Tea Paranoia ?

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mbanu
Posts: 962
Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 3:45 pm

Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:40 am

aet wrote:
Sun Aug 15, 2021 7:16 pm
I'm just wondering. I know there is a competition between vendors so it makes sense to not share certain info , but I'm kinda observing same scenario among the tea buyers.
Like many times somebody has posted something ( tea ) and talking about it highly. Then I ask , where did you buy it? ...silent
On Reddit somebody recommended buying from Kunming Taobao vendors , I asked which vendor. Got an answer, you are from Kunming so your question is not genuine ;-) I explained that as a vendor I find informative what people out there ( foreigners tend to buy , drink ( tea ) ) , so my question is genuine and mean no harm. ...silent
Other day on FB group somebody was talking highly about Zijuan shu. I'm interested in that matter since we have a farmer with Zi Juan plantations.
Again, I asked where did he bought his dozens of cakes ( as he claimed ) or at least share the labels , so I can try as he had recommended - I must to try ....silent
And I could go on and go on.

Is there some paranoia among the tea buyers? Why not sharing such a information? Common , the market is huge , tons of tea ..especially puer tea and it is going to be like that for the next decade.
So what is the fuss about?
Please share your thoughts.
Thanks!
My thought would be they worry they will be embarrassed if their source turns out not to be genuine, which can be a problem when buying tea from certain regions. If you had not mentioned Reddit, which loves advertising, another thought would have been that they don't want to encourage vendor advertising posts because it can be hard to tell for sure that the person promoting a vendor has not been hired by them.
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mbanu
Posts: 962
Joined: Fri May 03, 2019 3:45 pm

Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:57 am

wave_code wrote:
Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:25 am
Tea like many other interests that involve some aspect of collecting there is often the assumption from those entering in from outside that anything can be bought as long as you have the cash, or at least that having lots of disposable income is the only way to get certain things. Of course there is always someone happy to take uninformed people's money, but there is almost something reassuring to me when there are certain items that tend trade hands only between those in the know, not only out of money but mutual interest/respect and appreciation. Whether it is at cost, profit, or as a generous gift, it still provides me with some hope that not everything in this world can just be purchased.
This is a unique form of marketing, to be sure. Sometimes it causes interesting quirks, like people going to the source to buy from the farms, thinking the farmers keep secret the best quality for their own use, only to be surprised when the farmers quite honestly point out that they are poor and would be fools not to sell the things people will pay the most for, or fool the buyer when they sell the ordinary-quality tea they have not sold yet as their own "special reserve" just to make a sale.

Things that can't be purchased exchange hands through non-businesses, either provided by agencies subsidized by everyone for the public good, or institutions supported by a country's upper class for cultural reasons.
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Mon Aug 16, 2021 8:09 pm

mbanu wrote:
Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:40 am
My thought would be they worry they will be embarrassed if their source turns out not to be genuine, which can be a problem when buying tea from certain regions.
I would counter that a lot of Western Puerh friends are rather immune to that and on the contrary prefer to blissfully ignore when someone lays out how things are. I would highly recommend reading this part of Aet's blog to anyone interested in Puerh: https://www.pageoftea.com/smart-tea-buyer

It explains in very honest and straightforward words a few inconvenient facts about Puerh and all the hype that surrounds it. But as I said, a lot of people will prefer to pretend a different reality...
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aet
Vendor
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:56 pm
Location: Kunming ( China )

Mon Aug 16, 2021 9:28 pm

[/quote]

My thought would be they worry they will be embarrassed if their source turns out not to be genuine, which can be a problem when buying tea from certain regions. If you had not mentioned Reddit, which loves advertising, another thought would have been that they don't want to encourage vendor advertising posts because it can be hard to tell for sure that the person promoting a vendor has not been hired by them.
[/quote]
That's actually fair point!
I was thinking about it . Especially in case of TB buyer where this more than likely to happen.
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Baisao
Posts: 1397
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 5:17 pm
Location: ATX

Tue Aug 17, 2021 1:19 am

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Mon Aug 16, 2021 9:00 am
However, I imagine myself with Bok & Baiso in a teahouse, tea drunk on pu. listening to them enlighten lazy me on some philosophers & totally comprehending for the moment :D
That would be a grand time!
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