Let’s start 2026 with a new category addition to the shop dropdown: “Daily Drinkers”
A term many of you are already familiar with, a daily drinker is a workhorse tea that reliably delivers that good tea thing so dear to us while not breaking the bank in the process.
What price range constitutes a daily drinker? Glad you asked. At US-based Rivers & Lakes Tea, where by the time you place an order the drudgery of international logistics has already (at least for US folk) been signed, paid, and impatiently waited for, a tea that’s at the 30 cents on the gram mark more or less qualifies as a daily drinker.
That price range provides a nice session that’s around $2 if you’re brewing at a regular gong fu leaf-volume ratio, or less than $1 if you’re grandpa style brewing.
I guess this is as good a time as any to additionally underline the unofficial company policy of sticking to teas that are more “naturally grown”. I myself don’t want to be waging chemical warfare on my body more than modern living already assigns me, nor do I on anyone else. I find that teas grown without chemicals in a natural + diverse environment, higher in elevation, on a non-industrial, family scale by conscientious people tastes and feels better anyway.
That means not buying the one trick pony, cheap thrill teas that put on a fleeting, superficial show only to leave you with a headache… instead opting to pay a little bit more — and in some cases a lot of bit more — for the cleaner stuff.
Now that I’ve gotten that bit of proselytizing out of my system, let me say more plainly that while you might find a few cheaper teas out there than some of these in this new category of daily drinker, you’re unlikely to access them as quickly or as affordably on the shipping front… or enjoy them with the same confidence when it comes to clean sipping.
While I’ve always tried to stock the catalog with teas of all different price ranges, a trend I’ve noticed is that many of the more approachably priced teas get eaten up early (like really early) so the remaining teas that stack up in the shop over time can predominantly be a bit higher priced.
And while it’d be nice to whittle off a $10 Wangong sesh on the daily, tbh not all of us get to live like that... #goals. So I’ll be doubling my efforts to keep getting good leaf that consistently punches above its weight across these oceans and well stocked.
There's already a few that meet this criteria in the shop now; check back as these efforts continue and this category continues to grow.
Happy New Year,
Gus
