Hand Rolled Green Tea Hype?

I like to brew tea from time to time and recently have come across something I think is a bunch of crap.  Hand rolled tea "pearls".  As you can see in the picture the dried tea leaves have been hand rolled into little bundles of tea joy!  Really it just means they look fancy and some poor Indian or Chinese laborer got stuck with this unfortunate job.

I have bought a lot of tea from a lot of places and respect the fact that sometimes selection incurs higher prices.  A good example is teavana.com.  They offer a ton of selection with high-quality ingredients.  Problem I have is that you could end up paying a significant amount more for a product that is slightly, if at all, better than what can be easily procured down the street. 

Consider these tea pearls.  They claim to be hand rolled young tea leaves.  What do you get out of them that you don't get from normal tea leaves?  They slowly unroll to release just the right amount of flavor crystals?  Bah.

Do this and save yourself some money.  Go to your local Indian or Asian supply store.  Find the giant 1 lb bag of green tea for $12, go home, and compare the steeped leaf to any off the shelf version for...say....twice as much per ounce.  The size of the leaf and the quality of the tea is probably damn close to the expensive stuff.  Even compare it to a bag of Tazo green tea in a bag and you'll be blown away. 

And you know what?  Buying from your local Indian supply supports local small business which is good for everyone.  The second pic is what I purchases at the local store.  Look for the black Assam tea as well and steep some cinnamon stick in the tea while your at it.  Just can't beat it.