My Two Cents On Tea

I have always been a tea drinker. Where most folks are clamoring for the coffee maker in the morning, I linger over two cups of organic black tea. From there, if I start to drag, it’s a cup of herbal tea in the afternoon. I have my ritual down to a tee. I go for Earl Grey first thing, and when I sit down at my desk, I sip a big ol’ cup of Breakfast Blend. Nothing fancy, but I’ve got to have those two cups every day.

I recently learned that many teabags release micro-plastics (yuck), and I decided it was time to start brewing loose tea. It’s cheaper, and it tastes noticeably better. I upgraded my 30-year old tea ball to a fancy Oxo strainer and embarked on my quest to find the perfect loose tea.

I compared cost, right down to the price per cup. There was one brand that, taste-wise, really hit the mark. Not surprisingly, it was also the priciest of the four brands I tried.

Lesson learned. You get what you pay for. Putting price at the top of the priority list can be as bad an idea in business as it is in my teacup. As a business, we never compete on price. Instead, we opt to emphasize value, the fact that the kind of graphic design and messaging expertise we deliver moves the needle for our clients. Competing, or making a purchasing decision, purely on price can be a race to the bottom.

In the end, I decided to spend a bit more. In another case, the less expensive option might have sufficed. But, in business as in tea, there are times when choosing value over price can pay off big time.