Friday TeaDay 1/21/11 How important is it anyway?

[Chip]

Seems I am the only hardliner so far. I am not buying virtually any tea without the harvest info. And the harvest info has to be the info I am looking for.

There is just no reason why a seller would not be able to offer this info if they were determined to do so.

I also want to see it on the site, not have to ask for it ... but I also want to see it in plain and public view. A CS person might just say what I want to hear to make a sale or because I am droning on about newest harvest while they don't even know what I am talking about.

There is much less likelyhood of getting the wrong info if it is right on the site in black and white.

Transparency!!!

[JRS22]

Seems I am the only hardliner so far. I am not buying virtually any tea without the harvest info. And the harvest info has to be the info I am looking for.

+1 (No surprise seeing as how Chip is my tea guru).

When I contacted Rishi about harvest info I was given it for the 2 specific teas I asked about (prior year - not what I wanted to hear) and told that Rishi only mentions harvest year for special teas (special purchases?). I figure that if the tea is a year old, even if it tastes ok when I buy it, it won't taste as good down the road as the fresh tea I could have bought from other vendors at the same time. The same is true of Upton - they told me they assign the same item number if the new shipment tastes essentially the same as the old shipment.

So in my cup this morning, 2010 Mao Feng from Jing.

[twinofmunin]

I do care about harvest information in the sense that I like to see it, as Chip, but I haven't done enough sampling of various seasons in comparison to really ... buy based on that? I try to keep note of details for teas I like, including season, but I'm still a n00b...

[AdamMY]

I voted extremely important, as I look for that information, but at the same time quite a few teas I drink do not require the utmost freshness and some of them often improve over the course of a few months to years, (or decades for puerh). So while I do not get hung up on some teas about getting teas from the latest harvest, for those such as Sencha I think it is incredibly important.

[Peacock]

I think it's extremely important. If a vendor doesn't have the harvest information listed I tend to think of them as being "shady". On the other hand I like vendors that list all the harvest information and tells me a little bit of history behind the growers, how the tea is processed, and the history of the fields and growing region.

Oh yeah... pictures are nice too.

[debunix]

How important it is depends on the context: my chinatown tea shop doesn't put much info besides the name on the jars of tea, and I don't generally buy teas where freshness is critical from them--not that they offer a lot of sencha anyway. However, at the shop I can view, sniff, and sample the teas. For online suppliers, until/unless I have ordered enough from them, or heard enough about them from other trusted sources, I want more details including harvest info for most teas.

Today, drank some 2007 Golden needles & white lotus from Menghai, love this tea. So mellow but rich. Full harvest info on the YS site when I bought it.

[entropyembrace]

For virtually all tea purchases I want to know harvest info...and it´s not always about freshness...sometimes the older teas are better. Also even teas that are supposed to be the same will vary from year to year and season to season...like say a big factory puerh recipe from 2008 vs 2009.

The only exception where I don´t really care are flavoured blends which I do sometimes buy and drink. I´m sure in that case the tea could be from more than one harvest and location and the vendor often doesn´t know.

[brad4419]

Xtremely important. Their are way too many good vendors out their who will give the harvest information to buy from a vendor who wont. If a vendor wont give the info or doesn't know I will go elsewhere.

[Chip]

Xtremely important. Their are way too many good vendors out their who will give the harvest information to buy from a vendor who wont. If a vendor wont give the info or doesn't know I will go elsewhere.

Pretty much my sentiment as well. There are vendors who get and vendors who do not.

Just as there is a "steep" learning curve for the consumer of fine teas, there is also a "steep" learning curve for vendors who want a portion of the premium tea market.

[rhondabee]

Yes, I think knowing the harvest time/year is very important. I haven't bought tea from a vendor where it hasn't been listed. I especially like the vendors who not only list the harvest date, but will blog about the teas when they come in and give comparisons to the last harvest, so you can get an idea of what the tea is like.

[nickE]

Definitely important for teas that need to be consumed fresh, and even if they don't, it's still nice to know.

In the end, though, it comes down to if the tea tastes good or not.