Dark Matter 2016 (group buy) Live 3-6-16
Got mine! Photo evidence https://www.instagram.com/p/BEMjx6lOtwd/?taken-by=oolongowl
Oolong Owl, I wish you a lot of happiness in your new place. Moving is miserable and I know you are not permanently settled yet, but I hope the process is smooth and you re-discover a lot of treasures.
My package seems to be stuck at customs in Germany. It’s been there since the 9th April, so hopefully there’ll be some movement soon. It’s not like I’m stalking it or anything :)
What do you mean you had to pay… I weighted the packages and paid the shipping already.
Wow, your custom fee is almost the cost of the tea! :( I didn’t realize that the those fees kicked in so low.
My suspicion is that I paid for 2 and I was just unlucky in having been picked up. No worries. The £15.17 also includes the post office fees for handling this matter.
By the way customs fees applies from £17 and up so even if I had paid for one dose I would still have to pay customs and postal fees.
No worries everyone, this makes me looking forward even more to sip those teas.
So if sent you a care package you would have to pay to receive it? I suppose I’m just lost here … I’ve never paid to receive my mail so this sounds really odd to me. You spent quite a bit to get this to you and if they pulled that in you I want to send something for the troubles
You’re too kind LP :). It sounds weird at first if you are not used to them, but custom fees are normal in some countries. Nothing to do with you, and not much you can really do about it. I have gotten some packages with understated values of the goods listed, but I’m not sure if or how much that helps; maybe someone more knowledgeable can speak on this.
LP really do not worry about it. I am used to it. Most countries have import duties on goods, the only differences are the percentage charges on different goods and the limits before duties take into effect.
If one day you ever come to London we will go for a gallon of tea or two to thank you for all the work you do for all of us around the world enjoy different teas. That counts more to me than the £15.
Just a heads up Rui, tea is 0% VAT so you would have been wrongly charged the duties, if you chase HMRC they should refund you.
I’ve been charged VAT on tea once in all the time I’ve been importing from the US or China. I didn’t bother to claim it back because it happens so rarely, and in all honesty I couldn’t be bothered with what becomes quite an official process.
There’s a calculator you can use to work out duty/VAT, which can be quite useful: http://www.dutycalculator.com. I’ve found that most things under $35 (before postage) tend to get through okay, but tea is exempt anyway.
Dark Matter has finally seen some light! All the tea samples are with me safe and sound. Thank you once again LP!
My tracking says delivered. Hopefully I’ll have a parcel waiting for me when I get home :)
Oh hell yeah, I had the Lord of the Lakes from Whispering Pines Tea this morning. Yum. It took me a steeping or 2 to get it right because I only had around 4 grams and I’m not used to brewing less than ~6.5 in my smallest pot. But a little extra time and I had that sucker figured out. Smooth, earthy, sweet. If you’re a fan of WPT other shou (which I am for sure), than you’ll love this one! Can’t wait until it’s for sale….
I had this one last night and this morning. I have to agree that it’s a very approachable ripe and would be a great way introduce someone to shou. It sort of reminded me of coffee, and wasn’t in your face with wood/earth/moss/mushroom flavors that might discourage someone new to shou. Flavor wise, I’m thinking that I’ll pick up some for daily drinking, even though the liquor wasn’t as thick or silky as I would like.
Isn’t this one just the shearling bedroom slippers of ripe? Comfortable, cozy and something you can dependably go to every day. :)
I still have a decent sized odds and ends pack if anyone wants to donate for it. I was going to pass it out at the Midwest Tea Fest but I think that’ll make things complicated
Everything but Yunomi, W2T, or World Tea Podcast. Still quite a few vendors land a good selection of 5g samples.
Some companies list 300g of tea and send 320g which means I end up with a little more, but everyone paid for it already so I take donations. That money ends up going into gifts or studying for the Sheng Olympics…
I have odds n’ ends in generally for whoever wants to donate to my samplings for the 2017 Sheng Olympics.
Have only send one package since the first offer two weeks ago.
Wow!
Midnight Sun + Purion Teapot + Evian spring water = Love :))
And first time I had this tea in a gaiwan with filtered tap. And I thought it was nice. Kinda.
What a HUGE difference!
I’m down to my last two untasted teas. I love trying a large variety of teas, so this has been great fun. I’m still fairly inexperienced with ripe puers in particular and this has really helped me to start tasting the differences between them. I also tried my first rock oolong and that pickle-tasting bancha is probably one of the craziest teas I’ve had yet.
I’ve reviewed many of the teas I tried from this group buy, but it has also strengthened my belief that one session is too little to form an opinion on a tea. Maybe as I gain more experience and am able to more consistently brew and taste teas I’ll be able to work with less, but for a while now I’ve been thinking that one or two ounces at minimum is what I need to really get to know a tea particularly when buying from vendors who I know are going to provide something of a certain quality so I don’t have to worry about getting something that is just plain bad.
Getting into tea has been a great journey since I started it a little over a year ago now. I’m thankful to the people of this forum and /r/tea for providing so much great information and Liquid Proust for organizing these group buys. It’s been a pleasure to take part.
I agree completely on one session being to little to form a solid impression, perhaps unless a tea rocks your world or massively sucks. I quite like 100g mini-bings for this reason, as “a cake is a sample” is pretty much implied, but if you don’t like it its not too big of a deal.
All the same, a group buy like this is a great way find a few teas to buy a cake-sample of.
If you find yourself with a spare minute: A few words of feedback on Etsy would be really appreciated. You can even just give some stars.
Looking for any suggestions on what to change since the next one is going to be in August.
Seems like a lot of learning and fun occured here for a low cost regarding how long it has lasted. It’s been fun to see people still sipping through the unique teas I managed to put together for this :)
Also, keep in mind that if you don’t review/rate within 60 days of your original order, Etsy won’t let you do it at all. (This happens to me often, unfortunately.) So do it quick before you forget or you’ll be sorry later, lol.
o.O
Dang. That’s a short period of time. I was going to host a sale when I hit 100 reviews but maybe this throws it off because I didn’t know about the timing.
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