Should you buy Award Winning Teas?
Many vendors will sell teas that have placed 1st or 2nd in some form of tea competition. These always cost a premium (sometimes significantly so), but are they worth it?
In short – No.
Competitions are a tricky thing subject to significant issues. But first, lets get into how these competitions are graded:
1.Appearance of dried leaves. (10%-20%)
2.Appearance of liquor. (10%-20%)
3.Appearance of steeped leaves. (10%-20%)
4.Aroma. (20%-30%)
5.Taste/mouthfeel of steeped tea, but typically only steeped 1-2 times. (30%-40%)
Typically all teas are brewed the same way by region or type, even if it isn’t ideal for the specific tea being brewed.
From one interview about a Taiwanese competition:
“One factor to consider in determining the significance of a given tea competition is the type of tea that is being made and judged. Due to the large-scale mechanization of tea production combined with commercial promotion of greener, unroasted tea – known as High Mountain Tea, this the most produced type of tea in Taiwan. Consequently, the most competitions are produced for this tea type.”
i.e. the competitions are designed to promote the best large scale, commerically processed, unroasted, greener oolong. This puts smaller scale, hand-picked teas at a disadvantage, especially if they follow traditional Taiwanese practices of a slightly higher oxidization and light (or stronger) roast.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I rank teas, it is probably more like 70% flavor/mouthfeel, 25% aroma, and 5% everything else. But you don’t need to take my word for it – many vendors sell ‘competition-grade teas’ as well as ‘farmer-grade teas’. The farmer-grade teas are always cheaper, and almost always better. These are teas that the farmer loves, but didn’t submit for competition (or it didn’t do well).
Why don’t these better, farmer-grade teas do well in competitions?
Since taste and aroma are subjective, taste and aroma are generally graded on what is perceived to be better.
To a certain degree this makes sense – If a tea is supposed to have a buttery caramel taste and it instead has a vegetal taste, you might love the vegetal taste, but clearly something went wrong. But… there are no set limits for exactly how a specific type of tea is supposed to be taste/smell.
So generally the local tea association of farmers, etc. will vote on how each tea should be. Well guess who has the most influence over this voting? The largest tea farms in the area! So they vote that the tea should be just like theirs, and then they shockingly win the most awards!
All competitions are of course run differently, particularly when comparing a US-based competition (which has issues since it compares teas across wide sets) vs. a local competition (which has issues described above). All of the 1st place teas will be GOOD teas, don’t get me wrong. But they very likely won’t be the best teas, and they will cost significantly more because they carry a badge of honor.
Sounds like someone is sore about having lost a tea contest! LOL!
haha, you can think what you want, but I’ve never submitted any teas to any competition. My opinions, above, are based on lots of research and speaking with many people more involved than I am with competitions as well as several farmers.
I think placing well in a competition offers buyers reassurance, especially when they don’t have the connections or resources to try many versions of the same tea. I’d love to know what an “ideal” Bai Hao or Dong Ding tastes like, if there even is such a thing. But this would involve tasting dozens of variations, which is prohibitively expensive for most of us in the West, as well as understanding what attributes I should be looking for, which I’m not sure can be done at all without extensive training. Then, I’d have to figure out how to keep getting that quality of tea, which would mean even more research. Having a team of experts choose the “best” tea, even if the criteria are skewed and the price is much higher, might be an appealing option for those who aren’t educated or connected enough to do it confidently themselves.
If I can ever justify spending $30 or more on 10 g of tea, I’ll be sure to review it on Steepster!
I tend to agree with the sentiment pertaining to farmer grade vs. competition grade teas. I always try to sample several baozhongs and/or Dong Dings of both grades each year, and the farmer grade teas are almost always the ones I find to be more enjoyable.
I judge tea on 80% aroma/flavour, 20% mouthfeel (no astringency, bitterness, sourness) and aesthetic appeal/processing (nicely rolled oolong balls, hairs still attached to white tea leaves, mostly large leaf fragments or whole leaves, etc). Why should a tea be graded on what the leaves look like after they are steeped? The tea that tastes and feels the best when you are drinking it should be the best tea.
I think the main problem I have with these prizes is that often times one should pay to nominate a tea and join the competition. When a restaurant earns a Michelin star, they don’t have to pay for it. They only have to be recognised for their good food.
So glad to see some conversation on this topic!
I must admit, for me, the research started when I was wondering why our favorite Dong Ding farmer (Hauying Chen) wasn’t winning or even entering any competitions. I had tried many other Dong Dings and consistently thought his were the best. He explained to me why he didn’t trust the competitions or think they were valuable, and that kicked off my research into competitions more broadly.
And I agree with Teasenz – it is ridiculous that entrants should have to pay to enter a competition, or even submit a significant amount of tea for free. The judges (or competition committee), just like food reviewers, should be acquiring tea of their own accord.
The industry has a long way to go, but we’ll get there!
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