recent Tea Gallery sampling

[TokyoB]

if it's expensive why are you complaining afterwards?

I wouldn't say I'm complaining - just stating an opinion. I thought that given the price, maybe these would be extraordinary teas. They were good, but not extraordinary. Also I wanted to support a teashop that I enjoyed going to so I bought some tea even though I thought it seemed expensive.

[LaybackPandas]

if it's expensive why are you complaining afterwards?

I wouldn't say I'm complaining - just stating an opinion. I thought that given the price, maybe these would be extraordinary teas. They were good, but not extraordinary. Also I wanted to support a teashop that I enjoyed going to so I bought some tea even though I thought it seemed expensive.

do you not know that there are oolongs that cost tens and tens of thousand of dollars per lbs?

you are expecting too much from a mere $20 25g. yes that is still very expensive!

[tingjunkie]

you are expecting too much from a mere $20 25g. yes that is still very expensive!

How do these two statements get written one after the other and still make sense?

At $18 per 25g, that's over $300 per pound. I don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect a tea which costs that much to be extraordinary.

[Tead Off]

you are expecting too much from a mere $20 25g. yes that is still very expensive!

How do these two statements get written one after the other and still make sense?

At $18 per 25g, that's over $300 per pound. I don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect a tea which costs that much to be extraordinary.

tingjunkie, everything is relative. To those with a lot of money, they can afford to buy at extraordinary prices. Hotel rooms at $5000 per night, cars at $500,000, yixing pots at thousands of $$. Most of us here are looking for the best values we can find. My usual price range is $25/$100 per 150g. Many would say those teas are not the best, you have to pay more. But, I am happy drinking those teas and not wishing I was someone else.

[tingjunkie]

tingjunkie, everything is relative. To those with a lot of money, they can afford to buy at extraordinary prices. Hotel rooms at $5000 per night, cars at $500,000, yixing pots at thousands of $$. Most of us here are looking for the best values we can find. My usual price range is $25/$100 per 150g. Many would say those teas are not the best, you have to pay more. But, I am happy drinking those teas and not wishing I was someone else.

Yes, of course everything is relative, but "extraordinary" and "the best" are very different animals. All I'm really trying to say is that just because a $500,000 car exists doesn't mean a $70,000 car shouldn't perform like a dream. I really don't understand either of Layback's posts, and I was hoping for some elaboration.

Luckily, samples of tea are significantly less expensive than cars, and if we don't like one, we can always chalk it up to experience and move on. FWIW, I have had a good number of teas from TG- some are very worth the price, and some not so much, but at least they are all of very high quality, and you know when you order tea from them that you probably won't hate it. They can't all be winners to everyone though! It's all subjective in the end.

[AdamMY]

I was happy with the Teas I ordered from the Tea Gallery. Their Classic Roast TGY is probably the best I could find. The 1997 SX brick, was probably one of their less expensive oolongs, as 52 dollars or so for 100 grams. (you had to get the 100 gram brick though). And that has surprised me every time I've made it, and in a good way.

Their 100 year tree, was nothing earth shattering, but if I consider it more from the view of what did this tea not have? It was hard to mark it down for anything. That being said it didn't necessarily excel in many of the categories.

I will definitely order from the tea gallery again, and look forward to it. But I think its more about in search for those special teas they have which are more than worth the price.

[tenuki]

if it's expensive why are you complaining afterwards?

I wouldn't say I'm complaining - just stating an opinion. I thought that given the price, maybe these would be extraordinary teas. They were good, but not extraordinary. Also I wanted to support a teashop that I enjoyed going to so I bought some tea even though I thought it seemed expensive.

do you not know that there are oolongs that cost tens and tens of thousand of dollars per lbs?

you are expecting too much from a mere $20 25g. yes that is still very expensive!

How it works for most stuff is you can get 80% to perfection for some base price that is mostly reasonable, 90% there for twice the base price, 95% there for five times the base price, and exponentially like that approaching but never reaching perfection.

Most peoples tea palettes can detect the difference between 50% and 80% there, but IMO most can't tell the difference between 80% and 90% and even fewer can tell the difference after that, so I hardly ever advocate buying the truly high end teas.

Then there is the 'sales' aspect, a lot of vendors try to act like they have the top 20% of teas via various sales tactics, and many teas are valuable to collectors for other reasons besides them being good tea (historical, rarity, etc).

So that top 20% should probably be ignored for most drinkers IMO. I think it's reasonable to expect however that a tea should be priced relative to where it falls in that scale.

[TIM]

How it works for most stuff is you can get 80% to perfection for some base price that is mostly reasonable, 90% there for twice the base price, 95% there for five times the base price, and exponentially like that approaching but never reaching perfection.

Most peoples tea palettes can detect the difference between 50% and 80% there, but IMO most can't tell the difference between 80% and 90% and even fewer can tell the difference after that, so I hardly ever advocate buying the truly high end teas.

Then there is the 'sales' aspect, a lot of vendors try to act like they have the top 20% of teas via various sales tactics, and many teas are valuable to collectors for other reasons besides them being good tea (historical, rarity, etc).

So that top 20% should probably be ignored for most drinkers IMO. I think it's reasonable to expect however that a tea should be priced relative to where it falls in that scale.

IMO TG's wuyis are probably in the 80%-90% range. After passing into that top 20%, only 20% "seasoned" tea drinkers might be skillful enough to properly brew them. And 1 out of those 3 sessions could reach 80% of the full potential of that particular 80%.... So... what % are you?

[gingkoseto]

I believe that 80%, 90%, 95% rule is very true for tea, as well as for many other things, such as high end cameras or outdoor equipment. Besides, considering labor and warehousing costs it's understandable that sellers in big cities have to ask for higher prices.

Meanwhile, tea tasting is very subjective. A commonly recognized, expensive tea may not be a favored tea of a specific drinker. Besides, some teas are expensive largely because they are rare (such as da yu ling, li shan, and some yan cha) or they are trendy (hence tgy much more expensive than other Anxi oolongs of comparable level, dhp generally more expensive than wuyi shui xian).

[tenuki]

Iron Bodhisattva (classic roast) $9.00 / 25 g
I liked this one, it was actually my favorite of the three, and not overpriced. good tea, good value.

I've been drinking this tea the past week and have to say - it would be hard to beat this at the price - what a fine tea. I have better roasted tkys in the house but they were more expensive (all over twice the price).

I've also revisited the others several different times and my impressions are the same - overpriced and not that good to boot.

How come some vendors can price tea so quality and price match across the board and others seem to be so far off base most of the time?

[wyardley]

Not venturing an opinion on whether Tea Gallery's yancha are worth the price one way or another -- I'm not qualified to speak to exactly where they come from or how they are made, but just as a general point.... well crafted, hand-processed Wuyi teas that are produced within the protected scenic areas, especially rarer ones, often command prices well above the $2-300/lb that Tea Gallery is charging, even from vendors with less overhead (and less markup) than Tea Gallery. Keep in mind also that Tea Gallery's per-pound price goes down (for most of those teas) if you order larger amounts. Being able to order 25 or 50 grams is very convenient for making sure you like something before you order.

[tenuki]

It was a rhetorical question.