Tea Buying: Developing Relationships with Purveyors

(Note: This post begins a series on buying tea and teaware, based on my experiences over the last 18 months of serious tea consumption. If you care to listen to a podcast on the same topic, click here.)

If we are going to be able to buy unique, fresh tea and authentic, quality teaware, serious tea drinkers need to work on our relationships with tea merchants.  When I use the word “relationship”, I mean it: Just as our relationships with friends and family depend on good communication and reciprocity, so it should be with the folks that sell us our tea.

We all know that really, really good tea can be scarce, that quality teaware (particularly Yixing) can be hard to source, and that there are many delicious teas that are harvested in such small quantities that they never make it onto store shelves. By developing relationships with tea merchants (whether online or in-store) we become privy  to the “good stuff”.

And this is a very good thing.

Here are some of my principles for developing good relationships with my tea and teaware merchants:

Loyalty: This one’s pretty simple: I patronize “my” shops even when their prices are a little higher than the competition or their hours and location make a visit inconvenient.

That said, I do believe in trying out new shops and I do recognize that no one tea merchant can meet all my needs. So when I try out a new tea merchant, I identify what, if anything, they can provide me with that other merchants can’t. If a tea merchant excels in providing a certain type of tea or teaware, I make them my specialist for that tea or product.

Feedback: This can be tough for some people, but it is crucial if you want your tea merchant to succeed.  As a customer, particularly a loyal customer, you have both the right and responsibility to let your tea merchant know about things that may affect his or her business. This includes prices that are significantly higher than the competition, repeated bad service from an employee, or a poor quality product.

Of course, you also want your favorite tea merchant to know what they are doing right, as well, so be generous, and specific, in your praise. They need to hear it.

Referrals: Businesses always need new customers, particularly small businesses. Be sure to refer your friends to your favorite tea merchants, and ask your friends to mention you when making a purchase. Also, be sure to advise your friends as to what your tea merchant does best, as well as any quirks (i.e.  Their green teas can be iffy, but their oolongs rock.), so that your friends have the best experience possible.

If your tea merchant is online, be sure to use your blog, Twitter, and Facebook accounts to make the business known to others.

Care & Chat: Tea merchants are people too, with cares and worries like the rest of us. As you get to know your tea merchant, take the time to ask how she is doing, and show an interest her life. If the merchant is on-line, comment on their blog or chat with them on Twitter.

Remember also that your tea merchant is likely very interested in tea, has likely invested his life savings in his business, and probably likes talking about tea with people who are likewise passionate about the leaf. At the very least, be on the lookout for information to pass on to your tea merchant, such as media articles about tea and especially reviews of their business.

Next Up: How to select a tea.

Tagged as: tea, tea merchants, tea tips