Green Tea Forum

Kevangogh · Forum God Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 904 Location: Japan

FYI, we will be making some changes to our ceramic tea ware lineup soon. Currently, we have a US based partner who has been handling most Tokoname tea ware sales for the last seven years or so. Over the years I have focused on suppling superior green tea, while my partner would import heavy tea ware in bulk from Japan and then offer it cheaper than if they were shipped directly from Japan. O-Cha.com never really made much, if any, profit on tea ware - it was simply a necessity that the customer have the right tea ware available to them and our partner kept all profits related to Tokoname tea ware. Since the general situation of suppliers, yen rates, shipping rates, competition, etc, has gradually changed over the years and I felt this was a rather "weak" area of our operation that needed to be fixed. After much thought and discussion we decided to become fully independent of one another. We were happy to help them set up their new store - soon to be announced, based on the successful cooperation and trust built over the years.

Beginning April 1st, we will run separate stores and all tea ware on this site will be shipped directly from O-Cha.com to the customer from Japan. For USA customers, you may get a better deal by going through him, or maybe through us, it will depend on the item. There will be a link prominently pointing to our partner's new site as an alternative. For European customers, our pricing will definitely be much better than it currently is.