I have been outraged.
Needlessly.
Here’s the scenario: Good food, great company and a six-pack of Zealong samples.
Lady Devotea and I were entertaining a special guest, our USA distributor and Blender Nicole. We had a platter of meats and cheeses and pickled this-and-that and it was all great. Some crusty bread, and the aforementioned tea.
Since I will be shouting with outrage later in this post, let me quickly give you my thoughts on the tea. We didn’t try the green but tried three oolongs before attempting the black. Tastewise, they were roughly a love child of Taiwan and Giddephar in Darjeeling. Since I know Nicole will give you individual commentary on her blog, let me just say this: three star tea, four star packaging, five star price.
So, as to my outrage.
Nicole had collected (from New Zealand) six individual packs: Green, Pure, Aromatic, Dark (the last three being oolongs) and Black. There were two sachets of the black.
Here they
are, after the smoke cleared.
Note two IDENTICAL packets.
First one, two grams of black tea.
Second one, two grams of black tea… in a stinking filthy bastard plastic teab*g!
What is the damn point?
Another tea company sells out to the almighty bag.
I kept looking around for a camera, but it was no prank.
I may have to send Zealong the bill for my medical expenses.
Your face on Nicole’s blog tells us what an outrage you went through.
I’m sometimes not on the same page as you … but this isn’t one of those times.
Bag b.s. aside … there’s not much you can do with 2g of tea.
Turns out it was 3g of tea according to the packet, but the smallest 3g I’ve ever seen.
Still outraged.
I took the samplers to Nepal to share with producers, at a cost NZ$12 each (my cost). The tea farmers all gifted 50-100g packs of tea in return. Guess who felt the less generous? Shame about the bags, but unfortunately NZ still lives in the world of the dip and dunk.
I usually get (and give) free samples and the idea of a “sampler” at $12 (even NZ $’s) for what? 5 x 3g? That’s $800 per kilo.
I took the samplers to Nepal to share with producers, at a cost NZ$12 each (my cost). The tea farmers all gifted 50-100g packs of tea in return. Guess who felt the less generous? Shame about the bags, but unfortunately NZ still lives in the world of the dip and dunk.