LuckiestRaccoon wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 4:09 pm
Not exactly sure what you mean by "asking community for safe boat".
"I'm looking to sample some high quality Silver Needle offerings. Do you have any recommendations?" ...is asking for the safe boat
"'Id suggest to look up on Chinese names in Pinyin and try those in google ." ....is teaching you how to swim
Difference between bush and small arbor is that bush grows in line / row , packed next to each other but small arbors are more spread in area as on pictures from vendor you have linked. The age and type of tea bush / arbor can be absolutely same , only mentioned YKHao has some modification ( I believe DNA ) ,so by some tasting can be proved origin , other than that...nope.
Means , it is very easy to say anything about tea leaf or tips.
I'm not questioning any vendor , as vendor my self I'd found not ethical to do so. But this vendor just confirms what I wrote about efficiency. Look at the branch of that arbor tree. How many tips you see?
What I wrote was from what I know about the labor costs ( people who pluck tea leafs ). How much they are paid per 1kg of fresh tea leaves in Yunnan ( of course not everywhere , but in general there are not huge differences ).
In some areas you hire / pay workers per day. Still , to fill basket with tips only , is way way different from general plucking ratio 1tip 2-3 leaves .
Again , I'm not saying it is not doable / not possible , but I don't see it as business profitable. If farmer has only those trees and client orders only tips, then of course , they will do it for client. But for what price? Then add the costs of sourcing person and costs for company, profits..etc.
Another tip for you "how to swim" ...look "about us" on each website / vendor u want to buy stuff and think.
How many people have to be employed and how many people to get their "cut" . If business is based in place A , sourcing tea from A,B,C,D and having shops , offices in place E ,F, G...fancy retail shops.
"Capital 8 Million Yen"
)))
Marketing is based on customer not knowing the fact behind and having desire to obtain something special , rare, unique , authentic ...yet not paying astronomical ( real ) price for that. We all naturally want the best for our selves, and the right marketing will make you feel that.
I know that in some way people / consumers think "supermarket / big company" way , that such a big company might have different ( cheaper ) prices because buying in bulk. ..yes, the "bulk" tea.....not luxury stuff. ..that doesn't exist in bulk.
Again, I'm not claiming that vendor you linked is selling bush tips with pictures of some arbors. I don't have any proof of it and even if I had , I wouldn't post it , because not my business and we all have our karma. In fact, the way some tea companies sourcing the tea ( from middleman or even directly from farmers ) is very easy being cheated. Some farmers have just few trees but resell other tea as well claiming as their own.
So please take it as I'm sharing my opinion based on experience on the actual field ...coz I live in Yunnan and do biz on the actual tea field / garden and local tea market.