Quality and Price of Black Tea

There are 3 major ways that black tea is distributed. In the first case, tea buyer directly visits the places of production and purchases their tea. Then he or she brings these tea leaves back to their country and processes, blends, and packs them at their own factory. Since the buyer is purchasing the tea directly, the price is much better and he or she can control the quality. In another case, tea is purchased ,which has been already packed and sold in another countries. The buyer brings these packaged tea and sells on the Japanese market. The prices often match the average price of other black tea sold in Japan. With this case, it become little difficult to know how fair the prices for the tea compare to its quality. In the third case, major Japanese trading companies import the tea. Trading company often deal with large commercial bland tea. Therefore, it is also difficult to say if we are paying the money for the quality or for the name. Tea is an agricultural produce. The tea that comes from fine conditions with excellent climate are always high valued and rated as a high standard tea. Some high-standard tea are sold at the auction for extremely high prices. Sometimes, equally high-standard tea are sold at auction for a reasonable price, because of the high quantities of the harvest on that year. Thus, good quality tea is not always expensive. Of course, the tea purchased directly from the farmer or tea factories are more reasonable in price. The price also changes depending on the amount of the harvest of that year and the balance of consumption and supply. Since most of the black tea is imported, the currency and customs can also be a factor in changing the price. Thereupon, it is difficult to judge the quality of tea by its price. Try to get some knowledge about the black tea, and find a criterion for your self. It is probably more important to judge a tea by the taste, especially if you are also satisfied with its price.

(Rumi Kanemaru)