Oct 26
I hate to quote the Spice Girls with every little fiber of my being, but its semi-necessary for the preservation of the three legged dog I call my sanity. However I would love to digress and state how truly awesome three legged dogs are, its like a normal dog crossbred with a pogo-stick. But enough about bouncy Pomeranians, I've got vital works ahead.
Sometimes it feels like I'm just writing for other Teaviews staff, and the vendor. Sometimes I feel like I'm just talking to myself, and sometimes I just feel pretty. Our forums only have a few non-staff participants, and only every third or fourth review ever seems to illicit reader response. Now I'm not complaining too much, I don't really mind the peace and quiet, but it does become hard to know what to write when I never see feedback on what has been written.
I've posted two requests for feedback in our forums, but so far nobodies answered, so I'll bring it here, and hope that seeing something out of the norm amongst reviews will hopefully catch some attention. Let me/us know what you want to see on Teaviews, what is useful, what is helpful.
For our normal readership, and tea aficionados, what information do you find most useful in a review? Why are you reading them in the first place? Are you just wanting some clue as to the taste and quality of a tea before you buy it? Are you wanting something fresh from the food porn channel, lots of description and experience, or something more clean cut and consumer reports? Do you read for information on preparation methods?
Vendors, what do you find useful. do you need more critical reviews to tell you where you need improvement/tightening up? How do you prefer to receive criticism? I've been as guilty as anyone of shooting out negative opinions without the slightest "framing" and as such they just end up useless insults to the folks gracious enough to send us free tea. On the other side of the leaf, would you like us to include more information on the tea? to do so would you be willing to make yourselves more accessible (by email) to answer questions?
Furthermore, vendors, if your worried that a product you would like us to review falls outside of our normal format, contact Stephen. We're generally perfectly happy to review anything tea related, from six year old Pu-erh cakes, to tea ware, to the modest and humble bagged offerings.
Feel free to respond below, or to use our forum, the most recent thread along these lines is here
Sometimes it feels like I'm just writing for other Teaviews staff, and the vendor. Sometimes I feel like I'm just talking to myself, and sometimes I just feel pretty. Our forums only have a few non-staff participants, and only every third or fourth review ever seems to illicit reader response. Now I'm not complaining too much, I don't really mind the peace and quiet, but it does become hard to know what to write when I never see feedback on what has been written.
I've posted two requests for feedback in our forums, but so far nobodies answered, so I'll bring it here, and hope that seeing something out of the norm amongst reviews will hopefully catch some attention. Let me/us know what you want to see on Teaviews, what is useful, what is helpful.
For our normal readership, and tea aficionados, what information do you find most useful in a review? Why are you reading them in the first place? Are you just wanting some clue as to the taste and quality of a tea before you buy it? Are you wanting something fresh from the food porn channel, lots of description and experience, or something more clean cut and consumer reports? Do you read for information on preparation methods?
Vendors, what do you find useful. do you need more critical reviews to tell you where you need improvement/tightening up? How do you prefer to receive criticism? I've been as guilty as anyone of shooting out negative opinions without the slightest "framing" and as such they just end up useless insults to the folks gracious enough to send us free tea. On the other side of the leaf, would you like us to include more information on the tea? to do so would you be willing to make yourselves more accessible (by email) to answer questions?
Furthermore, vendors, if your worried that a product you would like us to review falls outside of our normal format, contact Stephen. We're generally perfectly happy to review anything tea related, from six year old Pu-erh cakes, to tea ware, to the modest and humble bagged offerings.
Feel free to respond below, or to use our forum, the most recent thread along these lines is here
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Troy Teaviews.com Reviewer » Read more about this reviewer on Troy's profile page. » Find a list of recent posts by Troy. |
October 26th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I really like to see honest evaluations of tea. I would like to see more black tea, as I am not a fruity tea person at all. I like it when the method is included. i like it when people can’t quite identify something – makes me feel like less of a tea dork! pairing tea with food would be nice, but I almost never have more than a cookie. But if there were some specific, perhaps unusual ones, that’d be nice -like lapsang with blue cheese- too super – really. I like most of the reviews I find her. I think you are doing a good job.
October 26th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Blue cheese with everything rocks
Bluecheese + garlic mashed potatoes smeared on steak = happy 
October 26th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I like to include the methods I use to prepare the teas, even if some of my reviews come out sounding like chemistry experiments. A lot of my friends are serious wine fanciers and they use some of the same terminology we do. It seems to be a similar obsession, but the big difference is that wine reviewers don’t have to *make* the wine they review! With tea, the preparation is all part of the enjoyment and art!