One very important way to manage your tea cost is a long term relationship with your suppliers, but that is with the condition that you finalize on those that you feel confident about their supply in terms of quality, honesty and pricing.
All suppliers would at one point of time or the other offer at a slightly higher price than the others. A price is the result of so many factors that I believe every person in the trade would have a ton of ideas to tell. When you switch because of a minute percentage of cost difference, the loyalty of this supplier may not improve and it is less likely that they offer you better prices at harsher times like this.
Relationship and mutual trust building is the foundation to any business. The old fashioned way is the better way to sustain.
