ANMO Art Cha – German tea shop review

[GaoShan]

Sijichun can be acquired in all sorts of qualities, simply comparing teas by cultivar name is pretty useless. Without side by side comparison those are just names…

That said, after a certain price point, I very much doubt most people will be able to tell the difference from a good tea to a top shelf tea. A lot is then also due to teas being processed exceptionally clean and in organic ways.

You've put the conundrum of online shopping in a nutshell. All we have to go on is info like the cultivar name, location, elevation, harvest date, roast level, etc., if indeed the vendor provides all of these details. If a customer knows a tea type, they can also judge whether the price seems consistent with other teas in that category, though of course they can't tell if this tea is a lot better than those others. For example, Daxue Jiadao's teas seemed fairly high priced until I tried them and realized how good they were.

Most vendors of Taiwanese tea have similar prices (i.e., Floating Leaves sells 30 g of their Shan Lin Xi for $15.50, Wang sells 25 g of their Shan Lin Xi Wild Garden for $16 and their regular SLX for ~$10, Tea Masters sells 25 g of Shan Lin Xi for $10). If a vendor was charging $40 for 25 g of their Shan Lin Xi, I would wonder why.

In your opinion, what are some vendors that can justify those high prices by offering "top shelf" Taiwanese teas? I definitely won't drink a lot of these teas, but I'm curious about what's out there.

[aet]

I think that importing tea to EU is like 20-30% import TAX. I don't know shipping fee from TW but it is not cheap either , from what I've heard. Other costs could be pest test , which local customs ( or rather health $ safety dpt. ) might require. That's around 600$ per tea. That might seriously raise the price / kg , especially if you import just like 5kg or something ( talking from experience, coz happened to my customer ) . Other expenses are shop rent, workers and I think you have to also pay some TAX from actual sells.

The real reason for Brexit has been revealed

hehe, yes. Like having a specialized tea shop in EU is rather hobby than business for $.

[Bok]

Most vendors of Taiwanese tea have similar prices (i.e., Floating Leaves sells 30 g of their Shan Lin Xi for $15.50, Wang sells 25 g of their Shan Lin Xi Wild Garden for $16 and their regular SLX for ~$10, Tea Masters sells 25 g of Shan Lin Xi for $10). If a vendor was charging $40 for 25 g of their Shan Lin Xi, I would wonder why.

I know one vendor who sells SLX for 1K+ USD for one jin(600g). And that is Taiwan local retail... imagine trying to export that. His teas are exceptionally good, close to teas of the legendary Chen Ah Qiao in some of his teas – but no way I can justify paying that. But he has people who buy up a whole harvest just like that. So the market and acceptance, locally, is there.

In your opinion, what are some vendors that can justify those high prices by offering "top shelf" Taiwanese teas? I definitely won't drink a lot of these teas, but I'm curious about what's out there.

As I said, not really available outside of TW, prices make that impossible as a business model. No need either, as local market will buy the little there is without issue.

[Bourder]

Prices in EU can get ridiculous very quickly, I've seen teas with a price tag more than double of what I would've had to pay after taxes and shipping when importing them myself.

[Vinski]

For example, the duty on oxidized or partially oxidized tea imported here from Taiwan is 0% and the VAT is 14%. So not too expensive an additional fee. In addition to that, there is a delivery fee, which at least for larger batches of tea is not too much either.

[the_dalu]

Sri Lanka Tea has GSP+ up until recently too.

AFAIK, Swiss has 0% custom on tea too.

[GaoShan]

I know one vendor who sells SLX for 1K+ USD for one jin(600g). And that is Taiwan local retail... imagine trying to export that. His teas are exceptionally good, close to teas of the legendary Chen Ah Qiao in some of his teas – but no way I can justify paying that. But he has people who buy up a whole harvest just like that. So the market and acceptance, locally, is there.

Having to buy 600 g of that tea would be prohibitively expensive, though I'm sure some people would buy 50 g just to try it. There must be a wide range of quality between the teas that sell for US$2/g locally and those that sell for US$0.50/g in the West after all the import fees, markups, etc. are added. Are we basically limited to the bottom end of the Taiwanese tea market, and if so, why does it seem different for Chinese tea?

[wave_code]

I'm sure some people would buy 50 g just to try it.

I think this statement as a general thing could be applied to ANMO and a lot of EU vendors. Aside from importing being expensive and a major headache especially in Germany, VAT, paying rent on a store front in this particular case, so on... consider that a lot of us on here are of a far less common breed in Europe or North America buying high end tea in quantity. A lot of us buy by the kg, cake or tong, basket, so on when we find something we like. But most people don't, and a lot of people will buy higher end tea, but in what we consider sample or almost single session size just for the sake of trying it. Maybe they only have one session a week, don't brew gong fu style, or drink so many types of teas without much preference they just buy tons of samples. Then the prices aren't so bad if the vendor is doing a good job- you get access to something in a quantity that is affordable and/or makes sense to you with the vendor curating so you don't have to order and sample tons of awful tea from various vendors who you don't speak the same language as and would take you 6 weeks to get you your tea.

[GaoShan]

I'm sure some people would buy 50 g just to try it.

I think this statement as a general thing could be applied to ANMO and a lot of EU vendors. Aside from importing being expensive and a major headache especially in Germany, VAT, paying rent on a store front in this particular case, so on... consider that a lot of us on here are of a far less common breed in Europe or North America buying high end tea in quantity. A lot of us buy by the kg, cake or tong, basket, so on when we find something we like. But most people don't, and a lot of people will buy higher end tea, but in what we consider sample or almost single session size just for the sake of trying it. Maybe they only have one session a week, don't brew gong fu style, or drink so many types of teas without much preference they just buy tons of samples. Then the prices aren't so bad if the vendor is doing a good job- you get access to something in a quantity that is affordable and/or makes sense to you with the vendor curating so you don't have to order and sample tons of awful tea from various vendors who you don't speak the same language as and would take you 6 weeks to get you your tea.

I agree, the ability to avoid bad tea is definitely a reason to choose vendors like this one, if indeed the tea is worth the price. I don't have the budget to buy $2/g gaoshan by the jin, but clearly some people do. Also, there's enough of a market for other types of high-end tea to allow Western-facing businesses to sell it. I've seen yancha for $10/g, along with high-end puerh, dancong, longjing, etc.

[Bok]

Are we basically limited to the bottom end of the Taiwanese tea market, and if so, why does it seem different for Chinese tea?

I’d say mid to bottom. The market and available quantity is a lot smaller in Taiwan, geographically.

But don’t be fooled, the top tier of Chinese tea is equally difficult to obtain… more volume, but also more volume of deep pocket customers at the top who’ll happily take all that’s there for premium teas.

But - we don’t always need premium, mid level can be good enough for us plebs at the bottom…

[GaoShan]

Are we basically limited to the bottom end of the Taiwanese tea market, and if so, why does it seem different for Chinese tea?

I’d say mid to bottom. The market and available quantity is a lot smaller in Taiwan, geographically.

But don’t be fooled, the top tier of Chinese tea is equally difficult to obtain… more volume, but also more volume of deep pocket customers at the top who’ll happily take all that’s there for premium teas.

But - we don’t always need premium, mid level can be good enough for us plebs at the bottom…

Okay, that makes sense. Less Taiwanese tea overall equals less midrange/premium tea for us Westerners.

I've had memorable gaoshan from $0.50 to $0.80 per gram, as well as a lot of forgettable gaoshan in that range. I have no desire to spend money on "luxury" tea that isn't noticeably better. However, I can say that to me, the $2/g Bi Luo Chun I bought this spring was noticeably better and more complex than the BLC that cost $0.70/g, and it's too bad that I can't make that comparison with gaoshan. Would I make that premium BLC a daily drinker? No, but I might buy 25 g as a splurge, and it's nice that I have that option. I hope vendors like Seven Cups have enough customers willing to buy that tea to stay in business, and given how fast it sells out, they do.

[aet]

In anyhow, I think, eventually it all boils down to the vendor's decision of which concept He/She want's to do. Selling high end stuff requires knowledge for sourcing which one shouldn't "sell" cheap + the fact of costs of the actual product + mentioned expenses in EU.
I remember similar topic we were debating here
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2187

[the_dalu]

Called her today. She apologized. Was very courteous. Turns out she doesn't have what I ordered in her stock. She said she would refund.

She said that the instagram is the best place to communicate. Unfortunately, I don't have an IG account.

[the_dalu]

In anyhow, I think, eventually it all boils down to the vendor's decision of which concept He/She want's to do. Selling high end stuff requires knowledge for sourcing which one shouldn't "sell" cheap + the fact of costs of the actual product + mentioned expenses in EU.
I remember similar topic we were debating here
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2187