RateTea Issues January 2013 Top Tea Ratings: 7 of Top 10 Are Loose-Leaf Teas

PRLog (Press Release) - Jan. 22, 2013 - RateTea, an online community for rating and reviewing teas, has issued their January 2013 ratings, using a new calculation which adjusts more accurately for different reviewer's rating scales.  These new ratings reflect a major shift in accuracy, which is reflected in the prevalence of loose-leaf teas, generally agreed upon to be higher-quality among connoisseurs, as compared to previous rankings.

The results are as follows:

Tied for first:

• Teavana's Gyokuro Imperial Green Tea
• Upton Tea Imports Holy Basil Purple Leaf (Herbal tea)
• Rishi Tea Masala Chai

Teavana's Gyokuro is a newcomer to this spot, and the other two teas retain their past top spots.  Fourth place is held by Republic of Tea's Vanilla Almond, currently the highest-ranking tea bag on the site.  The next three places are also a tie:

• Adagio Tea's White Peony (Pai Mu Tan)
• Ahmad Tea Kalami Assam
• Ahmad Tea Ceylon Tea OPA

And the final teas, 8-10, are also a three-way tie:

• Rishi Tea's Jade Cloud
• Celestial Seasonings' Raspberry Zinger (Herbal tea) - The second-highest ranking tea bag on the site
• Novus Tea, Organic Jasmine Green Tea - In a pyramid sachet

Rishi Tea and Ahmad Tea were the only two brands to have two teas make the top 10 list.

Commentary on the Change:

Ahmad Tea is the company which has gained the most from the new calculations.  This likely reflects the fact that the reviewers of Ahmad Tea tend to review these teas alongside many of the more higher-priced artisan teas.  It also may reflect the site's growing body of ratings and reviews, which allows the calculation of percentile ratings for more loose-leaf teas.  Teavana, Ahmad, Rishi, and Adagio are the five companies that dominate the list of most frequently-rated loose-leaf teas.

Rishi Tea and Upton Tea Imports' two teas which had been on previous top 10 lists, have held their places.  The majority of the tea companies and brands which have been bumped from the list are mainstream brands of tea bags, which enjoyed a burst of attention in the early period after the site's launch, but which are consistently rated lower .  These brands still top the most frequently-rated teas list, but their percentile ratings have not held their own against loose-leaf teas as more data has rolled in.

These ratings will likely change more in a similar direction, tending towards high-quality loose-leaf teas and away from mainstream tea bag brands, as the site acquires yet more data from reviewers.

Visit RateTea:

http://ratetea.com

View the Most Current Rankings: (which may have changed since this release)

http://ratetea.com/highest_rated_teas.php