Testimonial for Verdant tea
I just have to post this. Verdant tea has just done much more than they had to for me. I will not go into details. Suffice it to say their customer service is the best I have ever experienced anywhere. Their teas are wonderful quality and they have a huge selection. I highly recommend them and their products!
I second this, I have had nothing but good experiences with Verdant Tea. I used to have a subscription to their teas, and after I finish some more teas I plan on buying more from them. The Yunnan White Jasmine is truly delicious, l left a review a while back on my tealog if anyone wants to read it.
I agree, Verdant’s customer service has always been nothing short of outstanding. They are responsive and have gone out of their way to fix shipping mistakes. The only thing better than their customer service is the quality of their tea!
Yeah they really do go above and beyond with their customer service, they really don’t get enough credit
With regard to Verdant, they tend to be a lightning rod for criticism and disdain in the community. Some of that is due to the ridiculous and often over-the-top claims they make about certain teas and some of it is due to the fact that other vendors seem to feel that Verdant calls them out on lack of transparency while perhaps hypocritically obfuscating or fabricating information about their partners and products. Personally, I have no problem with the folks at Verdant. They have always been very kind to me and have consistently provided me with great service. Even though there have been a few times where I could tell that supposedly high grade leaves were actually lower quality, for the most part, I find their teas to be of respectable quality and very tasty. Honestly, I care about smell and taste more than leaf grading anyway. I have tried a number of their products and I have had far more hits than misses. Regardless of how one feels about their marketing, they do go out of their way to resolve issues for their customers. In a way, I understand why they tend to attract so much hostility, but at the same time, they can’t be the only vendor that intentionally or unintentionally makes false claims. I think they may get a little more hate than they deserve.
Thanks for the comment. My initial post was regarding the customer service. It is the best customer service that I can remember getting from anyone, ever. Regarding tea and marketing. I come to tea with long experience enjoying high quality wine, and believe me the marketing for wine ( as well as the politics, backbiting, etc. ) seems to be far more intense than the tea situation. I would assume that most vendors make the most of marketing opportunities, and that seems to be reflected in their websites. I also agree, that most companies have tea that one likes or does not like. One’s taste is a very, very subjective issue, and while there will be general consensus about fairly broad topics, the difference between a tea that rates a 90 and a tea that rates an 85 depends much more on who is tasting it on what day and under what circumstances. As to leaf quality, I am a neophyte, so understand that I only know what I have read in the last year or so, but for the most part leaf quality is a distant second to taste and especially aroma.
I have found that Verdant does carry a large variety, gives me at least some idea of the flavor profile of the tea, and provides fantastic customer service. They are not the cheapest, but sometimes it is worth paying more ( especially if one is new to something ) for this combination.
^ This
I think Verdant has excellent customer service and teas that are hits as well as misses. I do think you are paying a premium for some of the teas, and could probably get a better deal if you wanted to.
And to be fair, I think Verdant attracted the hostility BECAUSE they were so big on “transparency in the tea industry”. I don’t think they are the best tea vendor around, but you could certainly do worse. Just take all of their SUPER AMAZING tea claims with a grain of salt (not literally).
I will say, though, that I am glad we’ve had the people that we do speak up about Verdant. For instance, Scott from YS put a LOT on the line when he spoke up about the 1000+ year tree scandal. He didn’t expect it to get as big as it did, but I give the guy props that he stuck with it until the end. It’s a shame the Steepster folks went too hard on him for “being mean”. He was doing a real service and because of that, we probably won’t get that level of thorough analysis anytime soon :-/
Agree with you 100% about transparency issue. Thats a big turn off for me.
i never had any customer service issues with Yunnan Sourcing, White2tea, Crimson Lotus Tea, Bitterleafteas, Eco-cha, Pu-erh.sk, Taiwan Sourcing, Tao Tea Leaf to name a few that come to my mind. All of these vendors provide exceptional customer service.
What I am referring to is not just not having issues, they went way beyond what any seller of anything has ever done for me. If they give the OK, I will share details.
I would think that most merchants would have " hit or miss " teas since it is so subjective. Their prices are a bit higher than some, not as high as others. I read that thread, and I don’t think that anyone really came out a winner in my mind, mostly a lot of opinion. I buy, I taste and if I like, I buy more. The phrase " tempest in a teapot " could be used, but I won’t go that far ;0). Who are the best tea vendors ( in your opinion )?
I just sent an email asking them if I could share details. I will respect their decision on this.
I have not read the 1000+ year tree scandal, but I can guess. I have seen several claims from several vendors claiming that the tea came from 300 year old trees, etc. I completely disregard said claims. While the maturity of a plant will affect the tea ( or wine or olive oil or anything ) that it produces, usually for the better. I know enough about those kinds of claims to know better. Especially when tea is mostly grown from cuttings. The only way is to buy a sample, taste it several time under varying circumstances ( or exactly the same conditions if one is comparing similar products ) and evaluate.
I would love recommendations for other companies, since most of the threads on that topic are old and several of the companies do not exist. I have tried Red Blossom, but I find that no matter how hard I try, I just don’t like Taiwan teas as much as main land Chinese tea. I have tried a few others mostly the large well established English vendors, and while I can find one or two teas that I like, they just do not have the variety.
Oceanica, I think the best question to ask you at this point is this: what types of tea resonate most strongly with you? There are plenty of good vendors out there and many of them are very specialized. Reading through your tasting notes, I get the very distinct impression that you have been gravitating toward Chinese blacks and oolongs. Yunnan Sourcing is a good vendor of both. Also check out What-Cha and Whispering Pines Tea Company. You can find some really good teas with both. There are others as well. Personally, I have been enjoying some of the oolongs and greens I bought from Tealyra in previous months.
I’m a fan of what I’ve tried. 5 for $5 sampler is great and I reordered their Autumn Tieguanyin. Great tea
It’s good that they have customer service. I just wish they would stop making their ridiculous claims when it comes to puerh age. I have put in one order with them since all that hit and might at some point put in another but most likely not for their puerh they claim to be from 1300 or 1600 year old trees. I would be more likely to buy their puerh if they didn’t make such over the top claims about it.
I do not drink pu-erh tea, I just have never found one that I liked, too funky for me. I did just read all of the listings and there were no claims of 1300 or 1600 year old trees, though there are a couple that give a range of 300 to 800 years and 500 to 1000 years. While I am skeptical, i would want to see core samples and ring counts before i completely dismiss such a claim. i grow bonsai, mostly collected conifers from the Rocky mtns. It is not unusual to find trees only a couple of feet tall that run 500 to 600 years old by ring count. The service I received went way beyond good, we are not talking a routine order here but a really exceptional example. I decided not to share specifics in case they do not want to repeat what they did for me. If they OK it, I will give details.
Verdant has been good to me. Love the site and every order with a hand written thank you note and at least one free sample. They did make some odd claims around some of their puerh but nonetheless I have had many excellent Verdant experiences and still recommend them to newbies.
Update, I have permission to tell you what happened. I purchased a tea pot from Verdant tea. It was a nice hand made piece. I got it just fine and used it a few times. Problem was, I just found it cumbersome to use, just didn’t fit my hand well. So, I contacted Verdant, and asked them if they would be willing to take it back and issue me a partial credit ( about 1/3 of what I spent on it ). They asked me to send it back and then gave me full store credit for the pot, this was not a small amount, I even still got free shipping and everything.
Mind you, there was no defect to the pot itself, it was just my personal preference. I feel this is way more than many sellers of anything would do, especially since it would be difficult for them to resell.
I did not want to give the details because I was afraid that there might be a few who may take advantage of their generosity.
That was very nice of them buuuut to play devil’s advocate, this isn’t really too out of the norm for other retailers. For instance, I could buy a teapot from Target, decide I don’t like it, and then return it for a full refund.
I agree Verdant didn’t HAVE to take it back as it was already used. But I’m guessing that you turned around and spent that credit on more items from them, yes?
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