Why is Mei Leaf so controversial?

I was told from childhood that stealing is not good , yet I had a T-shirt with big Indian head. We played as kids on Indians and Cowboys , same as we played 2nd war (Russians vs Germans) etc. So I mean, if that happened to me, I wouldn’t be able properly apologize either, because wouldn’t know where to start? I would be shocked…where this came from? I would take it as a joke or some attack from competitors. I would need to read US history and try to understand American mind set , to be able make some decent apology video. Also appology should be addressed to those native Americans ( who probably haven’t received any of those stickers and I believe will not watch the MLF youtube channel because of it anyway ) and not to the not native Americans ( who colonized the place ). As I said, please no flames, we r different cultures. Indian head sticker / logo has never been considered as an insult to the original American natives in our European culture, actually was rather expressing of tribute , admire. I had a friend who was fan of Indian culture and wearing feathers etc. , and yes, he also have Indian head Tshirt, stickers, books etc.
Thanks for understanding.

thanks for your patience with me. I’m not obsessed , I’m surprised , would u believe. I want to do tea biz with my very own labeling and this sticker issue scared shit out of me be honest. I would never expect reaction like this happened in Europe where people use to live in multicultural environment, would judge / call somebody racist because used image of other race without any despising or humiliating motive. For me this topic is educational , and I’ve learned that before I design some motive, I will check with my US friends ,just in case it could raise a war :-) Thanks again for your time!

I feel like Mei Leaf is being held to a higher standard than other vendors, just because they are so visible on social media. It feels a bit like Apple fans calling all products from Microsoft absolute crap, just to make them feel superior for owning an Apple product and being better than ‘the masses’.

Of course you shouldn’t trust everything Don says, especially about his own products. But I feel that applies to all vendors, especially in the tea sector where fraudulence and deception are so common and it’s almost impossible to check claims about origin and processing.

I just pulled this up looking for a way to explain the Mei Leaf controversy to a tea friend. This catches it. I wouldn’t bump this since that’s a tired story line now, but it’s all bot sex-site posts on the first page anyway.

One point seemed to be getting missed, in beating up Don over using cartoon Indian head stickers, or getting called out about selling obviously fake 1600 year old sheng. Once you know a vendor is lying to you then you don’t know what else he or she is lying about, but getting away with. Maybe his Yiwu is from Bulang; who knows? If he communicates something he surely knew was false—or should have, but come on, he did—and then just says “oops; a farmer told me that” later, how much of the rest is untrue, or even known to him to be unlikely, but still gets passed on? It’s all about how good the tea is but more informed consumers tend to transition to better sources later, once they realize they are overpaying. That’st just my take; that part is speculation and hearsay, but it does comes up in conversation, and it’s not as if I’ve never tried any of his teas.

The Native American part I can sort of relate to. I went to a US elementary school that changed over from using an Indian head as an icon back in the late 70s, when people figured out that’s not really ok. It makes light of one of the most complete genocides in world history, which isn’t cool, like joking about the Holocaust.

The real reason I’m writing is to pass on a better video source, from a Yunnan tea producer, Farmerleaf: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgkLFmMkJLSEP9-n6hZ08A

For the record: Concerning the Night Stalker Bing Dao tea cake ML is selling on their website, claiming that it is from trees 500-800 years old(adding that this is an unverified claim…good job dudes, throw a rumor out there then free yourselves from it) – I took this tea to local tea merchants (in Beijing) who have been in the Pu’er trade (including owning tea forests in Yunnan) since before any of us saw the light and I had them BLIND TASTE it. They not only rejected this claim saying that this cannot come from Bing Dao due to its price (only 125 pounds for a cake), but also that this is impossible that this is from a tree older than 100 years. Being a person who discovered gongfu through ML, I attempted to justify this as I thought that Don wouldn’t go as far as saying BS like this….especially cause he is passionate about tea and seems knowledgeable. The merchants proceeded to silence me by flipping out proper Gushu aged around 600 years and demonstrating the differences between gushu and young tree tea. And indeed, there is absolutely no way ML’s tea is anywhere near the claimed, yet unverified age. If it was some rookie like myself claiming this….ok. But this is supposedly a learned person who lectures people actively about tea on YT. This episode has forever changed my view on ML and Don, despite them having been my gateway to gongfu. Never again. I would also advise any pu’er drinkers to steer free of their pu’er.

P.S: thanks to ML’s marketing, I have been programmed to think that this Bing Dao was top quality (as well as it being the priciest pu’er they have)….but after the local merchants made me taste real Gushu from that area, I can clearly and proudly say that this is very mediocre tea and totally overpriced.