Is specialty tea interest now pay to win?

 

This will take some unpacking.  Of course every hobby interest involves expense, and contributing more towards that enables having a broader range of experiences.

Let's back up a little.  Familiar to many, "pay to win" is a reference to online games being free to play, but then being set up so that you can buy the extra characters or functions enabling success at the games.  Set up one way it just short-cuts a lot of extra "grinding," earning those characters and functions through play, and extended further only people paying the game developers can win.  

My son extended this reference not so long ago, when we were viewing the aurora borealis (northern lights) in Western PA.  Faint versions of those look like a wispy luminous cloud, with no color, while photos look green or pink.  My sister's relatively new IPhone version took fantastic photos, that looked completely different, vibrant and layered in textures; northern lights experience became "pay to win," without spending $1000 on a better, more modern phone your pictures and impression was hazy.

Nothern Lights in PA, borrowed from a family member's FB post

the low-res version

Right away people long into tea will see where this is going, and conclude that tea has always been like this, that the basic experience is open to people who aren't spending a lot, and then other levels were always reserved for others.  That works.  In commenting on a Reddit thread about sheng pu'er sources I summarized how I was framing these ideas:

Farmerleaf is fine, based on comment input here, but the last cake I bought from them, a few years ago, was in the $80 to 90 range, so quality needs to be quite high for that to be a good value. it was ok, that cake, but I also stopped ordering from them then, because of that price range.

I've been buying sheng from Viet Sun most recently, and their pricing just climbed to that range too. It's a normal pattern; vendors build up demand, keep sourcing slightly better material products, then max out on pricing at the industry standard level, around $100 per standard cake now [357 gram size], with more interesting sounding versions at $120. Yunnan Sourcing did the same.

Tea Mania is a good source for finding an exception; their Lucky Bee Yiwu line costs less (not gushu material, which is as well, if that requires spending over 50 cents a gram on sheng). Rishi is worth a look, and they'll never get mentioned in a place like this. they've been collecting SE Asian sheng for awhile, and sell cakes for much less than that near $100 range. Style and quality can be inconsistent outside Yunnan, but that's true in Yunnan too, and plenty of tea moves from places like Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos to become Yunnan sheng.

Factory tea is the other less expensive option, but that's a lot of gambling, since quality will vary, and typical style range often requires more aging to be approachable. Chawang Shop had been a good source for that, and for good value in-house range, and King Tea Mall might be a good example of a market-style outlet now.

That was downvoted, of course; sheng pu'er drinkers are supposed to be open to paying to explore teas.  Now subscription models provide another main channel for this; you are either in or out of the in-group if you opt to try the same teas monthly, for $40 or so monthly, or whatever that is now, surely varying.

Lots of tea experience, shared through social media group participation, is framed as discussing a lot of what one vendor sells.  Discord servers about tea are mainly about that, per my experience.  You ante up to buy a good bit of that vendor's range or else you wouldn't have much to discuss.

To some extent this was always the case.  A decade ago people discussed tea experiences on Steepster and Tea Chat, and you either tried the teas people were talking about or else you weren't a part of that particular discussion.  Comments on text based blogs were similar.  So it was all always pay to win?

The amounts have increased.  Some of that is inflation; everything costs more than a decade ago.  It can be hard to map cost to type and quality level, to see if it evens out.  A decade ago people drank factory sheng, which would tend to cost $25 to 40 then (per 357 gram cake), but then "white label" gushu, more exclusive, higher quality, different style versions were already well on towards $1 a gram.  If anything those aren't matching inflation for increase in cost; that has leveled off, or stayed the same.

There is a common range of $100-120 better-quality, more naturally grown products (supposedly) available now, often specified as from a narrow area origin source, or at times they're just blends.  It's not the same tea that the factory versions were, so you can't say that pricing inflation marked up the same product range by 2 1/2 times.  Main changes relate to quality expectations, and type preference, and to the new forms of these groups.  

more on this shift in a TeaDB summary post (also mentioning quality and style have changed)

There aren't many other new online group forms; one tea app seems to have pushed through to create something of a community, based around experiencing teas the app owners sell, and other functions, but that's an anomaly.  Facebook groups have went dead, for the most part.  Discussion of Tik Tok promoting tea interest and information narrows down to Jesse's Teahouse, which is for people new to tea, who would probably seek out better value later.  

Youtube never became the information source or social collection point it could have.  A few hundred channels must relate to tea there, but the Tea DB blog and Mei Leaf vendor site are examples of how much of an exception well-followed groups are.  Farmerleaf produces good information content; that and a Discord server support them cultivating a group following, along with the tea being good.

To be clear Reddit subs (groups) aren't supporting this social grouping by purchasing pattern theme well.  There is r/tea and r/puer, and one gongfu oriented alternative is more or less just getting started, and a tea pictures group.

It might seem that I'm implying that this is a bad thing, that I'd want to return to the good old days when drinking $30-40 factory tea cakes was a norm, or just trying Dan Cong / Wuyi Yancha oolong range was, versus bragging online about getting into more rare versions.  But you can still do that (adjusting some for inflation).  The main downside, related to that factory sheng category, is that most of those teas are better after 20 years of aging transition, and newer styles drink better when younger.  It might also seem that I'm promoting the ongoing experience of lack, FOMO, by reviewing teas that vendors send, or what I buy, which is more limited.  It could seem like I'm advocating trying ever-higher quality levels, or every rare type or origin area of tea out there.  I don't see it that way, but it's a natural interpretation.  

It was a nice theme having so many people not necessarily brand new to tea, but new, discussing it on Steepster and Tea Chat, or later on Facebook groups.  A mixed-author, general information source like TChing showed how this exploration was mainstream then, as Cha Dao did before that (both of which are essentially dead now).  Many people's tea interest seemed to mature to them just drinking what they like, not discussing or learning so much.

I think part of the reason I dislike this general trend, interest form and exposure separating into more or less complete by expense level, is because it's such a dominant trend in consumption-based modern societies.  Everything we do separates out by what you spend, as much as by any other filter (exposure, expertise, etc.).

I also run, and people with that interest separate into the groups of people who do or don't own a lot of gear, and pay for extra types of group inclusions.  Races can cost well over $100 to run in, but someone might spend thousands by the time they gear up and travel, or at least $1000.  Owning 2 or 3 pair of running shoes isn't remotely enough for normal-form participation buy-in, never mind what is most functional.  To actually be competitive one might hire a coach, and take up extensive "supplementation" strategies.  Stopping short of PED use one might still buy all sorts of electrolyte gels, protein products, sports drinks, and whatever else.

three different categories of running shoes you need to buy, it seems

People could still dabble in tea and not spend all that much, or compete through spending, and someone could go out and buy one decent pair of shoes and run.

To be completely clear and open I've been influenced quite a bit by Buddhism.  That's a story for another time, with more about that on the way, but the short version is that we can emphasize simple experiences and basic social connections, and reduce rather than expand frameworks for defining ourselves, and limit emphasis on consumption, and other status markers.  This reduction of emphasis on consumption and status can work better; instead of living with even more of an experience of lack you actually get rid of the framework that grounds that, and experience more contentment and fulfillment.

I think a lot of those older tea enthusiasts, discussing interest in Tea Chat and FB groups, have simply moved on to the next interests (and then the ones after that).  But maybe some landed on this conclusion, that keeping it simpler could work better, not competing with others related to what they routinely consume.  

On the opposing side discussion about tea works well centered around common experiences, versus abstract background knowledge, so people drinking the same teas is functional.  Of course there is still a completely different opposing side, about not needing that commonality or social positioning.

The other side of this

Thinking it through further, most of this is about issues related to sheng pu'er, which has been changing form related to what is available, and to keeping up with what people discuss on Discord servers.  Or on Instagram, or wherever.  That's not what most people probably experience.

I looked up the Steepster posts on what people spend on tea in a year (which oddly still get posted annually, even though Steepster discussions are good and dead now), and it has been staying the same.  People posting there average $600 to 1000 per year, over the last half dozen years, even though inflation has spiked the cost of most things over the past 2 or 3 years.  They must be holding it at that level, seeing that as reasonable, and making adjustments to keep it in check, or maybe belt-tightening reduces the annual adjusted spending a little.

That's still $50 to $80+ per month on tea; a good bit.  Of course people discussing trying the latest new thing, buying $100+ sheng cakes regularly, or participating in more than one monthly subscription, are probably spending well beyond that.

I don't really blame vendors for using "fear of missing out" as a marketing tactic, encouraging this kind of group-think, setting up social media channels where it evolves naturally, and promoting the latest thing as something you really need to try, or you are left out.  It's just marketing; of course they are continually trying to sell you something.  People choose to respond to it or else they don't.

It's hard to generalize if an average in the Steepster-report on annual spending is a suitable norm, something like $70 a month for tea.  $2.50 a day?  If you are living on a $10 an hour salary (in the US) that's a good bit, or if pressures from demands keep your free spending limited, but for many that's trivial enough.

It's the "winning" concept that's problematic; it implies a social aspect of self-identification and also competition.  You can figure out how to buy a kilogram of tea for less than $100, or maybe a bit over if it's better tea, and shipping enters in, but it's not impressive to anyone to bring up drinking the same tea over and over in online discussion.  I bought a kg of tea for the first time earlier this year (1 1/2, really), but ended up using most of it for gifts, since flavorful, interesting, approachable black tea makes for a great gift.

I suppose you do have to spend an average amount to compete with others in terms of your own routine exposure to better tea, but just drinking decent versions of it is something else.  I've written plenty on how to do that for relatively low expense here; maybe I'll get around to making up another post covering it again, in a more concise form.

Vendor use of social media for tea marketing

first published in TChing here 

I was just talking to a vendor friend about this topic, mainly from the perspective of a moderator for a large Facebook tea group, International Tea Talk.  This isn't a rant about people joining a tea group to post ads that violate group policy, I want to discuss the rationale for such rules, and how it works out to filter those in relation to Facebook feed filtering (what gets shown).  Then I can extend that on to how to optimize use of social media posting for exposure, to do better than just posting a typical ad.  

It's not just about working around group rules to counter their intended limitation, instead about engaging potential customers in discussion by providing informational content versus ads.

Let's start with what an ad is.  It's this:

used with permission from vendor, credit source

That's from that group's post filtering folder; that was never shown in the group feed, that part or the catchy supporting background information and contact.  It's not offensive, or badly done, in fact to me that's a pretty good effort, a good example of showing a product using good graphic context.  It just violates the group rules.

So as I define it an ad is a product image and description, with some selling points, contact information, and maybe sales details, like something about a discount.  But other types of promotion isn't as clearly an ad, but can overlap in scope and function.  Here I'll talk about the two extremes, one of which makes filtering an issue, when a post isn't clearly an ad (like that one), but it's still pretty obvious.  Then the rest is about the other extreme, how to "create content" instead, which can be interacted with as a fundamentally different type of thing, which will allow the Facebook algorithm to promote it (show it to people).

High Quality Low Price Green Tea 8810 and 8008.  Crop from Spring tea material with highest quality. Special taste to make it unique style. Talk to us for more details at...

I will often put profiles that show products, but that aren't clearly ads, on pre-review status, because such content is slightly less ad-like in appearance.  I tend to let first posts like that show in the feed as a new member self-introduction, then restrict approving them to group feed distribution a lot more, especially if they are posted frequently, versus once in awhile.  

It's inconsistencies like that which make it hard for group members to keep up with judgment, but without putting every post on automatic pre-review--which I've avoided doing--ad posts or those just showing product photos are posted every day.  It's easy to imagine how that range sorts into a grey area; if a vendor doesn't mention contact detail and price, and only shows a tea product image, that's only implying that they sell it, not explicit advertising.  Let's leave off the definition issue and get on with why groups tend to exclude ads, even though it probably seems obvious enough.

Why the ad prohibition?

A lot of tea groups on Facebook, maybe most of them, consist of feeds that are streams of the exact same ads shown in other tea groups.  Many tea vendors post ads daily, or every other day, and in a group with 25,000 members it's normal for 100 of them to post ads regularly, multiple times a week.  So that's the feed; the group is then just an ad board.  If you are in 20 or 30 tea groups you would never see any of that in your personal feed, because rock bottom level interaction with ads--who is going to comment on one, or "like" it?--relates to those being shown to almost no one.

So that's it; ads defeat the designed purpose of many tea groups, to promote discussion, tea enthusiast or vendor interaction, spreading information (about events, courses, tea background, whatever), or providing a place to ask questions.  And they shut down group activity, because almost no one will interact with advertising content, and it won't be shown in individual feeds by the FB algorithm, generally.  If you can restrict such content, which really takes some doing, that clears up space for information content, event notices, etc., which is more likely to be interacted with.  This brings your tea group back to life, in relation to Facebook algorithm perception and activity (showing posts to people).

Promoting a social media group as a place for discussion isn't as simple as that filtering step, only separating the chaff from the wheat.  The other range of positive input depends on active participation by interested parties, and your group more or less needs to develop a social shared-interest feel to support that.  The one I moderate doesn't exactly have that, at this point.  There was a core group of people active in discussion and posting at one point, but as can happen natural turnover led most of them to become less active there over time.  Even me, to some extent; I monitor the group daily but I'm not as consistent now about sharing interesting things I see on there.  I add blog post links there but that's sort of something else, a different form  of self-promotion (not that I benefit from my blog financially, so I guess being heard is the point, perhaps related to helping others).

Creating content instead

A recent post by a vendor friend, the manager of Gopaldhara, serves as an example of how someone with the right background or awareness of tea themes can express ideas and include informative media content that is a totally different thing than an ad.  That content (a partial citation):

used with permission from Gopaldhara; original source

It has been widely marketed by big Tea Companies that they buy different varieties of tea to create a unique blend. However our view is very different. Each cultivar depending on season produces a unique flavour and aroma.

For eg Yabukita is very Umami in Spring and has complex notes of Plum and Spice in Summer

AV2 has very sweet nectar like notes in Spring and a well made AV2 in Summer will be richly sweet and the best ones will have rich plum and earl grey finish.

The third one I like is B157. Very herbaceous in Spring and Sweet and Woody in Summer.

Another wild cultivar has Spicy notes.

If you mix all these teas the delicate notes are all lost and you will get the flavour of the most common texture. It could be flowery or mineral or stony but without the complexity...

As a tea blogger I can see plenty of room for development of these ideas, and the connection back to the image content (it's not clear which cultivar is being shown, but they know that information).  The subject of character of blends versus more narrow material type inclusion goes on and on, although saying a little about it is still interesting, as this did.  That's basically already it in summary; if you blend a lot of tea plant type inputs together you can balance out flaws or limitations, but the distinct flavors that make a tea version seem the most complex, interesting, and pleasant get blended out, too combined together to appreciate as individual experienced aspects.

The extra effort to express more was there in that post, and responses by people seeing it caused the FB algorithm to show it to more people, so it reached over 3000 views, versus most posts not getting far.

And that's basically it; pretty simple.  The same issue comes up in my company, related to IT services, how Marketing staff write ad content and it doesn't reflect the same depth of understanding and perspective as technical staff.  It's equivalent to tea plantation marketing staff not understanding cultivar differences, or having access to a broad range of photos.  Which is crazy, right?

Let's look at this from a tea blogger perspective:  which steps would help staff who don't understand tea on that deeper level create better content, which might engage potential viewers better?

-get input from other staff who actually make tea, or acquire the same information in whatever ways it is available (eg. read references, or follow tea groups).

-understand what is interesting to social media participants by following group discussions (seems pretty obvious, but then a lot of these points will).

-go easy on overused themes like health benefits and sustainability.  If there is a novel, developed, and well-grounded point to be made that's fine, but otherwise leaving those topics alone is better.  

-reference to older, developed tea cultures is fine, but that takes a lot more development than one might expect, and citing a Wikipedia summary level tea origin myth isn't close to enough.  I suppose it could be sufficient if that's the goal, using a few words of ancient tea wisdom input as a set of short phrases, but it won't add interesting perspective framing or new idea content for tea enthusiasts.

-use local or online events to participate in a form of discussion, for example attending or mentioning seminars, conventions, etc.  Learning and networking are useful outcomes, but it also relates to having something to say, beyond "buy this particular product." 

-related to producer promotion, creating an event could help provide something to talk about.  There's nothing wrong with on-location services including a tour theme, which could be very interesting, but adding distinct events (eg. a hands-on tea production workshop) could add depth to that, which could work better to support online discussion.

-think way outside the box.  A Thai wild origin tea producer once gave a local TedX talk on sustainability.  This is obviously an extreme case for developing theme and a new communication channel, but limiting exposure to purchased ads, FB and Insta posts stops short of exploring a range of other options.  Developing a Discord server might work, or really any such steps would depend on how a producer or sales vendor fits into a niche, which channel or form would make sense for them.  

-standard resale vendors would need to put work into developing a theme just to fit anywhere, to be distinguishable.  Writing a half dozen blog-level researched short articles is a good start, and visiting a tea area is great, but that week's vacation worth of exposure is still going to relate to sightseeing level input.  Meeting a producer and telling part of their story that's better; there would be real depth to that.  It's for the best if the story has a hook to it, some reason that it should be interesting, which could take lots of forms.

 

How do you maximize quality of text or graphic content, given that the ideas are already developed?

-don't write a first draft and final version quickly; produce the content in stages instead.  This gives you time to think of other ideas to include, or to re-consider how ideas are framed, or to trim back redundancy or fluff in the writing.  It might trigger thinking through variations that could work for other posts, and help you better arrange which peice to put extra ideas.

-if you are cross-referencing other resources, events, organizations, or subject experts include an attribution, and where applicable a link reference.  This absolutely never happens in marketing oriented content, because it's about directing traffic to you, not elsewhere, and it's too quickly developed to reach that depth.  But this kind of content context identifier changes what is presented from self-promotion to information, because the form is different.

-use appropriate photo or other media adjoining content.  It's all too easy to over-rely on a set of in-house produced stock photos, or worse yet, online sourced standard stock photos, which would be created to a high quality standard, but with minimal editing lower quality content could also serve in this role.  The average cell phone image will still not be ok for a lot of context use; the idea is to pair development of media content along with development of ideas and supporting text.  Obviously this is necessary if Instagram is to be used to support some external awareness.

back to the ad theme, simple sale promotion content with a product photograph works well

In conclusion if a vendor doesn't put more work into creating online marketing content than the average personal Instagram account it's going to show, and ads will not attract attention.  Shifting from creating ads to creating content with greater depth can help, including opening up new channels that allow that to be shared, but not ads.  It's important to be sensitive to individual group rules, since even personal blog posts are prohibited in many groups, and then informational post content blurring the line between an ad and sharing information probably also would be.

It takes time and effort, and of course that's a problem, given all the other business function, sourcing, logistics, sales related, packaging, and other aspects to running any business.  But if it grows directly out of personal interest, versus working backwards from creating standard advertising content, that could result in greater external appeal in relation to any level of work input.  

If you can share an idea that a consumer is not already aware of that can create a point of interest for your tea product beyond the potential consumption experience itself, which can't be fully communicated images or text, or even video content.  Using a video medium can show expression of reactions, but for other types of content other information or ideas will need to fill in what can be conveyed, with product descriptions a limited form of that.

Finding a tea shop near you

I've been doing Quora answers lately, and a question brought up a good point:  how do you find a good physical tea shop nearby?  Actually it related to one near Gainesville, Florida, but the same answer works more generally.  I'll cite that Quora answer here, and there might not be much need to say more than I did there about a shop search:

Where is a good place to get loose leaf tea in Gainesville, FL?

I have no background with Florida at all (except for visiting Disney World as a child) but this is a good chance to answer the more general question. The short answer: there are great options to buy tea online, and you would get the best teas in a wider range of types at the best value there. Leaving that aside let’s consider how to find local shops.

It goes without saying Google search would work, doesn't it, or some form of yellow pages review, online or the paper version, if those still exist.  Another good starting point is Google Maps, because it’s easy, and something right outside the range of your search term range might turn up (in the greater metro area, or next small town over).  Oddly nothing looked promising to me, for better tea, but that can happen. No need to take my word for it; you can look at Maps results for “tea Gainesville FL” yourself.

I checked what Maps shows for our Chinatown too (in Bangkok):

That's just sad; one cafe, when there are tea shops all over the place.  Jip Eu is my favorite, and Sen Xing Fa is fine for other range (both starred), and there are lost of others.  I did the same search using the Thai character for tea, "cha" (ชา) and that didn't work either.  I guess this is why Google search might not be enough.

Next you can check specific “tea map” resources. I only know of two, and there may be others, but those aren’t a bad place to start. They’re on tea-themed sites, Steepster and Tea Chat. The content at both sites tends to be dated, and it seems unlikely that if a new shop went in over the last 2 to 4 years (when tea interest sort of ramped up) that those references would have been updated. 

Steepster’s link and local shops map:   Tea Rooms near gainesville florida

A lot turns up but at a glance that doesn’t look very promising to me, again guessing from the business names.  A closer review would confirm if my intuition is right, if those are instead probably ok places to pick up a bubble tea, conventional English Breakfast tea, or maybe even a tea and flowers blend, and scones, which aren’t interesting to me.  Scones can be nice but there are bakeries for that sort of thing.

To me this represents two strikes so far. There must be lots of ways to network to the information about local options, and you only need to talk to one right person for them to lay it all out for you, but I’ll only cover one more approach: search Facebook tea groups for leads.

I searched in Tea Drinker’s (one of my favorite FB tea groups, but the one I’m an admin for is International Tea Talk) and turned up just that:

Tea Drinkers  posted by Tom Wood, 10 January: 

Tea enthusiasts-Once again I am holding my 11th Butterfly Tea on my farm near Gainesville, Florida; February 17 from 10 AM to 4PM. My wild plum trees will be blooming and attracting butterflies. I will be serving at least 20 kinds of tea from China, India and elsewhere and displaying teapots, teaware, and tea books. There is no charge for this event…

That person posting the Quora question just missed that event, by less than a month, but Tom Wood knows all about the local tea scene, for sure, and may hold another event later.

As far as looking around different places for where discussions might have occurred there are other FB tea groups, or you could do a discussion section subject search on Steepster or Tea Chat (those sites I mentioned), or the Reddit tea subforum gets a lot of discussion traffic.  I'm an admin for an International themed group, International Tea Talk, a good place to ask about options outside the US, or about producers, and this Gong Fu Cha tea group is for people a little further along the path than most groups, mostly focused on the US.  Area-specific groups are nice, since they'd mention event options, and I'm in one for NYC, Los Angeles, and for Colorado.


The only Reddit discussion that came up said Volta is ok, and I suppose maybe it is:

Tea in Gainesville, FL? • r/tea

It seemed it wouldn’t be from that title, on the Maps and Steepster results as "Volta Coffee, Tea and Chocolate," but also selling two other things isn’t necessarily a bad sign.

Additional references:

Since I am using this for a blog post I went back to check Tea Chat's Tea Map section, to see how it compared (something I only mentioned as an option in that answer):  

Scrolling down it also pulled up one more option, Tea With Lee TEA WITH LEE  (at 944 E Silver Springs Blvd, Ocala, FL; I'm not sure how close that would be).

I might be too quick to judge that all these tea room options don't offer good loose tea; they really could.  If you click on the reviews there in the Tea Map section they don't mention the teas at all, only scones and such, which I don't take as a good sign, but it's hard to interpret.

Obviously a reference like Yelp could also work (the link to the Gainesville results), but the results seem to repeat the earlier ones.  That might work to untangle what places really sell, for example to check if "Kung Fu Tea" is really a Gong Fu brewing oriented place or not (seems not, from the reviews):

Kung fu tea has the hands down best boba tea in Gainesville. I've lived in Taiwan and watched the development of boba tea grow there into an international export. This place is the closest to authentic boba tea you can get.  Other places in Gainesville, its so artificial and the tea is just so unnaturally bitter. Here, I can actually taste the tea. 

So for bubble / boba / Taiwanese milk tea this is the place; good to know.  Trip Advisor would be roughly the same sort of resource as that, also tilted towards cafes over loose tea shops (their results for Gainesville; more of the same).

Reddit's tea subforum also has a Google based tea map; I hadn't realized that when I first posted this.  There aren't that many shops on it, and only one for all of South East Asia.  That would really be the key to any one reference being useful, including a lot of locations and staying up to date.  The format looks really good though, very well thought through.

I can only think of one more trick:  if you could turn up a local tea blog then that person would have done all that sort of work for you, putting way too much thought an effort into researching tea source options and teas.  Google search for "Gainesville tea blog" would probably find one (and I checked; it didn't, really).  

If some local blogger's page was only being read by a few friends and their Mom they would be way back in the search results, probably further than I looked.

Online shopping is really the best resource anyway, and it's nice that the options are as leveled as they are everywhere related to that.  But it is great to stop into a loose tea shop and talk to a knowledgeable staff, and try teas before you buy them, or attend a tasting, and to support local businesses so the options stick around.  It's not really related but I will add a little about online sourcing here.

Completely off the subject; buying tea online

Buying tea online instead of in a local shop is a different subject, but a good option. I wrote a post about some of my favorite online resources not so long ago, but keep in mind I live in Asia (in Thailand), so I’m talking about more direct sourcing in that, how to order from places like China. That sounds like the shipping would be way too high, but not so much, since the tea prices tend to be much lower to offset that.

Note that I'm not saying US based vendors (or vendors in other countries) are generally a bad option; obviously there will be a wide range of better and worse options for tea quality, selection, and value related to domestic options.


That reference, more focused on Asian-based sources:  More direct tea producer sourcing


I'd expect three of the better options I mention in that post would be Yunnan Sourcing,  Farmerleaf, and Hatvala (who offer free worldwide shipping on orders over $30).  Hatvala sells fantastic Vietnamese teas at prices that are really a little too low (probably as well not to mention that to them).  Both those other two sell samples, which isn't a bad way to get started, when new to tea, it's just as well to bear in mind what the per-gram cost for those is, to make sure it still makes sense.  If Hatvala is selling a version of tea for $4-5 for 50 grams or you might also order a comparable tea as a 10 gram sample from another vendor for $3 that shouldn't take much thinking through.  Quality dictates what a tea should cost, and it's hard to only say a little about that; once you actually try the teas you know where that stands.

All three of those vendors would end up selling tea for less than most US online vendors, as long as you bought tea in sufficient volume range, probably at break-even or a better deal when buying around $30 worth.  To be clear on context, I'm probably seeing Farmerleaf as a better than average resource partly because I happen to like Yunnan style teas, pu'ers (sheng and shou), and also Yunnan black teas (Dian Hong).  It does also help that the teas I've tried from them seem to all be of very good quality (which is also true of Hatvala).

Yunnan Sourcing (which doesn't require any description for people well-exposed to tea sources) sells a little of everything for Chinese tea, and a lot for pu'er, so although it might take more judgement and sorting to figure out what's going on a full range of options are there.  One downside:  they sell everything, instead of curating, so all of it might not be great tea.  In the last order I placed I loved three of the teas, disliked one, and was on the fence about another.  The Liu Bao (a hei cha) was really musty from wet storage, so that wasn't just a preference issue, and that Dan Cong black tea was just ok, a bit tart for my taste, so that was just a subjective preference issue.

A second tangent:  other tea related Quora answers

I'll mention a few, since I've been into that for a year or so now too.  I'm also converting one on why not to boil water for tea in a microwave to a post (it's a draft now) so I'll just mention a few others that seem to stand out.  You'd be right if you thought I'm taking this tea discussion, research, and writing hobby a bit far.

What is the history of tea?

Where can I get the highest grade of white tea at a reasonable price?

What kind of tea is typically served at Chinese restaurants? Why is that tea served?

Why do many (apparently) expert tea drinkers throw out their first infusion without drinking it?

Does tea act like a diuretic?

Does tea have as much caffeine as coffee?

What does oolong tea taste like?

What is the difference between oxidation and fermentation in tea manufacturing?

How do I prepare chai?

What should original Thai iced tea taste like?