Favorite websites amongst steepsterites?
Hey, looking around on the forums I tend to see certain online shop’s names pop up more than others. In the past I’ve ordered from specialteas(now defunct), teavana(jerks who took away specialteas and have shady sales practices), Upton Imports(nice for cheaper teas) Adagio(wasn’t really satisfied with the flavorings they used), and just recently placed an order whispering pines, as well as the 5 for five deal from verdant teas that have not yet arrived(I have a feeling I will be very satisfied with both of those, they look to be higher quality than most of what I’ve ordered0).
Are there any other online teashops that I should definitely check out? What are your favorites and why?
PS. If steepsterites isn’t a word, it should be.
Steepsterites is Def a word.
What are your tastes like? If you would like to explore Chinese Teas, I would recommend Yezi. Their tea is really great and they always include three free samples. It’s similar to Verdant because of the farmer connection they have. Also Nanuoshan has some good stuffs.
If you want to explore Taiwanese teas, Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company and Taiwan Tea crafts are really good places to start.
As for Flavored and Blends, Tippy’s Tea has some great blends to offer, if you like Smokey teas. Geez, there are so many flavored tea companies… Tea Guys, Bluebird Tea CO, Kusmi…
If you want to explore what Indian Teas have to offer, Golden Tips and Capital Teas Ltd. are the way to go.
These are just companies that I have tried and can personally recommend. Happy Steeping!
So far my favorite teas are vegetal Japanese greens, but I still have plenty of exploration left before I can be sure of my favorites. I just recently ordered an ounce of what will be my first pu erh. At this point I would consider myself a tea fan rather than expert.
Some of my favorites, in no particular order:
www.harney.com (good all-around selection and regular sales)
www.silkoadteas.com (their Black Cloud is chocolately yum)
www.taiwanteacrafts.com (good teas and some unique teaware)
www.redblossomtea.com (if I had only 2 black teas for the rest of my life, they would be Gold Thread Reserve and Organic Formosa Red #18)
If you like Japanese teas, yunomi.us is an excellent site that has a huge selection and sells samples. They also offer free samples, free press samples (if you write reviews) and you get points for purchases and posting reviews on their site.
A website that is a favorite of mine but does not get much press here is www.svtea.com or Simpson and Vail. Their teas are good quality and their prices are excellent. There are also the old standards of www.yunnansourcing.com, www.yunnansourcing.us, and www.shopmandalatea.com.
Hey, great question. You may want to check out the following threads that list where Steepsterites have made their recent purchase:
http://steepster.com/discuss/4717-official-star-what-did-you-get-in-the-mail-today-star-thread
http://steepster.com/discuss/10240-favourite-online-tea-sources
(You can also check us out if you like, we curate great teas from many different tea companies – www.amodatea.com. It’s perfect for us to see these threads so we can talk to the companies people are into.)
My favorite website of them all is Teavivre.com cause it’s flawless in my humble opinion. Plus it’s so educative, you get tons of information on different type of teas, their regions, production, etc…beautiful images and videos.
I also love Whispering Pines. Very easy to use, beautiful poetic descriptions and detailed brewing instructions for all the tea. And did I mention THE TEA IS FANTASTIC? Plus you get very personalized customer service.
Oh edit: oops, I forgot to mention Tao Tea Leaf. The website is average but the tea is of superior quality!
And how not to mention Mandala? Great tea, great customer service!
I’m a big fan of M&K Teas. They are only on Etsy right now but are working on their own site. Customer service is great. I’ve been super happy with all my orders.
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