Which are your favorite online tea stores? why? What makes them special?

Since I am most into puerh that’s easy, Yunnan Sourcing. They have the best selection of puerh, generally. They have excellent prices. The have a US site as well as a Chinese site so you can get some stuff quicker. And Scott who runs it is honest. You always get what you pay for and never any outlandish claims about what he sells.

Japanese tea, Yunomi.
Puer tea, Yunnnan Sourcing.
Taiwan tea, Beautiful Taiwan Tea.
Other regions, What Cha.
Flavored tea, Butiki (still alive to me!)

Why? Direct sourcing. Great customer service as you can get to know the people who work behind each store/site. The selection is very diverse. Quite a bit of information. However, the most important aspect of each of these places that I shop from is comfort in regards to my trust with each.

Adding to this list
White2tea
Crimson Lotus Tea
Berylleb King Tea, eBay
Chawang Shop
JAS-eTea
King Tea, aliexpress
Good sources of great tea, one on one interaction with customers and the eBay and allie ones, real products.

Teavivre.com does an all around amazing job! So does SVtea.com and Zentealife.com I can’t say why, but I know they all put a lot of work into their shops and have amazing customer service (and delicious teas.) But there are so many tea shops I wish I could order more from but I can only drink so much tea.

Whispering Pines
Yunnan Sourcing
Taiwan Sourcing
Mandala
White2
Crimson Lotus
Teavivre

They all have great tea and spectacular customer service.

There are many sellers I like but very few I LOVE. The sellers I mention here are the ones I order the most often from and they all offer outstanding customer service, and most importantly, they all have integrity (not saying other sellers don’t, I just don’t know others as much as the ones listed below)

Yunnan Sourcing: biggest variety I know of; excellent product; in a world of puerh confusion, Scott the owner is “the one”, I can buy anything with my eyes closed and know I’m getting exactly what I paid for at a more than fair price; wide selection of teaware.

Whispering pines: unique high end product; master blender; beautiful website.

Taiwan Sourcing: some of the best oolongs I have ever had!

Crimson Lotus: excellent puerh quality; great teaware collection.

Mandala: nice variety, excellent product.

Yunnan Sourcing and What-Cha are my favorites so far. Yunnan Sourcing’s focus on a specific region allows them to really focus on top quality tea, and they introduced me to Pu-ehr. What attracts me to What-Cha are all the out-of-the-ordinary teas they have. I got their Introduction to Georgia sampler in my first order from them and then a Tieguanyin stuffed melon in my second. Both sites appear to have quality tea at very reasonable prices and I’ve been very happy with every order from them. I only got into tea in March of this year, so there are many well-respected vendors I haven’t tried and I look forward to trying more of them in the coming year.

Taiwan Tea Crafts – exquisite, high quality teaware and top shelf oolong tea

Verdant – despite the recent tree controversy, their green teas are still my favorite

Yuuki-Cha – my go-to shop for Japanese tea

Yunnan Sourcing – huge selection, fresh tea, and reasonable prices

TeaVivre – tea can be hit or miss sometimes, but they offer a wide variety of tea and wonderful customer service. their sampler packs are an inexpensive way to try lots of different teas

Whispering Pines – high quality teas and great service

Wooree Korean Tea – imperial blend Green tea
Taste – Mild and nice
Style – Leaves (Not tea-bag)
Price – Average
Quantity – 50g
Store link – www.wooree.co.nz

In order of excellence (IMHO):

White2Tea because of their consistent high quality
Yunnan Sourcing for variety of puerh and their excellent black teas
Teavivre for those Chinese teas YS doesn’t sell
Harney & Sons for broad variety at an excellent price
Upton for broad variety (esp of Indian teas) at fair prices