Mushroom and Tea Shop (聚福茶行) @ Tunxi Old Street, Huangshan City [China]

Tunxi Old Street was a notable attraction at Huangshan City, and our tour guide decided to make the shop of her relatives as a meet-up point given that there was a washroom which we can use, we can have some free tea inside and that it's alongside the main road.

I am a skeptical person by nature and I knew there's more to the story. The shop (聚福茶行) was the classic tea and mushroom shop sprouting all over the old street, claiming to sell quality products that hailed from the near Huangshan.

Typical of tourists on such tour packages, we had the tendency to arrive earlier so that we do not have to inconvenience others and by the time our family reached the shop, a majority of our tour mates had already arrived. 

Yes, we got our toilet break, and also our tea. To be fair, not those tea in a sachet; real tea leaves that were brewed and filtered, on a proper Chinese tea tray! 

That's when the marketing started; the origins of the tea, the benefits, the promotions. One of the most interesting product was a species of mushrooms called 松茸 that was said to be the king of mushrooms, and blessed with the nutritional power that was 20 times lingzhi! 

Interesting because you can just pour boiling water on the mushrooms, like what you do with tea leaves, and the taste was actually good; like drinking a clear, flavourful mushroom broth. I was keen to buy actually but there was a problem; it's super expensive; like a few hundred dollars a kilogram.

Now, I may love mushrooms but I am okay with cheaper mushrooms too! So, the 158 rmb per 500 grams 香菇 (about S$60 a kilogram) felt like a much better deal in my opinion!  

Despite buying the cheaper mushrooms, I looked longingly at the huge bags of 松茸 (it's actually known as the matsutake mushroom) in front of me; I mean... I can buy like a 100 grams so that it's not so damaging to my wallet... My family had to pull me away....

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黄山市屯溪区延安路48号

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