mark is the Old Village, or the Laozhai. We caught a ride from Bada Mountain in Xishuang Banna to Bingdao with this tea farmer who was an old friend of San Dan, our tea farmer out in the Bada Mountain. She was in nearby Lao Ban Zhang to oversee the making of her leased teas down in Banna before returning to Lincang. Her home is right at the top of the Bingdao village, right before the mountain road up to the Chawang Shu and Gushu tea garden. She gave us a friendly price of 5,000 RMB for a kilogram of her Zhongshu, or Medium sized trees (that’s about $735 USD for a KG, or $0.73 per gram). Again, this is the Medium sized trees, the Gushu is even more than Lao Ban Zhang, starting at an asking price of 12,000 RMB per KG, or $1,760 per kilogram.
Xigui is the last of the three most popular teas in modern puer. Famous for its powerful floral aromas and a swiftly passing bitterness that turns into sweetness, it reminds us of a mix between the Lao Ban Zhang power and the Bing Dao sweetness. The current adage is Xigui Xiang, Bingdao Tian, Lao Ban Zhang Ba Qi (昔归香，冰岛甜，老班章霸气）which means Xigui is fragrant, Bingdao is sweet, and Lao Ban Zhang is powerful. Xigui was one of the first mountains we visited in Lincang and it remains one of our closest contacts of the three top tea mountains. We have been to the Manglu Shan, the core region, every year since 2023 and have even tried our hands in the wok and documented the whole process. This tea for the Gushu cost us 5,000 RMB, which is about $735 USD for the kilogram. Thus, while we have controlled the price of what we bought (due to our own pocket money), the Binddao we could only get Medium trees, the Laoban Zhang we got the big trees, and for the Xigui, we scored the Gushu, or ancient trees for $0.73 per gram.
Finally, while it isn’t in the list of the top three big name raw puer teas, we included the Guafeng Zhai gushu from Yiwu. This tea fits right in amongst these big dogs, as it is wild and powerful in its own right. The fragrances of this Guafeng Zhai gushu are phenomenal and something that is not present in the other teas. Yiwu is part of the old famous tea mountains, before the popularity of LBZ and Bingdao and Xigui, Yiwu was the heart of the raw puer buzz. We started sourcing this tea in 2025 and pressed a lot of this into the No Man’s Land tea cake, but we couldn’t do a single origin pressing due to financial reasons. Here we can finally offer this tea in its unadulterated glory to show everyone what a beautiful tea this gushu is. This tea from the edge of Yunnan, just a few kilometers from Laos cost us 3,500 for the kilogram, which is about $520 USD. While this $0.52 per gram sounds downright cheap in this company, if we want to press a batch of cakes, we need anywhere from 10 to 40 kilograms, meaning we would have to tie up at least $5200 in a single pressing, which we could otherwise spread around to finance a lot of interesting and more affordable teas.
We are thrilled to offer these premium teas in their natural maocha form, and hope you enjoy the experience of tasting and getting to know why these famous regions are renown for their excellent teas.
The full breakdown of tea costs look like this:
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$0.88/g Lao Ban Zhang (Dashu) 6 grams = $5.28
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$0.73/g Bingdao Laozhai (Zhongshu) 6 grams = $4.38
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$0.73/g Xigui Manglu Shan (Gushu) 6 grams = $4.38
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$0.52/g Yiwu Guafengzhai (Gushu) 6 grams = $3.12
Thus, the sampler’s total cost for simply the tea leaves is $17.16
In order to account for the labor of sourcing, photographing, writing, promoting, packaging, warehouse fees, packaging fees, and more, we are adding a simple 2x markup on this product.
Therefore $17.16 with the added value of our labor becomes $34.32 at a 2x markup, (which we will also round down to a solid $34 to keep the books happy). This means that we make $16.84 on each purchase to pay ourselves, our fees, and consider reinvesting into similar products.
If you’re interested in these Solidarity Products, Price Transparency, Farmer Profit Sharing, and other initiatives, please let us know so that we can keep them as a regular part of our lineup. Thanks so much for your support and interest in our projects and teas, and we hope you enjoy the sampler!
Yours in Solidarity,
One River Tea
Alex, Derek, Xiaoyan, and Xiao Zhang
