Misty Peak Teas marketing practices
I started this thread during the Verdant drama:
Then today I wrote a very snarky review on my tealog of the world’s #1 tea, which didn’t do much for me, actually. If snarky is not your thing, you maybe shouldn’t read it.
hah. I’ll also add that I’ve never particularly enjoyed their tea either. That is the least of reasons to not support them as a company at this point though.
Outside the odd chemical fruit-flavored tea, I’m just saying this was the most unpleasant tea I’ve ever tried. It really did taste like acid reflux to me:
Well one hopes that a brother would not do this. Quite frankly if I were on fire, I know for a fact my brother would not trouble himself to piss on me. But families certainly vary.
The sad fact is that Misty Peaks has decent enough tea, they really don’t need to resort to any negative tactics to sell it. But negative tactics will drive buyers away, that is clearly the effect of their marketing lately with some members here.
well, his brother also gives TedTalks on how special he is that he visits poor nations and preaches how to be rich you dont need money, while his instagram page is full of cars and watches and parties. so…..
Brian out.
:-P
Posting a quick update as I updated my original message to make it more factual and more transparent earlier today.
So, about that fake Instagram user threatening to get me banned, I can’t prove that it belongs from Misty Peaks. This can’t be done. All I know is that the fake user got created a few hours after the initial Instagram posts, and that his first post was to defend Misty Peaks and threaten to get me banned with fake reports from his followers. Right after that, the user posted lots of erotic photos to attract new followers, and started to massively follow tons of people (+600 right now).
That being said, since Misty Peaks’s co owner and Marketing Director also threatened me the same kind of way later today, I think that it’s reasonable to think that they also own the fake account. Just opinion though.
I will stand behind what I say here, which will be short because I want to enjoy my night so I will only put two minutes to this:
While it is important to know that a companies coowner is an asshole who abuses the marketing possibility of the internet; it is of high importance to take screen shots. Regardless of how Misty Peaks responds, Phil’s LinkedIn (before this was posted) listed: "
Co Owner and Marketing Director
Misty Peak Teas
January 2011 – Present (5 years 1 month)Portland, Oregon Area
Misty Peak Teas offers the world’s oldest tea, Pu’er, as it never has been before. We connect the tea drinker with the tea farmer; allowing each person a chance to understand the many benefits and interests in this timeless leaf, as it was thousands of years ago. Misty Peak Teas is dedicated to providing the highest quality while allowing the farmer a fair value for their crop and the world a chance to enjoy an incredible pure tea."
In an interview on Mtn – World
“Above The Law is a series so there will be more of those coming out through No Flags. The future books with this title will most likely not be with graffiti on trains but will be focused on different topics. I have some museum shows coming up, working on a project with DJ Pain 1 who has produced for everyone from Rick Ross to Public Enemy. A zine with Trespass Press. Always projects with Public Delivery. New stuff with my tea company Misty Peak. Forever new things on the horizon and constantly pushing to write history.”
That and the links to Nick as his brother and what not… he clearly represents Misty Peak online, therefore I view him as such.
Regardless of the Wikipedia stuff, possible connections between other accounts (one of which on Reddit calling me a disrespectful member to tea, so if I see him in Global Tea Hut in Taiwan as the person said they will be, I’ll know it’s him), maybe fake accounts…. it all adds up in a bad way.
Nick, I know you are reading these comments so here’s my suggestion. Misty Peak was formed in 2011 which means four complete years; to announce you have the number one rated puer is one thing, but for me as a possible (not anymore) customer, I would really enjoy seeing the farmers faces. Misty Peak clearly states it is the family that makes their tea the best; so how come I haven’t been able to meet them online?
Wait, what? Is he also a record producer? How is Public Enemy involved? This has something to do with his art project?
Oh, of course he’s written for the Good Men Project. Every self-important douchebag on the internet is required to do this at some point:
@kristinlee , let us not allow our comments to turn to attacking comments towards another person. If they are an asshole about something it is fine to call them out on it, but we shouldn’t cross to other areas to be what would be considered ‘rude’
I know how you feel, I’m in the same boat; I just want to be careful on what we discuss here as it is important to keep it related to tea and how it connects to the drinker (us here).
Phil’s choice on where to write is not something we should bring up; it’s like saying ‘so and so was on CNN’ and making that a bad thing.
Well, sort of, but… Do you know much about their history? This guy was one of their main writers:
Anyway, I realize this isn’t all about tea, I’m sorry. But it’s not a huge media outlet like CNN. It’s a small one that has attracted and featured a relatively small group of people with similar personalities. I am not saying he’s Hugo Schwzyer, but that Schwyzer is just one of many very troubling people who have represented them as a brand.
And it’s actually about quite a bit more than tea to me, when I see someone whose marketing scheme involved fat-shaming women “above a size zero” saying this about himself:
“He has worked and lived throughout the US, Europe, Asia and Africa, concentrating on individual moments of freedom while looking at relationships with class, gender and race.”
It’s interesting because intersectionality — that is, the intersections of oppression based on gender, race and class — is something that most of the magazines I write for see as an important focus. That I’ve encountered no one at, say, Mother Jones or The Nation who knows him — while everyone at TGMP does — is telling to me.
I thought they were just a tea company, not aspiring celebrities, but I just checked out Phil’s website and found out otherwise.
Well, I was attacked last night by Phil on IG. I was enjoying shou orb from w2t couple days ago. It was shou experiment.
Honestly it was do rude and weird to attack everyone having a puerh ball picture on their Instagram feed that I thought his account must have been hacked at first, and someone else was trying to make him look so rude.
It was all funny until I got threats (from the fake user, but also from Phil directly) to have my user banned from Instagram. And actually, not just mine, but also those of “all the people involved” on Instagram, if I “keep playing these games”.
Sorry, but as a potential customer, I can’t accept being threatened. If they want to have my Instagram account blocked, then be it, I’ll still speak freely.
Bef: “keep playing these games” as in drinking puerh balls from other vendors and supporting these other vendors?
Maybe I will have to post and see if I get any ‘bites’ I love fishing.. I will message a couple of you when I do. Got to dig one of those things out.
I was just getting to the point with the grandson about the small productions. We have had sheng and shou class and now lets see where I can progress to..
I thought about doing the same thing but I don’t have any balls. No pun intended.
Hello everyone.
This is Nicholas from Misty Peak Teas.
I can not apologize in a way that will express how sorry I am for the recent activities that have been played out in our name. This is very unfair and unkind and in no way the way I feel. Unless the statements or comments come from myself, they do not represent Misty Peak Teas.
If anyone has spoken with me or I, Nicholas, have had the pleasure of speaking with you or meeting you…it is hopefully clear that this is not and never has been the way I would conduct myself. We in no way agree with what has been going on and again, I apologize to all that were unkindly treated. I can 100% assure this will never happen again.
What about the ‘size 0’ email from your company that really insulted a lot
of females in the community – Was that representative of Misty Peak Teas?
Was that indeed your co-owner trolling everyone on instagram? His account was not hacked? Is he still in charge of marketing? Who is the “we” you’re referring to? This response is very vague.
And while we’re talking about you, why do you persist in claiming that Steepster ranked your tea the number one tea in the entire world? This is not factually correct. If in fact you were at the top of the ratings list at one time, that is no longer the case. And even if it were, Steepster does not constitute any kind of official tea ranking body. This is dishonest marketing.
Have you considered that the person who is making all of these decisions about the public face of Misty Peaks is doing a spectacularly terrible job?
I just looked back at your response last time questions were raised about Misty Peaks on here, and this seems like more of a non-answer than that one.
Sorry Nicolas, but that person is Misty Peak Teas co-owner and Marketing Director. Unless his account had been hacked, which really doesn’t seem to be the case, and which you didn’t mention here.
When you mention “We in no way agree with what has been going”, who is the “we” that you are referring to?
Thank you all for the questions.
We respect all bodies and all people. The size 0 was an error in judgement, not an attack. The human body is the most fascinating and beautiful body on earth, we would in no way point fingers intentionally at anyone who is this or that size. We apologize for the way it came across. It was not the best words we put out, and being in the public eye we know that we must be more careful with our wordings. Our intentions were not unkind, but we apologize that it came off unkind.
As for the ranking. I understand your concern. We understand that Steepster is not an official ranking service, but there is the simple title at each tea. With Pu’er it is “Best Pu Erh Teas As rated by the Steepster community” and we were ranked first in 2014, thats all we were saying. However, we are no longer marketing this, and we understand the issue, so are no longer mentioning that rating. With your concerns and serious inquiries, we have made adjustments in our company to be sure to be more correct and make sure we take your concerns into consideration.
Thank you all for your questions and support.
“However, we are no longer marketing this, and we understand the issue, so are no longer mentioning that rating.”
That’s actually not true, as the home page still says this at the bottom: “Our tea can be found in 370 stores around the world and we were voted #1 Pu’er tea out of 54,500 teas in 2014 on the world’s largest tea review site.”
It’s also still featured here: http://mistypeakteas.com/best-puer-tea/
@Misty Peak Teas: Another practice you might want to avoid Is having the company owners posting positive reviews about their own products without stating clearly who they are.
Some examples:
“Interesting. Have you tried Misty Peak Pu’er? That is my favorite so far. www.mistypeakteas.com”
Source: http://www.how-to-diy.org/YIMYqFiXc9MSph/How-to-make-Pu-Erh-Tea.html
“Amazing tea www.mistypeakteas.com thanks guys!”
Source: http://www.teaformeplease.com/2014/07/misty-peak-teas-2013-sheng-yiwu-mtn.html
“Mistypeakteas.com is the only Pu’er I drink outside of China. It’s literally amazing!”
Source: http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/08/what-is-puerh-tea-where-to-buy.html
And all sorts of Instagram posts on tea vendors pages as well:
– to @mysundayteacom: “Nice! Have you tried @mistypeakteas ?”
– to @teavillage: “Nice! you guys have @mistypeakteas?”
– to @hojoakira: “Where is this? @mistypeaks is my favourite!”
– to @cheri0627: “As far as I know, MPT hasn’t commented on it but as a huge fan of tea I find (…)”
Sounds more like spam than marketing, doesn’t it?
I’ve been offline for a while. While I don’t know what they may have done to others, Misty Peaks recently sent me a gift of free samples of loose puerh and rolled puer. It came without any request on my part.
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