Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
I wonder how teas are priced? 
Mariage Frères must think their teas are made from gold. 
Lipton's knows what their tea is worth. 
Good Assams tend to cost more than good Keemuns.
Estate first flush tippy Darjeelings require hand picking so might be worth their cost.  .It's a shame I don't like them. They are great snob teas. As in; "Well, you know daahling, I was enjoying a fresh cup of Makaibari's Silver Tips Imperial Darjeeling. Their estate always holds the record for the most expensive tea... $40 for 100g, but oh, soooo worth it, don't you think!"
Then the tea importers, tea blenders, tea retailers, supermarkets, etc., all have to make their profits. I wonder how they compute the prices? What sort of mark-up do they use on tea?
Stitchawl |
Thomas Lipton, who in the 1870's owned shops throughout England, 70 alone in London, was the first to buy several tea gardens in Ceylon and sell the tea directly without the use of brokers, shipping agents, the OstindiaCompany or other inbetweens in his shops. This way he was able to be considerably cheaper than all the other companies and clever advertising soon made his name a synomym for tea.
retranslated and abbrevated from: Tea by Jane Pettigrew who is a tremendous fan of Mariage frere btw
The Windsor Castle OP is a broken and definately not the best out there and far overpriced for the quality but it is my Moms favourite brand. So there is no discussion.
Mariage Freres is expensive, too expensive by far but nonetheless are their teas superior and their blends and flavoured teas are awesome. In this they end up being worth the price. I rarely spend there for myself but they make wonderful presents.
And then there is KingsTeaGarden... a complicated guy with rules and his own blends. Very good ones that is. He used to have a bigger more elegant shop 20 years ago with a tearoom upstairs but as he is bound to argue with the costumers as how to brew tea or which teaware to use, the shop now is way smaller.
kingsteagarden
He even wrote a book about teas.