the Germans get more

I checked the German site for Tea Gschwendner today and found something quite distressing

This is the un-flavored black tea "classic" page. If you look at the top of the offerings, you will see that there are seven pages worth of tea. Now here is the American site.

Notice that there are only two pages available. How depressing. The German selection was definitely much better across all tea producing regions. Particularly saddening was the availability of this seasons crop on the German site. The American site ... not so much. However, do not be disheartened. Upton Tea Imports already has some of this seasons first flush pickings as well as a heavily impressive selection of the 2007 crop (at least they told me everything on their site was from 2007). Hopefully, the frost didn't affect tea prices and selection too much. But then again here is Upton's press release:

... While long-time customers may notice that we are offering these a bit later this year, compared to seasons past, we feel that these were the best produced within their respective price ranges.

Over the past few years, outlooks concerning the First Flush Darjeeling production have ranged from optimistically-cautious to dire. The 2008 season has proved no different: early conditions of low rainfall and colder-than-normal temperatures have contributed to a lower supply of top-quality teas. In turn, this lower supply, coupled with an increase in demand and a weakening U.S. dollar, has resulted in price increases.

However, due to the abundance of micro-climates within the district, there stands a good chance for the production of more choice lots. We hope that the week or so that remains of the First Flush season will yield more quality lots.

We will post our new arrivals to the site as soon as they are landed and are available for sale.

If you thought the housing bubble and increasing trade deficit wouldn't affect you, well think again.