Adagio question - descriptions?

[Orange Crush]

I'm just wondering where the descriptions of the teas come from. I spend a good deal of time browsing the descriptions on Adagio's website, and I love oolong. I came across this:

http://www.adagio.com/oolong/ti_kuan_yin.html

Oolong tea from the Fujian province of China. In Mandarin, Ti Kuan Yin means 'iron goddess of mercy,' a name derived from local legend. This tea is arguably the finest of Chinese oolongs, with competition-grade varieties selling for thousand of dollars a pound. Upon sampling dozens of samples, we have selected this tea as the finest we have seen this year. We hope you agree with our decision. And will give our exquisite 'Ti Kuan Yin Trio' a try.

Then, while looking for somewhere to lunch today, I found this on a local tea store website:

http://www.sensibiliteasonline.com/teaooltikuanyin.html

Description: A Chinese oolong tea from the Fujian province. This tea is arguably the finest grade of Chinese oolongs, with competition-grade varieties selling for thousands of dollars a pound. Upon sampling dozens of samples, we have selected this tea as the finest we have seen this year. We hope you agree with our decision.

I'm not going to stop ordering from Adagio, as I love what I've gotten, the service, the promptness, the website and all that, but I'm now a bit soured as to the authenticity of the tea descriptions. I guess I just naively thought that when Adagio says "the finest we have seen this year," it's your own opinion and not that of your supplier. Or, of course another possibility, did sensibilitea plagiarize you? Or perhaps, do you supply them?

[Mary R]

In addition to supplying the public-at-large with small orders through Adagio.com, Adagio teas is also a wholesale supplier to small businesses through AdagioXL.com. I would say that Sensibilitea is just one of these smaller businesses. Looking through Sensiblilitea's catalog, I see several Adagio products, as well as several popular blends that can also be found at Teavana, Dragonwater, and SpecialTeas. It appears that Sensibilitea is just also using Adagio's descriptions too. There's nothing too shady about that, really. Adagio's pretty generous with their language and images--many of their wholesale customers use them.

[Orange Crush]

It is a bit shady. Would be much nicer if they said "our supplier tried dozens and found this one to be the best."

[scruffmcgruff]

There have actually been a few instances of this mentioned before-- every now and then someone brings up another site that looks to be plagiarizing. Check out this thread for a similar case and xine's (an Adagio rep) response.

[Chip]

It is a bit shady. Would be much nicer if they said "our supplier tried dozens and found this one to be the best."

I have to agree with your point. Copying language is one thing, but in this instance it is rather misleading the reader. In fact, I have presume it is a lie, unless they were sampling all the teas along with adagio.

Edit...this is the line that bothers me.

Upon sampling dozens of samples, we have selected this tea as the finest we have seen this year. We hope you agree with our decision.

[Orange Crush]

Yeah it's not really the language that bothers me. It's more that the language implies action that Adagio did, but my local tea shop didn't. Actually, they might have and it might be perfectly legitimate. I just think with the action they're stating they've taken, if they're just going to copy the verbage (which I really don't have a problem with) in cases like this they should say "our supplier says...we did the same, and we agree" or w/e.

But I'm probably nit picking now lol. Thanks for the responses

[scruffmcgruff]

Yeah, I do have to agree with the shadiness there.