On Samples and Sampling

When we first dip our toes into the world of tea, we sample quite a fair bit. It’s the feeling of ‘where have you been all my life’ and we want to make up for lost time; sampling with a vengeance, steadfast and immovable in our resolve to taste all the tea in the world.

Here’s a spoiler: it is impossible.

There are more than a thousand varieties in China alone and that is to say nothing of other nations as well as flavored tea. Basically, if you include flavored tea into the mix, the possibilities are virtually endless. From cheesecake, cookies and cream and lavender just to name a few types which depending on where you stand could send you into a state of desire or repulsion.

For samples it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

Hidden in the obscure top shelf of my tea cupboard are some samples I previously bought which I suspect I might never drink again. It’s not that they are necessarily undrinkable- in fact some of them are pretty well made- but I can’t foresee why I would pick them over some others I have in my cupboard.

Sometimes I may have gathered (or purchased) 10 different types of Mi Lan Xiang, just to find a worthy source. Sometimes it may be a case of studying the impact of roasting on the tea or some other factor. More oft than not, once a smidgen of the pack has served its purpose, they don’t see the light of day ever again.

At this I suspect many other tea lovers are nodding their heads as well (or shaking their heads at the thought of their own pile of ‘waste’).

Sometimes I bring out the excess tea leaves for experiments- like home-made roasting or the impact of certain factors on the appearance and taste of tea leaves.

Sometimes I use them to keep my cupboard dry.

It feels like a disservice to the growers, pickers and producers who labored to deliver it into our hands. Especially for some of the well-made tea that was unconsumed simply because it was second best. The fact is that for that level of quality, the pickers had to pick around noontime to early afternoon when the sun’s the brightest and it was probably hand shaken or roasted and truly a labor of love.

For that reason we resisted offering sample size packets on our website thus far. We didn’t want the teas that the farmers labored so hard to produce languish in some obscure corner of a tea cupboard waiting for the day to be picked- like a concubine in an emperor’s harem. Even worse, by the time it ever saw any action, it would have lost much of its fragrance- which can happen quite quickly for small quantities of tea.

Yet it presents a bit of a quagmire, as the reverse creates an opportunity for an even bigger waste of tea- the entire full size pack. After all, not everyone likes every type of tea- there are some teas clogging up space in my cupboard because I don’t like them, even though there are some people who do.

*I would like to say that every tea I sell will definitely be a hit with every tea drinker but that is quite impossible considering the spectrum of preferences out there*

Therefore it is with a bit of reluctance that we are now introducing 10g sized teas for most of our teas. We picked 10g because it is for most parts, sufficient for 2 brews (3 if you are brewing green tea).

Two brews worth of tea because often the first pot (or gaiwan) that is brewed up may not be perfect- wrong parameters etc. One common problem is quantity. Since most people don’t have scales and rely on volume and volume can be rather deceptive as seen from this illustration.

Personally I feel every well-made tea deserves to be tried at least twice so we can adjust our brewing parameters before passing a judgment on the tea.

Of course the caveat is that the tea must be well-made- since for many of us so much tea so little time is a problem.

*As for how to assess if the tea is well-made, this article may provide a starting point*

Of course then there are those for whom 10g is only sufficient for 1 brew but personally I feel those who feel comfortable stuffing 9 or 10g into a small pot must be pretty experienced at brewing tea.

Hope that the introduction of our sample sizes can entice more of you to find the right tea but not leave hordes and hordes of tea neglected in the cupboard.