On 28 Mar 2006 18:28:28 -0800, "law2255" > wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>As a person who loves to drink tea, I would like to hear from you about
>the prices of tea and what prices suggest about the teas' qualities.

IMHO it greatly depends on the Vendor. I have become quite intimate
with various Chinese teas over the last several years. I know what the
prices are in the Tea Markets in China. What I see in the USA
"premium" loose leaf market, as a whole, is very little correlation
between price and quality. The sad truth is that prices are more often
a function of "what the market will bear" than they are of relative
quality. I have seen the exact same teas that cost less than $10 per
kg in China sell for anywhere from $30 to $200 per kg here in the US,
with the only difference being the name the Vendors give the tea. I am
not only talking about puerh, but regular old green and black teas
etc.

Typical US vendors will charge a 100% markup, however it is not
uncommon for the "Importer" to charge 400-500% markup over what they
paid in China. The further you get from the source the more layers of
markup are involved and the greater chance that someone along the way
long took more than a fair share of profit.

One reason that quality and price are not always hand in hand is that
in China the difference between a low, medium, or high grade tea is
often only a few dollars per kg. Say a high grade tea is imported by
a fair minded importer who simply marks the tea up 200% and the vendor
then marks it up 100%. Now say a lower grade of the same tea is
imported by a greedier importer who marked up the tea 300% and then
the vendor takes his 100% markup. In this case you could easily pay
more for the low grade than for the higher grade of the same tea.
Folks, this exact situation is NOT at all uncommon! Each additional
middleman between the China wholesale market and your vendor only
compounds the issue. Note, I am NOT talking about the ultra high
grades that are auctioned off for astronomical prices over there, very
little of that ever sees our shore lines.

Naturally many vendors do exist who strive to offer great teas at the
best price possible. The moral of this story is "know thy Vendor".
Select a Vendor that is as close to the Tea's source as possible, ie
China or India or Japan etc, wherever your particular tea comes from.
Get to know that vendor and his offerings. Educate yourself on what
"good quality" really is! Shop around for similar grades of the same
teas from other vendors. Do side by side tastings etc. Don't buy
blindly!

Know thy Vendor

--
Mike Petro
http://www.pu-erh.net