white2tea “Small Batch” Shu Marketing & Selling Dreams

 

 

I have a good friend who is actually dying of terminal cancer.  He is one of the only people I have actually turned onto puerh tea who is native to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.  He is also one of the top new car sales people in Western Canada.  One of the first questions I ever asked him was how exactly he sells so many new cars every year when most people already have perfectly drivable cars at home and they really don’t need a new car.  His answer…

 “Matt, I don’t sell cars, I sell dreams.”

Isn’t All Puerh “Small Batch”?

Oxford dictionary defines “small batch” as Designed or relating to a type of small-scale production in which goods are made in limited quantities, often by means of traditional or artisanal methods.

Wait a minute… every Western puerh vendor’s raw puerh would meet this definition of “small batch”…. Every one… yes all Western puerh facing puerh vendors would then be considered “small batch”.  Look at this last post… David stated that his 2020 Tian Men Shan and Lao Jie Zi were around 10KG productions.  And look Tiago is producing a 4Kg production of Autumnal puerh… look at the puerh Yunnan Sourcing is producing most of it is 10KG, 50KG of puerh… all of that, meets the definition of small scale production compared to Big Factory productions or even larger boutique puerh vendors in mainland China and a lot of these other Western puerh Vendor’s puerh productions will actually be smaller than many white2tea productions.  So even though most sheng puerh productions from Western puerh vendors can be called “small batch” they simply choose not to use this marketing language.  However, we are talking about sheng puerh here and not shu…

Paul decided to come out in front by creating his own definition and marketing terminology catch phrases long before “small batch shu” was released to the customer.  For many months now Paul has been repeating the marketing key word over and over and over again on his social media.  Basically, the definition of “small batch shu” was a complete fabrication of white2tea and was created to be inclusive of his product while excluding the competitors’ shu productions.  No doubt he did this to differentiate the shu puerh white2tea sells from the shu puerh the competition sells.  It’s actually pretty brilliant.  One thing it most definitely does is put a wedge between white2tea and the pretty successful shu puerh productions of Yunnan Sourcing.

Over the last few years Yunnan Sourcing has been way in front of white2tea as far as developing their own popular shu puerh productions which are all agrochemical free.  Some are blends and others single origin shu - some are even gushu productions.  However, It is my understanding that Yunnan Sourcing usually buys plied material.  Yunnan Sourcing leaves the overseeing of these piles to artisans who have been doing it for many years/ decades as opposed to overseeing the piling work themselves.  This is mainly where the differentiation of the product lies with white2tea vs Yunnan Sourcing shu puerh.  Does Yunnan Sourcing shu puerh productions still qualify as “small batch shu”?  Maybe/Probably.  I guess it depends on how you define “small batch shu” .  Is it a wiser decision to let artisans who have been making a shu puerh productions and piling them for decades to tend to the quality of such things vs learn the skill in a few years and go at it alone?  Maybe?  Or maybe not?  Who really knows… the only way to know for sure is to the cut the marketing crap and try the actual puerh.

Is batch size more relevant than location?

I also find it hypocritical or at the very least unusual that Paul of white2tea is adamant that the location/ terroir of the material is irrelevant to the end product yet he finds it very important to educate us about the size of the production.  Personally, I would rather know where the raw material is coming from and whether it is gushu, zhong shu, or xiao shu, or terrace, the town, village and mountain of such material rather than getting the fluffy “small batch shu” marketing that really tells me nothing of the actual material itself.  Wouldn’t you? 

Or maybe you find it more relevant to know how much Paul is caring for his shu piles?  I am not consuming the batch size (or the wrapper) but rather the tea itself.  So I would much rather know about the material.  Whether something is “small batch” or not matters much less than whether it actually tastes good.  In the end it’s about the end product and lucky for white2tea their shu has been really gaining popularity over the last year or so mainly because some of it is quite good others not as much... but apparently this is not “small batch shu” anyways.

Overall, I think that what white2tea is doing with shu “high end material” blends and “light/varied fermentation” is interesting and experimental and very forward thinking.  No doubt, to invent your own definition of something that is specific to what you are doing will save you from trying to continually describe it in longer terms.  I suppose that is part of what Paul is doing with his whole making up a definition thing.  Not too many people out there in the puerh world are doing much of this and Paul makes a really compelling argument for us to at least take notice of his direction of shu puerh production.  He has also dove head first into tackling some of the misconceptions about shu puerh and educating those new to shu puerh about some of the basics.  He is both educating the consumer about why they should buy and age shu while driving traffic to his site/products.  These are really well done articles as a whole.  He has aggressively sought to take back more market share from Yunnan Sourcing.  I hope it works out well for him.  And this is all coming from someone who really feels that shu puerh is not even really “original puerh” but rather an accepted evolution in the marketing of “puerh” throughout the years. 

The thing that I really can’t stomach is all the silly marketing that he has decided to attach to the whole thing.  Heck, he has even created an annual holiday to market his shu and to cue his followers to buy his shu.  It is actually quickly approaching called “Shulloween”…. Hahahhaha… good work.  That one always makes me laugh… its memorable and I think that’s the point… This year with all the “small batch shu” brew-ha-ha it should be extra festive.. 

It’s Just Shallow Marketing Language

If you Google “small batch marketing” you are quickly inundated by articles about car company Mitsubishi.  In 2019 Mitsubishi decided to start referring to its cars as “small batch” and market it as such.  Really they are just selling the same cars with the same features and made of the same materials but they simply re-framed the marketing on them and went with a trendy marketing phrase that really means very little.  To people who can see through the marketing it’s actually a bit sad.  In the end it’s just as if people aren’t actually selling product but are instead shilling marketing catch phrases …

…Or dreams…

Peace