LA Times article on tea

Cool – thanks for the article, it references Linda Louie and her company is the Bana Tea Company. I recently got some great pu-erh samplers from her.

JF (Bearsbearsbears) and I are both also featured in that story. As always with newspaper articles, some of the details are a bit off, or presented with a specific slant, and I think the article really misses some very important points in favor of playing up the “wow… tea can cost $XXX” angle (luckily, as my friend put it, they left a 0 or two off their numbers). The article doesn’t really explain how far a pound of tea goes, or that many of these rare teas are gifts or samples that aren’t available at any price.

I think one of the things which the article doesn’t convey is that many of the teas we drink, whether individually or as a group, are not at the high end of the price spectrum. For that matter, the best teas tend to come one’s way as gifts or samples, many not for sale at any price. And the point of “gong fu” tea brewing is to bring out the best in whatever tea you’re drinking, more than it is to always drink the rarest or most sought after teas.

I just finished reading the article. I enjoyed it. Thanks!