Popular Tasting Notes

Oh wow! 16 teas! I smaller quantities! Yay!

yes :) the website is really cute and the service professional :http://www.instant-the.com/
most of the teas are Dammann Frères ones

That IS cute!

Nice website! It’s great that your first sampling was an unexpected hit!

Ooh, awesome about that website! I am still trying to decide what teas to buy when I visit Paris in July! Having to buy 100g makes it difficult to choose.

@Dinosara : you may order from them during your visit in France (or before)and request a delivery to your hotel or place in Paris.It took 2 full working days to receive my parcel.

@ Hallie : yes it decided to buy from this website because I loved the website design. and of course because I wanted to taste more Dammann Frères teas !

Aw, it looks like they don’t ship to North America. Darn!

they can do but this is expensive, I asked them in the past for a person living in Canada. That’s why you may request them to deliver in Paris to the place you’re going to live during your visit.
But you can also find small tea shops inside Paris which sell Dammann teas by 50g. The only point is they often don’t have more than 15 teas from DF (because they sell as well other brands)

Ah yes, I see. Do you have any recommendations for shops in Paris that sell various French teas (including Dammann) by 50g?

you have this one which has various tea brands : Compagnie coloniale, Dammann Frères and Kusmi teas :http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pros/05368333?idContext=1405718383&portail=PJ#onglet-infos

be careful it is closed on Sunday and monday :)

if you want to taste japanese teas, Linfield teas (French Brand) or George Cannon teas (French as well) I highly recommend this shop :http://www.themerrymonk.fr/

and there is a shop thé et chocolat where you can buy Mariage Frères ones by 50g BUT only during the week (not the week end) :http://dismoiou.fr/p/fra/paris/7AO5W1/the-et-chocolat
but teas are almost 15% more expensive than in a MF shop (where you can only buy by 100g)

Thanks for the recommendations! Hopefully I’ll be able to check some of them out! :)

Funny that a tea called fleurilége is vanilla and hazelnut and not flowers! Glad it was a good surprise.

And this link list is going to be so useful to me! Thank you. Must bookmark.

@ Teresa : there are some sunflowers in the blend :) but the tea name is clearly playing on words : fleurilège for florilège which means collection,anthology…

What a nice post! You’re a sweetheart, Bonnie!

drat… if i could click ‘like’ and then ‘unlike’ over and over i would because then you’d get a flashing appreciation of this post from me. CONGRATULATIONS LILY AND DAVID!

Way to go David and Lily! Congrats and much hope for your success!

Thanks…if you click on the photo I took just now of the tea, you’ll see that I put the tea on a piece of 75 year old crystal that was my grandmother’s…that looks like it has bubbles (pop the cork). A sense of humor doesn’t hurt!

That is so cool!!

Thank you!!!! We feel lucky every day to have found tea, to have found each other, and to have met so many amazing people through the beauty of tea. I just cannot express our gratitude. How can you put it into words? We are incomprehensibly lucky, and are making it our mission to share that with as many people as we can.

I hope to see you all soon- please come and share tea with us! And if you are far away, then I will lift my glass up for you each time we make tea!

i love dian hong teas! never gets bitter for me. :D awesome pics :) love the cat :)

Hehe, thank you :-)

Welcome back TTF!

Hi Tea Fairy! I got an insight when reading about petting the furry tea. Now I know why mr. mopar has the Chairman, she keeps him from tea petting.

Thank you my dear Boychik xox

Nice to see you Cwyn!! Hahaha!! I wish there was a “like” feature for this comment!! :-)

Your photos are always so beautiful! And I love this tea. Your description of it is perfect. :)

What are your experiences with Whispering Pines? I’ve never had their teas, but I’ve seen their name come up a lot. Should I try them?

@katBender: you are so sweet, thank you!! This tea is truly a gem…

@TeaKlutz: OMG! you must place an order!!! Just read my tealog, lol, you’ll understand why I’m saying this…most of my reviews are for their teas cause well…I drink them 75% of the time!! And I drink LOTS of teas believe me…I have tried MANY sellers…and I’m a total WP addict cause not only do they sell some of the best tea I have ever had, but they also have a work ethic and philosopihy I fully endorse and agree with. “Breathe life, sip inspiration” is a slogan that speaks to me greatly.

And I promise: I DON’T GET PAID A PENNY TO SAY ALL THIS, all true :-)

hope you feel better soon!!

ginger & honey crystals? Who makes those & where do you get them?
I’m glad you’re starting to feel better!

@Terri: I get them at my local whole foods. The brand is Prince of Peace – http://popus.com/ginger-green-tea-instant-ginger-honey-crystals/

Some other health food and vitamin stores have them too.

Hope you feel better today!

Hope you feel better soon!

thanks everyone! I appreciate the kind sentiments.

glad to hear your on the mend

heal up
and a great tea for recover: mix white chrysanthemums, honey, ginger, and mulling spices, steep together and enjoy….

I need to get me some of those crystals. Thanks for the info and hope you’re feeling better.

Ginger and honey crystals sound amazing. Feel better soon (if you don’t already)! :)

Thanks – I’m getting there, slowly but surely. I went to the doctor yesterday and I have strep throat, nasal infection, ear infection and conjunctivitis. Not fun. But now I’ve got antibotics and codine to help me get better …

Oh my gosh, a quadfecta of cooties! Antibiotics, codeine, and tea: that’ll teach ’em. Wishing you a speedy recovery. =)

Dexter I wouldn’t worry about it to much. From what I understand Brendan decided to make sure that all his teas could at least meet thee EU standard. There were a few that he was unable to confirm this information from the supplier. To test individual batches of tea for residue is very expensive so he discontinued those teas. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the tea itself is toxic.

He asked that tea I bougtht and passed on to my friends be thrown out because it may be contaminated – that causes me concern.

I think that having asked that he needs to clarify. There is a big difference between this tea may contain some pesticide residues and this tea is known to exceed safe levels of pesticide residues and should not be drunk.

This tea and some other teas that I’ve sold in the past were not of a high enough quality to merit testing, so I discontinued them instead. I’m not saying they are unsafe to drink, just that they don’t meet my standards anymore. People that drink WP because they believe in the quality I strive for might drink this tea, and knowing that they might be drinking a tea with pesticide residue is enough for me to want it removed from a box meant to allow people to try different teas for possible purchase. I can tell you that I did not taste or feel effects from pesticides in any of my discontinued teas, which I generally can even on very low pesticide residue. I’m 95% sure they are safe, but I’d rather that others don’t take the chance. I also didn’t contact customers that bought the tea because it’s been a VERY long time since I’ve sold them, so I figured they’d be out of existance by now, and since my last website update, I no longer have a list of who bought them.

i have this tea. its delicious and im not going to throw it out. no way. i had several sessions and no ill effects on me.

I don’t understand.
If it’s not a tea you’re comfortable letting others try, what about those who have purchased it? It’s either safe for everyone, or it isn’t, and if you don’t want your name on it, maybe you should issue a recall or a credit so that people who have bought it (like Dexter) don’t have their money wasted because you changed your standards.

I just know that if I had decided to share some expensive teas with people, and they were told to throw them out instead of sharing them, I would be upset. The tea in those boxes are good – not just the dredges in our cupboards – and if I knew they were going to be tossed, I’m be disappointed that I wasted money buying that tea, and shipping it in the box. If you don’t think it’s good enough to share, you should really be contacting the people who bought it because some of our teas can sit in our cupboards for YEARS.

Unfortunately, I do not have a list of customers that have purchased this tea, and if I decided to do a recall, I would instantly go out of business.

I had assumed that asking for the teas to be removed and also stating that they aren’t dangerous to drink would have shown that I am leaving this up as an option for the people that put together the box.

I personally love this tea and I drink it occasionally. This has nothing to do with it being dangerous, but rather that it’s not worth it to verify that it’s completely clean when there are other sources for me to get better tea that has been verified.

I’m sorry that this has caused such an issue for some people. I had hoped it would have been viewed as a positive move. I would be happy to donate some of my current teas to the box and to Dexter to offset the loss of tea.

But, if they’re not dangerous to drink, why ask to remove them. Again, I’m confused by this whole thing.

I’m with Cavocorax, it’s either safe or it’s not, and an effort needs to be made to contact those who have purchased the discontinued teas from you. You can see a list of Steepsterites who have said tea in their cupboard. Contacting them alone would do wonders to restore your image here on Steepster. Saying that if you were to do a recall, you would go out of business just isn’t good enough. These people have spent good money on a tea that you are telling them not to drink. They deserve something. You should have been upfront from the beginning instead of privately contacting one person and asking them to throw out tea someone else had purchased and shared with them. You need to let as many purchasers of said teas know the issue with the teas and let them decide whether to get rid of it or not. If it is safe, but doesn’t meet your standards, then say so. Let the customer decide if they want a credit or not. If it is unsafe, then do the right thing, dang it, and let people know.

Regardless, this is an error on your part, Whispering Pines, and you need to face the consequences. It’s great that you’re willing to donate to the GCTTB and Dexter to replace what was lost at your request, but what about the others following this saga? Don’t they deserve to be compensated for tea that may or may not be clean? I drink a lot of tea from a lot of companies, and this issue, not the issue of cleanliness but the shady way it was handled, will keep me from purchasing from Whispering Pines, and I know I’m not alone in this.

@Cavocorax, I decided to ask them to be removed because I strive for complete honesty and transparency. This is a well-liked tea that I sourced from a friend of mine, and when he didn’t even know the location it was harvested in and no knowledge of the origins at all, I decided that I would rather not sell it.

Also, it is my understanding that traveling tea boxes are meant for people to try teas from different companies to see where they may like to purchase tea from in the future. If teas that I am no longer selling are added to a tea box, I think it’s probably safe to say that there’s not much of a loss by removing them.

I strive for honesty, and I want to share the best teas I can find. Honestly, this is not one of them. Again, I would be happy to replace it with one or two that are.

Okay, adding Whispering Pines to the list of companies I most definitely won’t buy from EVER. Will be very vocal about dissuading others as well, I can definitely promise you that. This is one of the most unprofessional things I’ve ever seen.

If you strive for complete honesty and transparency, then you would have made a post for everyone to see that explained your actions. This was not honest or transparent, it was shady.

TTBs are meant to let others try new things, it’s not all about purchasing. Your understanding of them is dead wrong. That is only an aspect of the TTB.

I have written a post to hopefully clear up my motives for this. Again, I’m sorry this has upset some people. It was not my intention: http://steepster.com/discuss/10174-why-i-discontinued-huang-zhi-xiang-phoenix-mountain-oolong

I think people need to stop and take a step back and think logically about this. Comments are getting to be defamatory and it is not necessary to go down that road. I have edited the title of this tea, as I think it was uncalled for to change to to “unclean”. Please feel free to lambaste me for it, but I think it is the right thing to do.

Steepster has always been a fair and friendly community, and I hope we can all strive to keep it that way. Mistakes were made, lets move on.

1. What Blodeuyn said.

2. Cross-posting this, also in the the WP thread about this issue:
I am seldom, if ever, accused of being the voice of reason. I’ve been reading the threads on the Great Whispering Pines Debacle 2015. I’m dismayed by what this turned into. I am passionate and opinionated and the first to jump in when I think something is WRONG. But I’ve also defended other tea companies when I felt like things were going a bit far – in one case, a Steepsterite making accusations of deception on shipping policies to another country when it was clearly NOT deception by another of my favorite tea companies and another case when a new-to-Steepster tea company who has great tea posted reviews of their own tea, promoting it without understanding the way things worked. In both of those cases, I did not believe (and still don’t) that they were intentional abuses of the tea buying public. I chose the path of understanding and benefit of the doubt.

I most emphatically don’t believe that is the case here either. As has been repeated, well, um repeatedly, there isn’t any indication there is pesticide in the tea. And he found better tea so he quit selling it. As he noted – HE STILL DRINKS IT. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the tea. He never one time said there is pesticide in the tea. He said he couldn’t confirm the origins and never had it tested. This is someone who is picky about what he puts in his body almost to the point of religion and HE STILL DRINKS IT.

But he screwed up. He did some things wrong. He handled this clumsily and dug himself a hole that will be hard to get out of. And that is unfortunate. We aren’t talking about a multi-national corporation here with handlers and PR people. We are talking about 24 year old PASSIONATE tea lover with rigorously high standards who made a mistake in the way he handled those standards. Someone who keeps looking for better and better and better tea. Someone who cares about the PEOPLE who drink his tea to the point that he posted this on Facebook on New Years Day:

Happy New Year! As a thank you to all of you and a way to start fresh, I’m taking my list of customers that owe money and tearing it into pieces. You all get a fresh start! Hope 2015 feels as good to you as it does to me! Cheers.

And he was caring for people when he saw the tea in the tea box – the tea isn’t noxious poison that will affect chromosomes and your children will be born looking like the three-eyed fish on The Simpsons. But he has ridiculously, and almost unattainably high standards. He keeps looking for better. And I like being able to buy better. But he made a mistake in the way he handled it and the way he phrased it and apparently no amount of explaining will satisfy some. Unprofessional? I guess, in one sense of the word. In the sense that he isn’t slick and polished always knows exactly the right thing to say every single time. Clearly he doesn’t. And I’m guessing he’s mortified that above all else that he made Dexter feel badly.

I will continue to drink it because I’m freaking PICKY. And I will I drink a lot of Whispering Pines tea. A lot. Because I trust it. I trust Brenden and I’ve seen how much he CARES. It’s easy for things to escalate on the internet. We see it time and time again. When I look at the level of civility over the recent Steepster issues despite MASSIVE frustration, I find it hard to believe I’m on the same site today. I think everyone deserves a chance to rectify mistakes – most especially when they are mistakes that come from the place of trying to do good – no matter how clumsy and awkward.

I’m already well beyond the TL; DR point, so I will shut up now.

Holy Shanghai. Now that was a good reply. +1 for MzPriss!

I’ve been a member here for four years…I’d like to think I have acquired a certain credibility over the years.

I’ve seen lots of companies come and go. Only a few have earned my business.

Whispering Pines is one of them. Full proof. I KNOW Brenden, I TRUST him. I’ve been his client for a while now, and BECAUSE he so transparent and has so much integrity, it’s pretty easy for me to know that he meant well.

The commotion about this whole thing doesn’t worry me. Brenden is respected and loved here for many good reasons. He built his reputation step by step… he has and he’s still learning from his mistakes cause he’s humble enough to admit to them. You don’t get as solid as he is now by bullshitting people.

Some of the comments I read were hurtful and without substance and although everyone is entitled to speak their mind, some were just so harsh. I say “some” cause other comments were brought up as genuine concern. (Dexter, I know you and understand your initial preoccupation and where it came from).

See, most companies wont even tell you how they source their teas, and certainly wont guarantee they are pesticide free. I could name a list of those companies, VERY popular ones. People still drink them without knowing. The fact that Brenden attempted at doing so, even if there may be NOTHING WRONG AT ALL with that tea, gets my applauds. Now HOW it was done, well yeah…what MzPriss said. I wont reiterate what she already expressed so well.

But I will take a stand and support him without hesitation. Cause I CARE about him and his company, yes, but mostly because I know HE cares about his product and about his CLIENTS. If I wasn’t 100% sure of that, I would not even get involved.

Bashing is disgraceful. Steepster is a place where the drama is kept at a minimum. That’s why it’s the only online forum I participate in. Thank you Blodeuyn for reminding us of that.

Cheers and peace good Steepster people.

Steepster is Fairyland, and that’s awesome on a personal level, as it keeps forum bickering to a minimum.

However, one of the issues with Steepster in terms of reviews of small tea vendors is exactly this – a bad review is considered equal to “bashing”, making “defamatory” statements or as perpetuating “drama”.

I’ve talked to numerous people who feel uncomfortable posting less than stellar reviews of vendors who participate on Steepster – one of the most common examples is WP, then there’s obviously 52 Teas – and so on.

Honestly, the perceived need to post nothing but stars and unicorns and sunlight regarding Steepster-participating vendors borders on mass psychosis.

“Cheers” and “peace” and the “path of understanding” are all excellent, but they REALLY don’t help me pick a tea company that delivers in terms of exceptional products and customer service. We all use Steepster differently, but, in the end, the majority of us are here to find good teas, and the right companies to buy them from.

Namaste.

I don’t understand. WP said they could not verify that the tea was clean…how is that not a cleanliness issue?

There is a thread over on the discussion board about these issues that has been linked to in these comments. Can we stop spamming poor Dexter’s inbox now?

Ohh… what else did you get? He hasn’t posted the new tea of the week yet, and I’m personally feeling neglected. Like he forgot ME or something. :)

I also picked up the Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish and the Pineapple Upside Down Cake (<—-that one is mainly for my husband, but I’m sure I will drink more than my fair share also!) I won’t be ordering any more tea until October, so if he comes out with something great I hope it is still around by then (I am also waiting on a Golden Moon order that is taking FOREVER and I really want my Coconut Pouchong/Sugar Caramel Oolong to be here already!)

RE: “I’m personally feeling neglected. Like he forgot ME or something.” LOL I’m glad I’m not the only one… Mondays stink w/o the TOTW.

@mrawlins2 – both of those are spectacular too. You won’t be disappointed!

Trust me I know what you mean. My Golden Moon order took about 2weeks to arrive. I felt like that was ridiculous. When I mentioned it to the company I was sent a coupon and samples which was nice but I never got what I was really looking for…An apology. I was just told why it took that long and basically I was wrong in believing it should have come sooner. Nice huh? Good thing I like their tea.

I am kind of surprised to hear this about Golden Moon, to be completely honest. They’ve always been super nice to me. The first time I placed an order with them, it was a all-samples order, and I had trouble with the shopping cart. I emailed them, I heard back from them almost immediately, and after they fixed the issue they sent me the order for free. (It wasn’t a huge order, just a few samples, I am sure that if I had ordered more, they wouldn’t have done this – I mean, no company could afford doing that…) I have always received speedy responses when I email them… and my orders arrive really quickly. I’m sorry you’re encountering issues!

I have made only two orders and the same thing. Considering I live in a pretty populated area I was shocked at how it took. I understand things happen but I was upset I got no apology. That’s all.

Your patience will be rewarded. I’m working on the post for the new Tea of the Week now. AND a special offer. :) Oh, and the Tea of the Week for this week: simply AMAZING.

@Rachel – no, I totally understand your frustration! I would feel the same way. I’m just surprised that it happened with them because I had such outstanding service from them. I am sorry it didn’t happen that way for you though! That sucks!

@52Teas I am patiently (well, not so patiently) waiting. I may have to wait a little longer, actually, since, most of my funds are currently absorbed with my art class on Wednesday… but, I still am eager with anticipation!!!

@52Teas please don’t make it too amazing. I already want the Earl Grey Cheesecake, Watermelon & Raspberries, and the Blueberry Danish one. I can’t add anymore to the list. I just can’t.

I have had a really good experience with Golden Moon: I particularly liked their samples box and rose tea. Service was good and shipping fast.
I have not ordered anything from 52teas yet. With so many tea companies to choose from I tend to choose those where I can see vision and attention to detail which includes website (user experience) well designed packaging and professionally written copy etc. and in this department 52teas could indeed use some improvement ….

I imagine my experience was just a fluke and I fully plan ordering again from them and as far as what you’re saying Inguna I do agree that website design, packaging, and etc are important factors; at least to me, but I also strongly base decisions on customer experiences and reviews as well. Sometimes I even just risk it in hopes to find that diamond in the rough. It doesn’t happen frequently but it has happened. Admittedly I don’t risk it much, but sometimes it is fun especially if the risk isn’t to financially an impact.

@Rachel – I’m not quite to frustration with Golden Moon, yet. But considering that I ordered from 5 days before 52teas, I feel like I should have already received the order – even if shipping from 52teas wasn’t crazy fast this time. The estimated arrival date has been moved from Friday to Saturday at this point, which will make a full 2 weeks since ordering.

@mrawlins2 I totally understand.

@inguna Ouch. I’m sorry that you think our website, packaging and written copy are not up to par. I put everything I have into our teas. Unfortunately, I do not have the budget that some of my competition has to spend on the website, etc. I think I’ve done pretty good considering I built the website myself. I just can’t imagine that the website, written copy and packaging are more important than the tea.

I’m inclined to agree with you, Frank. I think that the unique flavors that you offer, the awesome service, great prices (free shipping!) and… quite Frankly (haha!) your sense of humor far outweigh those other things.

Thanks @LiberTEAS. I appreciate that.

I agree LiberTeas it’s not a 100% about looks. It plays a part, it is just human nature but a decision is truly made with the culmination of all things being balanced as per the individuals specifications before a decision on where to make purchases can be made. A winning combination of factors can only be determined by the person making the decision and all a merchant can do is try to appeal to the vast majority with the means available.

Now specifically 52Teas I base my decisions on purchases vastly due to customer reviews and recommendations. Once I did that I got to know the merchant (Frank) which I enjoy doing business with because of his personal service, unique product selection, excellent teas, great prices, free shipping, fast service both shipping and reply to communications. Yes, the website could be more polished and professional looking but it doesn’t prevent me from buying his teas. Would more customers purchase from him if it were more polished? Probably, especially a new market of customers such as those new to tea, those who base purchases on visual appeal, and not associated with Steepster or any other tea related site. More importantly does Frank need to make changes to the site? No, the bottom line is he has great tea and fantastic customer service and reviews. The proof is right here. Thus,bottom line: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Sorry for rambling everyone!

@52teas – you can always improve and nothing is perfect ever anyway. And I understand that building a business is a process where you take one step at a time. I promise I will try some of you blends :)

@inguna – I highly recommend 52teas’ blends. Even the stranger combos (Buttered Cinnamon Raisin Toast, for example) have been amazing! It never hurts to try something new, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised.

I agree w/ mrawlins2- even if you don’t personally like them- they are extremely accurate. There’s always ManTeas as well- I REALLY recommend their Mayan Chocolate Chai and Beer Tea.

@RachanaC (A.K.A. Rachel): Thanks very much.

@inguna: You are correct; there is always room for improvement. I am always looking for ways to improve the website, our product, service and just about every aspect of my business. Most people probably don’t even notice, but the website is being improved a little bit at a time. I work very closely with the developer of the ecommerce software we use, and he has been gracious enough to include quite a few of my recommendations for changes into updates of his software.

Once upon a time, I contacted the folks who built Adagio’s website and asked them what it would take to have a site like that built for me. They told me it would be a minimum of $80k. I decided I needed to learn how to build websites. Since then, I have built zoomdweebies.com (third incarnation now), 52teas.com, manteas.com, mysweethoneybush.com and I’m currently working on SouthernBoyTeas.com. If I say so myself, I think the sites are looking better and better with each new site/revision. At least I am learning more and more about the process anyway.

Anyhow, enough of my rambling. I look forward to serving you in the future. I’m sure you will enjoy our teas.

Incidentally, I think the same has to be said for our packaging. The original Zoomdweebie’s blends (a few people here have some of those pouches) had VERY simple labels with no images. The early 52teas labels had images with sad little gradients and stuff in the background. Having to create a new label every week means streamlining the process a little bit, but I am making small improvements as I go.

Speaking of packaging Frank- any plans for opaque or, better yet, treated transparent packaging?

@Cofftea, I am always on the hunt for better packaging. I actually have an email out to a company that produces stand-up pouches with rice paper.

@52teas I like your blurbs a lot, so much more personality than some of the more “sophisticated” sites. I think your site does have some usability issues, but as long as you stay away from embedded midis and animated gifs, I’m good :P Actually, now that I think about it…I think I had the usability problems because I had scripts disabled…carry on!

LOL. I just figured out how to embed the mp3s for my newest site: http://www.SouthernBoyTeas.com. But someone did end up talking me out of autoplaying them. :(

Oh wow, you did them yourself from scratch? Impressed now. (also: thank GOD someone talked you out of it…SO FULL of autoplay hate)

Good to heat about the packaging Frank!:)

Thanks for the recommendations. I will definitely give it a try. Judging from the enthusiastic response it is well worth it.
Did not expect my remark to attract that much of attention but attention is good for the business :)

nomnomnom little heffalump ;-)

:D

Ha! You guys make me laugh.

Did you sip it up through your trunk???

I mean, now that you’re a heffalump, you can do that, right?

Of course! While Wearing my rubber boots in case I splash

Breaking out the highlighter. Just got the new Upton print catalog today ;)

Same here! Mine came today, and I just clicked on wish list for this tea!

Yep, I added it to my list… great minds think alike. :)

That’s how I went about my order last week, too! :)

Need to schedule me some serious bubble bath time to go through it thoroughly!

Holy Reversals of Fortune in the Tea Industry! I may have to order the 250 gram bag.

Yeah I’m thinking this is going to be in my next Upton order! Loving the Upton reviews btw!

Since you “like a good Keemun”, which are your favorites? I also am a Keemun fan! Thanks!

I’m also “other people” and part of that cult lol

I’m definitely in the cult… I think I put it on the poll and vote for it every year, heh. Wonder if any baggies will be left after advent so I can snatch something more fresh than the 2019s I’ve been hording…

Definitely voted for it too… Imho, 52teas should consider a permanent earl grey slot so I can throw all my money at it all the time. XD

I am currently considering a permanent “cola” slot – should I instead be considering a permanent earl grey slot? (not saying that I won’t eventually have both – but saying that I am of limited thought capacity to consider more than one at a time.) Which one should I consider first?

Soda! But I certainly wouldn’t mind both eventually!

<—-cult member

Earl Grey slot if it is either this one OR one of your marshmallow vanilla cupcake-like creations.

And yes, what CrowKettle said.

That is a very difficult pick for me! I am a huge fan of soda teas and find they really aren’t available anywhere else. But I get they probably don’t have the same “reach” as the tried-and-true EG. “Foggy Coconut” is not only one of my favorite EGs EVER, but one of my favorite 52Teas blends ever, and I tend to horde it beyond the proper limits of coconut as a result of not being able to have easy availability to it, so I’d love knowing I could get it more regularly (which would in turn likely fix the hording issue, too, so the coconut is always perfect ). Not sure if I could chose between the two, but either way I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed!

Depends on when you are planning to launch it, maybe? Soda would be a unique permanent staple to introduce for spring/summer (I often like to ice yours). Around this time of the year though I want to drown in EG; your treatment of them is also distinctive and fun… but, I’m super biased in favour of a good EG at the best of times.

I support both :P

The EG slot would be similar to the vanilla/marshmallow black slot – where I would change the EG every time – it would not be a guaranteed thing that it would always be this tea – or even one of the cupcake-ish or vanilla-ish ones. It would be an EG creation – and this one would definitely be on the roster for a frequent appearance as it IS one of my all-time favorites as well. But, this wouldn’t be a permanent staple.

The same is true of a cola-ish (and root beer-ish) blend. It wouldn’t always be – say – ginger cola or root beer float. It would occasionally be those because I also enjoy those but they wouldn’t be constant.

I’m not sure when I’ll be announcing a new “D’s tea” – sometime next year? I am getting caught up and I want to wait until I am much more consistently getting the subscriptions on their way at least within the first 10 days of the month that they’re part of. Once I’m comfortably doing that on a fairly consistent basis, then I will be more comfortable having five teas in the D’s Teas line.

THANK YOU to everyone for commenting though – it definitely does help to know what kind of demand either category would have. (Also, please feel free to continue to comment – it does help!) Eventually, perhaps, I’ll work my way up to a sixth D’s Tea – but I probably will not do that until I have plans for a seventh because I don’t like even numbers. So, you guys will need to come up with another idea for the seventh category – one that will sell consistently – if I’m going to add both an EG & a “cola” blend to the D’s Teas line.

7th slot? Ya’ll probably be shocked to have me be the one saying this, but probably a rotating banana blend. Those are always consistently in demand and loved (by everyone except banana-aversive me :-)

YAAAAAAAS!

Bananas…

If this was just Frank’s old line up, I’d go with a Danish (any base). But Banana is now the first thing I think about when I hear or see 52teas lol.

And I like the idea of rotating D blend’s, even though Foggy Coconut is life. Coconut doesn’t seem to respond well to attempts at permanency, at least in my stash.

Well – how did I not have that idea? I love my banana teas.

Personally I would ‘rank’ my interest level for a rotating permanent blend in the following order: Banana tea, cola/soda tea, EG…

Also, while we’re throwing out suggestions… while I LOVE the 12 Tea countdown (and will continue to support it) I would also be FIRST in line for a full/proper 24 day advent if ever that’s a road you’d want to go down! I think more ‘slots’ would give you a lot more freedom to play around with creating new blends/concepts and would also probably open up more vote back options since there are some teas seems to always get the most votes year after year or that just slightly miss the cut off – or you only have one oolong spot or one honeybush spot, for example. Also with 24 days I wouldn’t be upset with having repeats on some of the broader categories (ex. 2 genmaicha, 2 chai, etc). Just food for thought ;)

I have considered it – but I need to first catch up and be able to actually blend 24 teas in addition to the 5 teas for october, november & december (save for the 1 that is usually in both the advent and the december subscription) It’s not so big a deal for larger companies or even the smaller guys who repackage/relabel the teas – but creating an additional 12 teas beyond what I currently do is a large undertaking. So, I would need to be caught up and comfortable with what I do. A lot of work goes into the 12 Teas, so we’re looking at double the work. I would need to feel very confident that I could pull that off and get the boxes out by mid-november.

I’ve also thought about doing a “christmas in summer” type of thing – where I do a 12 tea box in June or July – as those two months are my slowest months – I thought maybe some kind of promotion might enhance those months, but it would also add more tea to the inventory that is already slowed – so I don’t know about that.

I just spent my BF money. Guess I will have to sneak the order in.

I love this keemun, one of my favourite,

Yay, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Hoping for good BF sales too. ;)

One of my fav keemuns too

FWIW: Superfine Keemun Mao Feng is a new non-organic TeaVivre Keemun for 2014, not to be confused with the more familiar similar sounding Organic Superfine Keemun Fragrant black tea.

oh…thanks looseTman! I didn’t notice that…so I haven’t tried this one yet!

Links:
- http://www.teavivre.com/keemun-fragrant-black-tea/
- http://www.teavivre.com/keemum-maofeng-black-tea/ – their 1st Keemun Mao Feng

i really want to gongfu it, cause resteep was rather meh
Is it normal for Keemun not to have a good resteep? im so spoiled with Yunnan

Lol, +1 terri :-) thanks loosetman, will have to try that…

I don’t resteep keemun…

the pic on website is not accurate. The brew is brown .

But Spring Keemun by A&D is very good at resteeps.

Many don’t resteep well. However, Premium Keemun Hao Ya will reliably and consistently provide 2 resteeps (3 cups total)Western brewing. These results are based on having enjoyed 1.7 kg to date.

looseTman, you are Keemun expert, i know;)
i like when tea resteeps well at least once. this s why i probably like gongfu method a lot. some teas are just endless

1.7 kg definitely provides familiarity. It’s very hard to beat TeaVivre Keemun.

Nothing beats Gongfu IMHO. But a good mug is something I also need in my tea life :-)

Premium Keemun Hao Ya provides 6 Gongfu steeps: 15s,25s,40s,70s,100s,130s – http://www.teavivre.com/keemun-hao-ya/

i cant say i tried a lot, but now im thinking i really like China Keemun by Nina’s Paris
http://steepster.com/teas/ninas-paris/34952-china-keemun
very rich flavor and I’m not afraid of smoke

i should try Premium Keemun Hao Ya. i think i ordered a sample

I’ll have to try that one.

Oh Gosh, I get the feeling this swap is gonna be huge!

It fits in a bubble envelop still, I have not reached the point where I need to put it in a box. However, it is definitely the biggest swap yet. And I think recently I have had a tad bit of a panic over the surplus of teas I own so I am sending some of that your way :P

Your’s is in a bubble envelope right now too, but I think it’s the biggest bubble envelope I’ve sent (anyone) yet…

I am quite fearful of my cupboard exploding. I keep thinking about the packages on the way and between my few orders, this swap, and a package from MissB (who is ever so sneaky with adding tea), I worry what that number might be.

**Yours(?) Oh gosh, I’ve been out of school too long – I can’t remember my grammar anymore… I’m trying to do some sipdowns today: I’d rather not get over 200.

haha I am very conflicted over what I should drink. I don’t know if I should be diving into my samples box, drinking teas from swaps, going for sipdowns, or drinking older teas (not that any of them are THAT old since I only got into teas in August but still). I keep leaning towards sipdowns just because I keep trying to control my stash haha.

Right now I’ve got samples that are close to sipdown size, some of my oldest teas (mostly DAVIDsTEA blends), and the 2 Butiki teas from my BF order I’ve yet to try out of my closet – and I’m kind of rotating between those things. I was hoping I could make Orange Matcha a sipdown today, but I still have a little left. I was tempted to add it to your package, but I’ve already sealed the bubble envelope up since the little strip was coming off :(

haha I decided to recycle an envelop I got in an old swap (mostly because I didn’t have one large enough at home and it is always so frustrating to have to package everything up at the post office. People look at you funny when you have a giant pile of teas :P. Anyways, in order to seal it up, I used a whole bunch of duct tape and then I keep reopening it and resealing it with another strip of tape to ensure it stays closed when it travels. So I will apologize in advance for the surplus of tape. However, speaking from experience, it is actually quite easy to peel away and open when you want to.

I have a small(ish) stack or regular envelopes and then a second of various sized bubble envelopes so I can package everything here at home instead of doing the awkward at the post office thing. The one I used for this swap was the biggest size I had.

Alternate! 1 sipdown, 1 older tea, 1 tea you like. :) Keeping everything in rotation is a good idea. I’m focusing on samples right now though because stuff keeps falling out of the box onto the floor.

hahaha mine is quickly getting to be that full too. Although my bag of swaps is also exploding. I guess just reaching for whatever appeals to me at the time is a good way to go about it.

All my tins or bags of tea which are large enough to stand upright are kept in our living closet sorted by tea types (grouped, basically) with the exception of the 20 or so teas I have in the kitchen on rotation. I then have a drawer with is filled with samples I immediately or quickly want to get to. All Matcha is kept in the freezer. Everything else (samples, small bags of tea, etc.) are kept in huge ziploc bags labelled by tea type (Black, White, Herbal, etc.). I then have a spreadsheet on my laptop which organizes things by company and then, within company, tea type. Next to that information is something like: “Tin”, “No Tin”, “Sample”. If it’s in a tin, I know it’s in the closet, same with “No Tin”. If it says sample, I know the look for it in the immediate sample drawer or one of the labelled tea type bags. With this system, I’ve never ‘lost’ a tea :)

Oh, and all my Tea Bags are kept in a special chest from my Grandmother (it has about 10 perfectly tea bag shaped compartments) in the kitchen…

haha Roswell Strange, you are so organized. I have all my teas on the floor surrounding my staircase. Some are in a large box which is my sample box, some are in a bag which is the swap box, ones from swaps are kept in the original package they came in and all those packages are sitting in a huge teavana back on top of my tins of teavana teas. There are some teas stored in tins on my kitchen counter (those are mine and my roommates favourites). I also have a spreadsheet where the teas are sorted by company and highlighted in different colors based on type. Also I list where (who) each tea comes from, who I sent the teas to, and if I would buy the tea again. On that spread sheet, I also include tasting notes so I can quickly see why I would/would not restock them. Also, last night I made a separate list of all my caffeine free teas so I can quickly decide what I want to have in the evenings/at night.

Yeah, the tea types in my spreadsheet are done by colour too (I use DAVIDsTEA colour system because all my tins are DAVIDsTEA tins that match tea based on the colour). I also have a system in the spreadsheet to know whether I’d restock: N/A (Haven’t tried yet), No Restock, Restock, and Unsure. I should mark who teas came from in swaps, but I don’t. Usually I can remember…

How much to do you guys charge for setting up and data entering onto one of those fancy spread sheets?

Dex, I would happily make a spreadsheet for you. Granted I can’t fill in the origins of your teas or tasting notes or stuff like that but I can use your cupboard as a guide and organize them by company and color code by type :)

I was just about to offer to do the same thing! Honestly, it doesn’t take long to do so I wouldn’t at all mind helping :)

LOL Thanks guys, really I was kidding. I would never be disciplined enough to keep it updated. I was just in awe that both of you actually keep that kind of data.

My mom used to be a bookkeeper and so I kinda grew up with spreadsheets. I think it is more habit than anything :P

Similarly, my Mom was a secretary for years before she quit to return to school and get her Masters so as soon as I started having to use Microsoft Word or Excel for school she taught me how to do everything properly according to MLA Style Guides and things like that – though tea is the first time I’ve ever used a spreadsheet practically outside of school :P

I work accounting, I look at spread sheets all day. I can appreciate how awesome it would be to keep my tea organized, but it would end up being too much like work. Respect you guys for keeping yours up to date.

You should also try Harney and Sons Cranberry Autumn if you like cranberries. I’m crazy for them too – and this tea! I’d send you some but I finished mine! It’s that good :)

How could I miss that tea! Added to my shopping list. I might have glanced over it because the orange pieces scared me off.

Second the Cranberry Autumn love.

Ooh, this is making me crave cranberry juice. :) The only cranberry tea I’ve tried is Portsmouth Cranberry fruit tea…it’s pretty good. More like Kool Aid than tea, though :)

And, now I’m going to go make some Cranberry tea, which isn’t in my “drink it up” pile but I’m craving it. :)

Harney, Golden Moon, Samovar…. oh boy I’m going to be broke. Shantea bug might take over. Poor wallet.

Haha, what’s this drink it up pile?!? Mine are all those Adagio tin. Good idea, I should try finishing those.

Heh, I took a page out of Bethany’s book and made a “drink it up” pile of Adagio tins that I NEED to finish.

Alas, I didn’t end up making cranberry fruit tea OR Adagio tea…instead, I opted for some yummy Simple Leaf oolong :)

Drank some Shanti? Wait, that’s not oolong, that’s green.

Nope, Tankha this time :) It’s goooood.

Simple Leaf’s another company I have to try. I’ll get to it eventually, haha. So much tea left to finish off!

Oh, their stuff is amazing…but yeah, no rush, finish off some of what you have first! (I’m telling myself that before I go and buy more stuff, too hehe)

By the way, I spoke too soon re:cranberry tea—I just got my package from 52teas w/ the mandarin matcha and I got a free package of Cran-Cherry Black Tea! Hooray!

I’m in a toss up if I want to take advantage of that Golden Moon free 1/2lb of Rose tea offer. Decisions, decisions…. my 52teas order hasn’t arrived yet =(

Glad you liked it!

I got cran-raspberry black as my 52teas extra. I bet it will be great iced in the summer, and now I have something else to offer my mom when she’s over – she likes fruity black teas. They’re not my fave but I’m going to try it hot soon…

Janefan – I dunno about 52tea’s cran-raspberry, but Teavanna’s cranberry black was AWFUL (IMO) iced (and that’s why I wanted it). It was passable hot, I thought, but I ended up passing it over for things I liked better.

thanks for the warning!

Haha, add me to the list of people who received cran-raspberry black 52teas.

Did you guys get cran-raspberry or cran-cherry? I got cran-cherry.

OH just took a closer look. cran-blackberry.

Cran-blackberry? That sounds good!

Hey it’s like the same thing as teavana =] I might like it we’ll see!

Oh wow! I checked the website, and they have LOTS of cranberry black blends: cran-blueberry, cran-strawberry, cran-blackberry, cran-cherry, cran-apple, cran-raspberry, cran-orange, cran-peach, cran-grape….

Ohhhh, cran-strawberry! I realized no one ever rated a zoom dweebie bar tea before. How strange!

mine’s def cran-raspberry. #094. I keep forgetting that zoomdweebie’s has so many more flavors than what’s on 52teas (or manteas). Not sure how they keep it all straight!

Haha, right? It seems they have about 200 teas! That’s crazy, what a large selection. Now Frank, I’m curious. Why do you only advertise 52teas for the most part?

I can’t wait for my Tea Urchins to get here! I didn’t pick this one, but it does sound good!!!

Sounds nice, the way you described it makes it sound calming or ‘relaxed’ enjoyment.

Teaurchin looks like a great company. I wish they sold samples!

They do sell samples, but shipping is $20!

Yeah I purchased a couple of cakes and got the samples added in.

MzP: if you want to try something, I can send you the list of teas I got :)

I <3 you so much Sarsy.

I’ve got a few samples here from Tea Urchin that Stephanie sent me. I’m looking forward to trying them soon!

TeaUrchin is great! I’ve been super impressed.

Sounds very good indeed hehe

Ah, you’re right I see they do sell samples but $20? for shipping? wow

Yeah any one ordering should get a “pool” together to offset the shipping costs.

I’d be into that :)

Is this something you owe a cake of or a sample?

This was something I ordered as a sample. Jiang Luo. I wish I could have gotten a cake from them.

mmmm, will have to check them out now…

Ill be going through a ton of their samples over the next little while lol

Ugh, you guys gotta stop buying from companies that are new to me.

I’m with you, tattooed_tea! I keep on expanding my “wanted” list, but my cupboard is full!

I did that with tealux recently, I ordered over 35 different ones cause I just couldn’t make up my mind!

teafairy – i did that as well, though i’m a little disappointed by the tealux teas. The flavouring just isn’t quite what i wanted.

I agree, so far I’m not floored by the flavoured ones from tealux…but I have ordered mostly unflavoured, their oolongs (I’ve noticed oolongs are not your thing though!) got me excited and some of their greens also and I’m really impressed with some of them. They also have a rare Yellow tea that is absolutely fabulous!

i think the yellow tea was out of stock when we ordered. If you love it, then i’ll have to give it a try sometime :)

thank you Sil for a nice review. Actually we ship for free after 30$ :)

Ack I knew that. :) edited

(though it’s about 45$ with conversion for those of us in canada land)

Love those credit card currency conversion fees, but seriously I when I purchased I left the currency in Pounds and paid through pay pal and I only paid about $2.50 over my original price in us$ which was close to $30.

yyz – yeah depends on everyone’s conversions. I have a multicurrency account so i’m good regardless but just going by a posted rate on xe.com the conversion can be higher.

i have a sample of this garret sent me i think it will be in a cup this weekend!

MRM.. had you got the cake sample or the loose leaf sample? I can’t remember which I sent you or Azz, either. Whenever I do a ripe pressing, I usually set aside 20- 50 lbs of the material to sell as loose leaf. Interesting how they age differently.

MRM.. had you got the cake sample or the loose leaf sample? I can’t remember which I sent you or Azz, either. Whenever I do a ripe pressing, I usually set aside 20- 50 lbs of the material to sell as loose leaf. Interesting how they age differently.I did not have enough material of the “year of the dragon” tea to have as looseleaf and pressed it all into cakes. However, I did get over 200lbs of the material for my latest pressing (pressed last week in china) and saved 50 lbs for loose leaf after pressing almost 400 250gram cakes. Haven’t named the new one yet. i wait until it’s pressed, have a few mindful session with it and let it tell me what it should be called. Can’t wait to have you both try it.

Hi Garret – Mine was loose leaf. :)

ahhh… ok, thanks! Yes… the cake has aged much differently, more speedily when it hit the 2 year mark. I’ve got one customer out in CT who buys 4 of the cakes every month. it’s the only tea he says he’ll drink until they are gone :) He brews it super dark. Kicked coffee almost two years ago because of it. glad I got lots pressed… I just counted them the other day, I have only 60 of the 250 gram cakes left :(

Haha sounds like he better make a big purchase soon! :)

Amen to that, Sister! I have held back two tongs of it just for my personal stash. I should also have you try the golden gong ting that I have. I bought all I could in ‘07. It is from ’05. Delicious. I have another very very small batch ripe tea coming in soon that is very close in quality, just younger (2011)… good heavens where am I going to keep all this? The vault that we store our pu’ers in is getting cramped. Smells like heaven though. It really is a vault. Our biz is in a 1970’s built bank and we can keep just the right humidity and temp in the vault for optimal storage. Now we are going to have to build another suitable place for storage!!

That actually sounds quite neat and perfect for temp! I imagine finding another location won’t be easy but its nice that your business is growing so much! :)

Very nice! Actually, we are moving our headquarters to a different city and should open there in mid-january. The woman who purchased our wellness center is going to continue having a tea shop located here in Winona (as well as a food co-op and several coffeeshops) so we’ll actually have a 2nd shop! Our new shop is where we will be building a whole new vault for storage. We get to build the new shop to our specs so that’s fun… And I have a place to store alot of my teas in China, as well, so we won’t need to build our vault super huge. I don’t know how this all happened, all I wanted to do was drink tea. then I wanted to share tea. And now… well… here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dang! Way to go! I didn’t realize you sold your wellness center. It sounds like this is a big evolution for you! Kudos!

Yes… I have been doing bodywork/wellness consulting for 16 years now. It is strange to let go of this part of my life and the wellness center, too. But the woman who is taking over is super perfect. She will do very well here and we are happy that she is the one who has the place now. And she is into tea so this really helps all our customers in this city that they will still be able to purchase here!

As we get the new place up and running, I will still do one or two bodywork sessions a week, I’m sure. I love to do bodywork so much and can’t imagine life without it. and of course, my passion for health, wellness, healing, meditation are going no where, I will continue to help no matter what I am doing. Life is one big experiment, tweak a few variables and check the outcome.

What a wonderful opportunity to be able to have a body and see what we can do with it. Oh yes, and a wide-open heart, too :)

hi garret you gave me a cake sample.

I need to get this sometime soon already! I’ve been saying that since I first saw it! I stayed in Alsace for about 9 days last May and have since needed everything possibly related to the area.

If you want a sample I can send you one from the sample I got. Or just order it NOW because it is SO good! I would be making an order today but waiting on some cash flow. Flow been slow the last few days lol

I’m definitely going to buy it once I get through more of the things I have, so no worries! I try to use that as the reasoning instead of the lack of funds, haha. Oh it’s both, who am I kidding but this is definitely tops to finally get soon.

Well, Shoot!
I just ordered from H&S and this is one that I almost ordered!!
(sigh) Oh, WELL, just going to have to place another order soon and get it right this time;)

Awesome Amanda!
Hesper June – the neat thing about H and S it seems is that you get nice samples when you order from them. I don’t know personally but it seems that way from reading reviews here. I would be happy to send you Amanda’s sample since she is just ordering lol. PM if interested.
I can’t wait to place my first H and S order soon!

Oh, Azzrian, that is so sweet.
But, since I just recently fell in love with this Dragon Pearl…as in I am still drinking it and I want more, I am pretty sure I will be placing another order very soon as well.
So, you enjoy your sample while waiting for your order to come.
Yes,H&S do give out nice samples for sure.
I placed a modest order with H&S and I received 4 samples of their tea!

Oh wow FOUR samples! And their “samples” seem to be LARGE ones as well! Excellent to hear!
I am a sucker for samples from tea companies :)
I feel all companies should do this as they DO result in MORE SALES lol we are proof of that! :)
I will place an order soon!
I have a custom blend I need to pay for from Butiki WOO HOO then I will set my sights on H and S and well yeah a couple other places lol :)

Well, The samples were all sachet tea, not loose.
And it was one packet or sachet of each flavor.
I do not think they send out samples free in the boxes of loose tea, But I could be wrong.
I have just received the sachets.
But, it gives you the idea of loving or hating the tea and then you can order it in loose from them.
Also, the sachets are fairly nice, they are very open and even though the leaves are trapped, they do have space to float around.
I am all about letting the leaves float;)
Yes, I agree, usually when a company sends me samples of tea, it almost always guarantees a re-order:)

Ohhhhh man, I went through Harney’s flavoured teas the other night and found a bajillion I need to order. Pretty sure both this one and Tower of London were on the list! Their blends just seem to be done well; not overdone, as in the case of some companies.

Thanks Hesper June Well its good at least there is enough room for expansion in them!
Krystaleyn Im right there with ya girl!

Boston is also absolutely incredible. Don’t pass that one by!

Looking it up now. Wow I can travel around the world with these teas! :) Good thing since I rarely get out of my house to travel around THIS town.

Boston is completely different from Cranberry Autumn, though both have cranberry in them. Both are excellent, but Boston makes me want to cuddle the tin!

LOL Ashmara!

Ooh.. I got this one and this note has made me excited to try it out :)

I LOVE the name of this tea. I would end up putting it in my shopping cart based on name alone.

:)

@LiberTEAS – that’s pretty much why I picked it!

Oh I want to try this!

I’ll send you a bit with the macarons :) (next Monday!)

Ohhhh macarons! YUM! :D

Oh THANK YOU!!!! WOO HOOOO! :) Happy Dance!
Whispering Pines – my daughter is making them and Momo has a shop close to her so she is sending us some so we can compare how well my daughter is doing. So far my girl is learning so much through this experience and her macarons are amazing yet we are so curious to try some from a true shop! :)
Thank you again momo! xo

:D that’s awesome!

I read this review and marched immediately back to our pu’er storage vault and pulled out one of these cakes. I love this tea. It’ll be out for us to prepare here at the tea shop for the next few days, for sure. I’m so happy that you are enjoying this tea, my friend! It’s a winner. I can’t wait for you to try the Noble Mark sample that I sent you. It is a blend I created from Yong De area where I was there in April. While very young, I think you will enjoy it. I don’t just buy 200 + lbs of tea if I don’t think it’s going to age well :) Thanks for the review!

Went back and counted inventory on this cake. 9 left. One will be snapped up by yours truly, and my partner just said he wants one, too. Our session with it here is going very well :)

Eek, I guess that means I need to order one soon! I’m very excited to try the Noble Mark, I think I’ll brew some up tomorrow :)

I’m working on securing some more of them, but so far none of my connections there can find it. I’ll be back in SW China soon enough. I’ll see if I can find some then!

sorry garret, i think you will soon only have 6 left i think!

oh i am going to be shot for this…..

Mrmopar! Did you buy all the rest of the tea? LOL!

Huh… that’s funny… all of the sudden the stock is down to 6 :) I am glad you are going to try that Noble Mark, too!!!! Along with that loose tea, I’ll send you a sample of the cake I had pressed of it, too. Still waiting for the remaining 320 to get here so I can put them up on the site!

no i just grabbed one and a noble mark sample. garret thanks in advance for the sample of the pressed cake! mr tperez and i have very similar tastes on our pu-erh( he.. he.. i think i got him hooked on it.) thanks and best wishes always!

I know where you live Mr. M!!! ;D

ha ha stop by any time and i will share tea with you! your choice, oh the discussions we could have about pu-erh…….

Haha, well I’d be glad to take you up on that offer some day

anytime, you are always welcome here.

You guys are a bad influence on me…or maybe you’re a good influence on me…le’ts just say I just kind of went crazy & placed my first Mandala order…finally!

Terri, you will not be disappointed with that purchase!

Go, Terri!

Terri, I can’t wait to hear what you got!

Hey y’all! Can we possibly get any groovier people on this thread?? :) Terri and John, your orders just got picked up!!! They are on their way to your wonderful selves!

Yay!! More and more tea! Claire, after perusing various people’s comments about various teas, I kind of went overboard & got the following:
Phatty cake 11
Yong De 07
Menghai dayi red rhyme 08
Menghai “Zi Yun” Ripe Pu-erh tea (purple rhyme) 09
& a sample of Noble Mark
Now I have to figure out where to keep it all! Some day when I get old & pass away, my kids will be going through my stuff & it will be like one of those Hoarders reality shows, with cakes & tins of tea everywhere!

I am so excited to read those reviews! I have to wait until the end of this month to get more tea and I swear, a month has never seemed longer! XD

Need I mention that I have a tendency to contemplate at great length before I buy anything, & then all hell breaks loose…obsessive-compulsive-addictive

oohh Terri the red rhyme is great ,the purple rhyme is too and the phatty cake you will like as well! congrats on you getting a great selection. Garret can’t wait to get it in!

I’m super excited!
Sadly, one can only sample so many teas in a day…

I’m drinking their spring handpicked tieguanyin right now and it is soooo good. This is definitely on my wish list for my next order :)

wow this sounds amzing

amazing

I’ve got some of that on the way…how did you brew it?

I used a mesh strainer and tea cup with steeping lid – nothing fancy at all this time around.

Oh I meant time/temperature!

Ohhh well – in the beginning … I did the short steeps (a matter of seconds) did that about three times at 208 but then I just started letting it sit because I was working, then I was laying on the sofa drifting into a sleep, then I woke up and remembered my steep (15 minutes later) it was cold BUT it was still awesome – you can’t mess this stuff up! Then I got back up and was still sleepy and let it steep about 5 minutes.
But around the time I went to the sofa – I used my Zojiroushi (sp?) Anyway that was set at 195 but it worked fine.
Yeah I was lazy with a good tea – I should be shamed. :)

Sounds good!

Love tea you can’t mess i do forget about them sometimes some become so bad after over-steep that everything i drink taste like it for 3 hours

Mmm…the sasparilla remark makes me want to try it! This site has made my tea addiction so much worse! (Not that that’s really a bad thing!) :)

Ditto amandajo! ahem… all their matcha’s and Mayan Chocolate Chai by the pound… lol.

lol…Actually, I was talking about steepster! I was already addicted to 52teas before this (zoomdweebie’s tea bar is in my home town). :)

Oh yeah duh that’s right. I think you’re the only steepsterite here from the area (or at least that I’ve seen) so I forgot you’re one of the lucky ones. :)

yep…and the fudge brownie tea is quite awesome by the way…

The only question I have is, is it FUDGE! vs just CHOCOLATE!?

oh it’s fudgy…definitely not just chocolate :)

amandajo, you are NOT helping lol.

This sounds so, so good. So does the fudge brownie. All their teas, really.

amandajo, I’m so jealous that you get to go to zoomdweebie’s. I hope I get to go there someday.

Jaime – I don’t know that I would want to go to zoomdweebies, because I know if I go I will end up buying way too much tea. It’s bad enough that I’m pretty much buying every single tea of the week that they put out (there are a couple of teas that Frank has created that I’ve been able to resist, but not many). I’d probably end up buying the place if I went there. And that can’t happen. My pocketbook (and hubby) say NO.

Oooh, fudge tea that tastes like fudge and not just chocolate? I know I’m late to the party of comments, but that sounds amazing:)

I understand about the site making the tea addiction worse. I only had a few teas before here, now I have an overflowing tea cupboard and an emptying wallet:) But I’m very happy and my hubby is enjoying the tea with me too.

I would end up buying too much tea there, too. And, yes, Meghann, this site has made the addiction worse. Partially because I get to see so many more teas/brands I was exposed to, but mainly because I now know I’m not the only one who is obsessed with tea and all its manifestations, and I’m justified in my addiction.

Oooh, thanks for a new tea site amandajo. I love better than sex cake/bars, think I’ll have to look that one up!

PS-wild woman sounds great too, I love teas with black currants!

Yeah, I’ll be caving on the Better than Sex tea…and probably on the Duchess’s First Love, too. And maybe the Persian Rose…

Thank goodness tea isn’t illegal.

lol… there is a sampler pack for 60 bucks that I have been contemplating :P…caffeinated or uncaffeinated…they both sound so good…

oops…realized that it should have been www.taytea.com but looks like you guys figured that out :P

I didn’t see the sampler pack…might need some new teas to test out the breveille…new teapot/tea maker means I should splurge a little on teas too.

I love the names of the teas, they are great. Does it say anywhere how many ounces of tea are in each tea tin at tay tea?

Yeah, in that second paragraph at the top of the screen in the shop online section it says that the tins are 4 oz each. The sampler contains 2oz tins (8 different kinds).

Cool thanks!

cinnaNOM!!!

Ooh, how did you cold brew it? :3

Yes, cinnaNOM makes everything taste better!!

Cameron, I did about 1 full tbs per litre of water for 18 hours, it was perfect :-)

Will definitely try that! :D Thanks dear!

I came by to say cinnaBLARGH!!!!!!!!

You cannot say that here Sars….you kinda like this tea…just saying.

I liked this one hot because I didn’t feel like the cinnaBLARGH was kicking me in the shin. I’ll try it as a cold brew, too

But you’ll never get me to love cinnaBLARGHS! I only like it when it’s part of a nice medley, not when it’s waving it’s arms around yelling: “ooooh look at me!!!!”

Why did no one tell me to add this to my order? How did I miss this? Why didn’t I order it?

(Sars, me think you are slowly becoming a victim of irresistible sneaky cinnaNOM!!)

Haha! Dexter, no worries, I’ll put some in your box :-) in the mean time…..drink some or your EXISTING WP tea!! I can’t wait to find out what you think!!!

I’ll concede this battle to you in the following way, Foxy

The following are cinnaNOMs: pumpkin pie, pumpkin beer, spiced apple cider, any spiced teas where cinnamon isn’t the main event.

If cinnamon is the star of the show, it will be referred to as cinnaBLARGH and I’ll run screaming for the hills. :p

Awww, Thanks for meeting me half way Sars :-)

Lol

Anything for you, sweet pea!

I’m still in love with this tea!

That’s the worst part about verdant. I always have to pull the site up on my laptop while I brew.

Hell yea walking dead! I remember passing that street too when in Atlanta while looking for scenes from the show. But it was blocked off by some huge game going on, I was so disappointed. If I am remembering that area correctly.
This tea sounds amazingly yummy

Hmm. Verdant works great on my iPhone… I also always pull up brewing parameters when infusing a new tea! Only time I had a problem was when my wireless wasn’t working :D

Regarding brewing instruction on Verdant: me too! I wish the instructions on the packaging were the same as the ones on the site. And of course, the sample packages tell you nothing! What’s even worse is that if you have a sample that’s no longer available for purchase, there are usually no instructions on the site for it anyway.

Terri – if you have an older tea from verdant, just pop it into their search bar or even google – they don’t delete the product pages so it’s always available to find the steeping parameters :)

As soon as I get my order I look on the Verdant site and write the instructions on the packets because my memory is ZERO!

That’s a great idea Bonnie…. I should be that clever! I have to look it up every time, hahahaha.

I had that issue with Golden fleece. It’s no longer on there site and I totally forgot how to brew it. I had to pull up steepster and read through the read through the reviews until someone mentioned how much leaf they used.

FYI you can do a search on the website and still load the pages for teas that are no longer in stock/offered Then you don’t have to search for the information :)

Thanks Diasy & Sil! Also, great idea, Bonnie!

I know the feeling :D I do that quite frequently with Verdant teas because I’m used to having the steeping instructions on the bag :D your not alone :D

yeah good idea – I’m going to write some info on the bags too, although I usually experiment more often than not anyways haha! :B

I never really have a problem with the website on my phone, but I do have my phone connected to wifi at home and at work, so maybe that’s why… As far as brewing parameters go, I actually just save them as a note on my phone. So any time I need to know how to brew, I just pull up that note and find the tea I want to brew. And you can just keep on adding new teas as you get them :) And you can always email or tweet David, he always seems to get back to me same day!

Reading the “I heard the angels sing.” I immediately picture Angel sitting across from you while you drank this tea and serenading you…tehehe:P

That sounds lovely. :)

Haha! albertocanfly, I’ll have to invite her over someday for a real singing tea session ;-)

Arshness, if you are a fan of this type of tea, I highly recommend it, it’s a classic and it’s very accessible to any tea lover!

I’m totally unfamiliar with that kind of tea. :) Just it sounds nice. I should try it some time.

Looking forward to trying this one—especially after this review! ;-)

I have some of this on the way too

I need to be sure & put this in my basket next time I place a Teavivre order. I’ve been out for quite awhile.

Since you mention buying this one a lot, do the harvests stay pretty consistent?

Or should I ask, did you order this recently and is it as good as usual?

Yes! The harvests are very consistent and I ordered just a few months ago. I never noticed any huge difference from one order to the next.

thanks, good to know! Hopefully more consistent than the Laoshan Black harvests. But I like the Bailin Gongfu better anyway. :D

More.

More.

MORE.

MORE.

MOAR.

More?

I just came.

Now now.

bow chica bow wow

scandalized.

Baby, I always bring it.

I’m under your spell.

Oh, we both know you just want my ripe, juicy melons.

And that’s okay with me.

i want your melons..

Me too. How many does she have?

Oooooh, I want Anna’s melons. :P

0_0

Anna’s melons are all mine. They’re so full and ripe.

O_O