the best tea in the world

MF is a French tea shoppe that sells teas from around the world. I havent seen a tea shoppe yet that doesnt claim it sells the best teas. With any tea shoppe you could probably do better by looking around but the law of diminishing returns crops up sooner than you think. Dont get caught up in definitions or pedigrees. If you live in a large metro area Id say there is a tea shoppe worth visiting. When you start talking about the best tea you are talking religion. Im the agnostic when it comes to tea. It makes me aware of my nature and the nature of all things from which I drink.

Jim

Sounds like an advertisement for M.F. to me.

The best tea in the world is the tea you personally like drinking. If everyone liked the same thing, they'd only need to grow one kind.

--scott

Well, Mariage Freres is definitely offers good teas but "Best Tea Vendor" is an over statement. Its one of the finest and well known French tea companies but France doesn't produce tea. They carry tea from China, India, Africa and beyond..

Now my personal opinion:

Two years ago, when I was visiting Paris, I checked both "Mariage Feres " and "Betjeman and Barton tea". Both are French tea companies and offer many types of teas. I prefer Betjeman and Barton over Mariage Feres for their customer service and better price. I do agree, Mariage Feres offers more option but they are little over priced.

The price factor:

If you are an American, it is not wise to buy tea from any French tea vendors on-line because you will end up with Euro vs US$ flat exchange rate. As a result, you will pay more than what market is offering at present.

Moreover, US on-line vendors offer more types of tea compares to the French vendors. There are many good US on-line tea vendors compares to any European on-line tea vendors. The quality many US vendors offer in the market, sometime you can't even find it around the Asian, Africa tea producer countries local market. The top grade teas are for the export market except some Pu-erh, Oolong and green teas are well regarded to some Local people in China and Japan. You will hardly find Darjeeling SFTGFOP 1 grade, Golden Assam or White Assam in local Indian market rather then OP or CTC quality. Well, Indians don't even like white or green tea that much. I couldn't find it in Kolkata, India (the actual tea trading hub) during my visit there. This is my personal experience and opinion.

Ripon La Paz, Bolivia

This is a voice from the past. Ripon the last time we heard from you, you were somewhere in South Africa. Are you still doing research on the tea producing and consuming countries of the world. Its easily been a decade since there was a French department store in town selling Fauchon brand teas. At the time I thought not bad but expensive. I still buy the occasional French Vanilla tea tin. At one point there was a discussion if a natural taste from some French tea producing island colony off Africa or just scented.

Jim

PS With regards to why there are many more US vendors >...WEHT

Hey Jim,

I remember you. How are you doing? You are right, last time, I was posted in Southern Africa. Yes, still I am involved with tea research but lately didn't have enough time to continue. In fact, I was involved with Bolivian tea industry and helped them to find the Japanese tea market. Unfortunately, I had to take the tough decision to stop financing Bolivian tea industry a year ago under a complicated situation. It was a professional decision over my personal feeling. Anyway, Bolivia is a complicated country, in terms of the political and bilateral relationship with the US Government. I will post some of my tea experience around South America soon. Though it is a coffee region with strong Spanish and Portuguese cultural influence but I had some wonderful tea experience in Peru, Brazil and chile and Mexico (North America). I still love tea and passionate about this industry.

About scented French Vanilla tea vs natural Vanilla tea- the best natural French Vanilla tea's vanilla comes from African island country Madagascar. There is no doubt that natural vanilla is better than the artificial vanilla. The problem with French processed tea is their high production cost compares with the American outsourced teas. In terms of outsourcing and marketing American productivity index is 6% higher than the French. If you like Chai Masala, sometime a tiny pinch of natural vanilla can give you extra ordinary flavor and exotic experience. You just can't compare artificial vanilla with the natural vanilla. Only couple of exclusive British and French tea rooms offer natural vanilla in tea because of the little availability and the price. There is one or two tea rooms in La Vegas offers natural vanilla but you have to add some extra cost.

I am not a big fan of Globalization either. The recent global financial crisis taught us a lesson:

"Communism has failed and capitalism or globalization is bankrupt." But the world is pouring trillions of dollar to maintain globalization. We all understand the cause and fact but we can't change it.

I have been to South America for two years which is a famous for Coffee and Cocoa beans or cacao tree production. I was shocked to see how much we pay for a decent chocolate bar in the U.S. or Europe but the local cacao producers get nothing. Indeed, I witness the negetive side of the globalization. We don't mind to pay few extra dollars to enjoy a so-called socially responsible Starbucks coffee but at the end how many of us realize that these multinational companies pay very little to the coffee farmers?

Fair Trade logo, 1% social contributions like marketing tactics work quiet well in the US. My personal opinion is, they are all marketing craps. I respect your attitude, try to find the best value with best price. It is not so difficult to maintain 100% profit margin in tea business. As a result, we see many tea vendors but many of them can't survive for poor tea and lack of business knowledge.

Ripon La Paz, Bolivia

Thanks for the update. Ive always wanted some of that Madagascar natural tasting vanilla tea. It would be like 'milk tea' from Taiwan, just part of the taste. I picked up a 125g discounted tin of Taylors of Harrogate Jasmine Blossom Green Tea for $6. It gives me another reference point for Jasmine. How does its heavy and soapy compare to my favorite thin and light. I dont know which is the correct taste. I just stay away from unknown scented taste or just add my own like natural vanilla. I wished we could see more South American teas cloned from Japanese variety. Its one of little known secrets like Yamamoto. My biggest problem with globalism there is no economic theory that says it will work like macro versus micro economics. Besides globalism makes borders an oxymoron.

Jim

I recently watched a great documentary about coffee workers, and they gathered a group of the workers and asked them how much they thought a pound of their coffee sold for in the U.S. They all made guesses I forget the exact numbers but they were guessing like cents and up to maybe two dollars, then the man told them like $10-20 and they all just laughed and were totally blown away. And this was on a so-called fair-trade farm. It is just sad that so many (even if well intentioned) intelligent Americans are too dumb to understand that they are hurting the situation not helping it no matter how expensive their latte is or how much they pay per pound. But to actually help would take some effort and their precious time that they could be dialing for American Idol or going to the mall with. It is very frustrating and I'm sure even moreso from the ground-level where you are.

I try to get to know the vendors and make sure they are good people, and then from there try to find out who actually grew the tea and then learn about their situation and facilities. I have found quite a few growers who are great people and who I will support as long as they grow tea, and if possible find ways to directly compensate them in a meaningful way... which very often doesn't involve money.

I'd love to hear of your experiences as I'm sure many others would too if you find time to elaborate at some point.

Take care,

- Dominic

And I thought $10/oz of LiuAnGuaPian was expensive, hey wait. To me the price of tea is just a series of markups for each middle man. One tea shoppe gets its teas from distributors. Another from a buyer who makes trips to China. Both shops have employees and business expenses like rent. I can do cheaper on the Internet but I support brick and mortars. From what I understand if I am in China in a tea market Im getting screwed. Thats the way it is. Ive been in an import fair trade store. Junk. I dont go to Farmers Markets. Ripoff. Once again the farmer cant sell directly due to globalism shenanigans like quotas. I have to wait for key lime season in Florida so I can buy cheaper from Peru.

Jim

It's sad to heard this news too. I trusted fair-trade, and contacte them for a certification

Hi Dominic, I also have the dream of helping tea farmers in China. I' planning to help drinkers buy tea from tea farmers directly and hel the farmers get more benefits too

I'm trying to gather more farmers that I known and building a websit by myself too. I think we can make some change of this world

hong.tea.da Chinese tea farme

The trouble with farming everything is perishable. Organic farming did great when the economy was gang busters. Now everybody is buying at the grocery store. Farming has always been selling short and let somebody else take the risk. My distant non relative living in Taiwan has been emailing about his visits to tea plantations. Those growers have people standing in line to buy the finished tea. Hes coming to visit soon. He brings the tea. I bring my YiXing gongfu set. Any tea from China is just a China Post away. I dont know how nearby they are. Somebody has to stand in line to have the contents inspected to obtain customs declaration. I dont know how Yunnan Sourcing on Ebay does it. Nobody on TaoBao wants to take the time to do it. Lucky for YS.

Jim

PS The farm> Dom ...