Many new tea enthusiasts face a dilemma when choosing among numerous brands. I'd like to offer some advice based on my personal experience for your reference. I am purely a tea enthusiast who only Drinks tea and does not sell it, so this advice may not be useful for those in the business of selling tea. General rule: you get what you pay for, the seller is always more knowledgeable than the buyer, don't seek small bargains, and remember that the most profitable goods are often fakes or low-quality products.
Establish an initial impression and understanding of raw and ripe teas. Established brands like Dayi and Xiaguan serve as benchmarks without question. The benchmarks are meant to be surpassed; to improve, combine your taste preferences with a systematic approach by selecting one or a few brands that suit your palate and drinking their teas from lower to higher grades to determine which level suits you best (buying comfortably and enjoying the tea). There is no perfect tea in the world; if you like its strengths and can overlook its weaknesses, that's enough. For example, my focus is on mouthfeel saturation and throat resonance (everyone has different preferences, feel free to share yours), here we should discard some conceptual elements such as tree age (without carbon dating analysis, these claims are mostly speculative), pure blends versus blended teas (pure is relative, blending is absolute), and stories (we drink tea, not listen to nonsense). Taking throat resonance as a reference, here's a simple example: after Drinking Tea, if the sweet and moist sensation lingers at the back of the tongue and extends down the throat, the longer it lasts, the better. If it can last for an hour or two and still be felt after eating something else, congratulations, you've found a treasure.
Drinking tea should be adapted to your own physical constitution. Some people cannot tolerate raw tea due to their Digestive system, while I personally find raw tea more appealing than ripe tea. Speaking of ripe tea, I strongly support the use of new technologies. I believe that ripe tea truly represents the technical expertise of Pu'er tea. Dian Ripe Tea is well-made, and those who enjoy ripe teas should consider it. It is far superior to the controversial “Can Spring” that had a strong fishy smell when opened recently. Another recommendation is Yi Mu Tang's Yi Xin Liang Mu ripe tea. I rarely recommend teas, but this one has not been surpassed in quality by any other tea in the same price range during my taste tests this year. Moreover, it outperforms its own brand's more expensive offering from last year (it is rare for a less expensive tea to surpass a more expensive one within the same brand). This tea is available through physical stores rather than online shops, likely due to limited production and the aforementioned reason.
To truly understand a tea, it's not enough to taste just one or two samples. Pu'er tea is a tea that changes over time and presents different flavors with the seasons. If you truly enjoy it, carefully select a cake of tea, calm your mind, and savor it. You will sense the style and intent of the tea maker in crafting that particular cake.
There are also extreme blending methods that fully exhibit the bitterness of Bulang Mountain teas. I suspect the tea maker intended to convey the Buddhist concept of “all beings suffer,” seeking a great sweetness after great bitterness, the turning of misfortune into bliss, and attaining supreme joy. However, when I drank this tea, I didn't have that experience, perhaps because I don't follow Buddhism. Instead, drinking this tea felt like consuming strong liquor, evoking the song “Full Red River” by the band Wheel of Rebirth: “Hair stands on end at the railing, rain stops with a hiss. Looking up, gazing to the sky, roaring fiercely, emotions intense…” Drinking tea is not just about tasting the tea, but also about savoring a certain sentiment.
Choose the right person and the right tea, select the right brand and the right tea. However, people are greedier than tea, and even established brands cannot guarantee consistent quality. Few remain true to their original intentions. Drink more and compare; time will bear witness to everything.