Recently while quoting prices for a trade client we learned that the price of Silver Tips was substantially higher to what other company’s in the bid had quoted, and we were off by a long shot!
We sat down with the potential client to show them the quality of our tea and to understand how someone could quote Silver Tips at lower than the cost of production for the estate. When we saw what our Silver Tips where being compared to we were shocked.
What is Silver Tips
Silver Tips are created from the TRI2043 cultivar. This is a special type of tea bush that is very distinctive when seen against other cultivars. In the picture below you can see the words “Brunswick” this is the 2043 bush that we harvest Silver Tips from.
The leaf colour is much darker from a distance and on closer inspection the leaf has a reddish colour to it.
This bush produces a fat silvery bud with its distinctive white hairs. It is these tips that are hand plucked just before dawn, when the temperature is low and there is a chill in the air. The small silvery hairs stand erect to protect the tender bud from the cold. It takes 5 kilos of buds to produce one kilo of made silver tip tea. Ceylon has a total black tea production of 330 Mil Kgs in comparison the quantity of silver tips is less than 500kgs per year. Hence the deer prices that these extremely rare teas fetch on the international market.
The tea the client had been quoted for was not a silver tip but a Tippy low grown Ceylon, which is more similar to variety of leaf that you would find in our New Vithanakande tea which is a FF Exsp.
After explaining to the client the above process and the fact that PMD is the sole supplier of Silver Tips to Harrods in London. The client was in better position to make an informed decision. Click here to see us in Harrods Magazine. https://www.facebook.com/PMDTEA/photos/pcb.1191772247500679/1191764254168145/?type=3&theater
Thank fully they are now the wiser and we are their tea supplier. If you shopping for white tea make sure your white tea looks like this and not like this.
