A fair price for a pot of tea for two?

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painterman, May 17, 9:23am
Isn't there a place that sells a bread roll you can afford that you are more comfy in? OR perhaps you' like to start your own business which sells cheap yet susbstantial rolls. I'll come visit your cafe in 6 months and we can have a chat about that and see if you still share the same attitude....

kuaka, May 17, 9:29am
and if you like strong tea (which I do) there is no way that one tea bag in a teapot is going to provide one strong cup let alone two, or even three as painterman suggests.I would have told them that I asked for a pot of tea for tea, not a pot of gnats pee.

panicky, May 17, 9:33am
There is a cafe we sometimes frequent at a local mall.If you ask for a pot of tea for one you get exactly the same as if you ask for a pot of tea for two except with an extra cup and you get charged double.Now I just ask for a pot of tea for one and then go and ask for an extra cup, lol.

melford, May 17, 10:57am
yes painterman, subway for example, $4.20 for a toasted substantiallyy filled decent size breadroll so why does the cafe mentioned need to charge an exhorbitant price for a manky run of the mill soft unappetising looking sparsely filled untoasted breadroll. Please expalin the costs to me so I can become educated on this matter.

pickles7, May 17, 11:33pm
Is it any wonder , sponsorships are harder to find.
We sponsored a soccer club for quite a few years, then one year a person came in and asked us if we could raise the sponsorship to, two events. I asked him how many times he had crossed the threshold of our door, the reply said it all. I don't really. The club lost out.
Be careful folks.

My husband and I went out for breakfast on Sunday morning and had a lovely meal. While we were eating I asked for a pot of tea for two of english breakfast tea. The waitress returned with two cups and saucers, a tiny teapot, a tiny jug of hot water and a tiny jug of milk. When she placed it on the table I commented on the size of the teapot and she said that the was size for two and that the pot for one was even smaller! After she left I looked inside and there was only one teabag. I poured the tea and it only just managed to fill the teacups with enough for each of us to have a cup of tea, I then filled the pot with the hot water and that only filled it with probably enough for one more cup. When I went to pay the bill I saw that I had been charged for two teas at $3.80 each, as I had a voucher which covered the cost of our meal I didn't question the price of the tea.
As I very rarely drink tea when I go out I'm wondering if they were being a bit mean and stingy charging me for two teas with only one teabag! Can anyone tell me what they think would be normal in this situation, I would've thought that they shouldn't have charged full price, perhaps a bit more that one but less than two. Also how many cups should I expect to get out of a pot for two! I would've thought more than three.
Am I expecting too much or is this just the norm!

kay141, May 17, 11:44pm
Am I expecting too much or is this just the norm![/quote]

Did you say anything at the time!

pamellie, May 18, 3:37am
Did you say anything at the time![/quote]

As I said I did question the size of the teapot at the time but she assured it was the normal size for two persons and as I had a voucher which covered the meal I wasn't too bothered. If I had been paying full price I certainly would have said more when I paid the bill.

I was really just curious to see what would be acceptable and considered normal by others.

pamellie, May 18, 3:39am
pickles7 wrote:
Is it any wonder , sponsorships are harder to find.
We sponsored a soccer club for quite a few years, then one year a person came in and asked us if we could raise the sponsorship to, two events. I asked him how many times he had crossed the threshold of our door, the reply said it all. I don't really. The club lost out.
Be careful folks.

Sorry pickles7, not quite sure where you are coming from there.

pickles7, May 18, 5:41am
When I went to pay the bill I saw that I had been charged for two teas at $3.80 each, as I had a voucher which covered the cost of our meal I didn't question the price of the tea.

If the people that gave the voucher in the first place get breeze of this,, is what I am on about. They may not be so keen to give again.
We stopped sponsorships all together.

painterman, May 18, 5:52am
Kind of pathetic, you had a voucher and you are whinging about paying $7 for two teas.

I'm sure it was people like you who won the 2nd world war for use etc, but that is the normal price for hot drinks and has been for a few years.

And you got 3 drinks! If you had ordered a coffee for the same price would you have expected two drinks! Sorry but I think you are being really pathetic, I know a teabag costs about ten cents but why even bother going to a restaurant, they cost heaps everyone knows that - and people who own restaurants don't generally makemuch money either. Suggest you eat out if you expect to pay the same price as it costs you to make it at home!

pickles7, May 18, 7:33am
penwill1 wrote:
I know how you feel, ripped off, I worked for a short time at a local cafe and they always said one tea bag for two, but I always put in two and gave a decent jug of hot water, surprise surprise people commented and came backbecause ofthe decent service, you have to give a little to get a little, isnt that what being a kiwi is all about![/quote

Our staff couldn't give hot water, as more than half those jugs came back and got tiped out. profit down the sink. There wages.
We had problems with folk asking for an extra cup, lol , guess why.

duckmoon, May 18, 7:37am
vouchers or not, that isn't the point.
I do expect if I order a "pot of tea" that it comes with a tea pot (which will fill the cup) and a pot of hot water (which i might use to weaken the tea, if too strong) - or I could use to refill the pot.

In the end, what we are talking about it the unit of cost item (in this case a pot of tea) balanced with the ability to keep a customer happy.

the additional cost of a bit more hot water, is stuff-all; compared to a customer who thought they got value for money.

I don't think the price is too much - but the product has problems.

melford, May 18, 9:13am
No the customer is being ripped off. Check out the general thread I have the same complaint about the cost of a sparsely filled bread roll costing $8.90!

painterman, May 18, 9:23am
Isn't there a place that sells a bread roll you can afford that you are more comfy in! OR perhaps you' like to start your own business which sells cheap yet susbstantial rolls. I'll come visit your cafe in 6 months and we can have a chat about that and see if you still share the same attitude.

nauru, May 18, 12:55pm
I agree, it was a rip off, $7.60 for 1 teabag and 3 cups of water. I have worked in the food industry and know what profit can be made on food & drinks, at that price they are making a huge profit. Regardless of how the bill was being paid, I would have definitely complained. I don't mind paying the price, if it was value for money but I DO object to being ripped off.

spellcheck, May 18, 4:09pm
Big rip off. Our cafe was $4.40 for eb Tea. ($4.for regular tea). With that there was a teapot for around 4 cups,a jug of hot water and a small jug of milk...

colnjessp, May 18, 4:27pm
It makes you wonder where these cafes justify their prices. Its a wonder why alot of people choose not to EAT these days!!

kuaka, May 18, 8:27pm
Agree - I heard a couple of years ago that someone was complaining that a cafe here in town was charging $9 for a ham sandwich, which consisted of two slices of ordinary white sliced bread, a thin slice of ham and a smear of mustard - nothing else!

painterman, May 18, 9:07pm
You could undercut them easily. Just get a lease for a cafe with a council consent for a commercial kitchen (you just need a $15,000 extractor flue etc). Then buy some ovens, tills, benches, chairs, tables, employ some staff, get some health certificates, buy some bread rolls and some ham..

All you need to do is sell a couple of $9 ham sandwiches and you are ROLLING in is, you can expand to another cafe in a month or two and soon you will have your own nationwide chain of cafes where you can charge $5 for a pot of tea with a used teabag.

Your best customers will be bored old people who will cut out coupons out of the newspaper and think they are being ripped off when they come in and spend NZ$5. Raking it in I tell you!

seaqueen, May 18, 9:35pm
What on earth are you doing over here, Painterman? Has married life domesticated you?

lx4000, May 19, 1:51am
I agree with you and good on ya!! good service gets ppl back!!

radelle, May 19, 1:58am
without reading every ones posts i think that's a terrible price to pay for a pot considering how cheap teabags are its not an expensive drink help you can get a good coffee for that price i would seriously A) not go back or B) question them and let them know and i thought it was a teabag per cup and equal to the size of the pot per cups you want must have been a very weak tea!!

kuaka, May 19, 5:13am
Well as you say, teabags are cheap.I buy mine when they are on special, but even at full retail price they work out at about 5c per bag - so the difference between putting one bag in a pot, or two bags in a pot, is less than 5 cents.I would have thought that even cafes that are struggling to pay wages and overheads, could afford to splash out and use two teabags to make a pot of tea for two, bearing in mind that they will be using teabags that they purchased at wholesale prices, not retail.

painterman, May 19, 9:37am
they should have definately used two teabags I suggest the staff member was not following correct procedure

janny3, May 19, 11:32am
So I go out for tea & am disappointed when a tea bag is popped into a cup of hot (not boiling) water & milk plonked in before its even drawn.I have to educate the kids in how to make a proper cup of tea.

That is heat the pot first then place the tea leaves/bags in the emptied & warmed pot before adding boiling water & allowing it to stand to draw before pouring.

In the 70s, I trained in food service so making a pot of tea had a standard rule of thumb:

One spoon of tea leaves or one tea bag for each person & one for the pot.

Someone got the restaurant review webpage where you can add your evaluation of that particular cafe?