Jay Miller
Jay Miller
Teagschwendner has opened a store in Rockefeller Center. At least one of the salespeople is a very knowledgeable tea geek and fun to talk to.
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For NYC Tea Fans
- Thread starter Jay Miller
- Start date
evan hansen
Evan Hansen
Teagschwender poses kind of an interesting quandary for me as a longtime tea drinker. There's a place here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that sells their teas both bagged to take home and I have very mixed feelings. When they opened, you could tell that the owner and her staff were enthusiastic but not necessarily as knowledgeable as a lot of tea lovers I knew. The Teagschwender guys would come from Chicago every so often to host events or to give them further training. All very nice and fine -- spreading the love of tea is great.
But they stock like 100 teas, and there's no way they are going through them fast enough to keep them relatively fresh. And compared to stuff that I was ordering online from Upton, it seemed kind of stale.
As a result, I've always wondered what Teagascwender's import model is to the US because some of their teas taste kind of dead to me -- do they buy it in a native country from a giant merchant, let it sit on tarmac somewhere for 3 days, then ship it back to their own place in Germany before getting it to the US or do they have a fairly quick, direct ship sort of arrangement going? And who are they buying from in the first place? I once found a reference on their German site that said they couldn't ship from Germany anymore and now to order from their US-based operation, but I have no idea what that actually means in terms of their actual supply chain.
I've been pretty fortunate to have a place near my house in the Detroit burbs that direct imports their own teas, all from relatively small tea growers and merchants, because they have a family friend in China that maintains the relationship for them. So they do only Chinese teas, 30 teas max at any given time, and they're always remarkably fresh. Incredibly potent aromatically, both in terms of the dry leaf and in the cup. To my palate, they're significantly better than a lot of other alternatives.
I've often wondered about how bigger loose leaf operations compare and whether or not I ought to be buying from them at all. There's not a lot of info out there, at least not that I've found.
I didn't really intend to bash Teagschwender, though I suppose I have done so now. If I were more familiar with New York, I'd offer suggestions so this wasn't just a bitchy post. But I'm not, so bitchy post it is!
But they stock like 100 teas, and there's no way they are going through them fast enough to keep them relatively fresh. And compared to stuff that I was ordering online from Upton, it seemed kind of stale.
As a result, I've always wondered what Teagascwender's import model is to the US because some of their teas taste kind of dead to me -- do they buy it in a native country from a giant merchant, let it sit on tarmac somewhere for 3 days, then ship it back to their own place in Germany before getting it to the US or do they have a fairly quick, direct ship sort of arrangement going? And who are they buying from in the first place? I once found a reference on their German site that said they couldn't ship from Germany anymore and now to order from their US-based operation, but I have no idea what that actually means in terms of their actual supply chain.
I've been pretty fortunate to have a place near my house in the Detroit burbs that direct imports their own teas, all from relatively small tea growers and merchants, because they have a family friend in China that maintains the relationship for them. So they do only Chinese teas, 30 teas max at any given time, and they're always remarkably fresh. Incredibly potent aromatically, both in terms of the dry leaf and in the cup. To my palate, they're significantly better than a lot of other alternatives.
I've often wondered about how bigger loose leaf operations compare and whether or not I ought to be buying from them at all. There's not a lot of info out there, at least not that I've found.
I didn't really intend to bash Teagschwender, though I suppose I have done so now. If I were more familiar with New York, I'd offer suggestions so this wasn't just a bitchy post. But I'm not, so bitchy post it is!
U
Unknown
Guest
I think Evan's post calls for a visit to the rock center location asap - at least to establish a point of reference ( I would assume the new shop would hold fresh inventory to begin with ).
Jay Miller
Jay Miller
If it helps I really like their Phuguri Second Flush Darjeeling.
The salesguy convinced me to try a Nepalese Second Flush (SFTGFOP Sunderpani) and it's good and a good value in comparison but I don't really drink tea often enough to need something in that value category.
The salesguy convinced me to try a Nepalese Second Flush (SFTGFOP Sunderpani) and it's good and a good value in comparison but I don't really drink tea often enough to need something in that value category.