Talking to an anthropologist about tea culture changes

 

Some time back I first talked to an anthropology phd student researching tea culture, Thiago Braga, first about online or Western tea culture issues, and later about his research related to China.  Then we met with him and a Vietnamese tea vendor in an online meetup session, Steve of Viet Sun, (a few weeks prior at time of writing this draft, but that was months ago now).

Here I'll try to summarize a good bit of discussion across a lot of subject scope, since I think it would be interesting to others.  A lot of what we covered related to me sorting out what an anthropology research perspective amounts to, which will get less focus here, or next to none.  Since I've delayed posting this due to reviewing it further, then letting it hang, I'll mention how these ideas seem in looking back.

The parts about China are especially interesting, I suppose because we are still going through details of how Western uptake of tea culture themes go.  The research and writing about China is much more developed, in a final paper form, related to what Thiago has produced.  My impression and summary of that is still going to be partly wrong, because I could only do so much with specialized use of terms and arrangement of ideas, so this works better as a general impression than an accurate summary. 

His take, or my take on it, is that in modern Chinese society people take up specialized forms of tea interest, kind of corresponding to "tea enthusiast" practices elsewhere, in part to connect them to interesting forms of traditional society.  They take classes in "tea arts," to learn ceremonial brewing.  

It's partly a way to add more meaning to their lives, which may have been reduced by the standard modernization themes:  relocation to urban areas, emphasis on less traditional job and career advancement, consumerism / materialism tying to status concerns, modern hobby interests not necessarily being grounded in tradition (eg. online range).  Playing video games is fine, or participating in Chinese equivalents to Facebook and Twitter, but there would be a natural appeal to connecting with older forms of traditional culture that hold meaning in different ways.  Participating in traditional and ceremonial tea study and practice can support that.

At first I more or less rejected that this is a modern movement that seems valid or widespread.  I have experienced three main contact points with Chinese culture, beyond visiting China three times, which I won't count as that:  a few close family friends were Chinese families, I talk regularly with some Chinese producer and vendor contacts, and I did work projects that involved routine contact with Chinese companies and individuals (not so many, but the contact was significant).  From all that it's my understanding that traditional tea interest isn't ubiquitous in China, but it remains common enough, at least related to just drinking tea, but that uptake of the more limited special ceremonial forms is quite rare.  None of those family friends drank much tea, or had any special interest in the subject, but I suppose it matched the form and level of interest in coffee drinking in the US prior to Starbucks helping change that landscape slightly in the 90s.  They bought what was in grocery stores or local markets, and weren't familiar with much for tea types, even in a local range, but they still drank tea.

Thiago's interpretation of a movement in modern Chinese tea culture

Thiago saw more of another side of modern tea culture, one I wasn't familiar with.  "Marshal N," the tea blogger, has described tea practices in terms of people taking classes in tea background and tea preparation in Hong Kong in a Tea Addict's Journal, one of the absolute best and most influential Western blogs on the subject--it was like that.  It went even further, because Thiago described chains of these sorts of places offering not just information and classes but also certificates, passing on an accreditation that someone has learned tea background and ceremonial practice competency.  I guess this overlaps quite a bit with the "sommelier" oriented classes in "the West."  I hadn't heard of this, beyond blog posts mentioning training classes that didn't really sound like that.

Next one might consider how this may or may not be considered mainstream.  Probably not, if the idea is that uptake involves a significant percentage of the population.  Then that drops out as a special concern, in this case, because from his research defining cultural aspects and forms is about the range of potential perspectives within modern cultural development, not only what is most common.  It's no less valid for being somewhat rare, and probably no less interesting.  Conclusions about what it means might shift a little related to level of uptake, in the end, but maybe not even that so much.

It was a little frustrating at first trying to place how he was framing this interest (/ movement, form of practice, expression, and self-definition) in terms of it being a valid historical movement, if it really was based on historical cultural practices.  It just wasn't coming up as a concern.  Then it turns out that maybe that doesn't matter, depending on how and why you are doing the cultural review.  If ceremonial tea practices are presented as authentic, part of an old inherited tradition, then it's all a bit more genuine if it really is that, but a similar result occurs either way, related to the newer form of culture being influenced.  Then eventually it can be seen as dropping out as a concern, whether it traces back to earlier forms or not.  Surely some focus within anthropology study weights that kind of concern more than others, but it still makes sense to analyze the current forms, practices, ideas, and perspective separate from that accurate historical connection as an over-riding concern.  Maybe brand new, ungrounded forms of cultural expression are even more interesting, for some reason.

Thiago's use of the concepts of ethics and logic threw me off a little in that writing, related to being exposed to very narrow forms of those ideas in the past, in studying philosophy.  He actually referenced part of what I understood them to be, even tying aesthetic experience back to a Kantian framework in one section, but his use also clearly went beyond what was familiar.  It's easy to see how ethics could easily be extended beyond purely moral framework scope, and logic could be extended beyond a narrow range of rational cognitive functional scope.  It's just not as easy to follow that use implied within very formal academic paper presentation context.

Readers might be waiting for me to get back to basic themes; what does it all mean, if Chinese people try to redefine themselves in reference to older tea culture traditional experiential practice forms?  I guess it means whatever they take it to mean.  It's a little unsatisfying, but probably not as wrong as any other answer might be.  It's like philosophy classes never even starting in on the meaning of life, or logic classes never venturing towards claims for or against people actually being rational.  You just don't get that, the over-arching, final, context placement explanations.

From here I should let Thiago say a little (this just doesn't lead there; a review process didn't end in that), about whether I've misconstrued what he was getting at.  Of course I have left out the specifics he did describe about what Chinese people are taking that traditional tea culture to be.  It's the "cha dao" theme, the way of tea, with one other main term and description scope tying to one other broad practice range that I don't remember.  It never became as clear as it might have, in his paper, because it was never mostly about that anyway, just as much about how it all maps over to modern practice, the forms.  All that tea tradition background was treated at length, but the writing was more about how people seemed to be reacting to that base of ideas, not so much individually, but how sub-culture was being adjusted by the contact.  He never used the term "sub-culture," I don't think; maybe there's a reason why that's not something an anthropologist would reference, perhaps too imprecise a term, or regarded as an incorrect framing.

Then what Thiago identified as that ceremonial, traditional take in terms of the ideas being discussed was mostly familiar, but partly not.  Not as much sticks in my memory as usually might, because it's a review of the causes, impact, and effect of ideas and forms as much of as the ideas themselves, and I personally don't take all that traditional practice / historical stories range to mean all that much.  I don't care for tea drinking as a ceremonial practice, or try to collect devices to connect tea experience to that range of aesthetic interest.  What's left over is pretty much simple experience, and then a range of shared ideas about what that experience might mean that tend to not come up explicitly.  Let's go there, and draw on an example, switching back over to how tea culture and forms of interest map over in US culture, or to Western culture in general.

Western tea culture

I co-founded a large tea group, International Tea Talk, and serve as the only active admin / moderator for that group, along with a Chinese vendor who isn't active.  It works as a starting point to consider what it might mean for people to engage with an online group like that, to discuss background, forms of interest, types to explore, brewing practices, tea references, social experiences, and so on?  It's really just about pursuing those directions.  Then there must also be a degree of self-definition involved, as a "tea enthusiast."  Or a vendor, more frequently in that group, since commercial interest and participation as a producer or vendor is more common in that particular group.  That's part of tea culture, people making the products, and selling them, but there's a more natural central focus on the demand and final experience side.

That group had been about discussing tea forms and background, but now the Gong Fu Cha group on Facebook works as a much better example, or various Discord groups do, in a shared chat format.  That's how it goes with online groups; what is popular or active changes.  Eight years ago Tea Chat and Steepster were the two main places for such discussion, and now both are relatively completely inactive.

This leads to considering a parallel between Chinese people attempting to connect with an older form of their own culture, finding meaning in parts of their tradition that they didn't inherit directly from the influence of their parents and grandparents, or at least not in a complete form, and this foreign association.  Westerners must be seeking contact with foreign Asian culture, to some extent, beyond just liking the drink.  Or could it be mostly about only making a new beverage choice, and developing that food related interest form, exploring better tea?

This is especially interesting as a personal tangent, related to my own case, because technically I live within Asian culture, as a resident of Bangkok, and member of a Thai family.  But very few Thais drink tea, or at least embrace what I consider to be "tea enthusiasm."  A half dozen exceptions come to mind, but that number drops further when you remove everyone I know without commercial interests, that don't sell tea.  One local guy I know loves tea but doesn't sell it, and even he offers informative class sessions that he charges for.  So essentially every Thai I know, and almost every foreigner here into tea, takes up developed tea interest to earn income from it.  Ok then!  I suppose that's still a sub-culture form, it's just that the causal background shifts a little.  I may be confusing the matter here, and lots of people do discuss tea online without attempting to sell it, but past a certain point of developing knowledge and interest there is a natural trend to seek a compensation return, an income from the interest.

Related to my own impression of these ideas, about examining forms of cultural input more in terms of what people are seeking from ideas and drawing from them as forms, versus the actual content, it led to an interesting new way to look at Western tea interest.  Why is it happening, and just what is happening?  Again not much is happening, in relation to uptake in terms of numbers of people participating, but some limited degree of cultural borrowing and development is still occurring.  

I'm a part of that, not just in terms of experiencing it, but also as a cause, helping shape it.  I don't mean that as a claim of importance, as if a tea blogger or online group founder is what it's all about, instead as clarifying that those are two of many contact points with this cultural form, or range of forms.  Tea textbooks also would be, and tea classes, tea meetup groups, cafes, and so on.  The ideas are transmitted through blogs and texts, but really the practices seem like a more central part, to me.  At the very center of it all drinking an infusion of dried leaves play a main role, and that has to be a part of the contact, but it's hard to place the role the rest plays.

Later thoughts on personal interest forms in Western tea sub-culture 

That was where the initial draft left off, but I feel it hasn't captured what I kept re-thinking about those themes over time.  Why is it that some Westerners are very attracted to the idea and then practice of tea drinking?  It's just the same central question:  can that be reduced to the potential and later experience of the beverage experience itself, or is there more to it?

Again it seems to tie to an interest in Asian cultures.  Then that part is strange, because even in China tea drinking isn't as widespread as one might expect, but outside of there, and Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam tea drinking isn't common at all in Asia, in any form.  If the idea is to connect with a perceived form of general or specific Asian culture maybe that doesn't matter, just as it doesn't matter whether Chinese people studying "tea arts" are really connecting with an authentic earlier tradition or not.  There's a modern tradition to get in touch with, and the history doesn't necessarily matter, as much as commonly accepted interpretations and revised forms of that history.

Comparing that to forms of interest in tea, and groups of people who tend to share that interest, turns up a divide in approach points.  For sure there are "progressive" minded individuals who attempt to pair tea interest with religious pursuit, getting into Buddhism and tea ceremony, for example.  Global Tea Hut is an organization based around supporting that interest pairing.  That's far from the most mainstream form of American tea enthusiast approach, to the extent there even is such a unified theme (and there's not).  That doesn't necessarily matter though; it seems like the people open to tea experience might well be open to other aspects or facets of either that experience range or loosely connected range, themes like collecting teaware, ceremonial brewing practices, Asian religions, and martial arts.  

I might mention here that I've been interested in Buddhism for many years myself.  I was ordained as a Thai Buddhist monk at one point, and studied Buddhism and Taoism (and also Christianity) as religion and philosophy in two degree programs, just stopping short of getting a phD to support teaching.  I don't necessarily connect that to tea experience, but I'm definitely also on that page. 

The spread of tea interest connecting to Asian cultures isn't happening through the channels that you might imagine, for example that Chinese immigrants support local interest group formation, or hold ceremonial or simpler forms of tastings, coupled with selling tea.  That happens, for sure, and it was a main earlier channel for introducing tea to "the West," or the US, but now it's on to other types of groups and proponents playing a role.  Usually the driver is commercial, as it is here in Bangkok, with almost everyone promoting tea selling it, or at least selling tea oriented content or tasting event participation, or some forms of tours, and so on.  

I suppose this is exactly what one would expect, that many Westerners are now selling tea.  Blogs also promote tea themes, as this one does, but those tend to be temporary ventures into communicating shared interest, the kind of thing one might take up for a few years and let drop, whether the tea interest itself wanes or not.  Instagram profiles show off what individuals experience, even when they don't sell it; that's an updated replacement for the earlier text blog form.  There are tea clubs at some universities, but that kind of thing is a rare exception.  

Maybe I should bring up one form that relates to how most Western tea vendors got their start in China:  over and over the case of a white foreign man marrying a Chinese woman repeats.  Touchy stuff, just introducing that context.  I'm married to an Asian woman myself, just Thai instead.  I suppose focus on Asian themes was reinforced quite a bit by that context, and that's partly why I've been writing about tea for nine years, although the Buddhism studies came before that.  As I think through the number of foreign vendors I know in different places it's crazy how often that same form repeats.  A few guys are married to Asians from outside of China, and one favorite tea vendor is a Western woman who married an Asian guy, but that form as a driver of introduction and then developed interest might have played more of a role than any other factor in tea industry development.

Back to a running theme in the first part here, maybe that doesn't matter at all, how the cultural mixing actually happened, since the final concern is that it did happen.  Maybe if someone like Bruce Lee had been more interested in tea that would've rushed the process by a few decades.  Looked at this way it's interesting how tea is adopted by other cultures, but the pathway and triggering steps aren't necessarily critical.  Or that could seem very interesting and still not matter, with regards to the final form of uptake and expression.

I've had fascinating discussions about this with a main founder of the modern Russian tea tradition, Bronislav Vinogrodskiy, with some of that described here.  He approached tea interest from a relatively academic standpoint, combined with researching Taoism, and then helped convey practices from both back to Russian culture, switching to an unusual "practical" role.  That started in the early 1990s, surely no coincidence that was when the USSR ended, or maybe that was only a main turning point, with critical early steps before that.  He was involved with developing a "tea club" theme that took off, leading to commercial development of supply chains and outlets there.  That almost seems kind of backwards, right, developing the awareness and interest first, and then the sales foundation to support that?

His take is that conditions were right for that movement to develop then, that it wasn't anything novel he or others contributed that made the difference.  There was an openness to Asian cultural input, and tea and religious / philosophical ideas and practices helped develop that.  It's possible that he misunderstood the cause and effect sequences, but this still seems like a rare form of first hand insight, even if so.  And it seems likely to be mostly correct, that conditions were right for a triggering introduction, and foreign culture interest led the beverage choice change.  Russians had drank plenty of English style tea in the past, earlier on from India and Sri Lanka, later switching to production in Georgia (covered more here).  But later ceremonial forms and other types of tea interest developed right then, which was all completely different.

Judging from slow, incremental development of tea interest in the US and Europe maybe the conditions aren't similar.  Exposure and uptake of tea interest by any one individual needs to be more organic, developed from physically running across the conditions for tea experience, seeing it in a farmer's market and such.  There is one successful Tik Tok channel about tea, and lots of other isolated online examples, so that must help as a secondary cause.  But tea isn't "having a moment," and it seems like it won't, until causes and conditions shift slightly.  

I've been considering for years how I might help give those a nudge myself, and next year a new form of that might be possible.  Or maybe it will never happen until the right time somehow arises, the right cultural moment, as they experienced in Russia awhile back.  Tea could have adjoined that hipster subculture interest in craft goods a decade or more back, but it seemed like coffee filled almost all of that role instead.  I just wrote about discussing that subject with my brother, who feels that tea will never take up the same role in US culture that coffee already does.

As for next steps related to better identifying an anthropology oriented take on tea, I'm not sure.  If I discuss this further with Thiago and he clarifies which parts are way off I'll pass on a clarification here.  If his published work becomes publicly available I'll mention a link to that in a post. 

Lessons learned from tea business successes and failures

 

I'm not the most natural person to be writing on this topic, since I don't sell tea, or earn any income from writing about it, but as usual this topic came up in online conversation.  A few tea sales ventures that looked like they were definitely going to succeed ended up not working out, in spite of taking novel steps that poised their businesses to do so, and there are lessons to be learned from this. 

The main lesson, as I take it, which I communicated to an online friend developing a tea business, is to stick with it, to give the venture time to build up, and accept not making profits early on.  I think all of these examples of "failures" described here would have eventually been success stories if they had stuck with it.  Let's see though, by examining those cases, with the obvious limitation that I'm guessing about why these businesses didn't succeed in time to continue.  The vendors didn't tell me the reasons, even though I did talk to two of them a little about that subject.

A few opposite examples of success stories are included at the end, not so much to contrast approach, but really just to show how similar approaches can work with either a bit more background work foundation or more time allowance to build up a business.

Temple Mountain Tea:  

This vendor made a great tea reference, a tea flavor wheel, so many years before the Australian Tea Master's group made their own quite good version.  It's this one:

Their last Facebook page post was in 2014, so they were there pretty early for this latest round of ramping up of specialty tea interest (much as that goes by distinct cycles).  Just for timeframe reference Phyll Sheng's blog (not his real name?) was active from 2006 to 2007, back when Marshal N was getting started in blogging, which I take to be one of the earliest online documented specialty tea interest "waves."  He posted some again in 2016 and 17.

We might speculate that they were starting early enough that uptake was limited.  I don't know though; maybe as awareness and demand ramps up vendor market entry does too, and maybe that was as good a time as any to get into vending.  The unique point here is that this vendor at least took time to make a great practical tea reference, and then later didn't keep on with tea vending.  They were probably busy doing something else; tea businesses are often set up as a side interest.

Tea Setter:

Again the theme here is that a vendor took a very promising and successful novel approach, only to see that not work out in terms of business longevity.  This vendor, a business owned by Matt Kitchen, reached out to the blogging community and was very well promoted by a lot of online posts back when they were active.  Here is an example, a Tea For Me Please post, or this one tops a Google search for the vendor name.  As the vendor name indicates they were promoting sales of teaware and also loose tea, with a shu pu'er being reviewed in that post (oddly not referenced as sheng or shu, but that can happen, especially back in 2013, before a standard list of details about versions became more customary).

So what went right, and wrong?  Tea theme issues or vendor mentions have always came and went in tea blog and tea group discussion circles, and this vendor was the talk of those right around then.  It seemed a great way to gain promotion.  Most of that talk was positive, with some reviews less positive about a shu version tasting a bit fishy, if I remember right.  I doubt that was any singular reason for this vendor dropping the theme (assuming they have, but the vendor name being Google-proof definitely implies that, beyond those reviews).  

I would guess that patience for the business to become profitable to a certain level was more of a concern, since tea demand would've been limited, as is still true today.

Lots of vendors across a broad time period have made good use of social media forms to promote awareness of their brand, I just don't remember any one of them generating this much positive buzz at one given time.  Tea related social media was more limited and consolidated back in 2013, so it would be hard to get the same proportion of online tea community attention today, for the forms and channels being a lot more diverse.  Bloggers seem to not have the influence that they once had, and my own blog gains far less readership than it did two or three years ago.

Tea Journeyman:

This example would be familiar to anyone active in online tea discussion at that time period (Kevin's review posts ran from 2013 to 2018, with the business active in a narrower window between those times).  It was a competent and well-developed blog, and a mature and well-formatted tea business attempt.  Kevin took training courses to support background knowledge, so he could've made some sort of sommelier / expert / master claim, but given how those tend to be received in the tea industry he mentioned that without overextending a related status claim.

My review of a Satemwa Malawai white tea version sold by the Tea Journeyman indicated that business had closed by 2015.  I had bought a Harendong Indonesian tea from him then too, which should indicate how trendy the vendor sources he was carrying was, since both were very well regarded.  Harendong must still make great tea, but again the buzz about new and interesting types, origins, and producer sources keeps changing over time, and those were "hot" back then.

Given how much I respected Kevin's blog content and his business approach I don't want to add too much speculation here about what parts worked and what didn't.  I'll cite his own 2018 explanation a little related to putting time into a tea interest and move on:

Yes, the tea reviews have been few and far between lately here. Life gets busy sometimes, and unfortunately taking time to prepare reviews is not always a priority.

I remembered there being more to that; maybe I was remembering a reference from his "about me" section as combined:

Other personal notes: I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Accounting from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. I am a licensed agent/broker of property, casualty, life, accident, and health insurance in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Jersey. I also hold the Certified Insurance Service Representative designation through the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research, and earned the Certified Insurance Counselor designation in 2018 through the same organization. 

So he had career objectives to focus on around the time he stopped blogging, and maybe family or other obligations as well.  It may have been great for him if a tea business could've "blown up" in short order, but a recurring theme here is that it takes dedication, time, and a long view to make a tea business work.  He was really active from 2013 into early 2015 but it's still not long, probably less than two years of business attempt.

And that's already most of the story, about tea vendors who experienced interesting and positive successes, but not eventual business success.  I wanted to contrast those with three other vendors who have lasted through the long haul, very successful businesses, in order to guess at what differentiated them.

Yunnan Sourcing:

It's not really a fair comparison, referencing one of the most successful Western vendors there is. I think there is good insight into business perspective and developing a tea business background step by step in his Scott Wilson's example though.  This Tea Epicure post (surely formerly World of Tea) blog post by Tony Gebely tells part of that story:

...I came to Yunnan in 1998 and just fell in love with the place, especially the tea and the food. In 2004, I got fed up with being in the states and decided to pursue my dream of living in China and doing something with tea... 

We have a tea room in the Kunming Wholesale tea market. It is a place solely to drink tea. We have a library of more than 600 pu-erhs that are available to try! Our eBay store is our only online presence at the moment. Most business is conducted outside of eBay. In fact, individual customers with small orders can contact me directly and get at least 10% (or more) off the retail price. We will open yunnansourcing.com and yunnansourcing.us before the end of 2009. The latter site will feature products that will ship from the USA instead of China...

So Scott took five years to build a business from an onsite presence in a main Chinese tea market, up to an Ebay store, and then finally onto China and US based sales sites and businesses, only after that.  In writing about talking with an even earlier pioneer of tea sales, David Lee Hoffman, I cited a tea blog post that looks to include an image of Scott in that market in 2008, but it's not labeled as such.

Of course it's not really fair to go back and select one of the most successful tea vendors and then say a narrow set of inputs led to that success, when luck, or good timing, or any number of other factors could've came into play.  To me the success seemed to relate to putting the right work in, over time, but that's just a personal read on it.  In retrospect there was a gap in China based sales options that didn't extend to "the West." Moving to China is a bit extreme; of course I'm not implying that's the appropriate or essential level of commitment and input.

What Cha:

To me this is a positive success story, about a vendor starting out at almost exactly the same time as the Tea Setter and Tea Journeyman business, drawing on almost exactly the same business theme as the Tea Journeyman, probably matching products back then in many cases.  I'm pretty sure this vendor followed a pattern of carrying teas I reviewed not so long after I posted about them some years back, but really why not use blogger references as sourcing leads?

Their "about us" page adds detail about their theme:

I started What-Cha in 2014 with the goal of sharing my love of tea and it's incredible diversity and unique taste with others.  I wanted What-Cha to be different and unique from other tea stores and to serve both the tea producers and consumers.  To that end, I have tried to abide by the following principles:

Unique Sourcing:  It is my belief that too many companies rely on a small pool of wholesalers from whom to source their teas from. This is negative for consumers who find a lot of the tea stores selling identical teas to each other and a huge problem for tea producers who are forced to give large discounts to wholesalers due to their negotiating power derived from how much of the tea market they control.

This is why I have chosen to source all my teas direct from the producer where possible... 

This is exactly what Kevin Craig of the Tea Journeyman business was doing, and a founding principle for Tealet, and so on, a very common theme.  This makes perfect sense, only one step extended beyond producers venturing into selling tea directly.  Execution is everything; they made it work, which probably took a lot of doing.  For being based in Britain Brexit must have been something of a business nightmare for them, but they're still around, surely making adjustments as necessary.

Alistair, the owner, mentions a commitment to keeping pricing low in that vision summary; let's check that with a benchmark version, Jun Chiyabari teas from Nepal.

This What-Cha NEPAL JUN CHIYABARI 'HAND-ROLLED TIPPY' OOLONG TEA lists for 12 British pounds per 50 grams, now on sale for 10.80, which converts to $14.28 USD.  That is pretty good for that tea, or even the $15.86 cost prior to sale seems pretty fair.  

How can I really support that, that the value sounds good to me?  Another US vendor outlet (and favorite online contact / friend, their manager Peter) Trident Bookseller and Cafe lists what I would bet is a really exceptional Nepal black tea selling at a great value, so we can use that as a baseline:

Nepal Needles, Kanchenjungha tea estate in Eastern Nepal, $7.50 per ounce.

That works out to be just under $15 per 50 grams, since two ounces equates to 56.7 grams; roughly the same.  That Trident version:

I'm not sure that value necessarily means more in relation to business success than the many other factors that come into play:  branding, marketing, product range and quality, unique offerings versus standard product listings, active social media exposure versus just running ads, and so on.  Quality and value are relevant considerations for customers though.

Tea Mania:

This is a really interesting business example, and a vendor I've ordered tea from a few times, with an owner I've actually met (only once, if it matters).  Their sheng pu'er selection seems about as good a quality and value as anything in that range selling online.  Let's unpack their approach, background, and business theme a bit.

This is a Switzerland based online-only vendor, which started out as a Thai tea outlet.  That subject is pretty familiar; lots of people visit producers here and notice that pricing is quite low for wholesale level volumes.  His website shop looks pretty good; that part can't hurt.  Early on he was developing a Teapedia site, which still exists, and interesting endeavor that was really more about expressing his own interest and developing broad awareness than serving as a promotion tool.  

And this is where the standard business development story varies:  Peter Pocajt (the owner) went on sourcing trips in China and Japan to learn more about types and to expand his product range.  That's taking a long view, putting that kind of effort and expense in, but per my understanding his personal interest in tea allowed it to double as a vacation experience.  In discussing this business theme with him just a little he said the initial ramp-up was really slow, so patience also played a big part.  The business isn't a main revenue source, which led other business owners to let it drop once the return didn't come early, but Peter took that the other way, as a good reason to keep making changes and try harder.

A bit of an aside, some of the key red flags related to describing teas and marketing context are glaring in his product descriptions.  I'll focus on two:  almost all of his sheng are described as gushu material, and said to be produced by a local "tea master," Master Panda.  Ordinarily that's reason enough to not even try the products, since at least 9 out of 10 outlets exhibiting those warning signs are selling pretty random versions of teas, probably not really realizing which parts or those stories are true and which are made up.  Here's the thing though, if we set aside that problematic "master" designation if you go to Yunnan, as Peter did, you could meet people who are part of old tea traditions, who are very adept at making tea versions.  It's better to never include that one concept in claims, but it could translate over from something less loaded and unlikely to be nonsense from a Chinese language.

There is an interview post about Panda's background on Peter's site; he moved from another region in China to start making tea in 2004, and learned under the kind of teacher that might more naturally wear that kind of label, if it ever makes any sense.

Panda is on the right; I think I can guess that nickname origin

As an example about that "master" designation, a tangent within a tangent, my "family monk," who I lived with for over two months while ordained as a Thai monk, I have no real role definition for.  The concept "master" is probably the one that applies most, I just don't use it.  From there "teacher" is second best, but he never taught me all that much, because even though I lived with him and spent all my time with him back then, and try to visit often now, he never taught me that much, because of the language divide.  Someone else might just take the leap and say that's their Buddhist master, but I really think of him as extended family, as a beloved but slightly formal uncle.

a pandemic era temple visit; must've been a dip in exposure for an event to be held

10 years ago; he can't touch Kalani, for being female, but he always liked visiting with both

getting accustomed to Thai traditions while young

Back to Tea Mania, I don't know how the gushu / plant age / natural growth origin claims work out in relation to any of their teas (which they discuss a little in that interview; many aren't presented as that, instead as shengtai or arbor origin teas).  Maybe the origin type descriptions are just nonsense, almost entirely wrong, or maybe it's entirely accurate, and good local contacts are enabling buying pretty good, high demand tea material from modest demand local areas, without pushing on to the typical $1/gram final cost range.  Maybe the material is quite mixed; that's possible.  To me the teas are good, distinctive and clearly high in quality, which is the main thing. 

I can't distill their case to a "lessons learned" summary; I'm just describing parts of it.  It seems to me like sticking with it and escalating business effort and input instead of dropping it all in relation to early limited demand and profit return was the main key, but maybe that's not exactly right.

Related to one subject that keeps repeating here, to me an example of a current trial in progress for online exposure is represented by the vendor-specific Discord groups.  I'm registered to participate in two, hosted by Farmerleaf and Liquid Proust.  It's a little less straightforward than actively discussing tea in Tea Chat and Steepster, and sending bloggers some samples, but it might be a current effective approach, even though activity level at both of those seems moderate.  The running theme in this post was that there is no magic bullet though, that any one highly effective outreach tool can be very helpful, but all the conditions really need to come together, typically requiring support of extended time for positive business influences and consumer awareness to build up.

Tea vendor bias and group identification

 

Sergey Shevelev in the Moychay Amsterdam shop

I had mentioned talking about tea vendor perspectives in a meetup session summary post, about appreciation for or bias against Moychay by Russian tea enthusiasts.  I'll go into more on that here, reviewing how I see cases of vendor support or negative impressions.  I think it might have more to do with embracing shared group perspective and association than what one might take to be more intuitive inputs, about range of selection, best quality offerings, or about value issues.

Alex said that the further along tea awareness exposure among Russians you go, relating to people with more developed preference and awareness, they tend to have a more negative opinion of Moychay.  But why?  It could be because they are better informed to judge, but that's not what Alex added as his main take.  He thought it's because as a vendor grows, gains a lot of exposure, and seems more "corporate" opinions naturally become more divided on them, including significant negativity.  To interpret that a little, it could be that tea "beginners" appreciate supporting introductory content, and haven't yet sorted into preference related groups.

We can see that in cases like Yunnan Sourcing and Mei Leaf, although maybe there's not a direct parallel to the layers of controversy surrounding Mei Leaf.  Or maybe we can set aside problems with plant age claims, exaggerated descriptions, and that one glitch related to branding through a Native American cartoon image, and perspective issues might start to match back up across vendors again.

I've noticed myself being more critical of Don Mei's content than may be justifiable (explained at length related to causes and limitations in this post).  In some cases his Youtube content contains minor gaps or errors, but even when a number of statements aren't wrong, but aren't clearly objectively right either, and that's all presented as background to sell a specific tea version, it seems a bit dodgy to me.  It could be like that with Sergey (the Moychay owner), that people are overly sensitive of tone in presentation, suspecting that a lot of the range is as much indirect marketing as it is genuine background content.  

Back to Don, I'll cite an example to place what I mean.  In one post about a Rou Gui he mentioned how the link between that type and cinnamon flavor--what Rou Gui translates as--is often overstated, that it doesn't necessarily taste like that.  Some do taste like cinnamon, or cassia, and some don't.  But if he had said exactly that it would be providing good background information content that could support selling the version he was discussing (which didn't taste like cinnamon), but as I interpreted his statement he implied Rou Gui just doesn't really taste like cinnamon, which is wrong.  Then probably if he had been selling a version that happened to include that flavor the opposite would have been emphasized.  Maybe I'm wrong about that; I tried to look up that video to re-watch it to evaluate that again, but I'm pretty sure that video has been deleted.  He did upload another on judging Rou Gui and Wuyi Yancha (Wuyishan area "rock oolong"),  but it's not the one I'm mentioning.

In that second video on judging Wuyi Yancha quality most of his ideas seem fine, it's just not how I would put similar interpretations.  He doesn't really get into mouthfeel and aftertaste as considerations, which to me leaves a lot out in terms of describing what people experience and value.  Complex flavor is part of it too, and I tend to frame descriptions a little differently than he would, but I can't say that he's wrong about what he said in that.  

There is an intensity and hard to describe character to good Wuyi Yancha that isn't exactly about flavor, feel, or aftertaste, but spans those.  I see it as a liqueur like or perfume like fragrant and aromatic quality, which comes across and balances differently in different versions.  His take is more about a long flavor list occurring, including subtle flavors, which is ok.  Different people can focus on different things, flavors really can be complex, and they do tend to transition over rounds, further complicating things.  People new to tea do tend to focus on flavor as the main experience, which never completely drops out later, but it's often seen as only part of what one is experiencing.

It's interesting how Yunnan Sourcing avoids this particular range of objection by Scott (the owner) not really using Youtube content as marketing, and erring on the side of limiting written product description of teas, just saying a little to give a bit of sense of what they are.  There's a good chance that half of his Yunnan Sourcing Fans Facebook group--which kind of is a sales tool, but a different subject, since Scott isn't really active there--aren't familiar with his Youtube content, because they just don't emphasize it.  

Different people do pass on thoughts on teas there in that group, so that's not different and could support sales, and marketing could still be the main point of the Youtube product description videos.  Part of this point relates to Yunnan Sourcing having 6000 subscribers on their Youtube channel, compared to 3900 members in that Facebook group; just promoting videos there would surely add to that viewership and follower count, but they don't do that.

Scott Wilson (of YS) making light of image issues, through a "caption this" contest, as I see this

Mei Leaf has almost 90,000 Youtube followers, and Sergey Shevelev of Moychay has 105,000.  Mind you I see nothing wrong with vendors producing tea background content to serve as both marketing and information for customers, and others.  It promotes the industry and general awareness, in addition to one vendor's products.  Everyone else selling or promoting tea should be grateful that both are successful at it.  

The point here is that in developing a lot of content, and being successful in gaining a following, even without self-promoting as a tea expert a vendor would automatically seem to take up the mantle of being an authority, one step towards being a "tea master."  To me it seems to help a little if there is less marketing angle and they are de-emphasizing their own reference content, as Yunnan Sourcing seems to.  William of Farmerleaf strikes a really great balance; nothing in their Youtube background information material seems geared towards sales, more just on background, but of course it could still support sales in that form.  He has 6000 subscribers too, as YS does; you can make of that what you will.

I can't really offer any opinion about most of Moychay's video content, related to that factor of balancing general information and promotion, because I've only seen a half dozen of their videos, mostly geared towards a Western audience, the translated versions.  It seems sales emphasis neutral, but there could be indirect marketing concerns with the more viewed Russian videos, for all I know, with that content open for critique.  It's sort of a slippery slope.  One might say that Wuyi Yancha is good, and then that this particular version is, and then that you should buy this through our shop.  It takes a deft touch to offer informative background but to not take the last step, so that it doesn't feel like watching an ad.

Alex's point that people are just going to be divided makes sense.  

Next one might consider whether or not there are broad quality or value issues that could trigger negative reactions from some Russian tea enthusiasts.  I'm not sure.  Moychay's product quality and value don't seem so different than Yunnan Sourcing's, to me; pretty good in general, covering a lot more range than is normal for standard vendors.  Some is exceptional, above average tea selling at a great value, or representing really novel offerings, with other examples just kind of normal related to all that.  Eventually a below average quality or value product might turn up from any source.  

For teas that are completely unique it can be hard to identify value, for brand new types, hybrid style versions, or rare aged teas.  For example, this yellow tea from Khosta, Krasnodar region, 2021 sells for $20 for 100 grams.  Sounds kind of low to me, but who knows, it might also depend on how well it turned out.  I doubt that there is a second yellow tea from that Russian area being produced to set a market value, not that I would know if there was.  I tried a yellow tea from Mississippi last year, from Jason McDonald's farm, which listed for $14 per ounce (50 cents a gram instead of 20), but production overhead in the US would probably be much, much higher, and the tea could be better, or the target audience could vary.

The main opinion expressed about Mei Leaf is that their tea is good, which is the main thing, but that value isn't very good, that you could get the same quality level of products elsewhere for less.  Then some Mei Leaf fans reject that last part, seeing the teas as unique and positive enough for above average level pricing to be fair.  A sub-theme about people liking or disliking Don Mei almost eclipses whether or not his teas are good, or a good value, as discussed in this Facebook group thread.

Where am I going with all this?  How vendors present themselves and end up being perceived is an interesting theme to me, especially related to forms and causes.  My final take may be way off, that people are really looking for a way to self-identify and connect with others in a lot of cases, even though they may or may not see it that way, framing their own outlook as a normal shopping perspective.

Group identification related to tea vending

For one particular reason I think Mei Leaf probably doesn't get fair treatment, in retrospect, maybe even from what I've communicated, even though I think their tea is probably generally overpriced too.  I think Don "rubbing people the wrong way" as a video persona factors in a lot.  I don't think Scott Wilson of Yunnan Sourcing gets too beat up online, but it seems like any successful vendors can easily become targets for criticism, justified or not.  Maybe justifiably so?  A bit of pushback here and there might keep them honest.  Reddit comment discussion sometimes tends to go a couple steps beyond that.  Scott did get involved with a messy discussion issue there once, but then that's Reddit for you, not much better than Twitter for sometimes being harsh.  

That's only half the story though.  People love Don Mei more than seems justified too, clear from that Facebook group post I mentioned:

*In Mei Leaf's most recent video*

Commenter: "Why does the Facebook Gong Fu Cha goup hate you so much?"

Don: "🤷‍♂️ Maybe I would dislike myself if I was on the outside"

Lololol I don't buy Mei Leaf teas because of shipping costs, but I love Don so much.

I guess that he loves Don because of his sense of humor?  I'm not sure that comment was offered as humorous.  The comments there talk about appreciation for his teas, his online content, and for him being an interesting and charismatic person, the part that people are divided over.

I think group inclusion is the extra component that's not as evident.  Why would almost 4000 people join a Facebook group to talk about tea from one vendor (Yunnan Sourcing Fans)?  To be fair Q & A discussion does go better there than in most places, but cutting off discussion at one vendor's selections seems limiting.  Why are there lots of vendor specific Discord servers now, with varying degrees of engagement?  I only belong to Farmerleaf's and Liquid Proust's, because I was just checking those out more than participating, since I wouldn't have anything to add for not being a regular customer for either.

Moychay's tea clubs theme is something else, but it connects.  That adds in drinking tea in a setting that goes a long step beyond a cafe for being decorative and establishing a vibe, and it supports a more ceremonial take on tea experience.  All the same it is also shifting individual tea experience to social experience.  

this is more a tasting area than a club, but Moychay's club theme is an interesting subject

The online group case is more interesting to me though, because then it's reduced to being abstract, having more to do with self-definition and text message discussion contact than real life.  Or the "main" Discord group, Communitea, is big on voice / audio based meetups; I guess that's more in the middle.

In a podcast comment discussion someone once mentioned being "on team Xiaguan," not just saying that they like Xiaguan, but emphasizing how that put them in a group.  To me that's odd, even though that form of expression comes up more and more now.  Podcast creators tend to lean into this social dynamic, making their audience feel like part of a group, by establishing specialized use of slang, or even a nickname for group members (as "teaheads" is used).  Theo Von and Chris Delia are good examples of comedians using this form.  Oddly on one Reddit subforum Joe Rogan podcast followers connect and unify related to seeing Joe Rogan as an idiot, reveling in dumb things he says, or making fun of him for using steroids, for being short, or for his anti-vaxer position.  It still works, I guess, it just seems backwards, unifying as fans connected by partial dislike.

Vendors could make use of this, the positive part, right?  That's essentially what the Discord groups represent.  It's not negative really; to the extent someone wants to feel like they are a part of something for liking Don Mei's teas, or those from Yunnan Sourcing, Moychay, Farmerleaf, and so on, that's fine, and it really is also about sharing information.

Next more experienced and older tea enthusiasts might look down on all that, and see it as silly how younger and newer participants cling to odd forms of association.  But it happens in more subtle ways across a broad spectrum, even when people don't feel a need to formalize the link.  If someone loves Essence of Tea, Teas We Like, Tea Encounter, or Hou De you won't tend to hear about it, but there's no reason why someone couldn't value "being in the know" in a similar form, just with less post comments for interaction.  Without even taking up the external role as an elite, experienced, "higher" form of tea enthusiast the more subtle social role as isolated participant may still be regarded as meaningful.  Not joining a group or talking about it could be seen as just following a different code:  those who talk don't know, and those who know don't talk.

Let me pass on a thought that ties to this, that might clarify it.  To an extent I get the impression that some more introverted expats--foreigners living abroad, somehow implied as higher in status level than "immigrants"--like the social role because it defines them as different, and as being a certain way, without any need for setting that up or interacting.  Just being white is a stereotype, where in the US you need to pair that with class / economic status to make a start, and then it still doesn't go far, and you also have to add political affiliation.  Here in Thailand, where I live, foreigners are respected but also disliked a little, seen as quirky and odd but likely to be intelligent, and interpreted as probably having questionable morals, related to paying for romantic relationships.  It's not quite that simple, but basically you are a type, just for being white.  Let's set aside how that would go for other races; that's not the point.

The point is that stereotyping, and to some extent group inclusion, is almost freely granted, and some people seem to value that.  In tea groups you just need to adopt shared perspective, which isn't quite as easy, but which may not be very difficult.  

Tied to Mei Leaf support expressing or just feeling that "I love Don" is more than enough; you're in, even without buying the tea, as that guy explicitly stated in that post.  As a Yunnan Sourcing fan you just need to have placed one order, and to have liked one tea version, and to express intention to keep going.  If you want to feel at home among 10+ year experience tea snobs on Tea Forum--no offense intended; those people are nice--it's not quite so simple, but parroting what others say goes a long way.  In the Gong Fu Cha Facebook group you just need to buy a gaiwan, and to be looking into yixing, or post any photo of drinking tea outside.  R/tea on Reddit isn't a unified social group, but posting a picture of a half dozen boxes of grocery store tea-bag tea in a cabinet will draw at least 100 upvotes.

Why are we like this, group oriented to a strange degree?  With me included, surely.  An online contact put it well in a Quora answer about how social interaction is evolving: 

There's a broad emphasis on smaller and more detailed clustering, which in turn relies on people having a firmer sense of self and on them defining themselves in certain ways. We assign ourselves to many categories which are smaller and more specific than perhaps they've been in the recent past.

Right! A half dozen years ago people might group together in relation to tea interest, but that has pushed down to which teas people like now, or how they brew and experience them, and on further to which vendor sources of those teas they prefer.  Embracing or rejecting someone with a high profile online as an information source, or sub-culture leader, is just an extension of that.  

there's nothing wrong with combining being charismatic and informative, as So Han does

People can even now unify, to an extent, in relation to shared dislikes, not just personal associations and likes.  So this seems to be the last component of the negative mixed feelings related to many tea vendors; it's attractive to dislike a lot of things, and even to identify through that.  It automatically places you above that subject or person, for looking down on them.  If you dislike Dave Chappelle for making transgender jokes that identifies you as more sensitive to minority perspective than him.  If you can criticize the people who make that criticism, for being "woke," then you are implied to have a broader view of how social commentary works than they do.  Even not liking a movie can place you socially.

Never taking up these kinds of connections and oppositions would be a very reasonable and functional option.  But then there wouldn't be that much to talk about on social media, so that perspective would tend to not be expressed, or wouldn't seem interesting if it was.  There's normally a strong inclination to like or dislike things, to agree or disagree with ideas, so remaining neutral isn't so simple.  It's natural to react, and to place yourself in relation to that kind of perspective.

William Osmont of Farmerleaf

Vendor promotion through social media channel creation

 

First published in TChing here.

I've mentioned a very successful pioneering case of social media channel creation before, the Yunnan Sourcing Fans Facebook group.  This post is focused on that kind of thing, versus a vendor creating good information content that can support sales in a recent post.  Of course any given vendor can do both; Farmerleaf is a good example of that, with only the content creation really clearly successful so far.

the feel of those groups is familiar, but the functional structure is a bit limited

The prompt for talking about this is being invited to a Farmerleaf Discord server (group), and hearing a nice audio interview there with a friend, Anna of Kinnari Tea, about development issues in Laos.  There are other vendor-specific tea-related groups there.  I don't buy enough Farmerleaf tea to talk about them in a group, or enough of any one vendor's tea (except maybe Moychay; they send me more than average for review).  I suppose that's one drawback, that a premise for participation is based on consuming a lot of one vendor's products.  Some people do that, or maybe even only buy tea from one source.

What other channel forms are out there?  Vendors using open form social discussion themed channels for promotion tends to be heavily restricted and moderated, for obvious reasons.  In the Facebook group I run, International Tea Talk, mostly populated by vendors, content about products is allowed but not explicit sales information.  For whatever reasons it's hard for vendors to adjust to talking about their products without moving on to sales range (mentioning a special, emphasizing contact information, utilizing marketing content that looks like obvious marketing content--ads).  Discussing background in other types of social media settings is an option, it would just require carefully working around restrictions.  Adagio created and hosted Tea Chat, really the former main old-style tea forum, but activity dropped off when they tried to play a more direct role in leveraging that for marketing.  Way off; one part of that upset some of the forum members so much that they created a spin-off forum, Tea Forum.

But what else, like Discord, or that Facebook group?  A Facebook page can work for a contact point, or providing information, but it wouldn't provide the same function.  Crimson Lotus has been developing a cool variation on these themes, doing a podcast series on Youtube.  They're a pu'er vendor (mainly), so it might be a conflict to have another similar pu'er vendor as a guest (eg. the Bitterleaf or Yunnan Sourcing guys), but even that might still work.  It's not as if their customers don't know about source options.  One episode had the Liquid Proust vendor Andrew Richardson on; he sells pu'er, but the business theme is a little different.  Making a podcast work can be hit and miss, but it would work to have really interesting people on, and do a good job of asking the questions people would want to hear answers to, just the basics.  It's quite indirect as marketing goes, and not so interactive, but live streaming versus posting edited video can give it a little more of that feel.

What else?  Due to covid lots of forms of online seminars and conferences are turning up; participating as a speaker could work.  This really assumes that the vendor has something to say beyond "I sell such and such tea."  Not all vendors are further through a learning and experience curve than an average social media group participant.  Someone having been to a tea production area in China--or anywhere--only one time could be used for all its worth; it would be enough.  Elyse of Tealet seems to do both seminar style events and informal streaming group talks, all really seeming more social than business-networking oriented.

I recently participated in a small Malaysian vendor holding an online meetup session to discuss this issue, hosted by Bigfuller Foong (his profile name), what would work for marketing or sales approach in the new business and social climate.  We didn't get so far.  Related to his own tea business he was expanding tea types, embracing a new Japanese tea interest there, and exploring cold brewing, so sharing that online could indirectly lead to sales.  The point related to this theme is that even without a group or channel base online video meetups could fulfill a similar function, with people networking to set up contacts to join those in any way that works.  He was doing more conventional tea enthusiast meetups too, not just talking among vendors and tea professionals.

Rather than arriving at approaches, in that discussion, we ended up discussing the context, how tea perspectives and very local cultures vary.  It makes a huge difference where you are and what you are trying to sell.  That Malaysian vendor was trying to move beyond the most conventional and in-demand Chinese teas that are popular there.  Another prospective vendor in Sydney, Australia was considering how to initiate and develop a Gongfu practice sub-culture there similar to what she had experienced in Austin, Texas.  It could work, it would just take some doing.  A one to one mapping of interest form and perspective might not work, actually, but with the right approach a similar theme and practices might be adapted.

One theme that often comes up:  it's a real challenge to try to replicate the effect of in-person tastings online.  Of course related to the main end-point you just can't, handing over someone tea to try.  You can mail it, but that still skips the brewing part.  A novel initiative combining training and online group tasting themes sold tasting sets and allowed participants to try a variety of Japanese teas together, a set they sold prior to the meetings, along with content presentation and discussion (the Tea Creative Japanese Tea Marathon).  That's different.

these online meetups used to be more about sharing tasting experience

No matter what the approach is it seems critical to identify a point of connection.  Going after existing customers who already have the existing product interest could be a challenge, given some sources have already taken steps to solidify a relationship with their customer base.  There would have to be an angle, something new to offer.  Regardless of channel format or approach if a vendor is sharing their own passion for a tea type that could help, some of it would come across.  

To my limited awareness--which must be missing more than I've caught word of--Yunnan Sourcing is the only success case in setting up a really active channel, on par with a main social media group for activity level, that ties back to developing sales so far.  Many others have had some success but aren't quite there yet (excluding podcast and seminar cases, many of which may have been successful, and I wouldn't know for not really following any).  A number of Discord channels could change that in short order, with those already in existence now.

To switch over to fortune-telling mode it seems likely that vendors who can provide the best source-neutral content and develop a shared-interest community theme will be most successful.  In one sense that's the opposite of the Yunnan Sourcing case; you can't even mention another vendor in that FB fan group.  To cite a possible example, once pandemic impact settles a bit doing local events could link together online connections and a meeting in real life theme, which would be helpful for an experiential subject like tea.  Now only vendor-neutral groups fill this kind of space, as far as I'm aware, usually local area themed.  A vendor being open to broadening discussion restrictions in running such a group could work, or just shifting what YS is doing to include real-life contact scope might, keeping that scope restriction.  That's back to the theme that most successful vendor I mentioned uses, Moychay using shop based tastings and events as a very successful tool to promote awareness, just using social media contact as a catalyst.

a Chinese IT vendor hosted a tea ceremony that helped me get started into tea

I'm guessing this, that a vendor hosted but vendor-neutral approach might work in the long run, because few other sources will be able to match the single-source loyalty of Yunnan Sourcing.  Related pu'er-themed vendors might, outlets like Crimson Lotus or Liquid Proust, or maybe even Bitterleaf, but somehow this group contact function doesn't seem to match with the White 2 Tea theme, to me.  

It's nice how this sort of function can seem to work out based entirely online (maybe in part now since so many people are stuck in isolation).  The main Discord tea community, Communitea, successfully shifts old forum style and FB / Reddit post comment discussion connection to a number of chat channels instead, covering some of the scope that had occurred in real life or through private messages.  It's promising.  All sorts of meetup circles seem to be initiating from lots of different starting points.

That Farmerleaf Discord server / group may mix vendor promotion and community / awareness themes, or it might not take, and limited early activity isn't a clear indication either way.  It's interesting how that location and form invokes gaming and tech interest, just related to being there, and to some extent excludes more people than it includes (like Reddit group sub-culture patterns, which can be rough).  Then it's odd thinking through how other permutations might work, how other social media channel biases might combine or prevent combination with a tea shared interest theme.  Communicator app versions, like Slack or Snapchat groups, might have as much potential as other forms, and for sure those forms will keep evolving.

Tea references

 

First published in TChing here.

Four years ago I wrote a beginner's guide to tea themes post that included a reference section.  Someone just mentioned a good reference on oxidation (a Tea Geek blog post), a source listed in that, and it made me reconsider what I had left out, or what has changed since.

Most of what usually gets mentioned isn't bad.  If you ask in a tea group--which I see, for moderating one--people will bring up blogs like the ones mentioned in that post, or the Global Tea Hut magazines, or a few Youtube channels.  I'll only cover what is new, or that I didn't include there, at least for the most part.  Mei Leaf and Hojo vendor content both aren't bad beginner references, but both contain errors and marketing bias, as I see it.  All vendor produced content doubles as marketing, so it's probably that part of that context bothers me more than that it's different from other sources I am mentioning.

Farmerleaf video content:  this vendor started making interesting tea production videos a few years back, about black, white, and pu'er teas (and most recently about oolong; strange for a Yunnan vendor).  I did actually mention this source in that post.  It's odd how rare it is for vendor content to seem like a reference.  Cindy added background on Wuyi Yancha in hers, there's just not a lot there yet.  That limitation is normal; travel photos typically are as close as vending pages get, maybe just with tea processing pictures mixed in.  It's all partly there to sell Farmerleaf products, but William Osmont does a great job of just covering basics, and some finer points, without steering ideas too far towards product sales.

William making some sheng

Late Steeps:  this blog includes a lot of cool experiment references on using mylar bags for sheng storage, and heated storage experiments.  I'm not sure what other blogs seem like a reference to me, as half mentioned in that post some years back also sort of don't, more about reviews and general commentary.  One I left out then works for that:

Tea DB:  maybe the most popular video blog out there, with some pretty good research reference text posts.  It's hard for a blogger to level up to really being much of an expert, as tea producers almost automatically are, but someone doing research works out as developed content.

Mattcha's Blog:  this isn't mainly designed as a reference, like the Tea Geek blog is, but it's a personal favorite.  Some parts head towards that scope, digging a bit deeper into background.

Discord Communitea:  not a reference at all, a social media channel and group instead, but then that post included that range too.  An old-style forum like Tea Chat can serve as a reference using searchable threads, but daily streams of discussions just aren't that (but I'm mentioning it anyway, mostly related to novelty and uptake).

a mainframe board kind of feel people would probably like or hate

Tea Forum:  kind of a carry-over from Tea Chat, more what that had been, really by design since a falling out in Tea Chat led directly to its creation.  It never became what Tea Chat had once been, but then it's a different time now; diverse online channels mean no central references or groups could take up the same role some had a decade ago.  This reference on making your own humidity control packs is about as solid as this site gets for that role.

same for this style; it would probably seem familiar and positive or else a bit obsolete

Moychay, Sergey's content:  their content is mostly in Russian but this sub-channel is translated. Content is pretty good, solid and in-depth, and not so directed towards sales.  

Tea Masters, Tea Obsession (Tea Habitat related):  classic blogs are worth a look, and Tea Masters is actually still active (a vendor-related Taiwan based blog), with Tea Habitat, Imen's now-inactive blog, mostly related to Dan Cong.  I must be missing a lot related to this range.  Walker Tea Reviews on Youtube were great (from 2011-2014 or so); I bet those haven't even aged badly.

Podcasts: since I don't keep up with this range, or necessarily see these as a reference, I'll just mention a couple of examples and let it go; Crimson Lotus does an interesting series, and Cody of Oolong Drunk does a cool informal version.  There must be lots of these (I keep seeing mentions), or saved seminar and forum content.  Again the "reference" theme can be vague;  if someone put enough research in a seminar session could be that, or the right expert talking for an hour is a great resource, but hearing stories about how someone got into tea can become repetitive.

That's good for a start.  I'm really not reading around reference content as frequently now; exploration naturally follows cycles, and after awhile that kind of drops out, then something triggers new rounds.  I try to not give up on learning but in basic references I tend to see more errors and omissions in reference content than ideas I'm not already familiar with.  It's hard to think of a counter-example, to place that in relation to something I've read or viewed this year that was newer to me.  William's Farmerleaf content always goes into more detail than I'm clear on for tea processing, and Sergey's Moychay content talks about visiting parts of China, and growing and processing themes there, which of course aren't familiar.

A lot of blogs are just about trying countless teas; I suppose mine could come across like that, even though I'm largely off the subject this year.  A little of that could go a long way.  It's nice venturing into new types range, to higher quality levels, or getting to other basics, but trying to drink the ocean for trying hundreds of kinds or versions of teas could be way too much to embrace.  Even the basic background context has limits for practical utility.  It's all about making a drink from dried leaves and hot water, which doesn't need to be so complicated.  I tend to see the background learning and social media themes as secondary and complementary interests, as much as directly tied to drinking tea.