Vendor Review: Current tea catalogs…

This isn’t a vendor review proper, just a few notes on the latest round of tea catalogs that has graced my threshold. 

I requested a few this year that I’d never gotten before, just out of curiosity.  I think I asked for Upton, Harney & Sons, Mark T. Wendell, Stash, Republic of Tea, Peet’s…I think that’s it.  The only one that hasn’t come yet is Stash, but I’ve gotten their catalogue before and I’ve never ordered any tea from them, just the occasional gifty-type-thing.

Peet’s…you can pretty much forget about the catalogue.  It looks like they might have one or two worthwhile teas, despite being more a coffee company, but you’re better off ordering at their website.  The “catalogue” is glossy and easy to navigate, but it’s also only about five pages long…more of an advertising mailer than a catalogue.  I’ve never ordered anything from Peet’s, only just heard of ‘em.  I’d probably pick to get my tea from someplace that specialized in tea, but, like I said, they seem to have a few interesting offerings.

Mark T. Wendell’s I’ve also never ordered from, and probably won’t.  They have a nice, modest, easily navigated catalogue, but I get a weird vibe from them.  They seem to focus mostly on teabags and producing consistent-but-possibly-mediocre teas and tea blends…they also do a lot of “importing” and reselling of packaged brands (loose and bagged) from different areas of the world.  I’m sure this was useful ten years ago if you wanted PG Tips in America or Typhoo or some Chinese tea bags, but the advent of the internet and larger “Ethnic” sections in most grocery stores makes this seem like a waste of effort and catalogue space on the part of Wendell’s.

Harney & Son’s…I’ve had their tea now and again when I’m shopping at Barnes & Noble, as that’s what their little cafe serves.  It isn’t bad; I’d compare it to Numi or Republic of Tea in quality and presentation.  I’m sure a lot of Harney fans will take that as an insult, but their company strikes me as concerned mostly with wide-appeal, consistent-but-not-thrilling blends, fancy packaging, “theme” teas, *lots* of flavoured teas, etc.  None of that is really my favourite.  The catalogue is very glossy and impressive, but a little busy and hard to navigate, for me, anyway.  Too much flash all around.  Stick with the website if you’re after one of their more “normal” teas or a favourite blend.

Upton’s catalogue is, as always, a huge favourite.  They always have interesting, long, in-depth articles on the history or influence of tea, which is a great treat.  The selection is, of course, enormous, and you will know *everything* you wanted to know about the age and provenance of most of their teas.  Their “blurbs” on the tea are occasionally helpful, but they do tend to run together after the hundredth one or so…still, good guidelines.  The best thing about the catalogue is the *super clear* organization and the absolute no-nonsense style of it.  No colour, no graphics, small black and white pictures of teaware where needed, just lists of tea laid out by colour, region, and “body/boldness.”  Yay!  I *hate* Upton’s website, although that’s where I go to do the actual ordering…it’s just not instinctive for me to navigate, for some reason, but I love the catalogue.  Use it for fun browsing and the website for up-to-date information on selections and ordering.  You can also read their quarterly articles on the website–well worth it.  The current one is on the early economics of tea as it related to Tibetan/Chinese horse trading…very cool!

Republic of Tea’s catalogue was surprisingly nice…I wouldn’t order their tea, as a rule, but it isn’t bad for bags (and the occasional loose).  It’s pricey, though, I think…you’re paying a lot for packaging, artwork, etc.  Lovely catalogue, but what was really nice was all of their teaware.  While the markups on, say, Bodum products, was a little ridiculous, their own line of pots and cups and accessories is shockingly well-priced, for the most part, and quite pretty.  There’s a tea tray and a few pots I have my eye on in there–I’ll post if I wind up ordering them.  Tea-wise, they do a ton of “themed” stuff, including a Jerry Garcia teas line (WTF?!?!?) and a “Sip For the Cure” Breast-cancer research line, which is all…pink, in one way or another.

They sent along a sample bag of their “Pink Grapefruit Grean Tea” from the “Sip For the Cure” line with my catalogue–brief review as follows.  Anyway, request some of these catalogues–they’re fun “fluff” reading, and they might even send you a bit of tea!

PINK GRAPEFRUIT ROUND GREEN TEA BAGS from The Republic of Tea:

This is *not* a tea I would *ever* pick for myself.  It’s flavoured, themed, and pink.  That’s *three* things going against it.  Still, I’ll try to keep an open mind.  Dry, the bag smells vaguely citrus and vaguely green tea.  And vaguely pink, but that might be psychosomatic.  Steeped the bag in green-tea-temperature water in a cup for about a minute.

This stuff purports to contain “green tea,” (Does it make anyone else mildly nervous when something says it contains “green tea”?  What *kind* of green tea?), “natural grapefruit flavors,” (Hopefully of grapefruit origin…) and “pink peony petals.”  (Alliteration having to do with a pink flower…DANGER, DANGER!)

The tea in the cup smells a little green-tea-ish and a little citrusy-astringent.  The tea in the cup tastes…like medium quality generic “green tea” with, maybe, a hint of mild lemony-grapefruityness…but only a hint.  I’d characterize this tea as “warm, inoffensive, and marginally even pleasant,” but that’s about it.  It’s classic flavoured tea-bag tea, to my palate–slighly bland, slightly exotically-scented, warm, wet, and…yup, that’s it.

I wouldn’t recommend this tea, and I’d probably pick something else (even a straight green) if I had to get at tea bag at a coffeehouse.  You could serve this to a non-tea-drinker, though, and they wouldn’t dislike it, hot or iced, I’m sure.