Reading the Tea Leaves

I don’t know about the reading habits of other people but when I read magazine or newspaper articles online, one topic leads to another and yet another, and the ease of clicking on links means I often end up quite a ways away from my original search.  And so it is with tea-related  browsing and searches, virtual or in shops; this pattern of branching out in different directions usually takes me to new finds.  I like reading descriptions of teas and pause when I see them.  But more often, it is the prices alongside the teas that grab my attention.

As an example, I was reading a post* on Double XX.com about outlet shopping in which the writer cited** a professor of marketing on the subject of pricing:

“When it comes to prices, background knowledge is absolutely critical…Most of us think we know a lot about prices, and we do.  We know the price of things we buy every week: gas, soft drinks, lunch at our favorite sandwich shop…Things we pay for less frequently – furniture, rugs, jewelry, mattresses, digital cameras, used cars – are things we tend to know less about, including prices.”

In Part 1 of this series about prices and how to assess good value when it comes to teas, I gave some guidelines to use in comparing prices.  If you see one tea selling for $15 for 30 grams and another similar tea also priced at $15 but for 2 ounces, at first glance, those may really seem to be comparable prices for comparable teas.  The first one, however, is almost double (@ $227/lb) the cost of the second (@ $120/lb), so it does pay to do the math.

$10 for 50 grams of tea may not seem like much, and of course, that’s precisely the point — to make it easier to swallow (and few of us are familiar with what 50 grams converts to in ounces), but this turns out to be a $90/lb tea — which should be some very fine quality tea.

What constitutes good value where teas are concerned?  What would justify prices at the top tiers?  What features take some teas beyond the prosaic or make them better than those in its category?  When is a $150/lb tea more than worth the price and when is that a foolish choice?  The prices listed below are wide-ranging for similar teas.

Consider too if you are willing to pay a premium for added flavor, or would you rather pay more for better tea material.   Clearly, I have my opinions about flavored teas, but that is a personal stance.  Pay attention to the source of the flavoring and where it processing was done. My unease about (artificially) flavored teas rises to the surface when I see them priced at very high numbers, prices that permit one to buy truly fine, even rare, teas that show off the best characteristics that the leaf has to offer, rather than the science behind the added flavors.

So here are some teas and prices that caught my attention, grouped loosely by categories:

BLACK Teas: A Breakfast tea @ $45.20/lb; another English Breakfast $15/100grams or $68/lb; a Breakfast tea (large-cut in sachets) “expertly blended in France” – which seems to really jack up the price, because 25 sachets of 2 grams each was $16.99 for the box, or an astonishing $154/lb; a 5 oz tin of Earl Grey leaf tea for $18.99 ($60.77/lb); a 4 oz tin of lychee Black for $12 ($48/lb)and I have noted that a 1-lb tin can be found in Chinatown for around $8; a line of leaf-teas in sachets packed 15 x 2.5 gram bags at $8.99/box or $108.80/lb with flavors such as Assam, Darjeeling (no estate named), and Earl Grey; another French line of Ceylon BOP, Earl Grey, and “Le Morning” priced at $14.99 for40 grams (20 bags x 2 g), or $170/lb — the Darjeeling (no estate named) bearing this big French brand is a dollar more per tin, making it $181/lb; a Vanilla Black Bean tea (whole leaf in bags) that cost $9.49 for 15 bags (1.32 oz total net wt or almost $115/lb).

A relatively new line of leaf teas packed in tins offers a Black with cinnamon and cloves; its Assam has chocolate and vanilla, and at 6 oz for $18.99 comes to $50.64/lb; its Earl Grey in a 5 oz tin is also $18.99, making it aboaut $60/lb.  There is little description of the tea inside the tins but the label does tell a story, evoking the association of tea salons and the community of artists, musicians, and writers who would gather there.  

Contrast this with some of China’s brands I have alluded to in other posts:  many are top grades in their class — Superfine Dragonwell, Yin Hao Jasmine, Silver Needles White tea — but the packaging tells no story, indeed, hardly gives any inkling of the quality of the product inside.

In contrast, at one small chain of  coffee and tea shops in NYC,  I found loose leaf English Breakfast at $10/lb (prices in that chain are by the pound), Darjeelings for under $20/lb, a lichee Black around $11/lb,  apricot Black and peach Green for $11.50/lb, and a Ceylon BOP for $7/lb.

Some comments about a couple of the most popular Black teas, Breakfast tea and Earl Grey: there are many blends that end up being called Breakfast tea (English, Irish, Scottish) with varying proportions of teas from India, Sri Lanka, China, and perhaps Kenya.  Perhaps the costliest ingredient is Keemun, of which there are several grades.  If I were mulling over this purchase, I would wonder about how much Keemun was used and of what quality to justify a price of $50-60/lb for a pound.  A shopper’s mind may be more forgiving if placing a 4 oz order but that does not change the value of what one is buying.  To consider this from another angle, I’ve seen a 1st grade Keemun in NYC priced very reasonably at $19/lb; this is a bargain — usually it’d be much higher, and the tea is relatively easy to appraise:  the leaves should be fine, taut strips, a beautifully formed congou tea.  Elsewhere I have seen two grades of Keemun at $26/lb and at $$49/lb.

An Earl Grey (Black or Green) might be more expensive than another if the tea had been flavored with natural oil of bergamot rather than artificial bergamot flavoring.  Germany produces fine flavorings that approximate closely the fruit or other food they mimic.  Teas shipped from Asia to Germany where flavors are added and then re-shipped will cost more than those teas that are flavored in-house locally.  But even for German flavored fruit teas, I have seen these (such as apricot or mango Black) in NYC for under $15/lb.  It is quite another matter to pay what really comes to $52.80/lb for a Chocolate & Coconut Black tea.  I would have to ask here whether the point is to drink fine tea or to drink something chocolate tasting, a feature completely extrinsic to tea?

In Part 3 of this series I gave some prices for WHITE Teas so I merely add a few more examples: a Pomegranate & Melon White for $103.60/lb; a Ginger Pomegranate White @$68.10/lb; a White Ambrosia (beautiful with pastel petals) @ $68/50/lb; a Ginger White Peony with fine quality tea in a 2 oz tin @ $18.99 (the pound equivalent is $151.92); a Melon & Peach White leaf tea packed 2.5 g per bag, with a box of 15 bags priced at $9.49 ($114.89/lb), and a Tropical flavored Shou Mei at $8 for 4 oz; Shou Mei is a lower quality tea than White Peony.

In view of the fact that this category has been heavily promoted as a “rare” tea, the mere mention or appearance of the term “White Tea” is sometimes enough to gird the consumer for higher prices.  (More accurately, of course, only the unopened buds qualify for that distinction.)  A good quality Silver Needles White tea (all buds) usually sells for over $120/lb, which I think is fair.  As for the Pomegranate & Melon White tea I saw on the website of an online store, from the screen photo the tea did not look like Silver Needles but resembled a White Peony (Pai Mutan) — the two teas are easy to tell apart, but I wasn’t tempted or prepared to pay $13 for even 2 ounces.Anyone who has tasted White teas in their natural state with no flavors added might have experience a bit of dissonance between the very mild flavor (which I do enjoy) and the hype built up for this category.  Is it too cynical to suggest that manufacturers are pandering to a wide audience that is drawn to sweet fruit flavors and who take some satisfaction in enjoying the latest current in teas?

The same online store selling the Pomegranate & Melon flavored White also offers a straight “Bai Mudan Special,” which I take to mean a Special grade of this White Peony; the price was $90/lb.  There are fine distinctions that are nonetheless quite standard for this tea — from Super, Extra Special, Special, 1st grade and so on.  But asking $90/lb for even a top grade (showing more Silver Needles) is a stretch.  Other than the visual effect, more silver buds in the tea lends little to White Peony in terms of flavor, and for about $30 or $40 more, you’d be able to enjoy a Silver Needles White.  (A Special grade White Peony should really not be over $40-50/lb.)

My remarks about GREEN Teas will be brief.  Again, from that online merchant I saw an Organic MaoJian priced at $90/lb.  The term “mao jian” tells the prospective buyer only something about the leaf form.  Like Maofeng, MaoJian or Hairpoint, is used to describe leaf quality; this says nothing about gardens or location.  If someone were interested in trying a solid, good tasting China Green (not smoky, not bitter), I would suggest shopping in the $40-50/lb range, looking for a Maofeng or MaoJian leaf type, before heading to more rarified levels.  For $90/lb you ought to be able to have a Green identified with a name garden or tea district.

On the other hand, this $90/lb price tag doesn’t seem too far-fetched in light of two flavored Green teas – one a popular brand in specialty shops, the other a more recent high-end import.  A Green Tropics leaf tea in pyramid bags was $9.49 for a total net weight of 37.5 grams, making this $114/lb, but consider that one can then enjoy the convenience of the tossable sachets.  (At another store the same box was $8.50 or closer to $102/lb — still, hefty for a flavored tea.)  The other Green featured mint; the tea was beautiful to behold, having rosey-red petals in the mix.  This was from the line of teas “expertly blended in France” and at $18.99 for a tin, its price matched the high-end cachet the copy intends to convey.

Lovely as those leaves were, with Green teas it pays to consider how they look after they’ve been steeped.  The visual appeal of a tea is always a factor in our enjoyment; appreciating downy, silvery curls or delicate tendrils as we begin the tea preparation is part of the experience, and I have often remarked that because of their minimal processing, Green teas — in their dry forms — are relatively easy to evaluate. Take this one, for instance:

the tea shown above is a Clouds Mist Spring Tip Green.  Other Greens, based on their initial appearance, may seem less promising:

but the taste can be delicious.  Sample widely with small purchases if possible, an ounce or two.

But think of those flavored Greens:  petals and fruit bits that were pink, yellow, and so on lose their confetti-like appearance after the leaves are infused, and if one inspects the tea leaves in the pot or mug, the quality of the Green tea material used to impart that peach or tropical note may show just how middling or poor the value proved to be.

For about $100/lb or $120/lb, one could enjoy a PiLoChun Green, a tea very much identified with “place,”

or drink a cup produced from tea material that look like this:

So I return to my initial question about discovering and defining for oneself good values for teas.  Much of this should be common sense, just like tasting wines and budgeting: taste comparable teas and compare prices; look at leaf quality; hone in on flavors that are pleasing to you; focus and build on an expanding memory of tastes and aromas tied to some framework of costs.  Spend a little over $5 for two ounces of a Breakfast tea, say, the one at $45/lb, and try another Breakfast blend that may come to $2 for 2 oz; is the former really twice as good?  Try a couple of White Peony teas; can you see difference in the leaves and are the tastes noticeably commensurate with the pricing? Try the Mango or Peach Black that is under $15/lb — does it give that whiff of “true” peachiness or tropical fruit that enticed you in the first place?  A $30/lb Mango Black may be more visually appealing with bits of fruit or flower petals (that, by the way, contribute nothing to the flavor — that all came from the flavoring essence), but is this worth the premium?

As teas become more of a regular (or every so often) purchase instead of an occasional one, a tea shopper will soon have a handle on a reasonable range of prices for good everyday teas and also for special occasion teas, even if the special occasion means a quiet moment by oneself to enjoy a really spectacular cup.

So what are some of the good deals or better buys in teas?  Staying on China’s teas for now, some recent examples I found came in loose form (not in tins or boxes) or packed under brands that mean little to consumers outside China, and as I have already indicated, there is usually little to indicate on the package the quality, high or lower, of the tea inside.

As James Surowiecki pointed out in a brief financial piece*** on pricing strategy, the more information one has, the tighter the relationship between quality and price and the less important brands become.  For many tea drinkers, acquiring accurate knowledge about tea quality is still an ongoing process, so here are some teas I saw in stores or online with prices that represent good value.

As you browse through the figures below, I ask that you keep in mind the prices I listed earlier — for Breakfast teas, Earl Grey, fruit flavored teas, and so on — some of which were over $60/lb or even over $100/lb, and keep in mind that these teas are by no means premium in terms of the quality of the tea material.

PiLoChun is a delicate looking Green tea whose downy tendrils yield a lot of flavor (see photo above).  It is well known in China, sought after each spring, and the top grade is prized, plus — the leaves’ appearance reflects this.  One long-established brand in China packs this tea in round tins in three grades.  The top grade is in a black tin, the next grade down in a maroon tin, and the next grade below that in a turquoise tin; all hold 100 g or 3.5 ounces.  The prices I saw were, respectively, $15.80/tin ($72/lb for the top grade); $13.80/tin (or $63/lb), and $11.80/tin (or $54/lb).

Or consider Dragonwell/Lungching Green teas:  a round blue tin with a goldfish design has a Special grade inside, although nothing on the tin tells you this.  The tin holds 4.4 oz and I saw it marked $14.95, or about $54/lb, an excellent price for this quality.  Online a well-known purveyor of coffees and teas offers a similar quality for about $60/lb – still a remarkable value for a delicious tea.  (Grading for Dragonwell is well established and quite consistent, and the Special grade is above a 1st grade tea.  In dry form, leaves of the higher grades are not easily differentiated, but inspect the wet leaves closely and you’ll see the prominence of more buds and budsets in the top grades.)

For other solid, good tasting Green teas, look for something in the $30-$40/lb range first.  The names are varied, but study the dry leaf appearance and how the leaves turn out after being infused.  Very dark, compacted leaves such as Gunpowder indicate longer firing and the taste will verge on the smoky and assertive.  Dry leaves that are simple strips with a slight twist or curl, or leaves that look tippy – be they green or silvery — are a good sign.

Elsewhere I have cited a big range of prices for the ever-popular (if only by availability) Gunpowder Green.  The Temple of Heaven or Camel brands may not be easy to find, but one very reputable coffee and tea chain sells an organic Special grade for around $26/lb, far less than some of the prices I found elsewhere for the same grade tea.

Earlier posts about Jasmine Greens gave a lot of detail about grades in this group.  I only mention here that a loose Yin Hao (Silver Tip) Jasmine can be found for about $60/lb.  I have also written about how to shop for TiKuanYin Oolongs, so here, just a reminder that a delicious TKY can be found for about $54/lb, one that shows the layers of flavor and gives the dynamic of fine Oolongs when brewed in a small gongful pot.

As for Black teas, I have already mentioned a 1st grade Keemun I saw for $19/lb.  For around $50, you could enjoy an even higher grade and before brewing up a cup, pause briefly to study the leaves — how uniform the plucking and the sorting have been — for such Keemuns exhibit some of the most beautifully made leaves in the Black teas category.

Instead of that Breakfast blend around $50/lb, look instead for a Golden Monkey Black,

or another tea that really speaks of its region, its origin.  And if you are willing to splurge up to $100-$125/lb, spend that $25 or $30 on 4 ounces of a really lovely early Darjeeling, one with the estate announced right in the name; this is a sense of place.  Such a tea needs no peach or melon “enhancement;” the tea shines with lovely floral, hard-to-pin-down, evanescent notes all on its own.

As I conclude this series my thoughts go to a recent tea event centered on a screening and book signing, with a small tasting included.   Later I went to the tea purveyor’s site.  I had a inkling that the offerings would be high-end; there had been almost a hushed sort of reverence built up around the subject of Tea, but even I had to do the math twice to check the prices I saw.  I am aware that some of the more esoteric Oolongs and Puers are sought after by connoisseurs willing to pay sky-high (to me) prices.  But I wonder if sophistication, and more importantly, knowledge has kept up with pricing, something to ponder if one is considering teas at $585/lb or (yikes!) $2,350/lb.

* Ellen Ruppel Shell, “How Outlet Malls Rip Us Off,” Doublexx.com, posted 7/14/2009.

** David Lichtenstein, Professor of Marketing at the Univ. of Colorado

*** James Surowiecki, “Soft in the Middle,”  The New Yorker, 3/29/2010.