Tea Blog

While it is true that, as a beverage, tea offers an excellent value for your money when compared to wine, there are some tea prices that can really strain the pocketbook. These teas can cost consumers upwards of $10 per ounce, making their purchase prohibitive, especially when a merchant requires a minimum purchase of two or more ounces. Are these expensive teas really worth their price tag?

They can be. But not always.

Leaving aside the question of the actual costs in producing tea, there is a marketing incentive for charging a lot of money for a very ordinary tea or tisane. Many people associate price with quality, even to the point that it influences their assessment of a product’s quality. In one study, wine drinkers experienced more pleasure from drinking a glass of wine said to cost $45 per bottle than from a glass of wine that retails at $5 (the wine in both cases was the same).  In a similar study, individuals given placebo “pain pills” rated the efficacy of the more expensive pill higher than the pill that cost less.

What makes us think that tea is any different?

Now that tea is trendy, a lot of entrepreneurial sorts want to get in on the action. While I don’t blame them, it’s also true that a lot of these folks don’t have the experience or connections to blend and source truly unique, high-quality teas. To sell their product, these tea sellers “romance” the tea with a good story, put it in a pretty package and then jack the price up to give the tea some class.

And, if they are good at promotion, people pay their asking price.

And then these people will sit at home, proclaiming their tea “rare” and “gourmet” and themselves very fashionable for drinking it.

Now, there are certainly a number of teas that are well-worth their hefty price tag. But there is also a huge amount of tea that is sold at wildly different price points because the merchants who sell it have different marketing approaches. So, what to do?

Well, first I’d suggest drinking the tea that you like and want to drink. I know it is tough to not allow what we think we know about tea prices to affect our preferences, but do give a variety of teas, sold at a variety of price points, a try. Read tea labels and familiarize yourself with tea names and gardens so that you can spot the same tea when it’s sold by different retailers. Also, pay attention to tea reviews written by tea writers that you trust. We can often point you to tasty teas that may be surprisingly affordable.

© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.