85

I bought this in 2018 to compare it with the fresh spring Mi Lan Xiang. I wish I’d added it to the database then, as it’s been taken off the Camellia Sinensis website. Since I don’t have a catalogue description, I can’t say whether this is an aged version of their regular Mi Lan Xiang or a different iteration of this Dan Cong. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of roast, char, honey, wood, and faint guava. The first steep has well-integrated notes of honey, roast, barley, orchid, guava, wood, and roasted nuts. The second steep adds lychee and hops. Far from being only in the aftertaste, these flavours present themselves up front as well. They continue in the next couple steeps, and I also get a hint of orange. The char and roast become more prominent in steep five, but not to the point that they obscure the honey, guava, lychee, and orchid. Wood and incense appear in steep seven, and the roast gets stronger, though it’s still not overpowering. The persistence of the signature honey orchid flavours is amazing. The session ends predictably with honey, roast, and minerals.

If this is indeed an older version of the same tea, which seems likely given that some flavours are found in both, it represents a marked improvement. The roast level is about the same, but rather than hiding around the edges, the honey, fruit, and floral notes are front and centre. If I hadn’t read the labels, I’d have pegged this as the newer Dan Cong. I’m glad I had the chance to compare these two teas, and will keep an eye out for older Dan Congs in the future.

Flavors: Char, Floral, Grain, Guava, Honey, Hops, Lychee, Mineral, Orange, Orchid, Roast Nuts, Roasted, Roasted Barley, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
Roswell Strange

Just posting here because it’s the most recent post in my dashboard – but is anyone else having issues posting notes now/their dashboard stuck? Both VariaTEA and I tried writing notes today and the note appears to “post” but then the tasting note isn’t visible on the dash/our personal tea logs/or the specific tea page… Definitely not what usually happens when posting a tasting note glitches…

tea-sipper

Yep, this is also my most recent tasting note showing on the dashboard.

Roswell Strange

tea-sipper, do you mind trying to post a tasting note to see if you have the same issue?

tea-sipper

I posted a tasting note about an hour ago and it doesn’t appear on the dashboard, only my tealog

tea-sipper

When I click on YOUR tealog, the last one I see is Banofee

Roswell Strange

…Welp, I tried posting about the issue on the discussion board and the same thing happened – comment appear to “post” but then it neither appeared in the thread and the discussion thread also didn’t get bumped back up to the first one on the board…

So it’s quite possible that comments are the only thing posting right now?

tea-sipper

Also not seeing e-mail notifications for any comments on tasting notes that I liked.

Roswell Strange

@tea-sipper – I wrote Banoffee yesterday before whatever is happening started happening; the last one I attempted to write was for Keemun Congfu…

This seems too consistent across multiple users to be one of the weird glitches the only affects a few people, and inconsistently. I wonder if it’s the result of Adagio attempting to fix something??

Fingers crossed it’s a short lived issue & we get back to normal quickly.

Roswell Strange

Well, I wrote a message to the Steepster FB page but I don’t know if it’s being monitored anymore and, if so, by who…

derk

Everybody’s notes are showing up in /recent. The last to show up on my dashboard is this one, posted 15 hours ago. In /discuss, the last thread to show as being active was 16 hours ago.

Roswell Strange

I guess it’s good they’re not totally lost? That’s weird though – in seven years I don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen, especially with the discussion board too. The dashboard, years back when Jason was still actively supporting the site, used to “freeze” occasionally but IIRC the recent section always froze with it & it never affected the DB at the same time…

derk

I just posted a reply to a thread in /discuss. It posted but did not update to the first page, nor did it show in the Recent Activity tab on my dashboard. The last update in my Recent Activity tab was 16 hours ago, and in my Notices tab 2o hours ago. It looks like there was a big bot thread bump 20 hours ago, and it seems the offender was deleted. I wonder if all of the issues are related to that massive bump.

derk

Hm, now my post to the thread is missing.

derk

And now user reviews in /recent are missing.

tea-sipper

I think some of us should have grabbed Michael @ Adagio’s e-mail before this happened. haha

White Antlers

derk My posts to the discussion board, responding to Arby appeared to be posted but they are nowhere to be seen. The last tea reviews I see under ‘recent’ are 7 hours old. I thought the board was oddly slow today…

Shae

Just popping in here to say I’m having the same issues with my tasting notes from last night. Also, this is the most recent post on my dashboard (from 17 hours ago). White Antlers – I did see your post to Arby a few minutes ago, but now it has disappeared.

Leafhopper

I’m having the same issues. This is the most recent post on my dashboard, I wrote a review that hasn’t shown up in my tealog, and my reply to a discussion thread posts but doesn’t show up. Seems like Steepster is definitely broken.

White Antlers

Shae Weird. Just weird.

ashmanra

I posted a note this morning. It was a little dodgy then seemed to go through. It is on my tealog but never made it here.

Leafhopper

Ashmanra, after you mentioned it, I saw the note in your tealog but not on my dashboard. I hope they can sort out these issues.

White Antlers

ashmanra If it’s the note for Huang Jin Gui, it’s up. I see it. Posted 6 hours ago.

derk

LuckyMe’s tasting note for a baozhong oolong is now the last tasting note on /recent. Everything else posted after that has disappeared. I checked on my phone which has never been logged into Steepster, and while logged in on my laptop.

White Antlers

Same on my Kindle and lap top. That last tasting note was 17 hours ago. Odd, though…when I click on ashmanra’s name, I see her last tasting note from 7 hours ago.

ashmanra

Yep, Huang Jin Gui was posted this morning! That is the last one I have done, but it doesn’t show up anywhere but my tealog.

Leafhopper

I just successfully posted another review, only to have it not show up on my tealog or dashboard. Weirdly, the submitted review said I had 208 notes, which would be accurate if the two reviews I posted today showed up (my tealog says I have 206 notes). Hopefully this means they’re in the database and will appear eventually.

mrmopar

Mine is stuck too. 15 hours behind.

LuckyMe

Same problem here. My posts and tasting notes since the past 24 hours have stopped showing. Frustrating…

Martin Bednář

a day ago… last tasting note :/

Roswell Strange

Damn, I was really hoping to wake up this morning to a functional site…

Leafhopper

Same here. This is frustrating!

Veronica

Same. I’m hoping Michael, or whoever else might be running the site, looks at it this week. Michael said in one of the discussion threads that we should see upgrades next month. I’m really hoping that doesn’t mean that they aren’t planning on working on Steepster until August.

Roswell Strange

Yup – I’m not sure who to email about the issue. I already reached out on FB, but my message hasn’t been read yet (and I don’t know if anyone monitors the FB account anymore). I guess one option COULD be Jason? He could potentially redirect to Adagio/Michael – but I’m feeling conflicted on whether that’s an appropriate ask since he’s no longer the site owner. Isn’t that a big like asking your old manager who has since resigned to call the current manager to complain about an issue with your schedule? It’s not his problem anymore…

Veronica

I submitted an e-ticket using the “contact us” button at the bottom of the discussions page. If the site has legally changed hands that should go to the new admin. Other than that, I don’t know what to do.

Personally, I wouldn’t reach out to Jason. Not his site, not his problem.

Leafhopper

I tried to find a phone number or email address for Adagio’s head office, but with no luck. Maybe try to message them on social media?

Mastress Alita

I’ve been in the middle of the “updating the database” project, and those pages are also stuck. That is, after I edit a page, it says the tea page is updated, but shows the old tea page, without the updates. If I click “Edit” again, however, the page I’m given to edit has all the edits I just made… they just aren’t showing on the public website anywhere.

Mastress Alita

Here, I did my librarian thing and this is Michael’s contact info, for anyone who wants it:

Media contact:
Michael Cramer
e-mail: [email protected]
Marketing Manager
(973) 253-7400 ext.111

tea-sipper

Thank you always for your librarian skills, Mastress Alita. :D

Veronica

Librarians are awesome. :) Both of my sisters are librarians, and I jokingly call them Google1 and Google2.

Leafhopper

Mastress Alita, this is great! Has anyone contacted Michael, and is there an update?

Roswell Strange

Can’t believe we’re still frozen – this might be the longest freeze ever in Steepster history…

Veronica

What’s curious is that nothing in this thread about the freeze can be seen on the front page where this tea note is featured.

Veronica

Never mind, Leafhopper isn’t one of the featured people anymore. :/

Leafhopper

Ooh, I’m glad I made it to the front page of Steepster, if only temporarily. :) Has anyone gotten a response from Michael?

Veronica

I haven’t received a reply yet. Also, it was a tea note from three days ago, not this one. :) I should be slower to speak.

mrmopar

Thank you Mastress Alita.

Leafhopper

Veronica, whichever note it was, I’m still happy! Too bad there hasn’t been a response. I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.

Veronica

Leafhopper, absolutely! Your tasting notes are awesome, and you’ve been on the front page a few times that I’ve seen. I just don’t want to spread false information. There’s enough problems here without me adding to them.

Leafhopper

I totally understand. Let’s hope we wake up to a working Steepster tomorrow morning.

Leafhopper

Can anyone else suddenly access their inbox? I’m not sure if the messages are actually going through, though. I wish Adagio would provide a service update on when the site will be working again.

White Antlers

No, I cannot access mine. It took me 10 minutes to log in this morning. I kept getting the 503 error.

Kawaii433

not updating either

Martin Bednář

It’s not only US and Canada thing :/

Veronica

Anyone hear anything?

Shae

I’m not the most tech-savvy person on the planet, but wouldn’t a company typically make changes in a test environment before pushing those changes to production so that there is minimal impact to the site? We do this at work and I asked my husband, who works in Technology, and he is baffled that this would even be happening. Assuming this freeze is due to Adagio’s updates, of course.

Mastress Alita

“Traveler’s log, Day 4. Still trapped in Mi Lan Xiang 2010. Still no word from the new Overlords who had repeatedly said, ‘Trust us, everything will be fine!’ Leafhopper wasn’t expecting such a rush, and the tea is running low. We’ve been abandoned to rot away in this lone tea review, the last of its kind before The Great Steepster Freeze of 2020 began. I fear soon we will grow restless and desperate enough to resort to eating each other…”

Shae

Mastress Alita, lol

Leafhopper

LOL! Yes, we are stranded and getting restless.

Whether this is a bug they can’t fix or part of their efforts to update the server, Adagio’s failure to give us any information is very frustrating.

tea-sipper

haha. I think something like this happened before about a year ago where things were stuck? Though not to this extent. But I remember things being stranded in the last posted tasting note. This might be something that Jason had to fix behind the scenes a lot that the new owners didn’t know about…

Leafhopper

Yes, Steepster did periodically freeze for a few hours or even a day or so, but never for this long.

Kawaii433

I keep checking in… Aww.

Roswell Strange

On a positive note, this tasting note now shows up in the list of the most popular notes on Steepster…

Leafhopper

LOL! Yes, people seem to have a lot to say about this tea. :D

White Antlers

Plenty of brand new spam in the Discussion section.

Leafhopper

I don’t see any spam, and the last discussion post is four days ago. Who’d have thought I’d actually want to see more recent spam posts?

White Antlers

Weird, Leafhopper. I logged in earlier today and there was half a page of new spam there. Some of it was just a few hours old.

White Antlers

here’s one from today:

What Are The Benefits Of Using Buzz B Gone?
buzzbsuper in General Tea Discussion about 4 hours ago
0 about 4 hours ago

Leafhopper

White Antlers, now I’m getting some spam from three days ago, but nothing more recent. Steepster sure is acting weird.

White Antlers

It sure is, Leafhopper. I think a lot of us are seeing different things, but what we want to be seeing (and doing) still isn’t working. : P

derk

White Antlers, I’m humbled. Thank you! I will fulfill your request.

Leafhopper

Derk, I just looked at your tealog and saw an entry with no notes that was posted ten hours ago. I’m heartened that our reviews might still be in the database, though who knows at this point? It may be worthwhile contacting Jason if Adagio doesn’t know how to fix this bug.

Leafhopper

Also, checking my own tealog doesn’t magically bring up the three reviews I posted since this debacle began.

MandyJS

Just thought I’d let you all in on some potentially happy news. Yes, at first glance everything is well behind on my end, but after some finagling, I can get some of the newer things to show up. This to me says that our posts are being saved in the database.

For instance, if I go to my Tealog, the newest item that shows up is 4 days old, but if I change the sort order to Most popular, then change it back to New, my newer tasting notes all suddenly show up :)

White Antlers

derk The pleasure is mine! Enjoy. : )

Leafhopper

MandyJS, this works! I can get my last three reviews to show up. I’m glad my tasting notes are being saved.

Roswell Strange

@MandyJS – Genius! Worked for me too. I also tried this on the Discussion Board and it seems to work there as well – it gave me the chance to flag all the spam from the last four days (though w/ the weird cacheing issue it’s still showing up even after I marked it). Some of the edits I’ve made in discussions, like the Samurai TTB thread, still aren’t displaying – but it’s a start!

(And of course, once again, it’s the users finding work arounds for the glitches…)

Roswell Strange

So I just got a message back from the Steepster FB Account:

“Hi, thank you so much for letting us know. Things may be a little spotty while we begin making the transition of Steepster over to Adagio. I’ll pass this along to our team and hopefully we can get things working properly again soon”.

Anyone else get any response back?

Leafhopper

Yep, this is the longest time Steepster has been down since I started using the site.

Crowkettle

All of the comments are finally showing up on the tea tasting note page (it wasn’t before for me), although the likes and comments still don’t show up on your profile.

Daylon R Thomas

I was wondering why there was only one note in the last days of the dashboard. I had the same issues trying to upload a note, today, 7/31/2020 2:27 PM Eastern time. So essentially, Adagio is absorbing this site and they now own it?

Leafhopper

Adagio definitely owns it, though it’s questionable how well they’re absorbing it!

Daylon R Thomas

Mmmmm. Lovely. And here I was having great luck trying Wang Family Teas roasted teas and green oolongs, Whispering Pines with Lorien, and a new Georgia/Estonia company called Renegade Tea. The Renegade ones are all on the lighter end and are more grandpa style teas, but they do have some quirks.

Can I also get more background about the Adagio absorption? (I know they used to have their own site for tea notes too).

Leafhopper

I can still post reviews and it looks like they’re being added to the database, though no one can see them. (If a tree falls in the forest without anyone hearing it, does it make a sound?) I just got six teas from Tillerman (plus a customs charge, yay!) that I’m eager to write about.

For more info about Adagio, you can look at the discussion thread called “The Future of Steepster.”

White Antlers

I just saw what looked like Daylon’s latest review from 2 hours ago, but maybe times and updates are still fubar…

Daylon R Thomas

It was mine, and I did write it 2 hours ago.

Leafhopper

Daylon, I had to click on your profile to see the review, but it did show up. Still nothing on my dashboard since this Mi Lan Xiang review.

Mastress Alita

My Dashboard and the Discussion Boards, edits to tea entries in the database, etc. still aren’t showing up “in real time” (everything there is still showing stuff from 6 days ago, or how it appeared six days ago). Yes, there are “workarounds” to see more current postings (like going to someone’s individual tea log, switching the Discussion Board from “Recent Replies” to “Date Posted”, which really just brings up the hordes of new spam, etc.) I can still post tea reviews, but they only show up on my Tasting Notes page, not in the Dashboard. At this point I almost wonder if I should just close down Steepster and check back in a month to see if anything has finally changed. It’s getting ridiculous…

White Antlers

I commented on Daylon’s most recent review. The comment appeared to post but when I went back, it was gone.

Mastress Alita you might have a good idea to check back here in a month. I’ve only stuck around because I sent out some tea care packages to folks and wanted to be sure they arrived safely. I never post reviews even though I drink lots of tea every day. Maybe waiting a month and coming back will bring wonderful, happy surprises. Or so we can dream and hope…

Roswell Strange

Has anyone other than me gotten a reply back to the message they sent out?

I have a few more replies that I’ve gotten since the one I posted above – I’m not sure if I’m talking w/ Michael or someone else, but this has been through the Steepster FB account:

I asked if the delay spam accounts I’ve flagged being cleared was related to the cache errors/glitch and this was the response…

Unfortunately, the transition of the website is ongoing and proceeding less smoothly than we had expected. The damage to the original code is more pervasive than we had anticipated, but we remain optimistic about the site’s future. Please bear with us as we go through the difficult migration.

After that I asked if they could provide a rough estimate of the timeline for the remainder of the migration based on the current challenges they’ve come across and pace of the migration thus far. This was the response:

It’s really hard to say. Like I said, the issues are deeply rooted and we want to take the time to get it right. But we are working on it and hoping to get it up and running ASAP.

So it looks like what we’re all experiencing is directly related to the migration of Steepster over to Adagio. While I think some advance warning that the migration had started and could (though clearly it did) cause issues would have been VERY appreciated, Adagio is definitely aware of the problems we’re experiencing and is actively working on fixing them. No ETA on how long it will take, but it sounds like this will definitely be temporary.

Possibly related, and possibly not, for a brief moment I saw a new thread on the discussion board today called “Tea 123” and while my first impression was that it might be spam or a user trying to figure out why nothing was recent, what I actually think it might be is Adagio trying to test/trial updates relating to the migration.

The account is an old one from about ten years ago that has primarily only reviewed Adagio teas, and the only recent tasting note was an Adagio blend with the comment “Lorem Ipsum”. I don’t recognize the username at all but the hyperlink for their user profile is https://steepster.com/adagio – and whatever you first signed up your account as is the default address, so def seems like this was Adagio’s OG account from like a decade ago…

So they’re clearly trying – I’ll give ’em that.

tea-sipper

Maybe you’re the only one who contacted them, Roswell? I didn’t want to send a rush of e-mails if others were… so thank you for doing that Roswell. Just as long as they are trying to fix the problems, I’m okay with it. I’m still drinking tea…

Leafhopper

I didn’t contact them either. I’m glad Adagio is aware of the issues and is trying to fix them.

mrmopar

Discussion page has some info updated.

Leafhopper

It’s good to see the update, though it would be nice to have an ETA.

Shae

Is there an update from Adagio on the discussion board? I’m not seeing it.

Martin Bednář

Neither do I Shae :(

Angrboda

you have to first find the ‘future of steepster’ thread, then go to the fourth page, where you will be able to see there is a fifth page and that’s where Michael has written a small message.

White Antlers

No 5th page for me on ‘Future of Steepster.’

White Antlers

The last post I see on this topic is Leafhopper’s inquiry about the site working on the IE platform, and that was 10 days ago.

Angrboda

The fifth page only shows up for me when I’m ON the fourth page.

Angrboda

This is what Michael wrote there:
The past two weeks had been very frustrating as our intention was to dedicate time and effort to address the many deficiencies you’d identified for us to fix. Unfortunately, this work can’t begin until we receive access to the Steepster server, which has yet to occur. We will continue to work with Steepter’s founders on finding a solution that will permit us to begin at last the task of making this website easier for all to use. Please accept my sincere apology for the unforeseen delay and your frustrations. I share them as well.

Veronica

There’s going to be so much backlogging once the site is up and running again. :)

White Antlers

Thanks, Angrboda.

Kawaii433

I can’t even add new tea, add or remove from my database either. Still can never respond or write in forum :P or update my profile for over a year… However, how nice to see all of you writing on this thread hehe. Thank you for all your updates!

Shae

Thank you for posting Michael’s comment here for us, Angrboda.

Leafhopper

Steepster has been frozen for ten days now. Let’s hope Adagio gives us another update on their progress.

tea-sipper

Well, we know a tasting note can have over 100 comments now. I’m at least grateful that I can access old tasting notes for reference while Steepster is being worked on (and the site isn’t completely missing for ten days and counting.)

Shae

Could it be? Are we fixed?? I’m getting email notifications and new notes in my feed!!

Leafhopper

Same here, and my dashboard has updated! Amazing!

tea-sipper

THANK YOU Steepster overlords!

Martin Bednář

Same Shae! I started to get email notifications and I knew something is happening. And now I checked, and all notes are there!
Thank you everybody involved!

derk

Mastress Alita: that traveller’s log, lol.

Leafhopper

Yep, that traveller’s log was great!

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Comments

Roswell Strange

Just posting here because it’s the most recent post in my dashboard – but is anyone else having issues posting notes now/their dashboard stuck? Both VariaTEA and I tried writing notes today and the note appears to “post” but then the tasting note isn’t visible on the dash/our personal tea logs/or the specific tea page… Definitely not what usually happens when posting a tasting note glitches…

tea-sipper

Yep, this is also my most recent tasting note showing on the dashboard.

Roswell Strange

tea-sipper, do you mind trying to post a tasting note to see if you have the same issue?

tea-sipper

I posted a tasting note about an hour ago and it doesn’t appear on the dashboard, only my tealog

tea-sipper

When I click on YOUR tealog, the last one I see is Banofee

Roswell Strange

…Welp, I tried posting about the issue on the discussion board and the same thing happened – comment appear to “post” but then it neither appeared in the thread and the discussion thread also didn’t get bumped back up to the first one on the board…

So it’s quite possible that comments are the only thing posting right now?

tea-sipper

Also not seeing e-mail notifications for any comments on tasting notes that I liked.

Roswell Strange

@tea-sipper – I wrote Banoffee yesterday before whatever is happening started happening; the last one I attempted to write was for Keemun Congfu…

This seems too consistent across multiple users to be one of the weird glitches the only affects a few people, and inconsistently. I wonder if it’s the result of Adagio attempting to fix something??

Fingers crossed it’s a short lived issue & we get back to normal quickly.

Roswell Strange

Well, I wrote a message to the Steepster FB page but I don’t know if it’s being monitored anymore and, if so, by who…

derk

Everybody’s notes are showing up in /recent. The last to show up on my dashboard is this one, posted 15 hours ago. In /discuss, the last thread to show as being active was 16 hours ago.

Roswell Strange

I guess it’s good they’re not totally lost? That’s weird though – in seven years I don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen, especially with the discussion board too. The dashboard, years back when Jason was still actively supporting the site, used to “freeze” occasionally but IIRC the recent section always froze with it & it never affected the DB at the same time…

derk

I just posted a reply to a thread in /discuss. It posted but did not update to the first page, nor did it show in the Recent Activity tab on my dashboard. The last update in my Recent Activity tab was 16 hours ago, and in my Notices tab 2o hours ago. It looks like there was a big bot thread bump 20 hours ago, and it seems the offender was deleted. I wonder if all of the issues are related to that massive bump.

derk

Hm, now my post to the thread is missing.

derk

And now user reviews in /recent are missing.

tea-sipper

I think some of us should have grabbed Michael @ Adagio’s e-mail before this happened. haha

White Antlers

derk My posts to the discussion board, responding to Arby appeared to be posted but they are nowhere to be seen. The last tea reviews I see under ‘recent’ are 7 hours old. I thought the board was oddly slow today…

Shae

Just popping in here to say I’m having the same issues with my tasting notes from last night. Also, this is the most recent post on my dashboard (from 17 hours ago). White Antlers – I did see your post to Arby a few minutes ago, but now it has disappeared.

Leafhopper

I’m having the same issues. This is the most recent post on my dashboard, I wrote a review that hasn’t shown up in my tealog, and my reply to a discussion thread posts but doesn’t show up. Seems like Steepster is definitely broken.

White Antlers

Shae Weird. Just weird.

ashmanra

I posted a note this morning. It was a little dodgy then seemed to go through. It is on my tealog but never made it here.

Leafhopper

Ashmanra, after you mentioned it, I saw the note in your tealog but not on my dashboard. I hope they can sort out these issues.

White Antlers

ashmanra If it’s the note for Huang Jin Gui, it’s up. I see it. Posted 6 hours ago.

derk

LuckyMe’s tasting note for a baozhong oolong is now the last tasting note on /recent. Everything else posted after that has disappeared. I checked on my phone which has never been logged into Steepster, and while logged in on my laptop.

White Antlers

Same on my Kindle and lap top. That last tasting note was 17 hours ago. Odd, though…when I click on ashmanra’s name, I see her last tasting note from 7 hours ago.

ashmanra

Yep, Huang Jin Gui was posted this morning! That is the last one I have done, but it doesn’t show up anywhere but my tealog.

Leafhopper

I just successfully posted another review, only to have it not show up on my tealog or dashboard. Weirdly, the submitted review said I had 208 notes, which would be accurate if the two reviews I posted today showed up (my tealog says I have 206 notes). Hopefully this means they’re in the database and will appear eventually.

mrmopar

Mine is stuck too. 15 hours behind.

LuckyMe

Same problem here. My posts and tasting notes since the past 24 hours have stopped showing. Frustrating…

Martin Bednář

a day ago… last tasting note :/

Roswell Strange

Damn, I was really hoping to wake up this morning to a functional site…

Leafhopper

Same here. This is frustrating!

Veronica

Same. I’m hoping Michael, or whoever else might be running the site, looks at it this week. Michael said in one of the discussion threads that we should see upgrades next month. I’m really hoping that doesn’t mean that they aren’t planning on working on Steepster until August.

Roswell Strange

Yup – I’m not sure who to email about the issue. I already reached out on FB, but my message hasn’t been read yet (and I don’t know if anyone monitors the FB account anymore). I guess one option COULD be Jason? He could potentially redirect to Adagio/Michael – but I’m feeling conflicted on whether that’s an appropriate ask since he’s no longer the site owner. Isn’t that a big like asking your old manager who has since resigned to call the current manager to complain about an issue with your schedule? It’s not his problem anymore…

Veronica

I submitted an e-ticket using the “contact us” button at the bottom of the discussions page. If the site has legally changed hands that should go to the new admin. Other than that, I don’t know what to do.

Personally, I wouldn’t reach out to Jason. Not his site, not his problem.

Leafhopper

I tried to find a phone number or email address for Adagio’s head office, but with no luck. Maybe try to message them on social media?

Mastress Alita

I’ve been in the middle of the “updating the database” project, and those pages are also stuck. That is, after I edit a page, it says the tea page is updated, but shows the old tea page, without the updates. If I click “Edit” again, however, the page I’m given to edit has all the edits I just made… they just aren’t showing on the public website anywhere.

Mastress Alita

Here, I did my librarian thing and this is Michael’s contact info, for anyone who wants it:

Media contact:
Michael Cramer
e-mail: [email protected]
Marketing Manager
(973) 253-7400 ext.111

tea-sipper

Thank you always for your librarian skills, Mastress Alita. :D

Veronica

Librarians are awesome. :) Both of my sisters are librarians, and I jokingly call them Google1 and Google2.

Leafhopper

Mastress Alita, this is great! Has anyone contacted Michael, and is there an update?

Roswell Strange

Can’t believe we’re still frozen – this might be the longest freeze ever in Steepster history…

Veronica

What’s curious is that nothing in this thread about the freeze can be seen on the front page where this tea note is featured.

Veronica

Never mind, Leafhopper isn’t one of the featured people anymore. :/

Leafhopper

Ooh, I’m glad I made it to the front page of Steepster, if only temporarily. :) Has anyone gotten a response from Michael?

Veronica

I haven’t received a reply yet. Also, it was a tea note from three days ago, not this one. :) I should be slower to speak.

mrmopar

Thank you Mastress Alita.

Leafhopper

Veronica, whichever note it was, I’m still happy! Too bad there hasn’t been a response. I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.

Veronica

Leafhopper, absolutely! Your tasting notes are awesome, and you’ve been on the front page a few times that I’ve seen. I just don’t want to spread false information. There’s enough problems here without me adding to them.

Leafhopper

I totally understand. Let’s hope we wake up to a working Steepster tomorrow morning.

Leafhopper

Can anyone else suddenly access their inbox? I’m not sure if the messages are actually going through, though. I wish Adagio would provide a service update on when the site will be working again.

White Antlers

No, I cannot access mine. It took me 10 minutes to log in this morning. I kept getting the 503 error.

Kawaii433

not updating either

Martin Bednář

It’s not only US and Canada thing :/

Veronica

Anyone hear anything?

Shae

I’m not the most tech-savvy person on the planet, but wouldn’t a company typically make changes in a test environment before pushing those changes to production so that there is minimal impact to the site? We do this at work and I asked my husband, who works in Technology, and he is baffled that this would even be happening. Assuming this freeze is due to Adagio’s updates, of course.

Mastress Alita

“Traveler’s log, Day 4. Still trapped in Mi Lan Xiang 2010. Still no word from the new Overlords who had repeatedly said, ‘Trust us, everything will be fine!’ Leafhopper wasn’t expecting such a rush, and the tea is running low. We’ve been abandoned to rot away in this lone tea review, the last of its kind before The Great Steepster Freeze of 2020 began. I fear soon we will grow restless and desperate enough to resort to eating each other…”

Shae

Mastress Alita, lol

Leafhopper

LOL! Yes, we are stranded and getting restless.

Whether this is a bug they can’t fix or part of their efforts to update the server, Adagio’s failure to give us any information is very frustrating.

tea-sipper

haha. I think something like this happened before about a year ago where things were stuck? Though not to this extent. But I remember things being stranded in the last posted tasting note. This might be something that Jason had to fix behind the scenes a lot that the new owners didn’t know about…

Leafhopper

Yes, Steepster did periodically freeze for a few hours or even a day or so, but never for this long.

Kawaii433

I keep checking in… Aww.

Roswell Strange

On a positive note, this tasting note now shows up in the list of the most popular notes on Steepster…

Leafhopper

LOL! Yes, people seem to have a lot to say about this tea. :D

White Antlers

Plenty of brand new spam in the Discussion section.

Leafhopper

I don’t see any spam, and the last discussion post is four days ago. Who’d have thought I’d actually want to see more recent spam posts?

White Antlers

Weird, Leafhopper. I logged in earlier today and there was half a page of new spam there. Some of it was just a few hours old.

White Antlers

here’s one from today:

What Are The Benefits Of Using Buzz B Gone?
buzzbsuper in General Tea Discussion about 4 hours ago
0 about 4 hours ago

Leafhopper

White Antlers, now I’m getting some spam from three days ago, but nothing more recent. Steepster sure is acting weird.

White Antlers

It sure is, Leafhopper. I think a lot of us are seeing different things, but what we want to be seeing (and doing) still isn’t working. : P

derk

White Antlers, I’m humbled. Thank you! I will fulfill your request.

Leafhopper

Derk, I just looked at your tealog and saw an entry with no notes that was posted ten hours ago. I’m heartened that our reviews might still be in the database, though who knows at this point? It may be worthwhile contacting Jason if Adagio doesn’t know how to fix this bug.

Leafhopper

Also, checking my own tealog doesn’t magically bring up the three reviews I posted since this debacle began.

MandyJS

Just thought I’d let you all in on some potentially happy news. Yes, at first glance everything is well behind on my end, but after some finagling, I can get some of the newer things to show up. This to me says that our posts are being saved in the database.

For instance, if I go to my Tealog, the newest item that shows up is 4 days old, but if I change the sort order to Most popular, then change it back to New, my newer tasting notes all suddenly show up :)

White Antlers

derk The pleasure is mine! Enjoy. : )

Leafhopper

MandyJS, this works! I can get my last three reviews to show up. I’m glad my tasting notes are being saved.

Roswell Strange

@MandyJS – Genius! Worked for me too. I also tried this on the Discussion Board and it seems to work there as well – it gave me the chance to flag all the spam from the last four days (though w/ the weird cacheing issue it’s still showing up even after I marked it). Some of the edits I’ve made in discussions, like the Samurai TTB thread, still aren’t displaying – but it’s a start!

(And of course, once again, it’s the users finding work arounds for the glitches…)

Roswell Strange

So I just got a message back from the Steepster FB Account:

“Hi, thank you so much for letting us know. Things may be a little spotty while we begin making the transition of Steepster over to Adagio. I’ll pass this along to our team and hopefully we can get things working properly again soon”.

Anyone else get any response back?

Leafhopper

Yep, this is the longest time Steepster has been down since I started using the site.

Crowkettle

All of the comments are finally showing up on the tea tasting note page (it wasn’t before for me), although the likes and comments still don’t show up on your profile.

Daylon R Thomas

I was wondering why there was only one note in the last days of the dashboard. I had the same issues trying to upload a note, today, 7/31/2020 2:27 PM Eastern time. So essentially, Adagio is absorbing this site and they now own it?

Leafhopper

Adagio definitely owns it, though it’s questionable how well they’re absorbing it!

Daylon R Thomas

Mmmmm. Lovely. And here I was having great luck trying Wang Family Teas roasted teas and green oolongs, Whispering Pines with Lorien, and a new Georgia/Estonia company called Renegade Tea. The Renegade ones are all on the lighter end and are more grandpa style teas, but they do have some quirks.

Can I also get more background about the Adagio absorption? (I know they used to have their own site for tea notes too).

Leafhopper

I can still post reviews and it looks like they’re being added to the database, though no one can see them. (If a tree falls in the forest without anyone hearing it, does it make a sound?) I just got six teas from Tillerman (plus a customs charge, yay!) that I’m eager to write about.

For more info about Adagio, you can look at the discussion thread called “The Future of Steepster.”

White Antlers

I just saw what looked like Daylon’s latest review from 2 hours ago, but maybe times and updates are still fubar…

Daylon R Thomas

It was mine, and I did write it 2 hours ago.

Leafhopper

Daylon, I had to click on your profile to see the review, but it did show up. Still nothing on my dashboard since this Mi Lan Xiang review.

Mastress Alita

My Dashboard and the Discussion Boards, edits to tea entries in the database, etc. still aren’t showing up “in real time” (everything there is still showing stuff from 6 days ago, or how it appeared six days ago). Yes, there are “workarounds” to see more current postings (like going to someone’s individual tea log, switching the Discussion Board from “Recent Replies” to “Date Posted”, which really just brings up the hordes of new spam, etc.) I can still post tea reviews, but they only show up on my Tasting Notes page, not in the Dashboard. At this point I almost wonder if I should just close down Steepster and check back in a month to see if anything has finally changed. It’s getting ridiculous…

White Antlers

I commented on Daylon’s most recent review. The comment appeared to post but when I went back, it was gone.

Mastress Alita you might have a good idea to check back here in a month. I’ve only stuck around because I sent out some tea care packages to folks and wanted to be sure they arrived safely. I never post reviews even though I drink lots of tea every day. Maybe waiting a month and coming back will bring wonderful, happy surprises. Or so we can dream and hope…

Roswell Strange

Has anyone other than me gotten a reply back to the message they sent out?

I have a few more replies that I’ve gotten since the one I posted above – I’m not sure if I’m talking w/ Michael or someone else, but this has been through the Steepster FB account:

I asked if the delay spam accounts I’ve flagged being cleared was related to the cache errors/glitch and this was the response…

Unfortunately, the transition of the website is ongoing and proceeding less smoothly than we had expected. The damage to the original code is more pervasive than we had anticipated, but we remain optimistic about the site’s future. Please bear with us as we go through the difficult migration.

After that I asked if they could provide a rough estimate of the timeline for the remainder of the migration based on the current challenges they’ve come across and pace of the migration thus far. This was the response:

It’s really hard to say. Like I said, the issues are deeply rooted and we want to take the time to get it right. But we are working on it and hoping to get it up and running ASAP.

So it looks like what we’re all experiencing is directly related to the migration of Steepster over to Adagio. While I think some advance warning that the migration had started and could (though clearly it did) cause issues would have been VERY appreciated, Adagio is definitely aware of the problems we’re experiencing and is actively working on fixing them. No ETA on how long it will take, but it sounds like this will definitely be temporary.

Possibly related, and possibly not, for a brief moment I saw a new thread on the discussion board today called “Tea 123” and while my first impression was that it might be spam or a user trying to figure out why nothing was recent, what I actually think it might be is Adagio trying to test/trial updates relating to the migration.

The account is an old one from about ten years ago that has primarily only reviewed Adagio teas, and the only recent tasting note was an Adagio blend with the comment “Lorem Ipsum”. I don’t recognize the username at all but the hyperlink for their user profile is https://steepster.com/adagio – and whatever you first signed up your account as is the default address, so def seems like this was Adagio’s OG account from like a decade ago…

So they’re clearly trying – I’ll give ’em that.

tea-sipper

Maybe you’re the only one who contacted them, Roswell? I didn’t want to send a rush of e-mails if others were… so thank you for doing that Roswell. Just as long as they are trying to fix the problems, I’m okay with it. I’m still drinking tea…

Leafhopper

I didn’t contact them either. I’m glad Adagio is aware of the issues and is trying to fix them.

mrmopar

Discussion page has some info updated.

Leafhopper

It’s good to see the update, though it would be nice to have an ETA.

Shae

Is there an update from Adagio on the discussion board? I’m not seeing it.

Martin Bednář

Neither do I Shae :(

Angrboda

you have to first find the ‘future of steepster’ thread, then go to the fourth page, where you will be able to see there is a fifth page and that’s where Michael has written a small message.

White Antlers

No 5th page for me on ‘Future of Steepster.’

White Antlers

The last post I see on this topic is Leafhopper’s inquiry about the site working on the IE platform, and that was 10 days ago.

Angrboda

The fifth page only shows up for me when I’m ON the fourth page.

Angrboda

This is what Michael wrote there:
The past two weeks had been very frustrating as our intention was to dedicate time and effort to address the many deficiencies you’d identified for us to fix. Unfortunately, this work can’t begin until we receive access to the Steepster server, which has yet to occur. We will continue to work with Steepter’s founders on finding a solution that will permit us to begin at last the task of making this website easier for all to use. Please accept my sincere apology for the unforeseen delay and your frustrations. I share them as well.

Veronica

There’s going to be so much backlogging once the site is up and running again. :)

White Antlers

Thanks, Angrboda.

Kawaii433

I can’t even add new tea, add or remove from my database either. Still can never respond or write in forum :P or update my profile for over a year… However, how nice to see all of you writing on this thread hehe. Thank you for all your updates!

Shae

Thank you for posting Michael’s comment here for us, Angrboda.

Leafhopper

Steepster has been frozen for ten days now. Let’s hope Adagio gives us another update on their progress.

tea-sipper

Well, we know a tasting note can have over 100 comments now. I’m at least grateful that I can access old tasting notes for reference while Steepster is being worked on (and the site isn’t completely missing for ten days and counting.)

Shae

Could it be? Are we fixed?? I’m getting email notifications and new notes in my feed!!

Leafhopper

Same here, and my dashboard has updated! Amazing!

tea-sipper

THANK YOU Steepster overlords!

Martin Bednář

Same Shae! I started to get email notifications and I knew something is happening. And now I checked, and all notes are there!
Thank you everybody involved!

derk

Mastress Alita: that traveller’s log, lol.

Leafhopper

Yep, that traveller’s log was great!

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Bio

Since I discovered Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong four years ago, I’ve been fascinated by loose-leaf tea. I’m glad to say that my oolong tastes have evolved, and that I now like nearly every tea that comes from Taiwan, oolong or not, particularly the bug-bitten varieties. I also find myself drinking Yunnan blacks and Darjeelings from time to time, as well as a few other curiosities.

However, while online reviews might make me feel like an expert, I know that I still have some work to do to actually pick up those flavours myself. I hope that by making me describe what I’m tasting, Steepster can improve my appreciation of teas I already enjoy and make me more open to new possibilities (maybe even puerh!).

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