Monkey Picked Teavana markup
So, I fell in love with Monkey Picked Oolong from Teavana… until I heard what the markup is. The company purchases the tea for under a dollar per ounce. They then sell it for $25 per 2 oz. (Roughly a 1200% markup) Let’s just say I won’t be buying Monkey Picked from them anymore…
Can anyone reccommend some cheaper Monkey-Picked oolong tea or pure-ish teas like it that are unflavored?
While I haven’t tried this tea from them, most folks are like me and have had good luck with Teavivre:
They also offer free samples, although they’re currently out for October.
Otherwise you their tea is priced very reasonably, and you can get shipping from China to Canada/US for $4 or so.
First off, there’s no such thing as monkeys picking tea, that’s just a made up marketing name, complete BS, what you’re looking for is actually called Tie Guan Yin oolong (also sometimes called Tie Kuan Yin, Tieguanyin, TGY, Iron Goddess of Mercy, Iron Buddha oolong, or other similar names), and most tea vendors have at least a few of them. Good ones aren’t cheap, but you can get decent ones better than teavana’s for a lot less.
Well put!
I recently tried Teasenz’s Tie Guan Yin and it was delicious and reasonably priced.
I learned something new today. Monkey picked oolong = Tieguanyin
Thank you :)
Anony, I was checking out something on the Teavana website and noticed the description of their Monkey Picked TGY. It looks more similar to Teavivre’s Monkey King tea: http://www.teavivre.com/anxi-monkey-king-oolong-tea/
The name is based on a slightly different legend.
You may like it better than the Lishan version in the link first sent. But if you’re new to tea, a little of both would be a good comparison as to the effect of roasting has on a tea.
I usually stay away from self promotion on discussion sites, but I wanted to point out that you can find some exceptional Oolongs at incredibly decent prices if you look hard enough. We have two that are particular values. Don’t be fooled by the low price. They are both outstanding.
Our standard Fine Ti Kuan Yin…
http://www.theteatable.com/product/FTKY.html
And a darker variation…
http://www.theteatable.com/product/FJO.html
Its a great story that monkeys picked the tea!
If you liked monkey picked, story, you’ll love the virgin with c-cup breasts picked tea.
http://www.chinahush.com/2011/04/22/virgin-with-c-cup-breasts-is-required-for-job-as-tea-picker/
Just been looking at the teavana site and nearly 19 dollars for 2oz of tea – seriously do people pay these prices? Even the Black Chai tea looks crap and poor quality – I’ve never known a chai tea to have Anise in it before.
When the vast majority of what you first sea on the teavana site is pots and tins and containers it just looks like they are praying on a public of which many won’t know any different than what they may see in a teavana store.
Personally I’d go in, try a few samples and then order them online from a different retailer. If this is the future of tea retailing then god help us all lol
lots of chais have some form of anise, often star anise, in them. i only know this because a friend of mine is a chai addict and is always complaining about how many chai blends have star anise in them, which he doesn’t care for.
To be honest, in my small experience a lot of american teas seem very very expensive for what they are. With single estate, or extremely rare teas it is difficult to compare, but often when comparing simpler things (flavoured rooibos, ctc) and trying to do the math, it´s yikes. But this teavana seems maybe the worst offender. 25 dollars per 60 grams of tea, is amazingly expensive for something without a very explicit pedigree on all its history.
I always had chai down as being Indian spices such as clove, cardomon and cinnamon but not sure where Star Anise comes into this equation.
With pricing like that people will just stick to teabags
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