Hi Michael,

> Guys, I hasten to add that with tea it might be quite different.

Especially with green tea. Some of the black teas for the European market
are produced in plantations that where created by foreigners for foreign
market, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear certain teas are easier to find
in London than in shops of the country of origine.

>China folk
> correct me freely. The best teas -- those that could sell for thousands
of
> dollars per kilo at auction -- are consumed traditionally in China and
never
> reach Europe of the Americas.

That's not only for exceptional teas.
Japanese teas of the quality they sell in a supermarket in Osaka is hard to
find in Paris. A few years ago, I have visited dozens of tea shops,
department stores, Asian groceries...I was ready to pay nearly any price.
And the best I've got were packs of tea of 2 years before and the cheapest
brand of macha available here. All that 5 times the price of the same
product fresh of the year in Japan. Not better in London. Not much better in
Hawaii (where there are so many Japanese residents and tourists). The only
place where I have seen a fair choice of Japanese teas was Taipei. I suspect
there are damned good shops in Seoul, but they are hidden in dark back
streets, as nobody wants to be seen buying Japanese products.

I don't think the "freshness" is the actual problem, even living oysters
and fragile fruits are exported from one continent to another. "New tea" can
be mailed to anywhere on the planet in 24 to 48 hours. And if there was a
demand somewhere, fresh tea leaves could be exported with vegetables.
It seems that even if there is a large expat/ethnic community, that's not
enough to make higher end products profitable. Lack of local demand...

Tastes of people in different countries are still very different. I have
heard so many tourists getting out of the best tea shops in Kyoto saying :
"Yuuuck, I'd never thought a green tea could be that bad. No sugar, no milk
! The bags of decaf grapefruit green tea we have at home are so
much better.". Someday, I have to try grapefruit tea...

Kuri