Ten Ren? Is it good tea?
With Ten Ren, if you get their _highest_ grade tea, you'll also be okay,
because they don't stock it and they'll have to order it in special.
But the difference between their highest and lowest grades isn't enough
to warrant the difference in price to me.
I found that in most of the TenRen shops that I visited, they are
trying to play the "stupid foreigner" card. They treat their customers
as if they know diddly-squat about tea and the mark-up in price
reflects that. Actually, there's a high percentage chance that if any
one of us walked into any given TenRen, that we may know more about tea
than the girls working there. The whole myth/mystery/magic idea that
Chinese people are the masters of tea in the whole world just doesn't
hold water.
Tea has two faces: Business and Culture. TenRen, as are most shops
that I've visited outside of China, is more concerned about the former
and not the latter. Keep this in mind when shopping there.
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