EU Travelling Box - (ROUND FOUR - SIGN UP NOW).

Sent to Angrboda.

There’s still some of everything that KittyLovesTea put in originally. I added [SPOILERS]:

Pai Mu Tan – Whittard of Chelsea
Anniversary Blend – Whittard of Chelsea
Mamma Mia – DAVIDsTEA
Cafe Vanilla – Della Terra Teas
Cloud & Mist – Mandala Tea
Oolong orange flower – The Tea House, Covent Garden
Indian Night Decaf Black Vanilla – Numi
Magnolia Puerh – Numi
First Flush Darjeeling (Thurbo estate) – Twinings

I have received the box today and subjected it to the initial raid. I’m trying very hard indeed to not strip it completely of anything remotely resembling vanilla, but… I make no guarantees! ;)

I’ve got a great deal of things so far, and some of them I’m keeping the lot. Husband was more restrained and only picked one thing to try out of my No-pile. Don’t know what his feelings are regarding my Yes-pile, but he’ll get to taste most of it anyway. I think I’ve taken a lot out of it, and yet I still had trouble getting everthing neatly back in the box, even without having added anything yet. I now don’t really understand how all this stuff ever fit in the first place. O.o

I shall post again when I’m finished adding and removing. I hope to get it on its way again within the next week.

Anna, pm me your address.

I am ready to send the box on as soon as I have it. :)

I felt like maybe I was a bit greedy when taking things, but I actually found myself having to take more out, or the box wouldn’t close!

OKAY, SPOILERS AHOY!

These are my Takes:
Irish breakfast – Pure Aroma Tea
Raspberry lemon black – Ovation Teas
Raspberry Truffle – Butiki
Decaf vanilla – Numi
Magnolia puerh – Numi
Rhubarb and custard – Bluebird Tea Co
Cafe Vanilla – Della Terra
Nutty delight chai – Tealux
Vanilla mint mate – 52teas
Cola chai – kally Tea

These are my Tries:
Blueberry pie green – Whistling Kettle
2007 yiwumahei bamboo skin packed puerh tea brick ripe – Royal Tea Bay
1001 nights – Tea Moments
Anniversary blend – Whittard of Chelsea
Sencha apple and cinnamon – Tea Moments
Orange flower oolong – The Tea House – Covent Garden
Across a crowded room – Mystic Brew
Saint james – Le Palais des Thes
FF Darjeeling Thurbo – Twinings
French vanilla rooibos – Simpson and Vail

These are my uh… Shares: (I can’t think of a word with T :p)
Jewelled apple – Tea Palace
Blackberry black tea – AC Perchs
Almond black tea – AC Perchs
Orange puerh – Nothing But Tea
FF Darjeeling – Whittard of Chelsea
Rhubarb black – Fru P kaffe & te
Vanilla black – Fru P kaffe & te
Rooibos Kalahari – Luka te m.m.
Black tea from plantations in Tanzania – Savanna – Taste of Africa.

Box received! I am very very excited, but I won’t open it just yet (Consider the DISTRACTIONS.) It managed to arrive in Rome just as I’m leaving, but I’ll be back next week. I’ll keep you posted!

…and I’m back! I’m going to go through the box today and try to ship it on Thursday, if I manage to get my hands on darky’s address by then.

Darky, if you see this, let’s follow each other and exchange PMs!

I’m going to go about my selection of things to put in and take out in a highly scientific manner, of course; I’ll let you know how it all went.

I hope you had a nice time travelling Anna:)

I sent darky a quick message asking for his address or to contact you with the information.

I have just received a message from darky. He says he forgot about this box and wishes to opt out this time. So I have taken him from the list and that puts Dag Wedin next in line. I shall message him to let him know.

Oh that sounds nice. :)
I will pm you my adress Anna.

Okay, so here’s my highly scientific (Ha!) take on tea swapping. I figured I’d take/try roughly 1/4 of the contents of the box, add back about as much, and then send the box on its merry way.

I based my take/try selections on scent alone, and chose blindly. This was both good and bad, because after all selections were made, I realized I’d picked a surprising amount of Angrboda’s samples to try – I guess it’s been established before we have pretty similar tastes, right down to our vanilla obsession. Next time I might choose differently, or divide the teas into origin piles to make my selections less imbalanced.

My plan was to choose 5 teas to sample and take 5 samples to keep, but this proved impossible; the box was just too full. So I ended up just keeping the 10, and adding 12 samples of my own. (I could have exchanged one or two for half a sample out of those I took – the way I packed mine saved space, plus my samples were smaller to begin with.)

I packed two separate serving samples (roughly two teaspoons each) into individual bags, and then put them in a bigger bag – hopefully to make it easier to sample a tea without having to repackage it. I’d welcome some feedback on whether the samples are a good size or not – I rarely use more than one and a half teaspoons, but I know some people like to up their leafage a little bit.

In terms of the samples I added, I tried to go all-out European, with an emphasis on Swedish kinds. I divided my samples evenly between black, green and rooibos teas. I made sure to choose teas I absolutely adore, as well as a few I don’t enjoy so much. (I would love to read a review by someone else of that chili tea I hate so much!)

Okay, HERE ARE SOME SPOILERS!

There were 38 teas in the box when I received it.

These are still in there:

Canton Tea Co – Wild Puerh Varietal Tea Buds
Canton Tea Co – Canton Christmas Blend
Tea Moments – 1001 Nights
Teavivre – Unbridled Fruit Tea
Yogi Tea – Good Morning Chai
Whistling Kettle – Blueberry Pie Green
Simpson & Vail – Rooibos French Vanilla
Royal Tea Bay Co. Ltd. – 2007 Yiwumahei Bamboo Skin Packed Pu-erh Tea Brick Ripe
Savanna/Taste of Africa – Black tea from plantations in Tanzania
Nothing But Tea – Green Darjeeling Jasmine Arya
Royal Tea Bay – Bi Luo Chun
52 Teas – Shamrock Tea
52 Teas – Graveyard Mist
Mystic Brew – Across A Crowded Room
The Tea Store – Chili Chocolate
Luka Te – Rooibos Kalahari
Whittard of Chelsea – First Flush Darjeeling
Whittard of Chelsea – Anniversary Blend
Whittard of Chelsea – Loose Pai Mu Tan
Twinings – First flush Darjeeling (Thurbo Estate)
Le Palais des Thes – Saint James
Tea moments – Sencha Apple and Cinnamon
English Tea Store – Tutti Fruity
Mandala Tea – Cloud + Misc
Wan Ling Tea House – Ginger Fresh Ayurvedic Chai

Xian Cao Tang (2 mystery bags)
Lemon Thriller – PC (President’s Choice – Le choix du président (1 bag)
White Chocolate “Distinctive” – matcha powder (?) (It says ‘Sil’ on it, so it must be awesome!)

These are the teas I kept:

Adagio – Jasmine Silver Needle
Kusmi Tea – Prince Vladimir
The Tea House Covent Garden – Oolong Orange Flower
Fru P kaffe och te – Rhubarb Black Tea
AC Perchs – Almond Black Tea
Fru P kaffe och te – Vanilla Black
AC Perchs – Blackberry Black Tea
Nothing But Tea – Pu-Erh Orange
Tea Palace – Jewelled Apple
David’s Tea – Mamma Mia

These are the teas I put in:

Black:

Fruites del Bosc – teashop.es
Ofelia – Sing Tehus
Fleurilège – Dammann Frères
Studio 54 – Bönor och blad

Green:

Safari – Bönor och blad
Goji Sea-buckthorn – Bönor och blad
Coastal Beauty – Bönor och blad
Marco Polo – Mariage Frères

Rooibos:

Champagne Cream – Tehörnan
Fruity Chili – Tehörnan
Strawberry Vanilla – Tehörnan
Rouge Provence – Mariage Frères