Thanks to ashmanra for this one, I have tried some wuyi oolongs but I was pretty curious to try a black tea that comes from the wuyi region. I just checked Harney’s website and they don’t have it anymore so I guess this is another sold out or limited production thing for them.
I ended up steeping this at 4 minutes @212F. Lots of cocoa here and some malt, it’s a nice dark red color. Very smooth and delicious. As it is cooling off I’m also getting a bit of floweriness in the nose, curious. I think this one is very enjoyable for my morning brew, although it does seem to lack some of the complexity of a wuyi oolong.
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I emailed to inquire if they were getting anymore and they never responded.
How typical – they do kind of suck in the customer service dept.
I quit asking H & S questions for the same reason…….emails never got answered. A big problem for me because I consider quality of tea & customer service to be equally important!
I have not bought anything from them nor will I….
There is too much tea in China….
I placed an order with them a few months ago but have not been that tempted recently. There’s too many other companies that are nice and friendlier.
I had a horrible experience with them a while ago and I’ve been finding local replacements for everything I was tempted by. Why order from a cruddy company in the States when Toronto has so much amazing tea to offer?
@aisling – I don’t blame you one bit and you certainly must have lots of great tea in Toronto…
Wow. I wonder how many others have have similar complaints….
I agree there are lots of better, friendlier, customer conscience companies, but I still order from them sparingly. Another thing I don’t like about H & S is their limited selections. They say they only pick the best teas from the best gardens. Well, I’ll give them that to an extent…….but even that is subjective. I think the more honest answer is that they focus on a limited number of teas per category, and focus more on selling bulk to hotels and resorts. That’s OK too, if that is what they choose to focus on. Personally, I like more choice, and if I have questions about a tea, I choose a company with more selection, and better customer service. If I choose a tea, and it is not to my liking, then it’s on me.
I just wonder if they really did not know when it would be back. It is still wrong for them to not answer. I asked about Golden Monkey in the early spring of last year and did get a response of September, but it was part of their usual offerings. (I work in online CS. Sometimes a “We don’t know” answer if it is true is still a good one because the customer is no longer hanging, and I think companies forget that. If you had asked the question at the shop, it is likely the answer you would have gotten.) I am betting with the seasonality of tea, they are not getting more until next year at the earliest, so they should have said “maybe next year”. And then will it be up to their standards for selling like the new crop like the issues with Golden Snail? I still have a few favorites from Harney, but you are right, they are not the only place to buy tea.
@amy oh When my tea-loving brother came up for the weekend, we visited 6 tea stores in the area, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. It seems like every time we go out, we discover a new tea place, it’s awesome! Though I am sad that the teascape in Toronto is about to be tainted with Teavana :(. But I have 5-6 stores in TO that I regularly visit and there are still more on my list to try! I love living here.
Most of my experiences with Harney have been good. I sometimes got an online response from Michael himself. When they revamped the website I did notice that inquiries seemed to be falling through the cracks, but for most orders I had great service and extremely fast shipping. Since they were the first good loose leaf tea company I found I was extremely loyal to them, and still like many of their teas, but I agree that there are many great places to buy tea! For customer service I have been really impressed by purepuer.com though it is mostly tea ware rather than tea that I have purchased from them. I am sorry to hear that so many people have had bad experiences with Harney.
My one experience of them was it took them a long time to ship my order and it also seemed to take a long time for them to answer e-mails. Then my BF went to one of their tasting rooms in NY and he was quite un-impressed by their lack of friendliness.
I’ll still order from them for a few teas here and there…….if I can find what I’m looking for. Also, if it is stock. That is the problem with let’s say their Assam selection. They usually carry 6 or 7, & I may only be interested in one or two. If they sell out of those, they tend not to restock-maybe they can’t until next year. All the more reason to carry a few more selections. So they lose a sale.
I emailed to inquire if they were getting anymore and they never responded.
How typical – they do kind of suck in the customer service dept.
I quit asking H & S questions for the same reason…….emails never got answered. A big problem for me because I consider quality of tea & customer service to be equally important!
I have not bought anything from them nor will I….
There is too much tea in China….
I placed an order with them a few months ago but have not been that tempted recently. There’s too many other companies that are nice and friendlier.
I had a horrible experience with them a while ago and I’ve been finding local replacements for everything I was tempted by. Why order from a cruddy company in the States when Toronto has so much amazing tea to offer?
@aisling – I don’t blame you one bit and you certainly must have lots of great tea in Toronto…
Wow. I wonder how many others have have similar complaints….
I agree there are lots of better, friendlier, customer conscience companies, but I still order from them sparingly. Another thing I don’t like about H & S is their limited selections. They say they only pick the best teas from the best gardens. Well, I’ll give them that to an extent…….but even that is subjective. I think the more honest answer is that they focus on a limited number of teas per category, and focus more on selling bulk to hotels and resorts. That’s OK too, if that is what they choose to focus on. Personally, I like more choice, and if I have questions about a tea, I choose a company with more selection, and better customer service. If I choose a tea, and it is not to my liking, then it’s on me.
I just wonder if they really did not know when it would be back. It is still wrong for them to not answer. I asked about Golden Monkey in the early spring of last year and did get a response of September, but it was part of their usual offerings. (I work in online CS. Sometimes a “We don’t know” answer if it is true is still a good one because the customer is no longer hanging, and I think companies forget that. If you had asked the question at the shop, it is likely the answer you would have gotten.) I am betting with the seasonality of tea, they are not getting more until next year at the earliest, so they should have said “maybe next year”. And then will it be up to their standards for selling like the new crop like the issues with Golden Snail? I still have a few favorites from Harney, but you are right, they are not the only place to buy tea.
@amy oh When my tea-loving brother came up for the weekend, we visited 6 tea stores in the area, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. It seems like every time we go out, we discover a new tea place, it’s awesome! Though I am sad that the teascape in Toronto is about to be tainted with Teavana :(. But I have 5-6 stores in TO that I regularly visit and there are still more on my list to try! I love living here.
Most of my experiences with Harney have been good. I sometimes got an online response from Michael himself. When they revamped the website I did notice that inquiries seemed to be falling through the cracks, but for most orders I had great service and extremely fast shipping. Since they were the first good loose leaf tea company I found I was extremely loyal to them, and still like many of their teas, but I agree that there are many great places to buy tea! For customer service I have been really impressed by purepuer.com though it is mostly tea ware rather than tea that I have purchased from them. I am sorry to hear that so many people have had bad experiences with Harney.
My one experience of them was it took them a long time to ship my order and it also seemed to take a long time for them to answer e-mails. Then my BF went to one of their tasting rooms in NY and he was quite un-impressed by their lack of friendliness.
I’ll still order from them for a few teas here and there…….if I can find what I’m looking for. Also, if it is stock. That is the problem with let’s say their Assam selection. They usually carry 6 or 7, & I may only be interested in one or two. If they sell out of those, they tend not to restock-maybe they can’t until next year. All the more reason to carry a few more selections. So they lose a sale.