Tea of the Month Clubs

I would also like to hear why people prefer tea of the month club to simply buying tea from stores once every while. For steepster’s club, I think a key strength is participants can get tea from multiple sellers at one time. How about monthly club of individual sellers? Is monetary discount provided by the club a main motivation, or other things?

I’m in Golden Moon’s Tea of the Month, 52teas Tea of the Week, and Steepster Select (which hasn’t really started yet).

Honestly? I’m going to let the 52teas one end at the end of the 6 weeks I bought. So far I’m not liking anything from there.

I’m most likely going to discontinue my Golden Moon one if this next month’s tea isn’t great. I find they send unimpressive teas at too high a price ($20/mth for two unremarkable teas so far).

While I was willing to pay for the mystery-package angle and the convenience of a Plan (and likely will try others after these two are done), I can better put $20/mth from Golden Moon + the $8/week from 52teas to just randomly buying samples online and get a lot more tea and, in the case of Golden Moon, probably better quality. The benefits of being in these plans just don’t overwhelm the negatives so far… still possible they’ll surprise me with the next shipment but I doubt it.

I’m not much of one for tea clubs, I’m quite picky about the quality of what I drink and don’t much care for allowing someone else to pick out teas for me.

I do like the idea of getting a wide range of different types of tea for a flat price and saving on shipping, but then again I’m trusting someone else to select teas for me, and, well, I kinda have pretty severe trust issues. :)

That being said I just signed up for the Global Tea Tasters Club sponsored by the ITFA, I really like what they are trying to do for the tea community and I have high hopes for them, I’m excited beyond belief for my first shipment. I’ll give my thoughts on it once I try the tea. http://www.teafarms.org/globalteatasters/

Snob, thanks for the link. I like the sound of that, too, and signed up!

What intrigues me about this method of obtaining tea is the surprise factor – being pushed out of my rut, and being introduced to something new.
As far as getting quality teas, I guess that would depend on who is choosing the teas.
One of the most respected experts, Pearl Dexter, publisher of ‘Tea a Magazine’, has started a Tea of the Month Club.
Info in the ‘shopping’ area of their website: http://www.teamag.com/
Dan Robertson, owner of The Tea House and World Tea Tours, also offers a Tea of the Month Club. ( Dan had THE BEST Darjeeling I’ve ever tasted at his booth at this summer’s World Tea Expo ) Info about the club at his website: http://theteahouse.com/teamnth.htm