Wednesday 9/23/09 Average cost for tea?

[Chip]

Greetings TeaFans! A perfect day to enjoy copious amounts of tea and share what is in your cup with us, of course.

Yesterday we discussed criteria used when shopping for tea. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. A top pick yesterday was PRICE. So, please share your criteria for price with us. How much is your "AVERAGE COST" per 100 grams or 1/4 pound?

I am looking forward to sharing this TeaDay with everyone. Bottoms up.

[brlarson]

If I don't count dancong and gyokuro then my average price would be below $30. The dancong and gyo push my average price to just above $30.

Wei Shan Mao Jian to end the day.

Good night folks.

[olivierco]

Quite difficult to give an average price. With 100gr of black tea you can have more sessions than with 100gr of gyokuro (not even mentioning matcha..)
Usually my price range is between 10$ and 80$.

No tea today.

[Trey Winston]

I'll guesstimate that my average is around $30, excluding postage, which is sometimes almost as much as the tea itself.

I'm continuing an exploration into the Black Dragon Pearls from Adagio. It appeals to my sense of the unfathomable.

[Drax]

This one's very hard to answer, because I don't know the relative proportions of what I'm buying. My pu'erh purchases tend to be <5 per 100g (a 357g bing has to be ~<$18 to be that, and that's not uncommon w/ newer stuff...). But I do purchase older pu'erh and some expensive oolongs and greens that go more toward the other end of the range.

This morning I'm having one final go around with the XiaGuan 'wild' tea. It's been a very smooth cup of tea the whole way, never harsh. Very surprising for a 2009, but I guess this is what people mean when they talk about pu'erh companies making newer teas more drinkable now as opposed to 5+ years later?

[JBaymore]

Matcha kind of screws this one up. I buy far less.... but it is way more expensive than anything else I buy.

best,

..............john

[Chip]

Matcha kind of screws this one up. I buy far less.... but it is way more expensive than anything else I buy.

best,

..............john

Oops, forgot about matcha, does not really fit in to the poll.

[CynTEAa]

Hmmm, tough question, but I chose right in the middle at $30 for an average. Roughly.

Oops, forgot about matcha, does not really fit in to the poll.

Forgot about matcha?? You need a vacation!

[leiche2]

Probably between $10-20 for me, so I split the difference and called it $15. Most of what I drink daily is actually on the lower end of that range--I've got very cheap tastes. I do treat myself to more expensive stuff sometimes. Especially roasty oolongs... /drool

I think I'll have some Wuyi Ensemble while I work on my annotations this morning.

[Salsero]

I picked $25 as somewhere between the wild extremes of price for what I normally drink. Puerh and Asian subcontinent blacks are sometimes below $10 in price, but pricier Japanese tea, high end oolongs, and aged puerh occasionally top $60.

[brlarson]

My favorite inexpensive teas this year, teas that I plan to keep on my tea shelves, are
Sugimoto Sencha ``Experience'' ($16/80gr)
Sugimoto Genmai cha ``EXPERIENCE'' ($12.50/80gr)
Jing's traditional Da Hong Pao ($14.80/100gr)
Jing's Competition Grade Mao Xie ($12.00/100gr)
Teaspring's Huo Shan Huang Ya ($16.50/100gr)
Upton's Spring Dragon Formosa Oolong ($14.40/125gr)

I know this was a little off topic, but I get to taste a lot of tea so I wanted to share.

B

[Chip]

Oops, forgot about matcha, does not really fit in to the poll.

Forgot about matcha?? You need a vacation!

Yeah, sounds about right. Have tea will travel, as you know already!

I would say less than $25. It is pretty amazing how many really good Japanese teas are under 25, under 20 even. Throw in Gyokuro and Matcha and that can really change things as far as cost goes. Still, I think I manage to keep it under 25 for an average.

Getting onto yesterday's cost tangent, tea can be a very good yet inexpensive drink. I figure around 25 cents per steep following my average.

Now if one stockpiles a LOT of tea, then it can get costly (not to mention the TW factor).

[Chip]

Speaking of the "TW" factor, enjoyed Hatsumi from O-Cha in a new Seigan Blue "Wan" to start things off. The tea cost me around $1.25 or 21 cents per steep. The teaware which will hopefully last a lifetime cost more. SweeTea would have liked to use the new Hagi, Wulong would have been happier breaking it.

[depravitea]

I can usually manage something in the 15-20 range per 100g. For educational purposes of course
Pu is a bit different, obviously. A lot of beengs are 375-400g. I gues there's mini tuos though...

[Intuit]

Pretty much what Sal said: average can be below 10 or substantially higher for specialty greens, whites, oolongs. I figure mine balances out around 15-20, varying with the season and inclination.

2nd Flush estate Darj in my cup.