Mei leaf

[aet]

"The little guys get undercut and oversold by the big players in the business. They can stock and sell tea much quicker. With higher volume comes less quality control measures and they may sell teas that would be a waste of time for the smaller vendors to purchase. They can sell top shelf picks for a little cheaper since they buy much bigger quantities."

There is something on that as well, but also the term "quality" is not that standardized like with coffee ( More attributes involved ), so it's more complex to define which vendor has a better quality . Also big seller can not source some unique / rare teas because that is more time consuming and not that profitable ( yet some big vendors claim they do ...just marketing ) , unless being simultaneously on few mountains during the actual harvesting and supervising tea leafs on the journey from the tree to the box. Hiring people for doing so , is costly. Saying we have a trustworthy farmers we cooperate with....ehmm, well, suit your self with believing this one
Those who do Tbiz here in China and know, just laugh. Those who don't and believe, just pay ( it's a business after all ) .

Agree with Bok, buy samples and compare.

And hey guys, we have a Mei Leaf Chat back again ! The same one as on steepster
Can't wait the guy with posting how many followers their YT channel has;-D
( https://steepster.com/discuss/22030-mei-leaf-chat )

[Guy Juan]

Well right now I have a lot of tea to get through. And coffee for that matter (FYI freezing coffee before peak flavor post roast preserves freshness without changing the flavor ) but once I’ve burned through some of the stash I will order some samples of the “best” they offer and compare to other vendors. Regardless, Don’s videos have helped in discovering the different aspects that tea has to offer.

[.m.]

Regardless, Don’s videos have helped in discovering the different aspects that tea has to offer.

Bit off topic, but in terms of discovering tea (mainly chinese tea), there are some nice articles on https://www.teaguardian.com/

[d.manuk]

Well right now I have a lot of tea to get through. And coffee for that matter (FYI freezing coffee before peak flavor post roast preserves freshness without changing the flavor ) but once I’ve burned through some of the stash I will order some samples of the “best” they offer and compare to other vendors. Regardless, Don’s videos have helped in discovering the different aspects that tea has to offer.

Why would you want to place an order from Mei Leaf when pretty much everyone is saying it’s not worth it?

You’ve only bought from 3 vendors, I think you should reconsider and try buying from someone with a better reputation for quality...

[t-curious]

Why would you want to place an order from Mei Leaf when pretty much everyone is saying it’s not worth it?

You’ve only bought from 3 vendors, I think you should reconsider and try buying from someone with a better reputation for quality...

It’s not about logic at this point. He started the thread with positive feelings about the company and those that run it. He’s been presented with options/data that contradict that. Being human he feels attacked and backed into a corner and out of spite is going to place an order.

[Victoria]

@t-curious this thread is very civilized with members generously sharing their experiences and points of view. That those views differ from OP shouldn’t be considered an attack or anything close to that. The forum structure is intended to encourage healthy discourse and debate. It’s all about sharing here, Tea Knowledge & Friendship .

[t-curious]

t-curious this thread is very civilized with members generously sharing their experiences and points of view. That those views differ from OP shouldn’t be considered an attack or anything close to that. The forum structure is intended to encourage healthy discourse and debate. It’s all about sharing here, Tea Knowledge & Friendship .

Victoria, I didn’t mean to imply there was anything wrong with the thread or that responses were anything but civil and helpful. My response was a comment on the psychological dynamic of why he is going to make a purchase after reading this thread.

I was specifically responding to the question posed to the OP, “Why would you want to place an order from Mei Leaf when pretty much everyone is saying it’s not worth it?”

If you go back and read his original message he’s asking if their tea is any good. That question was answered. But in addition he was told the vendor he likes and trusts is at best incompetent, or at worst a cheat. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting that. Information like that is hard to listen to and can take a while to actually hear.

Again, I’m not saying he shouldn’t have been told that. When I started buying tea I spent a lot of time researching which vendors to purchase from and who not to purchase from. It’s threads like this on Steepster and other forums that helped me avoid wasting a lot of money

[oolongfan]

t-curious - I understanding what you are trying to say. It appears that the original poster still wants to try Mei Leaf's teas, despite the feedback given here..probably for the reasons that you stated. I was lucky to enter my tea journey in great company (Norbu) but I can imagine what the OP is going through.

Guy Juan - I am glad that you learned so much from the owner of meileaf.com. You are taking a much more careful approach to brewing than did I...when I was first starting my tea journey I would recommend taking a look at the vendor section here and consider getting a few samples from other vendors as well. This will give you something against which, to compare your samples from Mei Leaf. Over time, it is interesting to note the different taste and vision of each vendor

I would suggest buying in small amounts first, because over time, your tastes may shift or expand. For example, when I started out in raw pu erh, I preffered either sweeter floral young sheng or else aged tobacco tasting sheng. Over time I have really branched out to more savory young sheng and forest floor/earthy caramel tasting aged sheng. This is not to say that I don't still like my early preferances...rather to say that I am glad that I did not go and buy loads of sheng when I was still so new in my pu erh journey. I am still new in my journey and try to keep exploring new sheng and stocking up conservatively on favorites.

Look forward to hearing back when you have bought and tried some new tea.

[Chadrinkincat]

+1 for all the negative feedback.

[Guy Juan]

I think it’s very interesting how many forum members are reacting here. Almost as if they were angry with MeiLeaf. Still...only 1 person mentioned anything remotely specific about their tea. I’ve heard a lot of suggestions for Seven Cups inparticualr the Biluochun. I have been unimpressed by SevenCups and found Biluochun twice as good from another vendor and it happens to be much less expensive too (which I don’t take into account seeing as how the most expensive tea is still pretty cheap).

I guess my point is this. Based on the responses against meileaf being fairly empty with no specific information tied to the claim that their “tea is bad”, I tend to assume their opinion has no merit. When the responses sound intellectual and more adult-like, I would be more apt to take their suggestion seriously.

[Hengchan]

I think it’s very interesting how many forum members are reacting here. Almost as if they were angry with MeiLeaf. Still...only 1 person mentioned anything remotely specific about their tea. I’ve heard a lot of suggestions for Seven Cups inparticualr the Biluochun. I have been unimpressed by SevenCups and found Biluochun twice as good from another vendor and it happens to be much less expensive too (which I don’t take into account seeing as how the most expensive tea is still pretty cheap).

I guess my point is this. Based on the responses against meileaf being fairly empty with no specific information tied to the claim that their “tea is bad”, I tend to assume their opinion has no merit. When the responses sound intellectual and more adult-like, I would be more apt to take their suggestion seriously.

I've ordered from Mei Leaf before, the tea was good. But I don't think the value is always there, i.e you can get that quality at a lower price.

I think they are fine especially if you are going to order from UK, you will get your tea quickly. If you are going to incur extra charges to ship to US then probably not worth.

[d.manuk]

Mei Leaf is well known for using shill accounts to market itself online, creating threads much like this one devoted to Mei Leaf as a single vendor. This works best on Reddit, where the posts move fast and there's a higher chance no one will post about their low quality and past ethical problems. In fact, that's where I came across them as a vendor and decided to give them a try.

In forums that move slower, Mei Leaf tries to have shill accounts too but they perform rather poorly since more senior members have a more likely chance to chime in. You can see what happened on Steepster in the thread I linked to earlier. The poster there seems very similar to the one here, talking about their Mei Leaf purchases and continuing to promote them despite everyone saying they're not good. I'm not saying that's necessarily what's happening here as its too early to tell, but I want to put it out there so that everyone is aware because I will not allow that to happen here. This is the only tea forum I visit because of its high quality posts and I think its my responsibility to help keep it that way.

This is just 1 of my past orders with Mei Leaf, early on in my tea journey. Even then, I gave all of the tea away because it was low quality. The puers were the most palatable but still nothing notable. Don't waste your money like myself and others have, and just buy from a better vendor... That is the best advice I can give to anyone wanting to purchase tea from Mei Leaf.

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[Bok]

This is the only tea forum I visit because of its high quality posts and I think its my responsibility to help keep it that way.

Cheers to that!

[Chadrinkincat]

I think it’s very interesting how many forum members are reacting here. Almost as if they were angry with MeiLeaf. Still...only 1 person mentioned anything remotely specific about their tea. I’ve heard a lot of suggestions for Seven Cups inparticualr the Biluochun. I have been unimpressed by SevenCups and found Biluochun twice as good from another vendor and it happens to be much less expensive too (which I don’t take into account seeing as how the most expensive tea is still pretty cheap).

I guess my point is this. Based on the responses against meileaf being fairly empty with no specific information tied to the claim that their “tea is bad”, I tend to assume their opinion has no merit. When the responses sound intellectual and more adult-like, I would be more apt to take their suggestion seriously.

I think they invoke a big response from more experienced people because ML’s whole business model is based on flashy personalities/videos to sell average quality tea to people that don’t know any better. Their biggest supporters tend to be people with little to no experience. If their tea was as good as they make it out to be than you’d see a lot more experienced tea drinkers chiming in with glowing reviews.

[Atlas]

This guys is incredibally knowledgeable when it comes to tea.

...

I get the whole (ohhh it’s a sales pitch) deal but he seems to back it up with knowledge.

You may be (and I suspect are) confusing "knowledge" with "details".

Having watched a few of his deep-dive videos and a couple of basics videos (though not for about a year):

- The enthusiasm and production values are excellent, and I can't really criticise him for his schtick just because I personally hate it.

- Many of his basic how-to videos provide, imho, excellent primers, and I think they provide a valuable service that no-one else is providing. They get people excited about tea, too, which is fantastic.

- Some of the details/theories he provides about tea, clays etc have the stink of "stuff he's been told but has never independently verified". Some of it doesn't scan given even cursory analysis (his explanation of yixing comes to mind, but as I say it's been a long while). The errors you can see make everything else suspect, if only because it makes him seem credulous.

- Newbies who can't spot the problems are generally taken in by the level of detail, because they can't vet anything and thus have to go on confidence and detail... and he has those in spades.

I can't comment personally on his teas, but that's because I've heard from people I trust who have had them that they do not live up to the expectations set by their prices. That doesn't mean you have to trust it, but it's silly to expect everyone you ask to respond with specific details of what they didn't like about particular teas in the context of a "is this vendor good?" thread.