The great taste of that über-expensive tea may just be in your head—literally

A wine-tasting experiment by CalTech and Standford University's business school found that the pleasure centers in the brains of their subjects, which were electronically monitored, actually registered greater pleasure when drinking what they were told was a 90-dollar-a-bottle wine than when they drank the exact same wine that was presented to them as a different wine costing only 10 dollars per bottle.


Whereas we all know that exceedingly reasonably priced Mellow Monk teas taste good because they really do taste good, as customer feedback shows.


Some day I'll have to do a blind taste test against a much more expensive competitor. Any takers out there?



Purification water at the entrance of Kokuzo Shrine in Aso, Japan. The shrine is located at the inner edge of the volcanic caldera (valley) where Mellow Monk tea is grown. Yes, you are allowed to drink this water—that's what the ladles are for. In fact, the water at this particular shrine is astoundingly delicious. It's natural spring water right out of the surrounding mountains, and it is fantastic for brewing tea, too.


—Mellow Monk

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