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Comment by mhb | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the products which I have ordered frequently and with which I didn't expect any problems. Almost all the reviews are good, the price is good and I've been subscribing and saving for years.

So I'm genuinely curious why you thought Amazon wasn't good for this item.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XEV9YE

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This is my 1st time trying it. I want the authentic Yorkshire Gold, made for UK flavor standards, not one re-formulated for American taste buds (as some of the reviews allege).

Perhaps the USAmerican reviewers can't make tea?

(They just chuck it in harbor full of water and wonder why it's salty and weak?)

American tea is ice cold and full of sugar... If that's the disrespect that they're going to pay to our glorious national beverage then they may as well throw it in the sea for all I care ;)

You could skip the teabags entirely and buy in bulk. Not this particular blend, but tea in general.

Now I'm curious about the difference. Can you say which eBay source you used?

Three of the eight reviews on that page call out quality issues....

Huh? There are 1,400 reviews on that page.

There are 1400 reviews but the "initial selection" of ~8 Top Reviews has almost 50% negative commentary. I'm trying to learn more and more to look at the bars on the left; in this case, 92% are 4 and 5 star, and factor in that most people with no issues don't write reviews at all. So my very random modifier would make that something like 95% positive and take a chance on it. This assumes you don't get the dice rolled to a counterfeiter when you happened to load the page.

It would be great if you could filter the reviews not only by the form factor (8 pack, 1 pack, etc.) but also the vendor. If anyone at Amazon is reading this...

TBH I recently bought an end table that had 0 reviews, and it was kind of an adrenaline ride. "I'm supposed to judge this product simply by what I see on the page, and my own investigative capabilities? How quaint!". :)

I guess people act in that information differently. When I saw 3 of the 8 ‘most helpful reviews’ complain about quality, my next step was to look elsewhere. It turns out that a specialty tea shop—and the grocery store around the corner-both sell it, so that’s where I’d go.

For me, the $15 isn’t itself a big risk, but since my spouse is so reluctant to throw out food that I’d be stuck with lousy tea for months.

Congratulations, you got lucky and were directed to a non-counterfeit seller. But your anecdote is obviously not representative of everyone's experience.

OK. But I guess I've been directed to non-counterfeit sellers almost 100 times over the course of several years.

from your linked amazon page important information: "This product is labelled to United States standards and may differ from similar products sold elsewhere in its ingredients, labeling and allergen warnings".

I've never had it, i'm not a tea expert, and this doesn't definitively say its different, but it would certainly make me pause.. Granted, in this case it doesn't seem to be an amazon issue as much an issue of the manufacturer, different recipes for different regions, etc.

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