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

Oooh hello! Århus calling!

(Can’t answer your question though. Not my call.)

You are welcome to join. Your name has been added to the list :) Welcome to the European Travelling Tea Box. As you are a new member please make sure you read the rules on the first page, if you have any questions then feel free to ask.

Re-read the rules. Thanks. Looking forward to this!

yay, so glad it arrived safe and sound! and poor une autre idee, it does smell heavenly (and tastes as it smells), sorry. Those are not awesome bags, but it´s difficult to find good bags for tea samples here.

and LOl about the masking tape. I like to use a lot of it when sending things because I think it makes it more tamper proof (unless person doing the tampering has the same exact tape). Not that I have had problems, but extra paranoia is always good.

Hope you and next recipients enjoy the teas, looking forward to seeing your opinions.

Hi Anna,

I have been trying to send you a message with my address, but you don’t show up on the list of possible receivers. I have followed and unfollowed (is there such a word?) you, but it doesn’t help. Will try again tomorrow. Otherwise, perhaps you could send me a message, I could answer to?

Oh, are you next in line? Right, the way messaging works is that we have to follow each other, so that has been your issue. Let’s follow each other, and then we can get the details sorted!

You need to add each other to be able to speak privately but sometimes Steepster (as great as it is) takes a while to update itself. Had the issue before myself sooo many times, if need be I would be happy to be the person in the middle and communicate for you both :)

Address sent to Anna.

We had one person inactive for a long time and not returning my communication so she has been taken off the list, that puts Yxvandoolu next on the list to receive. Plus it’s easier now as Yxvandoolu is in Denmark and she will send the box to Angrboda also in Denmark. :)

You’re welcome to still join if you want? You could come after angrboda so you would be the last person on the list, that means you would send the box back to me afterwards.

I would love that, thanks! It would work out pretty well like that, too – it looks like you’re pretty close to me! (I may have just had to google where Leicester is in relation to West Yorkshire…)

Would you mind if I include some fandom blends? My stash is still pretty limited to only a few companies.

Sure fandom blends are welcome :) You have now been added to the list.

Yay! ^^ thanks

Seeing as you’re the only person to receive the box after me, feel free to look in my cupboard to see if there’s anything you want or specifically don’t want.

Honestly I’m happy to try anything, I thought about trying the Adagio fandom blends but have yet to do so.

Sounds fine to me! I have three (Sherlock, Doctor Who and Harry Potter) fandom blends, so I’ll try to send you some of each, and make sure I don’t send you anything you already have.

I’m pretty new to this, sorry!

Don’t worry about adding teas that I haven’t tried before, just put whatever you like into the box. It’s a great way of clearing some teas that you don’t like or are getting sick of while at the same time adding teas that you love to share with others and see if they agree with you. Plus you get to try new teas and companies from what the box already has.

So yes just put whatever you would like to into the box :)

Alright!

I’ve just seen on your wishlist that you have the garlic vanilla rooibos – I actually have a rooibos chilli garlic, if you want to try that? It’s not in my cupboard because it’s not actually a real ‘for sale’ tea, I got it custom blended at a market last year out of curiosity (and discovered I hate it, thus satisfying said curiosity) so I’m happy to share it if you want to try!

Oohh that sounds very interesting. I would very much like to try that one please, I love garlic :)

Alright, I’ll make sure to include it (:

Fandom teas? Now you got me interested. Just reading about some of the Dr Who (loved #10 in the series). Any good?

They’re all brilliantly thought out. Well, the Sherlock and Doctor Who ones are, anyway. Cara, the girl who creates them, has such a talent. I think they all really fit the characters, too (: the Doctor Who teas are the best, in my opinion! Sadly, 10 is my least favourite tea between the three doctors, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s… Odd. 9, on the other hand, is possibly my favourite tea ever, and when my fandom sampler runs out I am definitely buying a big old bag of 9.

I would definitely recommend trying them, anyway, you’re bound to find something you like (:

I’ve just thought, if there’s another round of the travelling tea box I would be happy to include some for you to try! Or we can arrange a separate swap, if you wanted?

sorry to hear about the mess meldc, wishing you the best. Had included some things thinking of you!

I’m sorry meldc, it is possible the messages got lost in Steepster space (that happens a lot). I will add you back on to the list, you can go after Yxvandoolu if that is ok?

Thank you KittyLovesTea. Yxvanddolu can send it to Angrboda as they are both in Denmark, it would be easier for them. But if i can get back in the list after Angrboda, this would be great.

Welcome back to the list meldc. Again I am very sorry about this whole fiasco. I feel awful now :(

don’t worry, KittyLovesTea, sometimes messages get lost in cyberspace and everything is ok now !

Everything is sorted out, Kitty, don’t have a sad. <3

Nice to have you with us, meldc, sorry to hear about your work mess.

There are no rules/customs about it really, either the person that is sending it creates one for it (which happens most often as they can then post their review on it) or the person receiving the tea will make one for it.

As long as you know the name of the tea and the company it comes from then it’s easy to make a page for it. If you can’t remember the name of the company (as you said this was a small one) then it makes things a little harder but not impossible. Will have to just write custom or something similar as the company name. :)

Hehehe, 20 grams of something is not going to fit into this box unless someone goes completely loopy, just saying. I’m considering various straps at this point to get it to close.

Wow okay. I was planning on doing a like-for-like swap with however much I took, and then adding this in too on top of that, but it doesn’t sound like that would work! Kitty, how about I send a smaller amount of it in the box, and in the unlikely event that you like it I’ll send you the rest in the post, separately?

I’m going to leave this down to you Anna, I trust you to decide what is best for the box. :)

Okay, then I’ll ship it next Thursday, unless someone else has any huge objections. =)

Oh and by the way Anna, after reading you are on a mission to try more unflavoured greens I’ve put you some samples in with your Genmaicha :) I have lots of greens but I tend to favour the more vegetal and thicker greens. Hope you find one that you like.

Aw, that’s really, really sweet of you! I’m looking forward to trying them. =)

I have no objections to you waiting with shipping, if you feel it’s safer to do it that way. And if they do decide to hold it for ransom in customs for weeks on end, it might still get here faster.

(In fact I would prefer that you did it the way you felt was safer)

Sounds good, Ang.

This means, though, that those of you after me (Yx, Ang, meldc, Nattie and Kitty, I think) have time to make requests if there’s anything particular you want to try. My cupboard is up-to-date, aside from Dammann Frères and Butiki, since most of those are sold, or waiting to be sold.

I’ve heard great things about Lupicia’s Cookie, if you have enough to share a sample of that? Other than that I’m happy to try anything! (:

(That First/1st Flush Darjeeling seems to be a double DB entry, in case anyone wants to report that.)

Anna, that is genius, and am impressive ammount of work! Thank you!

Those links are awesome :D Spent half hour reading the ones that I missed. So interesting to read how other people view teas that you’ve tried before.

Haha, thanks, guys – I’m happy you enjoyed the list. It was way quicker than it might seem putting it together, though – almost everyone has been really good about marking the tasting notes ‘from the EU box’, so they were easily located.

I had the idea thanks to you, Kitty, when you tried some of those Swedish/German rooibos teas I added last time – I loved reading those notes so much, because they gave me a whole new perspective on flavours I sort of took for granted.

I’m probably at fault for the double entry Darj. I couldn’t find it in the database at the time, so I made a new page.

Also, I’ve still got some samples from the first round in my box of things still untried.

I still have some from the first round, will have to do a tea box weekend and try to sample as many as I can :)

Gotta love tea box weekends.

Out of curiosity, since some of you do a lot of swaps – do you label everything so you remember what it’s from? And if you only sample something (and don’t hold on to the box until after you’ve tried it) do you tend to repackage it all properly and label it?

Thanks for this, Anna! I am about to go through all of these reviews, rather than reading Persuasion for my seminars next week as I should be…

I can’t be much help with the swap question, as I haven’t done this before, but when I do, I’m planning on doing pretty much exactly what you described

Anna, in the beginning I would just remember who sent what, but then at some point I received a LOT almost all at the same time, which obviously meant that it took a long time to get through it, so I couldn’t remember what was what anymore. These days I have a little notebook and when someone shares something with me, I give the samples a number and write down the name and number and date received in the notebook. The things you sent me recently are number 23, for example. I’ve got little round stickers that I write the numbers on.

For the first box, I took samples out of lots of the teas in the box. I just spooned them into another ziploc bag and copied down the information on the label and put the rest back in the box in the bag that it had come in.

I hope that answers your questions.

It does, and it’s so organized. I like it.

This one might be from the teabox. Or not. Can not remember, which is very embarassing

http://steepster.com/teas/whittard-of-chelsea/28074-green-peach-leaf-tea?post=230765

I believe I put that one into the box but I’m not sure which round.

I’m pretty sure it is – it was on Kitty’s original list, and it wasn’t there when I got it (unless I finished it in my sleep) – I’ll add it to the list!

ETA: Oops, I did drink this. And review it. SENILITY HAS STRUCK.

Oh, it’s the second round – check page 5 of this thread.

I think it was Kitty, sorry for the brain fart, just noticed the labels are definetely your labels (yay, go me, at least i did not take a year to try a sample from another person!).

I am just trying one more, Adagio´s Golden Monkey which i removed all of in a bid for space, and it is a winner with me. I will post the review soon and put the link here.

Thank you Anna for your documenting, and Kitty for setting this up!

Anna, that was amazingly fast! You sure you do not have a time machine or something?

I was just editing it and pasting url, came here and think I had already posted another review of it and forgot, but no, wow, Anna! Thanks :)

(still got a couple more things to sample, following days…)

Haha, no, not the time machine (although of course I have a time machine!), but good timing. Just got back from lunch and sat down to do some work (= always best to check Steepster first) and there it was.

Anna, one more, if you would like (or just this post is reference enough I think).

A tea whose sample i had removed whole

River Tea – Formosa Jade Oolong

http://steepster.com/teas/rivertea/43188-formosa-jade-oolong?post=232854

Awesome – added, thank you. =)

one more http://steepster.com/teas/twinings/43294-1st-flush-darjeeling-2012-thurbo-garden?post=233806

Not that it’s really anything to do with me, but I’m fine with the changed order/re-adding samples! (:

The box sounds great, good job Anna.

Oh. Sorry about that. I have been dead tired this week after work ( I am away for 13 hours a day and do not surf the Net at work), and have been thinking about what to write as taste notes for the few teas I have tasted. Was actually logging on to post two now.

I actually feel quite offended by this, as I have logged on twice this week to see if the box wasn’t being sent soon. But there were no updates to indicate this.
In what spare time I have had after work, I have been shopping for tea to go into the box – apparently a waste of money. Too bad, as it wasn’t something I would have bought for myself.

I don’t know if there’s been a misunderstanding somewhere – you’re feeling offended because you’ll get the box one week or so later than planned?

If you look through a few older swap threads, you’ll notice that people really do go missing all the time, and that shipping schedules are rearranged accordingly.

Since I didn’t receive a response to the message I sent on Monday, nor to the one I sent on Thursday, and as I am now in the States and couldn’t hold on to the box another day, I sent it to Ang, who agreed to then send it on to you.

I honestly don’t see what’s offensive about that, but I’m genuinely sorry for whatever it is I did to make you so displeased.

Ok I’m sorry for my delay in replying to this thread, I have been in London celebrating my 11 year anniversary with my husband.

Lets try to sort this out:
Yxvandoolu – You are now next on the list to receive after angrboda. Inactivity is very common amongst newer members of Steepster, and while I’m sure Anna didn’t mean to offend she though it best to skip you for this turn until you returned. You will receive the box a week or two later than you scheduled for but you will still receive the box and the teas you bought would not have been in vain. This is assuming that you still wish to participate?

Anna – You did what you thought was best and I agree, for the sake of the box it’s better to send it to someone that is active and responsive.

Everyone – My priority is in the box and none of my friends and participants receive special attention from me, I make sure to keep my focus on what’s best for the box with hope that will keep everyone happy. Unfortunately this round has been a little unlucky at times but if we persevere we will get through it and hopefully most will have enjoyed it.