Tea, Business,
and Tea-Business
On pricing, presence, and the quiet art of being worth it.
Tin Marković · tinthe.dev
Tea is more complicated than you think
- One plant — Camellia sinensis — six processing families
- Green, white, yellow, oolong, black, pu-erh
- Terroir, elevation, oxidation, roast — like wine, but 3000 years older
- A teabag and a 200€ cake of pu-erh share the same origin
Qi Men Hong Cha — taste this
Premium grade Keemun from Anhui province.
Rich, dense, sweet — like dark plum jam.
Slightly acidic berry finish. No bitterness.
Take a moment. Just drink it. We'll continue after.
Gong Fu Cha — the long way around
- Small pot, high leaf-to-water ratio, many short steepings
- Same leaves — 5, 8, 10 infusions — each one different
- Same product — 5, 8, 10 versions — each one different
- Slowing down is not a constraint. It is the point.
Broken incentives are everywhere
- Hourly billing → optimise for hours, not outcomes
- Revenue growth KPIs → optimise for the metric, not the customer
- "Scale" → often just means compromising on what made you good
Before you build, ask three questions
- Why me? — What do I uniquely bring that others can't bring cheaper?
- Why now? — Is this actually the moment, or just a convenience?
- Is it important? — To whom, how much, and what's on the line?
Remove scope until the core is visible
- Narrow the context until it stops being vague
- Form a hypothesis — the smallest testable version
- Validate cheaply before scaling anything
What ceremony teaches business
- Presence — the person across the table, right now
- Ritual — consistency is how you nurture excellence
- No shortcuts — a teabag is all the broken leaves
Premium pricing is signal, not just a number
- Price is a statement about what you believe
- Cheap signals low confidence, low care, or both
- Customers who push hardest on price rarely value what you do
- "Worth it" is felt. A spreadsheet can't justify a good cup of tea.