When we speak of tea it is sometimes referred to as a luxury product. High end, fancy teas can certainly fetch some pretty high prices, but what about the regular price of the teas we drink? To better understand this, let’s take a look at the prices of a few popular drinks and see how they compare with our favourite drink.
To start with, let’s take a look at the average prices of a few other drinks:
- Café espresso: Depending on the quality of the grains, a 30ml cup of espresso costs between $0.35 and $1.00
- Generic Beer: Brands such as Corona or Molson sell for around $2.00 for 250 ml.
- Beer from a Micro-brewery : Artisanal beers or micro-brewery beers cost between $2.75 and $5 for 250ml
- Wine : A bottle of wine at $15 comes out at $5 250 ml, where a $25 represents around $8.33 for the same.
- Kombucha: This fermented drink sells for between $1.85 and $2.60 for 250 ml.
- Orange juice: A glass of 250 ml costs between $0.65 and $1 depending on the quality and brand (freshly pressed or in carton).
- Soda Pop: Classic sodas, generic or famous brands, cost between $0.50 and $1 for 250 ml.
- Cow’s or soya milk: Milk, animal or vegetal, between $0.50 and $1 for 250 ml, depending on the brand, the fat content and the certification (organic or not).
So now let’s take a look at tea. One cup of tea takes a standard measure of 2.5g of leaf. A bag of 50g of tea gives us 20 cups of 250 ml. Depending on the price of your bag of tea, the price varies quite a lot:
- Tea at $10 for 50g: comes to around $0.50 for a 250ml cup.
- Tea at $15 for 50g: comes to around $0.75 for a 250ml cup.
- Tea at $20 for 50g: comes to around $1 for a 250ml cup.
Even if we choose a more expensive tea for $50 for a 50g bag, the price per cup is relatively modest, around $2.50 for 250ml. And remember, we are talking about finest in their class, high calibre teas here. Wines of this calibre would be in a very different price bracket to those mentioned above. Plus, many of the finest grand crus will be infused numerous times.
At first sight our teas may seem like a luxury product with such variation in the prices. However, compared to other drinks we consume, the reality is that even very high-quality teas remain a very affordable product. Even the most expensive teas compare with day-to-day kombucha and artisanal beers.