A customer sent me the link to the offering of 99 Da Du Gang from SunSIng and asked my opinion about this tea. It is undoubtedly, to me, one of the finest 99 among all the mighty 99 celebrities (Green Big Tree, Yi Chan Hao, etc.) However, I was puzzled by this offering as there appears to have no nei-fei and no nei-piao?
According to the Yearbook, there were two batches of the 99 Da Du Gang. You can easily tell them apart by the larger nei-piao (one in full Chinese, and the other in two languages) and the smaller nei-fei (one typical Chung Cha, and the other in all red letters). In general, the all-Chinese nei-piao one is considered the first ever batch.
If you like to dig deeper about this pu-erh, CloudTea has a wonderful article about the history of it.
I have never seen a batch without any nei-fei or nei-piao. Obviously, SunSing is a well-established tea house. So let me just say – I am not aware of such a batch.
