The feisty Melbourne lass @joiedetea describe both her and myself as “hardened and shameless” tea drinkers.
The minute I saw that phrase, I felt compelled to write for Beasts of Brewdom. So here we are.
The subject of today’s blog is about exactly how much size matters.
If it’s too small, you miss out on a great deal of satisfaction.
If it’s too large, there’s a heavy price to pay.
Yes, like Goldilocks ordering some Keemun Mao Feng from the Three Bears Tea Company, you want to get it just right.
In the civilised world, where we long ago gave up on things like “pounds” and “ounces” along with cave wall painting and mammoth-wool cardigans, there is a standard ‘postable’ tea size of 100grams, and another of 250grams. Sometimes 50g or 500g come up, but they are a little unusual.
Is 100grams big enough?
I’ve had samples of 20grams where I’ve nursed each gram, re-steeped as often as possible, and they’ve lasted a week. I’ve had 100gram bags gone in a day. I’ve still got tea from 100g bags I bought in 2010. I’ve got a kilo of Wild Cherry Rooibos I’ve had for years, but that’s another story.
Soon, I hope to sell a lot more tea on-line.
What is the right size?
I just don’t know.
And please don’t tell me it doesn’t matter.
December 10, 2011 at 11:32 am
*phew* ok that’s not where I thought this post was going when I saw you pick up that marvelous phrase of Samuel Johnson’s (or Ben Johnson? I get them confused. But then as Tennant will tell you I get everyone confused, particularly Laurence of Arabia and Sir Laurence Olivier. Luckily I can tell my SFTGFOP from my CTC… Anyway..) about being a hardened and shameless tea drinker who solace the morning afternoon and midnight ugh the precious brew, etc. Especially when I saw it was going to be a Beastly post.
Anyway as I said it really depends on how much you like a given tea as so how long it lasts… In theory 100g is about 50 cups… Which sounds like a lot until I realise that I can drink up to about 8 cups of tea in a day (I’m counting freh leaves for each cup because I rarely resteep, your mileage may vary).. So that’s about… Hmmm… A week’s worth say. Fortunately I have many, many 100g bags of tea.
December 10, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Depends on leaf size. For instance…a 30g tin of matcha can last me a month. Same size in white tea? Three days.
December 11, 2011 at 8:41 am
So that I can try a greater variety of tea, I often buy it in 100g quantities. If I’m already sure I like a tea, I might go with 200g or even 500g.
If you’re selling to Americans, you might have an easier time selling tea in ounces.
December 12, 2011 at 8:18 am
It does matter and I tend to agree with @lahikmajoe
What would be more interesting to know is why did they decide to go for the 100g package?