Strangely, if you go into a tea shop in China, even one in an area where almost no tourists ever stray, you will see tea at eye-watering prices that you wouldn't consider paying in you local supermarket.

tim

How is advertising the fact that you sell at 100 pounds per kilo (for a bulk purchase) a good thing.

The best price that I can find (so far) is 25 pounds a kilo an that's for small packets

Exactly - it wasn't clear whether or not the Savoy could disqualify items that were not up to the required standard. If not, then they could have got the top hat from a fancy dress shop.

How do you know that is the same tea? There are all kinds of factors that could justify the high price - farming methods, rarity of the strain of plant, drying methods, small farm size, etc.

With everything you will get cheap versions and expensive versions. She was probably thinking the free publicity would be worth a hefty discount (Effectively paying 500 quid for a huge ad on national TV) Doesn't matter if your average Joe Bloggs thinks the price is ridiculous. She is after a different clientele anyway

http://www.rareteacompany.com/blog/

Just look at the amount of effort that goes into harvesting civet coffee. I don't know what they do with the tea but there must be something about it.

That's life, though. You want everything, you want quality, and you want it cheap. That's what you have to deal with.


Definitely teams need to read the detailed rules and know what the fines and penalties are, both for failing items and also for being late. In the past, candidates have effectively had a choice between failing to get an item, and failing to make the deadline.

It did look like the quality was checked; presumably both teams did well enough that it didn't become an issue.


He was right. Getting 6 of 10 items was terrible.


That would also have been right. The prices Susan's team paid were terrible. Both teams did really badly on this task; both deserved to lose.

The poor candidates probably gasping for a cup. Maybe it was some Eastern sublimal torture method she was using to make them desperate .
We never see the candidates stop for a break like some did before.

Except that in real life you would know or be told which parameter is the most important.

In TA it seems to be dependant on Sugar's mood on the day. (As with so many other things. )


LOL, you don't really know that, do you? Apart from the tea.

The producers deliberately keep vital information from us so that they can manipulate the tasks as they want and we will be none the wiser.

No, the fines were fixed in advance.


It was made pretty clear during the programme. Eg with comments from Susan about how they'd ignored her location advance.

That was the funniest thing ever. Seeing the tealady with suckers written all over her face calmly standing there drinking tea!

The team that won last year only got 6 items.

The boys wouldn't have got it under the list price, and they paid half of what the girls did. So we know that the girls would definitely have saved money had they not got the tea.

Actually, you're probably better off getting the cheap things. When people price things up, they don't say "we'll charge the list price plus £50", they say "we'll charge the list price plus 100%". If you fail to get something that costs £20, then the fine is £70. However, if you find something that costs £500 and it's been marked up by 20%, then you're paying an extra £100.

You're better off getting the small items and missing out the big items because the fine is a smaller percentage of the items' list price.

I think you're misunderstanding. The guide price is what the Savoy normally pay for such things so it would already include any mark up applied by the seller. There is no further markup on the guide price.

The price before mark up would be the 'cost price' and that isn't known at the start.

<b>The boys wouldn't have got it under the list price, and they paid half of what the girls did. So we know that the girls would definitely have saved money had they not got the tea. </b>
How can you be sure the boys didnt get it under the list price. Although I agree with you considering they got the other things cheaper. The four articles the boys didnt get were only worth £100 whereas the one the girls didnt get which I am convinced was the name plate was £150. And they ended up almost equal. Considering there is a time constraint (although I dont know why it should take a whole day for just five items each all in London) what should one go for. On the high priced items there is more chance of making a 'profit' ( I discount the idea of making a loss like they did) by getting it well below cost but thereby invoking penalties for not getting the cheaper items or going for the cheaper items. I personally would first source all the items, and then spend the day trying to get the dear item down as low as possible.

The winning team got the name plate for £40 compared to the losing team getting it for £80. That was stated in the boadroom.
I think neither team got the Cape Gooseberries and that would have been game over, because that was obviously the highest value product left. The Cloche and bless that they didn't know what it was was less than £10 with VAT.

yes, physalis is a fruit, weird looking brown wrinkly things i think!

i cant believe there are people out there that would pay these ridiculous sums for tea!!!
all i can say is ..more money than sense and yes they missed the point in the exercise, the issue surely was to display their negotiating skills, NOT turn it into a treasure hunt

ps marks and sparks do a nice chamomile tea, for under £2 too!

How can tea ever cost that much? They should have taken the fine.
I hope the tea tasted good for that price.

Tea lady's on line price is £2.75 for 25grams - not sure how many cups you get for that, but if you really want a decent cuppa, picked by a lovely little old Turkish man who is quite obsessive about his tea, then its probably not that expensive in the grand scheme of things. After all the nastiest, cheapest, plonk will set you back that much for just 1 glass in a bar.

Yes they did lose the plot over negotiating - as did the losers last year who got all 10 items but paid silly money for tuffles. Susan was very lucky to have won by a few quid, else I'm pretty sure she would have been toast.