Hi all,

I would like to hear from you about the prices of tea and what prices
suggest about the teas' qualities.

Recently I have become disturbed by how Starbucks labels its coffees as
"premium" coffees. But given that the costs of their coffees are at a
level that are not "premium", I feel that the use of the english
language is extremely "loose." Same applies to some of the tea
retailers that I see who sell their teas as "premium" at 2-4 dollars
for 3 ounces or 12 sachets. If that's premium than what are the teas
that are sold for at 15 dollars an ounce at places such as
rishi-tea.com, nalatea.com, thefragrantleaf.com, and
inpursuitoftea.com?

Of course if a tea is priced high does not mean that it is good or the
person drinking it will think that it is good. However, I would have
to say that there is a reason for the price differences. I have high
doubts toward teas being sold at such low prices.

I guess tea is tea and every kind of tea has its own respective
charctheristic depending on its growth environment (high elevation vs.
low, humidity vs. dry heat, etc.). This even means that low priced
teas have their own unique charactheristics that are appealing.

I guess my point is that to claim lower priced teas as premium or top
of the line teas can be misleading.

Any thoughts on this?

Try http://www.vanrees.com
The site updates weekly, and it's market report page is well researched
and written - it basically covers all the major international tea
auction centres and current prevailing prices. It's a good indication
of what the prices of teas are at the first level [bulk sale]- premium,
good or bad.
Sidman

strangely enough, you can actually buy tea loose, and of better quality
(penny per gram), which is actually cheaper than the basic lipton bags
which are awful. Packaging perhaps? or just uninformed consumers. What
I really don't understand is why lipton and celestial seasonings, and
other giants don't market better tea, as if they sold better stuff,
they would draw more customers and make more money, even though they
would be paying higher prices for the tea to start.

With teas I mostly found that I get what I pay for, as opposed for
example to pipe tobaccos where you can get "premium" weed for little
coin and vice versa (not to mention wines).
A noteworthy fact I´d like to mention is that when it comes to -loose-
teas, you generally don´t have to pay for names. Take for example teas
from prestigous estates, like Castleton or Makaibari, bought at the
gardens (or close-by retail outlets) they are not more expensive than
teas of the same "quality" from a less well known estate. Of course
some retailers in the west want you to pay extra $$ for big names (or
their own name, like Harrod´s/London) but that´s rather exception
than rule.
Whenever I sample Darjeelings I try to guess the price the tea is sold
for and I usually get very close, no big deal at all, the relations
between "quality" and prices are well defined over there.

Karsten [N 53°13' - E 7°46'] - 2005 FF Thurbo in cup