Liquid Proust Teas Master Thread, SilverJasmine 9-15
Updates are posted as comments by me to make it easy to know when it was posted
I apologize for being a liar: I said I would open up on Friday (tomorrow) but instead I am opening tonight. This decision was made on account of me agreeing to work overtime tomorrow, 11 hours, and the extra money will be much appreciated in my wallet at PopCon this weekend :)
Tea is a lifestyle for myself, just as it is for many of you. Claiming that tea is just a hobby wouldn’t be suffice considering hobbies are generally known to be what people do in their free time and tea is not set aside just for free time because I ensure it is a constant aspect for me. Many of my friends and family members told me that I would open a shop over the last year and I laughed because I viewed teashop owners as rockstars and I don’t see myself as a rockstar. Well, it is quite possible that I may be among those individuals; not a rockstar, but a tea creator. Many of you have heard, read about, or seen something about Liquid Proust Teas and I am quite happy to say that Liquid Proust Teas is officially open.
Considering that Liquid Proust Teas is new, there is a lot of room to improve. Many things will change if I am successful with my first batch of teas such as: labels, packaging, presentations, and prices. When it came to choosing quantity that I would begin with I had two options: Go big or start small. After a lot of contemplation I made the decision to create quite a bit. This decision came from two factors. The first factor was an agreement with myself to start big to see if this is something I will continue for leisure or par time work. The other decision was based on mathematics. Once I did some computations that revealed I need the profit from 54 ounces of tea being sold to cover just my LLC filing cost I decided that small batches wouldn’t cut it.
Enough with the paragraphs…
Here’s some random information I want to put out there:
1.I will not be using Liquid Proust on Steepster to do or handle the business of Liquid Proust Teas. Steepster is a website that I really enjoy interacting with and I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I’m hoping that people won’t get upset that I still operate on here in the same way that I do now. That means that Liquid Proust Teas from my end will only be discussed via Etsy or email; with the exception to #2 that is listed next.
2.I will not create a new posting on Steepster unless I have a new lineup that is being/is released. As of now, I plan to do that three times a year but this could change depending on demand.
3.I vow to be objective when describing my teas and letting the consumer be subjective. This pertains to the ingredients list. When I list teas they will be as they are; for example, gyokuro will not be labeled as ‘premium green tea’ but as gyokuro.
4.Pictures that are used for my storefront and blog are meant to be 100% accurate as they are pictures of what I package to be sent out.
5.In regards to blogging: I plan to show the process to the majority of the teas that I create, but there are times that I forget or Startrek distracts me…
6.Just something to know: Etsy stores pay a fee for when an items sells ($.20 & 3.5%) plus a transaction in regards to how payment is made which is roughly 3% + $.25 or $.3 (Paypal vs Direct via Etsy). This means that an item that cost $6 can accrue fees at about $.87 (if it is just that item). As a customer myself, this information has changed how I see these small specialty shops online.
Short term goals
1.Establish Liquid Proust Teas as an honest and friendly company one customer at a time.
2.Learn how to accept defeat when it comes to not creating a tea that measures up for others’ taste buds.
Long term goals
1.Provide aged oolong at a competitive price
2.Participate in farmers markets
3.Work on matcha truffles (issues with shipping…)
4.Work on one SICK Kickstarter that would allow me to travel and coblend with another tea company to create some badass blends
a.Personally I see tea as something that brings communities together and it should be true not of just the buyers but the sellers (companies) as well
b.Question: What if the teas were called Badass Blend #1, Badass Blend #2, and so forth? (Really, but not really…)
Profits for my first ‘wave’ will go towards
1.Paying for the LLC filing cost
2.A large dehydrator so all the crazy fruits that are never in tea blends will show up and because tea infused jerky should be an option. That would include jackfruit, starfruit, durian, and more.
3.Purchasing samples of aged oolongs from a few suppliers to evaluate
4.Purchasing herbs from New Zealand and Japan to compare
5.1989 Pu’erh : I need to own a full cake at some… so why not the year I was born?
Thank you very much for reading all of that information. I will do my best to be transparent when it comes to the operations of my business so nothing is hidden. Earlier in the post I talked about continuing if I am successful with my first ‘wave’ of teas and what I mean by that is still undefined… do I say when I break even I’m successful or am I successful when I get good reviews? I’m uncertain, so I’m just going to do what I have done and give it 100 while hoping for the best.
Thankfully the future is unknown and we live it one day at a time.
If you have any questions in regards to Liquid Proust Teas feel free to shoot me a message on Etsy. Also, I love suggestions!
Lastly, regardless if you buy from me or not… if you give my tea a 1 or 100… look at my Etsy and laugh… I just want everyone to know that Steepster is only an oasis because of the people that interact on it. Intimidation was the only thing Steepster had for me a year ago because I didn’t feel adequate enough with tea to partake in the conversations on here. I haven’t even been on here for a year still and the amount that I have learned has been amazing. While I can’t make my hand appear from your screen and shake your hand, which would either be scary or awesome, I can say that much of my mission is to provide great teas to the community that is invested in the culture of tea. Just keep in mind that I’m not a super hero so this mission may not be achieved on my first go at it… then again, some super heroes end up fighting the same villain because of what I will call ‘reasons’ and therefore constantly fail their mission only to reattempt it.
Realizing that I’m now a small part of the world of tea makes me smile and I hope I can bring that smile to you.
Sinceriously,
Andrew Richardson
https://www.etsy.com/shop/LiquidProustTeas
https://liquidproust.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/LiquidProustTeas
First Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAyA2ocGHeY&feature=youtu.be
Birthday Sale posted on 7-29-15 in comments by Liquid Proust
If you purchase from Liquid Proust Teas and you are planning to say at three words about Liquid Proust Teas please leave a comment reply to this comment or let me know because I have gifts for those who put the time in and do that. My only request would be that you please leave the gift out of the initial review, but you can do as you please as it is your blog :)
Bravo Andrew! Bravo! Wishing you the best of luck. As a small business owner, your words def. resonates and on point.
Congrats.
Thanks :)
I’ll probably still buy more than I sell :P
If I’m ever in Toronto, you better believe you’ll be seeing me!
Order placed, just hope I’m brave enough to try your Brave tea, otherwise I’ll slip it into my boyfriends’s go-cup and see what he says ;)
Thanks everyone :)
@Michelle good luck, I’m pretty sure you’ll understand my description quite well when you sip on it
Congratulations Andrew! It’s a big step to take and a scary one to be sure. I wish you all the best and I plan to be placing an order very soon.
Thanks :)
I forgot to ask if you want the contact information for buying limes from who I got mine from. Shoot me a PM if you’re interested.
Andrew, thank you for your sensitivity in your points about separating your online presence as a seller from a consumer. I think it is great you will choose when to reply to a topic as a vendor and when to reply under a tea drinker avatar.
I’ve been trying to find a way to say what you just wrote so eloquently. I’m feeling rather inundated these days as a tea drinker when a vendor or multiple vendors jump on posts I see online. I know some tea drinkers like this, but we also should feel free to “be subjective” about tea because that is what tea sharing online really is for the most part. Putting your best effort out there as a vendor is the goal, and then it takes courage to stand back and let people be their own judge.
Indeed.
I want my shop to be somewhere that people shop at freely instead of me trying to make them want something. Honestly, I may spend more money on tea than food… it’s just something I really enjoy and can’t live without.
There’s this odd feeling of taboo if I review an item one way or another; this should never exist. I love how open people on Steepster are, but at the same time I hate the feeling of ‘having’ to be positive about a tea when it is a sample from somewhere. Tea, just like food, is a HUGE market and the competition is insanely large now. Sadly the companies that are getting the most coverage are ‘detox’ and ‘weight loss’ teas. I won’t make any further comments on that.
In regards to my values: I put Steepster over my business any day. I hope I never have to chose which one to continue with, but there are politics within this site and that’s okay. I just want to be as natural as I can be by not having a company profile on here nor using my account for those purposes (maybe 2-3 times a year though).
I’ll start out strong and ease up for sure. If my shop doesn’t make it to 2016 then I can smile knowing I gave it my best for six months and followed my dream.
I just wrote a lot and it’s probably all over…
Even more
As a consumer, I’ll be honest and say that companies like Whispering Pines will constantly have better straight teas than I do, Butiki has better flavoring, and Dammann Freres is kicking ass with floral teas. My inspiration will come other tea shops, just as musicians look up to other musicians and reference them as better than themselves. There is so much for me to learn, play with, and just in general experience. I’m excited to just be part of it all.
this does have me thinking but idk. i cannot imagine how i can separate the consumer and the vendor sides of me (hobby-style vendor that i am) since i sorta started being both in a relatively short time span. and being a stickler for honesty/transparency: i find it easier to just let it be known outright. but if it is bothering others i could adjust coz i mean no harm. i am more of a consumer than a vendor anyhows.
There are just so many vendors now. I sell online too (not tea) and I get it that social media is the way to drum up business. Please be aware that when you post under a tea logo avatar, you might feel you’re just posting as a tea drinker but the logo always means you are posting your business. In real life, if you told your neighbor you didn’t like something you bought at the market, would you then want to get a call from the market telling you that you should cook it another way? Most professions require that people develop boundaries between personal and professional. To me, this distinguishes the amateur and the professional.
ah, i guess i am still an amateur then. i would love to learn more from your perspective Cwyn. really am just starting still, both in tea and selling.
glad that Liquid Proust made this nice thread :)
Yssah, like Cwyn said in her original post though, some people like the vendor interaction. I’ve gathered from forum posts that Cwyn really doesn’t, and that’s okay. It’s unfortunate that she gets that outreach that she doesn’t want. But many other people do appreciate a vendor getting in touch with suggestions or even just a comment. The issue with boundaries is that different people want them to be set at different levels. I also find it difficult sometimes to be as brutally honest about a tea when I know that the vendor will see it. But then I go ahead and write my review anyway. I try not to be cruel, but I try to practice that in every area of my life. I don’t want to feel obligated to inflate the positivity and I have turned down free tea before, but I like knowing that there is a person on the other end of my business. It feels like a more local economy that way.
Personally, I appreciate transparency. I don’t like thinking I’m communicating with a fellow drinker/reviewer and then find out that they are also a vendor. I feel like that is shady market research without them necessarily meaning to. I actually remember your profile from a few years back when you were selling as Love is Tea and double checked to see if you’re still doing that. But I’ve been here for years and seen many people start selling, stop selling, and occasionally even a success story.
One approach I’ve seen and like is LiberTeas/52Teas. Anne has a 52Teas profile where she posts as the company and seems to have her “official” hat on. Then she has her personal profile (which I believe also indicates she is the proprietor of 52Teas) where she reviews teas. There’s no secrecy and there is also a bit of separation. I appreciate that many smaller vendors are also tea addicts. I like that. I don’t need another corporate giant with a strict divide between business and personal. I think it’s a fine line to walk but many vendors have done well so far. Of course, at least one person will always dislike it but that’s okay. That group can just take their business elsewhere. :)
This got ramble-y and incoherent. Sorry.
oh it’s just perfect Uniquity! it is very helpful indeed. the idea did cross my mind of using two accounts but it is too much work for me to have another email to check and stuff. i guess i will just stick with a consumer account since my selling is really very much on the side while im studying fulltime. and im not really selling here in the states unless somebody asks for it while im here which will not be for long.
i love that even with the differences, there is room for openness and understanding that keeps this community cool :)
thank you! <3
I’m also fed up with “bot” software that tea sellers are using which automatically “likes” a post and posts a generic comment. You might think “what is wrong with that?” But dozens everyday get to be too much. They do this to generate unknowing followers who think a real person is looking at the posts. Once they have you as a follower, you’ve signed up for their posts and hence you are subscribing to the advertising.
Yssah, I have a regular email, online business email, tea blog email and shopping email. I work full time, take care of an elderly parent and disabled son. And I’m 3x your age. I have to chuckle that two email addys are too much work for a kid. Email manager apps check them all at once.
Marzi I like your tea best. I won’t say more or the bots will descend upon your lovely photos. But hopefully some sellers figure out how many of them are all using the same strategies to the point of where it is a turn off, and losing business instead of gaining it.
omygosh, i had no idea about those bots!!! is that really true? creepy! i wouldnt be able to tell if i encountered one.
i have mild adhd so yea, remembering passwords for when i use different devices are a pain. i havent tried any email mgr apps. but i dont think id be comfy with someone getting access to my emails tho a lot probably already do. lol!
and how do you know my age? haha, i actually look a lot younger.
ah so many things going on..what is marzi’s tea?? pls tell me.
I was joking, I have seen one of those bots that asks that question of new people.
Omg, just in the past day I’ve had 18 tea vendors. These aren’t vendors I follow. So for me it is over 100 per week.
This is just on Instagram alone, yssah, which is where I follow Marzipan and my other Steepster friends. I hate to have to drop hashtag usage because I’ve met some genuine new tea friends from around the world, awesome tea drinker people who aren’t selling anything.
Dang… a lot was said here so I will just be me and joke:
One of my role models is Data and I wish I could become a robot/android so I could live longer. Technically I would become a bot, but I wouldn’t be an issue because I HATE using generated things to send to people… that’s where I see an issue, when you feel less like a person and more like a means to someone getting a fatter wallet. HOWEVER, if I wanted a fatter wallet the green herbs I would be selling wouldn’t be tea :p
I don’t want to start another thread… but how many people would be interesting in a Liquid Proust Teas traveling sample box?
I might be moving so I cannot say I could join, but I think the idea is pretty genius
I’m going to second that the idea is pretty genius. The only issue is that it does not have a wide distribution like a sampler set that you could purchase would have, but it is the next logical step up from sending out samples to all your steepster friends :)
I was thinking that 8 separate teas with an ounce each could suffice for at least 7 cups per type of tea. At one cup per tea per person, but I would have to have the interest.
I will keep brainstorming
Congrats and good luck! If you need any online business help, feel free to ask!
Hook me up with a stone mill so I can make matcha at home :P
I will let you know though for sure, I am looking into ways to connect companies and people via online and conventions… I put a lot of time into tea and such.
In Japan I saw they had mini counter top stone mills to make matcha at home. I was really tempted to get one but decided I wouldn’t have room for tea if I did :-(
I’m looking at these guys for next years tax return… but, that’s awhile away and I’m sure something else will take its place :/
https://yunomi.us/vendor/proselua/
yssah, I just followed you, so if you follow me back you can send me a message :)
Everyone,
I just separated everything so it’s easier to find, but that is not what is important: I went ahead and put some of my teas aside for sampling. If you’re interested in a certain tea please send me a message on Etsy. Due to the size I cannot send the French Toast Dianhong or Golden Baby Cakes. Since these are free samplers, I’m sorry to say that these will ship within the US only.
Your blends sound AMAZING. I just dedicated some money to a tea order with another site this week but mark my words, I’ll be placing an order with you with my next week’s pay!
I marked your words on my cell phone´s calender. You are now legally binded by my authority (which means nothing)
Week 1
I sold 20 ounces between 6 orders. I hope to hear feedback, but it’s not required because people do as they please :)
Still sending samples and looking for blog coverage, but I’m not chasing anyone down. Shoot me a message on Etsy if you’re interested.
Hi Andrew, here’s my feedback:
Surprisingly my mystery tea was my favorite, mate and marshmallowy and floral. very yummy. got three brews out of this one, nice
Honeysuckle Yellow comes in second, it was like sweet or honey hay.
Smoked breakfast was pretty tasty on the first brew, smoky and cinnamon. The next brew was just cinnamon with not a whole lot of smoke left.
Angry citrus Chai: this was the one I looked forward to tasting and while it was a very tasty chai, I didn’t get any citrus, so was kinda bummed about that.
French Toast: a bit too much egg in this for my taste and not enough syrup or maple flavors that I expected. Still an ok cuppa, I brewed it 3 times :)
For the Brave: too much going on here for me, second steep had more hibiscus and less of a medicine taste.
Megan’s Gold: had high hopes for the grapefruit in this tea, but alas like the angry citrus chai, I couldn’t taste the grapefruit at all. Mostly a coffee note here, but the yunnan came through a bit better on the second steep.
Thanks for letting me try your teas, and keep experimenting!
Thanks for thee critique Michelle!
Quick question: Megan and spent about 5 sessions trying to figure Megan’s Gold out, did the timing and temperature recommendations I put work out?
I did use the lower temp and steeped for 3 minutes. It wasn’t bitter or anything, just a coffee taste.
Michelle thank you so very much for letting me know. Megan and I steeped this for 40-45s with water at 212 because it is a pu’erh based blend. What temperature was your water for the 3 minutes?
The steeping instructions said 170. I used 212 this morning and the tea was a bit more balanced, still no grapefruit taste, but less of a coffee bitter aftertaste.
:(
I messed up the info then…it should have said 205f for 30s which is what my Etsy store says. I will message you on there when I get home to send you some free tea because providing faulty info isn’t appealing.
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