white2tea’s Red Umbro Logo Neifi

I’m sure all of you, like me, are trying to decode the deep (or subliminal) meaning or messaging behind white2tea’s new wrappers and neifi (probably no one really cares) on their new 2020 spring release.  After close analysis and way too much thought and energy, I have come to understand this much...

Paul of white2tea is simply trying to tell us that “SOMEBODY” (as indicated in the upper neifi) is wearing Umbro shorts and/or a football (soccer) jersey (as indicated by the clear use of the Umbro logo in the centre of the neifi) and that this person, due to the quarantine, ain’t going “NOWHERE” (as written on the bottom of the neifi).

Others, might be thinking that this is simply a continuation of the artistic direction first kicked into place in the 2019 white2tea summer release featuring the 30 cake limited run of 2019 white2tea Road 2 Nowhere and the limited teawear by the same name.  The new neifi highlighting the two featured top Spring offerings, the 2020 white2tea I Am with the word “somebody” written all over the wrapper and the 2020 white2tea Road 2 Nowhere (teasing that it is still to come).  The theme conjures up challenges to the notion of transparency of tea location, of freedom through consumerism, of liberty, social justice, morality and judgement in tea culture.  Yeah maybe...

But it think it has a lot more to do about football branding.  Besides, puerh branding has a long history of knocking off soccer branding.  Puerh cakes are round and so are soccer balls so it makes perfect sense right??? Case in point, the Shuangjiang Mengku Mangbo cakes famously knocking off the Adidas logo by putting it all over their wrappers.  Discussion on the famed Half Dipper first pointed this out many years ago.  It’s one of my favourite drinker puerh, I see that Adidas logo a lot!  If a big puerh factory like Shuangjiang Mengku can pull it off then you can be sure white2tea can as well.

Even Western puerh vendors have not shied away from knocking off other branding in the past.  Remember the Yunnan Sourcing Burger King branding fiasco???  I can almost hear Scott’s groans from here as I bring up this one again.  He changed his branding quick and destroyed all evidence of it ever happening... but what if that branding was pressed into the middle of thousands of puerh cakes??? Not so easy to get rid of that one...

Am I somebody who is on to something people or am I just on a Road 2 Nowhere???

Peace