While I was at a conference in a neighboring town few months ago, I visited a small gift shop that among other things had a large selection bulk of tea. I was amazed at their variety & ended up selecting four different flavors, my favorite being a dark chocolate pu’erh that is honestly to die for. If you love dark chocolate, this tea has dark chocolate curls mixed with chinese pu’erh (otherwise known as unoxidized green tea) that makes for a smooth, bitter, & sweet taste that totally satisfies a chocolate craving – without the calories!
However, I was disappointed to find out that the shop I bought the tea from does not blend any of their own teas. If I hadn’t asked, I would never have known that they actually buy all their teas in bulk from a variety of other vendors (and not large distributors mind you), repackage it OR open each individual packet & pour them into a bulk container, and then label it as their own – giving absolutely no credit to the actual blender on the label. To be perfectly honest, this rubs me the wrong way. One of the companies that was mentioned to me in particular while I was at the store is a local company from the midwest who is well-known, yet there is no mention anywhere on any of the packaging that is was one of their products.
Just to make sure I heard the sales person right the first time, I called the shop in question last week to ask if the dark chocolate pu’erh was blended in-house. The sales person again said no, and was very elusive when I asked “if you don’t blend your tea, then who does?” I never got a straight answer. I appreciate small business (and retailers not wanting to lose sales by telling me their distributors), but I also appreciate giving credit where credit is due. I feel like excluding that information is misrepresentation of goods, especially when you are getting it from other small businesses who deserve the recognition for creating a superb product. Therefore, I can’t mention or recommend this business – or personally buy from them again.
So if anyone knows who does make a delicious, in-house blend of dark chocolate pu’erh tea, please let me know! I only have enough for one last glass… 😦
Kirsten Fire 