Liquid Proust Teas 2016 Master Thread
Dark and Light Side are certainly on my wish list. :)
It’s on my wish list as well… I have wanted to know what a roasted milk oolong taste like for awhile.
If you’re doing free shipping for orders >$9, you might want to indicate that on your ‘about’, it still says ‘free shipping over $25 with code STEEPSTER’ or something like that.
Lots of luck to you in 2016!
This is yet another reason to love Steepster; watching out for each other :)
Thank you for pointing this out, I had totally forgot about that top section to my store’s homepage. I’m still looking into the new rates to figure out how to ship to Canada for 50% of the price of shipping… it may just have to be a different cap (like $15), we shall see.
& thanks for the luck :)
Just a heads up if you haven’t heard. USPS is going to be raising it’s mailing rates on January 17ish, I believe? Both US and Int’l rates are going up… though I believe the Int’l one is supposed to be brutal. :( I’m keeping an eye on this one myself!
@azurephoenix I keep getting emails bout it… we shall see what happens. I hope it isn’t ridiculous.
SUPER excited about the Roasted Lemon TGY and the next Dian Hong batches!! I was hoping for a little more Apple Strudel, too…
I know 2016 will be a great year for Liquid Proust Teas!!!
Apple Strudel has a hojicha I bought freshly made by this guy in Tokyo who drank green tea with me. It was a conversation led by the pointing of fingers, but I know what hojicha is so what he had done right there was easily understood.
Roasted Lemon TGY is going to be quite unique because it’s a mixture of two different aged TGY; both have a different roast profile to them.
Even though there may only be a handful of creations, I am quite excited :)
Best of luck to you! The watermelon oolong sounds wonderful. My daughter is obsessed with watermelon flavoured things and I like to ice watermelon flavoured teas for her. I can’t wait to order some.
Thanks Kim!
Watermelon is a tricky flavor and the base tea I’m getting from Beautiful Taiwan Tea should pair wonderfully with it.
Just finished doing the tax side of owning a business. This time it was a bit different than what it will be going forward because of the ‘startup’ cost. Overall, I think I did absolutely wonderful!
Rounding it off, I’m only at negative $800 !!!
Not even being a LLC for a year, from what I’ve read, that is great news.
What is painful is how Etsy doesn’t provide tax forms for anyone who makes less than $20,000
Thanks to a few people in Chatzy, I kept track of everything and it went smoothly :)
Updates:
1) I’ll be attending the Midwest Tea Festival as a vendor! This could be interesting as being one person, I’m in the processes of growing a few extra arms. https://liquidproust.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/midwest-tea-festival-when-tea-takes-you-home/
2) Today, a fundraiser has been announced for me :)
http://www.meetup.com/Columbus-Tea-Lovers/events/228727820/
The money will go towards equipment to roast tea and also paying for travels to the Midwest Tea Festival; the rest spills over to projects listed on this thread.
3) I learned that a Tax ID cannot be registered under a PO BOX so I’ll be doing everything under my name for the rest of this year.
4) I’m all about connections via friends so if you know someone who would be interested in the follows, I’m a friendly person: looking for a place to have business cards printed and also a custom stamp made. In regards to the other way around, if anyone knows of someone looking for a large amount of something unique (store or personal) I’m always up for such a thing.
5) The Etsy fundraising has been quite interesting. Out of the ten people who have bought in: two are personal friends, four are Steepster friends, and the rest are people I actually don’t know (yet). I find this pretty interesting because I’m still trying to figure out the best way to reach out to new customers without pushing my products because I know I dislike being told ‘try this if you like…’. Anyways, there’s still a week left and then I take the funds and buy what I can to start with the barrel aged pu! (though currently I am negative, my tax refund will fund this project if need be :p)
6) My personal group buys will end up being hosted on Etsy for the following reasons: I have decided to take a dollar per share on the group buys (this is a small amount), there will be no issue with having the one or two people never responding and never paying, shipping information will be right there and sends tracking to the buyer once I purchase it, easily opens up to those outside of Steepster which has been a thought, no need to track Steepster name and actual name, and it’s a way to get possible stars (I miss kindergarten, okay).
The support here is quite awesome. Everything going forward is planned to be much better since sourcing will be going through places like Beautiful Taiwan Tea, Verdant, and Yunnan Sourcing. Hopefully these post don’t annoy anyone, it’s because of this community and how Butiki (not comparing myself to Butiki, want to be clear about that) was treated that pushes me to continue to do what I enjoy with hopes to get better and better and better.
That was probably enough writing, should be off to bed, thanks everyone for the support and feedback!
-Andrew
Two teas went live tonight: Roasted Lemon Tieguanyin and French Toast Dianhong batch 3
Fundraiser update: Still negative overall, but the container are up for sale now, https://www.etsy.com/listing/262076771/liquid-proust-teas-bamboo-tea-container?ref=shop_home_feat_2
Future news: After a few discussions I had, I decided to invest in a long term project for LPT being aging oolong. In the future it is what I would like to specialize in so I am investing around $1000 a year on containers and tea.
Also, aside from being an online vendor: I am going to begin planning on being a traveling vendor as well and go to as many tea festivals that I can to not just meet all of you but enjoy being with the tea community and exposing LPT to others.
Group buys: Group buys being $1000 each and over 600 packages in total, with the discussion of many people on here, I have decided to move them from being personally done by me to being done by Liquid Proust Teas. What that means is that Liquid Proust Teas will host three group buys a year to provide introduction to new teas and vendors with the aim to create conversation and learning within the tea community. LPT will only take $.75 per share within the group buys which is a total of $37.50, that is to be added with the fees of $.45 + 6% of everything (rough numbers) totaling out at $1.45 per share equaling $72.50
All together the purchasing power between all 50 shares will equal $890
The reason I am doing this is for the following:
Keeping track of name and addresses
Saving of ink and paper (Etsy print 2 per page)
Easy access for people outside of Steepster to join
Nobody signs up and never pays
Automatically sends tracking information
Please ask questions, provide suggestions, or whatever else about this because it is because Steepster is the home of the group buys.
Misc: There are a few teas tat only have 1 or 2 ounces left and instead of posting them up and paying a fee to list them, I will sell them privately via paypal for anyone who is interested.
There are a few little surprises to come about between now and my trip for the Midwest Tea Festival.
Perfect timing, I’ll be grabbing some French Toast right now! Also just wondering how it will be decided what each group by will be? A poll perhaps?
That is a great question. I will only host three a year and one of them will be the yearly Sheng Olympics. The other two may be split into a light and a dark category. The next group buy is generic for a wide spread tasting of dark teas, however next time it could be the difference between first and second flush dark teas and low to high grade. This could be the same case with a lighter tea group buy as well.
It’s possible that the more communication I get as I go on, I may be able to introduce new products or types of tea to help as well. It’s hard to say, but I do want to keep everyone as involved as they can be so I should probably post a suggestions area for after this next one.
Which Teas do you have a few ounces left of? :)
Going to copy/paste from Facebook:
“Just did an update on my stock and the following are for sale privately (not listed on Etsy)
Elixir #9, 3 in stock $3 each
Tangerine Peals, 2 in stock $3 each
Honeysuckle Yellow, 1 for $2
Spa Oolong, 2 in stock for $3 each
Birthday Insanity, 1 for $1
Just message me if you’re interested!”
There are a few teas on Etsy that are about to be gone as well such as the Blackberry Sage Keemun, Sweet Roasted Cocoa Genmaicha, Peach vs Bergamot, and Autumn Warmth.
I also want to say that I ordered the bamboo canister – and I absolutely love it! It’s so beautiful! Everyone should get one!
Thanks :)
We should totally do a project together. Glazed Donut from 52 Teas and French Toast from LPT
:)
Maybe Q2T can come up with some breakfast stuff too. Then try to get Plum Deluxe in on it.
The small company breakfast sampler!
We also need some Michigan warmth so I’ll com Whispering Pines into making some sort of cedar oatmeal.
I think that my pancake breakfast might be a better choice, or perhaps my coconut french toast with cardamom maple syrup. :)
But I’m definitely game – I need to get caught up first though. We had a printer mishap and it set me back a couple of weeks and I was already behind so I’m playing catch up right now.
No worries :)
I’m super flexible and up to whatever. This is something I’ve wanted to do for awhile because it sounds so awesome!
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