Weighing tea purchases

[hobnob]

Hi,

I've had a search but was unsuccessful; I know about weighing for brewing habits but what about checking purchases?

I appreciate that turning a blind eye depends on the amount of tea purchased.

I've weighed some of my smaller tea purchases and found 500mg -700mg less in some.

Do you bother contacting the vendor after finding a discrepancy?

Hopefully the poll is thorough enough and clear!

[Chip]

I had posted on this subject in reference to one vendor. I contacted the vendor when several 100 gram bags were 1-3 grams short ... no reply. But this was par for the course for this particular vendor.

Keep in mind that I am mostly dealing in Japanese teas, precision seems to be a part of the game. If it is samples I tend to not really get too concerned since I am grateful if a vendor sells or offers samples.

But if I buy 100 grams, I do expect to receive 100 grams. I do not always check, but if I do and it is light, I may contact the vendor to let them know ... not really expecting anything in return.

Sometimes I realize there is some "loss" due to static electricity in the bag, but this is usually only 0.1-0.2 or so grams.

I voted for sometimes weighing and 0-1 grams for a full bag purchase, but I expect 0.

In PA there are laws regarding weighing, and commercial scales are semi routinely inspected and certified by the state. Having grown up with this, I have perhaps a more strict application in regards to weights ... one should simply get what they paid for!

[Drax]

There's two key elements for me in this question.

First, what's the total purchase weight? In other words, I would be more worried about the percentage deviation. One gram missing from a 357g pu'erh beeng is much less critical than one gram missing from a 10g sample purchase.

Second, how's the tea packaged? If you're buying tea that has been re-packaged (such as Japanese green teas that Chip mentioned), then the tea should have been weighed at the time of the re-packaging (and probably also sealed) -- there's less of an excuse for a deviation in weight here. Further, if it's sealed in some fashion, there should be less of an excuse for a change in weight (such as a vacuum sealed oolong). But again, pu'erh is different -- it is wrapped in paper and it may continue to lose moisture after it has been weighed and pressed, and so a 357g beeng may no longer weigh 357g. I've seen that with older tuos, which usually weigh 100g initially but after a couple of decades, may weigh much less.

All that said, I usually only weigh purchases that were very costly (relative term, I know), or perhaps with a vendor that I don't trust.

[hobnob]

Thanks for the replies, I adjusted the poll to allow 3 answer and added 0g too.

I'm with Chip on this too, infact if I was selling I'd make sure to add a little bit extra

Edit: realised I've just reset the poll results, apologies.

[amaranto]

First, what's the total purchase weight? In other words, I would be more worried about the percentage deviation. One gram missing from a 357g pu'erh beeng is much less critical than one gram missing from a 10g sample purchase.

Good point.

[Jspigs]

I voted no. That said I may start weighing my purchases from time to time. This thread has got me thinking. As for how much deviation I would consider acceptable, I voted 0-1 gram on both samples and larger purchases.

[bambooforest]

I voted 0-1 gram is an acceptable deviation.

Really, you should get what you pay for and that's not too much to ask.

This is a good thread because most people don't weigh their tea and IF there are vendors who sometimes fail to give what they promised to give, they would easily get away with it if people weren't measuring their tea.

One guy, heavy into pu-erh, that I talked to long ago told me that he measures his pu-erh purchases and there have been instances where he didn't get nearly what he payed for. Though he said the vendors he dealt with always make right on it.

[MEversbergII]

I've only weighed tea orders once. This was a recent puerh shop order for some Dianhongs that, on the site, were listed as 100g. The bag came with a 50g label. Weighing revealed it was almost certainly 100g (maybe a bit over) with the bag. Figuring the bag wouldn't weigh nearly 50g, I found this acceptable. Evidently, the product line was initially slated for 50g / bag, but the bags they requisitioned turned out to be -much- larger than predicted, and thus they decided to reuse the same labels and just add more tea. I guess when you make up a big batch of anything, you're hesitant to trash them.

M.

[etorix]

hm, this had actually never occurred to me, to weigh full bags as received

but then ive only recently gotten equipped with a AWS scale ..

[Running for Tea]

After following this thread for a few days, I decided to weigh the next bag that I opened. That bag happened to be opened today. Some Shincha from Thes du Japon (this was my first order from them, so it happened to be fitting that I weigh this tea). I placed my tea tin on my scale and zeroed it, then filled the tin with the freshly opened bag. I am happy to report it came up as 99.7 grams!

My acceptable range is 0 to 1 grams. Don't get me wrong, if I buy 100g, I expect to receive 100g. The 1g acceptable margin has more to do with my scale. If I had an expensive, accurate scale that was calibrated everyday, then I likely would be upset over 1% of my tea missing. That isn't the set up I'm dealing with, so I'll give the vendor the BOTD up to 1g

[seollasido]

Every single tea I've weighted actually had me win out a little bit. I guess my vendors are really nice

[Nerys54]

I noticed weight size when a sample was send to me instead of the 50 gr I ordered was a bulky fruit tea. Then I weigh a few others but just on a regular kitchen scale. I think I would not notice just a few gr difference. So maybe I should weigh all of them. So far I ordered just from 2 loose leaf tea online shops.

[eyvind]

Never weighed tea before. Just tried it on a new bag of sencha from a teachat favored vendor. I was glad to find there was an extra 1.9 g out of 100 g bag.

I say that if it is loose tea it ought be less than 1% low. If it is over there is certainly no problem. Accurate scales are cheap these days and if you are vendor you should be able to measure accurately and repeatably.

Puerh cakes would be an exception as someone else mentioned. Since they are stored more "open air" (that is not usually hermetically sealed like other teas) there is the possibility moisture content fluctuation. It seems the unit for puerh is less about weight than by the cake anyhow.

[tecnanaut]

Every single tea I've weighted actually had me win out a little bit. I guess my vendors are really nice

Same here, in fact one vendor in particular is so far consistently 2-3 grams over in around 15 bags I've received so far. Moral is there are good people out there

[Tead Off]

Every single tea I've weighted actually had me win out a little bit. I guess my vendors are really nice

I don't think I've ever been shorted, either. I'm usually given a tad more.