2015: How much will you spend on tea this year?

Last year I had an original budget of $700 which I revised mid year to $1000; this included tea and teaware, but not swaps. Overall I spent a grand total of $1466.61. This year my goal is simple: don’t spend more than that!

…And it begins!

January Total: $28.28
DAVIDsTEA (Samples) $28.28

February Total: $76.00
DAVIDsTEA** (Teaware/samples) $25.00 $4.00
Mini Teapot & Cup Set from local store $43.00
Tea Desire (Bombilla and Mate Gourd) $29.00

March Total: $63.65
Tea Squared $8.00
Camellia Sinensis (Teaware) $55.65
Rikyu (One of a kind Japanese chawan) $168.00
Camellia Sinensis (Yellow Tea) $33.00
DAVIDsTEA (Spring Collection) $27.50

April Total: $128.28
52Teas Takeover Kickstarter (Reblend Package) $61.03
DAVIDsTEA $8.50
McQuarrie’s Tea & Coffee Merchants $12.75
Dammann Freres (Group Order) $18.00
Ette Tea (Group Order) $28.00

May Total: 18.00
DAVIDsTEA (Summer Collection/Samples) $18.00

June Total: $235.14
Camellia Sinensis** $62.65
Tea Desire $13.00
Red Leaf Tea $112.00
DAVIDsTEA (Mostly refills) $41.00
Guayaki $6.49

July Total: $200.63
Heffalumps & Woozles Group Order Payment… (Butiki) $71.88
What-Cha (My first order!) $48.00
Tea Ave $13.75
DAVIDsTEA (Primarily teaware) $48.00
East Indie’s Tea Company $29.00

August Total: $8.75
DAVIDsTEA $8.75

September Total: $127.76
Liquid Proust Teas $46.00
DAVIDsTEA (Fall Stuff) $41.00
Adderly Bone China Teacup & Saucer (Thrift Store find) $7.99
What-Cha $32.77

October Total: $377.00
Assorted Thrift Store Teaware $39.00
Camellia Sinensis (Teaware) $228.00
Divination & Tea Leaf Reading Cup/Saucer and Guide $21.00
DAVIDsTEA (Tea Snacks and Milk Bottle) $39.00
Crimson Lotus (Tea Pets) $40.00
Ebay (Yixing Monkey Tea Pet) $10.00

November Total: $529.03
August Uncommon $59.00
A Quarter to Tea $18.13
DAVIDsTEA (Winter Collection Samples) $7.00
Camellia Sinensis (Teaware) $375.00
Whispering Pines $33.00
Teavivre (Group Order) $14.90
Blue Hour Tea (Owned by one of my Sommelier classmates) $22.00

December Total: $194.94
Teaware House (SO MUCH FISH TEAWARE!) $60.20
Cuppa’T Specialty Teas $30.00
Camellia Sinensis (Pu’erh) $65.00
Teavana (Cooking with Tea book) $21.74
Red Leaf Tea $83.00

Grand Total: $1998.46

**The DAVIDsTEA order only came out to $4 because I used a $25 gift card from Christmas, which doesn’t count!

**Half of the Camellia Sinensis order was equipment for my Tea Sommelier courses. I’m not including the courses themselves in my budget.

And all the strike-throughs are things I bought/saved with Christmas/Birthday money!

As of 11/06/15 I’ve officially gone over budget and will now be in tea buying hiatus until at least 2016 (no tea OR teaware). And as of 11/27/15 I’ve broken hiatus. What can I say? It just doesn’t suite me.

I did pretty well this year. I tried not to think about it too much, and I tried mostly to drink my over-purchased stash down. All very successful. I know I had a Harney order with a pound of Golden Monkey, I had an order from Upton for “all the China congou samples” my little heart desired, and 2 orders from Teavivre, one of them being the Black Friday sale, the other their anniversary sale. Even though I did not keep track of details, I know it is considerably lower than past years, but I think it was because I just did not stress over it. My stash is getting manageable again. However, there are new vendors that are showing up and interesting…….must look away!

Hmmmm…I’ll have to do a little work to come up with a total number.

I look at this a different way: how much do I spend per cup. Even my most expensive tea (An Ji Bai Cha) only costs me $3.10 per 8oz cup at my dosage(4g). If I steep it 3 times, it’s $1.03 per cup. And one of my cheaper teas, Fo Mei, is $0.56 per cup or $0.19 per cup with three steeps. Not many beverages out there that can match that value. And if you are talking good beer, wine, or cocktails…forget about it.

I’m scared to know haha, I get usually 150gr free every few months from davids tea if that’s any indication, lol.

I told myself no more tea…I spent another $80 at DavidsTea this month. So now that brings my total to $278.70.

Well let’s see here:
December
Upton Tea: $63
Puerh sampler: $66

November
Upton Tea: 153.00
Mandala: 63.00
Whispering Pines: 52.00
Various Steepster folk: 57.00
Tea thermometer: 12.00
$337.00

October
Upton Tea: 43.40
Forlife infuser cup: 21.00
Mighty Leaf: 40.00
Tazo & Stash: 30.00
Various Steepster buys: 50.00
52 teas: 100.00
$284.40

September
Mighty Leaf: 57.00

2015 total: $807.40

My goals for 2016 are to figure out roughly how much tea I drink in a month, set a reasonable budget, and drink up what I’ve purchased thus far.

I am so proud of myself! I managed to bypass 2 Yunnan Sourcing promotional discounts. Did give in to Whispering Pines 20% sale but only spent $25 with shipping for 3oz of Golden Snail.

Budget: Not enough

Jan-Dec: Too much

Total: Buy more tea.

In July, I was all joking around like “oh, I spent too much.” Now, I don’t even want to think about it anymore.

This was the year that I seriously got into tea, and I’ve spent quite a bit.

03/18/2015: $26.70 Upton Tea
05/12/2015: $17.10 Upton Tea
Date Unknown: $5 Verdant Tea
Date Unknown: $20 52Teas
05/21/2015: $6.23 AliExpress
6/19/2015: $25.85 What-Cha
7/29/2015: $31.74 What-Cha
09/15/2015: $33.20 Yunnan Sourcing
10/97/2015: $21.45 Den’s Tea
11/21/2015: $39.79 What-Cha
12/25/2015: $61.38 White 2 Tea
Plus $67 of assorted tea related hardware(mostly my temperature adjustable electric kettle) on Amazon throughout the year

Total: $355.44

I look forward to spending even more next year.