Where can I buy some of those handy-dandy tea sample pouches?

35 Replies

Love this thread, thanks for starting it, Jenn. I love this discussion board because we all feel like we can ask any question we have. Please don’t delete this thread, I find it very informative.

When my mom found out I was doing tea swaps across the border, she fussed herself into a near-panic attack over customs thinking I was some kind of drug dealer. Although, if customs can’t tell the difference between tea and pot…XD. Maybe if I get some of these, she’ll calm the heck down.

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Jenn said

Thank you so much for saying so! I know that I’d personally rather answer the same question several times than ever alienate a fellow Steepster. Also, members are free not to participate in every thread. Forums exist for the express purpose of facilitating an open exchange of information, and it shouldn’t be up to one fellow member to decide how information will be exchanged.

My husband walked in on me at the kitchen table with tea and tiny plastic bags spread out everywhere. His only response was “Really? My wife the kingpin…” Needless to say, he’s very happy that I’ve ordered more purpose specific pouches. The pouches hold more tea and seal better anyway. I love that your mom worries about customs agents not knowing tea from drugs… stranger things have happened. I’m sending tea from Southern CA and I have a Latino last name, so I should really play it safe :)

Don’t worry. Anyone can start or end a forum topic anytime they want. Some will have you feel badly about it but if those truly in charge of this site have no issues then you shouldnt worry about it either. It is unfortunate how sometimes people feel the need to make people feel they have done wrong. This should always be a place of open communication and a place where one can feel comfortable to ask a question once, twice, or even three times. :-)

I’m with you on this one. Besides, you never know how might have new input, but would avoid threads over a few months old. However, I’ve noticed that some members, one in particular, like to think they run the forums, which is a pity. Because all that’s really happening is people being afraid to post out of fear of breaking some unwritten rule somewhere. Bah.

Trust me, you’re just fine. Now I just have to find room in my tea budget for bags for samples before I visit mom in August.

Here here to you both! I hate trying to look for answers in months/year old threads. :)

Angrboda said

I completely agree with all this. People playing Forum Police and make it their business to tell others what they can and cannot post really only make it not fun to be around. I avoided the boards completely for the longest time because it irritated me so much.

Most people, if they have a question, prefer new information. Not answers that are several years old and might not even be relevant anymore. Or maybe they just want to interact with the people who are here now, instead of just reading what someone who isn’t around anymore said last year. I can’t for the life of me see how that is supposed to be not natural and logical.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I am in agreement with ya’ll, I’ll add that I can see the flip side of the coin and it is annoying to have to answer the same question dozens of times, there are some questions that can be cleared up very quickly with a quick search rather than cluttering the forums.

However I think Angrboda nailed it on the head rather squarely, the tea world is rapidly changing and new steepsters are added daily, so not only could the information be outdated but new steepsters could have different thoughts that haven’t been presented yet.

Most of all a friendly forum is a happy forum and while this isn’t exactly a thriving forum I think we all have our part in making it friendly so new steepsters feel comfortable joining in on the discussions. And by posting questions it helps keep communication flowing and board members interacting with each other.

Hopefully timid steepsters who read this thread will feel comfortable joining in the future after all there is much we can learn from each other, and while some might be cranky it is clear to see the friendly band together. :-)

Agreed! And what’s more, who knows how old the information in past threads is? Or if the links still work? There’s nothing I hate more than finding a link to exactly what I want…and then clicking it to find it dead. It’s enough to make you give up on the whole thing after a few tries. So then you’re irritated and frustrated and still have to make a new thread to cover an old question.

No one is forced to respond to or even read a thread. One would hope that if answering questions irritates you, you would refrain from doing so. It just seems logical to me.

And if you do feel the need to post a cranky comment telling people this question has been answered, the VERY LEAST you could do is provide a link to said answers, rather than just try to make the original poster feel bad.

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K S said

My $0.02 worth – when you are new to the forum you come excited having discovered there are others who share your passion. Even an unintentional slap down leaves you wondering if you are welcome. It causes you to hesitate to post. Maybe your questions (or opinion) are just stupid. Of course the only stupid question is one that is never asked.

I also must say that as simple as this forum is, there is no real instruction maunual on how it works. I still don’t understand parts of it. The point is be kind. There is no newbie forum so learn to chill. You were new once.

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Jenn said

Something very positive has come out of this situation for me. This thread serves to prove something that I suspected already… Steepsters are 10 to 1 kind, empathetic, and helpful individuals. I’ll happily toss the one rotten apple from the barrel if I get ten that are perfectly wonderful :)

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OK, so I’m late to respond, but I actually am checking out all these great resources for baggies too, Jenn! Thanks for the topic. :) I’ve been sending tea to friends in ziplock-type bags, which are OK, but I always worry about the travel and mailing…

Also, I agree with everyone’s comments here – we’re all sharing ideas, building and maintaining a friendly online tea community. Some people do act like the “forum police” but I just ignore them. Out of all of the wonderful people I’ve met here just in the past year there have been only a couple “rotten apples” (to steal Jenn’s phrase).

Also, info changes daily! So what if you start a topic that has been discussed before? I’m sure there are plenty of steepsterites who haven’t posted to every topic, and plenty of new information/ideas are out there! Share away. Tea is fun, let’s keep it that way. :)

Thanks for the insightful topic, Jenn. :)

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Jenn said

Yay! This tread makes me so happy.

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ashmanra said

They are not as nice as the ones Quiltguppy sent me, but I found some bags in the jewelry making aisle at A C Moore craft store that said they were food safe and could be used for storing spices, though their intended purpose there was for storing jewelry and findings. I had a forty per cent off coupon, so I think I paid about four dollars for 175. They were called Bagettes and mine are 3 × 5. They were on the very bottom shelf, so you may have to hunt for them!

Jenn said

Yes! I have some of those little baggies too. I actually purchased some of the sample packets that QuiltGuppy recommended off of Ebay, and they were very reasonably priced. The seller shipped them out really quickly too :)

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