Among the top 5 best tea moments I experienced were 1)普洱 from my friend's $10,000 USD a cake. He did not know much about tea and asked me to try it as this cake was the profit he made selling the other 3. Sadly, he did not know how to keep tea either and it absorbed moisture. I was "tea-drunk" in just a few cups and felt soba. 2)Tibetan chrysanthemum - a stranger who visited my friend brought it from Tibet. I called it the most amazing moment of tea. The flowers are white and light yellow but the tea comes out red! The low-end chrysanthemum that the Cantonese dim sum teahouse used is of a few tiers different. 3)大紅袍/Monkey Pick version in a government gala but 99 percent of the so-called 大紅袍 in the market are fake and thus taste poorly 4)柑普 from an immigrant who bought from his village. When I asked whether I could buy more, he admitted that it is by chance whether one can get a good combo of the orange/tangerine and tea leaves. So there is no way he can promise anything 5)High Mountain 烏龍 tasted at a farm on the hills of a farm BUT the pineapple cake was only so so 好茶可遇不可求
ALL tea has some 炒作 in their success, you can claim 普洱 reached its fame through 炒作, BUT the many local competing teas do not know how to refine or improve the taste(hence the value) causing their own downfalls. I can sense the sour grape phenomenon here. Aging 普洱 CLEARLY improved its taste and smoothness which 云南 locals generally don't have the patience for. Similarly, in the Canton area, aged orange peel tastes much better than new orange peel in a similar way due to fermentation. "New" tea gives you a rush and excitement while aged tea gives you a soothing feel, healing your soul. One needs to learn how to find the best of the ingredients(in this case 普洱) rather than blindly claiming when the locals don't drink it, it is not good. In a part of Africa, NO locals will eat lobsters. But when butter is added, this cuisine will melt many Westerner's taste buds.