Grinnyguy said

Tea Companies

I buy my tea from various sources, including online sources and real shops. Some of those make their own unique blends, but some of them are blends sourced from the big names in tea like TeeGschwender (is that how you spell it?), Le Palais des Thes or Haellson and Lyon (again my speeling is wrong I’m sure).

Sometimes I record the “Company” on Steepster as being the supplier but often I don’t know who the supplier is and I record it as the name on the label which is just the shop I bought it from. This leads to problems because the same teas may be recorded all over the site under different names, making it harder to find good reviews and making the site more clustered.

What does everyone else do about this and is there a good solution (it’s pretty hard to force everyone to categorise things the way you want it…)?

11 Replies

well, if the search on the name doesn’t find it i try to record the blender not reseller as the company as i hope that would be easier to identify. when i can’t identify the blender i put the reseller for lack of anything better to put there

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Cofftea said

Grinnyguy, it’s TeaGschwendner after the beverage.

Grinnyguy said

Makes sense now you say it, but the germans spell it as Tee, so I assumed it would be spelled that way

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SoccerMom said

I just record the store I purchased it from if they appear to be the blender. For example my favorite oolong is Formosa Silk Oolong and I purchased it locally at Te’ House of Tea and I’m sure she (Connie the owner) didn’t pick it or blend it. I am sure she bought it in bulk and then stored it in her own huge tin and then when you buy some from her she bags it for you. So I just put that it’s from Te’ house of Tea.

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cteresa said

Useful discussion, I am now on the same quandary.

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If the leaf itself were the only consideration i would understand setting up teas this way but so much of the tea experience is based on the experience with the company. Sometimes it is the way you get the tea (bag, tin, etc.). The customer service is also important as is the information and research that comes along with making a tea purchase. I know that I cannot separate these aspects from my enjoyment of the tea itself.

SimplyJenW said

I have to agree with this. I have gotten the same tea from a few different vendors, and you can just tell that some vendors handle the product better. The tea was Angel’s Dream.

cteresa said

Well, in my case, no I do not think like that. I do not relate how much I enjoy drinking a tea, months after buying it, with the experience of buying it. It is just between me and my cup. It does not matter the name, or if I know what it is, or how fancy the packaging was, or how pricey it was – just the taste will do for me.

Going out for a cup of tea, fine, it is totally beyond just the leaf.

And grading the seller experience along with the tea, well I can see why some people might want to do it, but I was sort of hoping it was all more taste-focused. Because nice people can sell not too good tea, and vice versa.

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Chi of Tea said

To add to the problem, even the “supplier” releases different batches. So, one retailer may have a better batch in stock than another retailer. We have a few teas that other retailers carry as well. A good example is our Earl Grey Windemere, which is a really pricey Darjeeling Earl Grey with white needles.

The second batch we received we totally rejected and had the supplier resend the tea because is was so drastically different than the first batch our customers loved. It was labeled correctly, but had a totally different earl grey taste (powdery tasting) and was missing the needles. The supplier said they had over 6 batches of this tea that varied, I guess they fill orders randomly from these batches. So even though we have “Windemere” and someone else has it too doesn’t mean the teas will be the same quality, taste, aroma…

cteresa said

Yep, I see your point. Some very mass market tea can also vary very much, according to packaging and also market directed at (some big companies tea, with the same name varies from market to market).

And even for any given batch, any sample purchased it can vary (negatively with age). And I noticed with some fruit teas, made of large pieces of fried fruit, when making just a cup I am never including the same ration, it varies from cup to cup.

But dividing too much and introducing on the database too many different “teas” for review can also be a problem.

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Nerys said

Did anyone order from the german site of TeeGschwender ?
They also have a US site for northamerican customers. Anyone liked their teas?

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