Posts tagged as:

evaluation

Tea Store Evaluation- Numi Organic Tea

by Jason on January 18, 2012

in Voices of Tea

Part of a series on evaluating online tea stores.

 

A look at Numi Organic Tea in the areas of quality, selection, and tea community.

I admit that it has been over a year since I had any interaction with Numi teas. I moved on from their teas and site mainly because of the very limited selection of un-blended teas. Since then, Numi has performed a significant upgrade in their site design . That said, it can still be very frustrating maneuvering around the site and finding information.

Quality: Numi has built its brand around offering pure, natural ingredients that are beneficial to people and the Earth. As such, many teas are Fair Trade and organic.

  • Product pics make me reluctant to buy. For example, their Dragonwell appears excessively brown. This tea looks old and overpriced.
  • Numi does offer a compressed, brick pu’er (difference in spelling is intentional), but I wonder if it could go head-to-head with a traditional pu’er brick from an established producer. I have not yet tasted it.

Selection: Small. I found 9 of 24 total loose teas that were unflavored and un-blended. You will find 1 wulong, 4 greens, and 1 black tea that meet this criteria.

Tea Community: Numi does sport regular activity on a blog, Facebook, and Twitter, but their use of FB and Twitter is more of an announcement or bulletin board employment. They are not places where people go to ask questions or expect back-and-forth interaction.

Conclusion: I generally find Numi’s selection and quality of loose, unflavored/unblended teas uninspiring. Their tea community and overall online presence is one-directional and fairly stagnant.

And their website is awkward. If I want a tea, do I go to Product or Shop? Only after looking at the product did I realize “bulk” included 4 ounce volumes. I saw one link to their blog on the landing page, and but could not find another. So I would have to go back to find that link. Just a mess.

Walker Tea Review- a tea blog with tea reviews and tea tastings. Operated by Jason Walker.

Subscribe in a reader or by email

Tagged as: , ,

{ 1 comment }

Tea Store Evaluation- Harney

by Jason on July 16, 2010

in Voices of Tea

Part of a series on evaluating online tea stores.

A look at Harney & Sons in the areas of quality, selection, and tea community.

Quality: Harney has done well in telling the story of how they travel to origin to source their teas. As a result, their Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Taiwanese teas generally range from good to very good. Of those I have personally sampled, I found their Chinese and Japanese greens especially noteworthy. That is not to say, however, that their other collections should be completely ignored.

Selection: Among Harney’s clientèle, the tea chatter often gravitates towards Harney’s blends. There is plenty of reason to buzz about Harney’s unblended selection. You’ll find a solid collection of around 8 Darjeelings (1st or 2nd flush), over 15 Chinese blacks, about 12 oolongs, several Japanese greens, and approximately 15 Chinese greens.

Tea Community: Harney may look like a stodgy traditional tea store, but their Facebook fans sing praises of their teas, and interact with a member of the Harney team. On the other side is Harney’s Guide to Tea. Although the company offers Twitter, a blog for their book and store, I suspect their book has created a significant but less traceable following.

Conclusion: Go to Harney for a fine tea collection and experience, then catch the enthusiasm of fellow Harney drinkers on their Facebook page.

Walker Tea Review- a tea blog with tea reviews and tea tastings. Operated by Jason Walker.

Subscribe in a reader or by email

Tagged as: , ,

{ 0 comments }

Tea Store Evaluation- Rishi

by Jason on June 21, 2010

in Uncategorized

Part of a series on evaluating online tea stores.

A look at Rishi Tea in the areas of quality, selection, and tea community.

Quality: Overall, a strong selection of medium to higher quality teas with prices either on par with or slightly above their competitors. Rishi’s landing page displays badges indicating they are USDA certified, certified Kosher (via Wisconsin-K), and Fair Trade Certified. In addition, Rishi offers a quality promise of satisfaction. Rishi also took home multiple awards from the World Tea Championship competition. Walker Tea Review has given several of their teas 90+ scores.

Selection: Rishi’s strength lies in its Chinese and Japanese green teas. Its selection of unflavored, unblended teas in this category outnumbers the range of unflavored/unblended black, oolong, and white teas. However, that is not to say that their black or oolong selections are weak. Rishi has worked to select about 10 strong performers in each category, most notably Taiwan oolongs and Darjeeling blacks. In addition, you can find several pu’ers from their fair trade villages.

Tea Community: Rishi has tapped into all the major forms of engaging community: blog, Twitter, Facebook, and newsletter.  Updates via these media can be found on a daily or weekly basis- twitter and facebook updates appear at least daily during the work week. Rishi’s messages aim less at education and more at informing its audience of events and projects. There is also the occasional comment about tea enjoyment, but engagement in chat with individual followers has been limited at this point. Blog posts are where Rishi shines. Joshua Kaiser and others provide a wealth of education on how they work with farmers and source teas. In addition, there is much to be learned about the varietals and processing of the teas in their selection.

Conclusion: Go to Rishi to get connected to and learn about good teas, but don’t expect to interact much with other tea aficionados.  Do not expect to read customer reviews on their site either. The result is a rather one-sided conversation in which Rishi tells us about their teas with less opportunity to listen to feedback.

Tagged as: ,

{ 1 comment }

Tea Store Evaluation- Adagio

May 24, 2010

Adagio Teas Selection: One of the largest among online retailers Quality: medium level quality for most teas, though moving to offer a “master collection.” Tea Community: The strongest, most active online tea communities. Conclusion: a great place for beginners who want to test the tea-waters on a low budget. Learn from others in community, and [...]

Read the full article →

Evaluating Online Tea Stores

May 3, 2010

I recall someone saying that in e-commerce, there are 3 types of shopper: The Snatch & Grabber: With the surgical precision of a military operation, these shoppers know what they want, and want to get in and out with maximum fluidity. The Researcher: Researchers study up before a purchase. They do more comparison shopping before [...]

Read the full article →