Tea on Etsy
Hello all:
I was wondering if anyone had purchased any tea on etsy? I love etsy for many items but have never purchased tea or other edible items. A quick search on Etsy ( http://tiny.cc/v7bmw ) shows the many people selling tea.
Thoughts?
With tea love,
Ellyn
Yes, I have purchased tea on Etsy. When I was blending my own teas, I also sold tea on Etsy. The only thing I’d mention about these sellers is that some of them actually make their own blends, and some of them resell other companies blends as their own. It’s tricky to know the difference.
Oh, wow. That never even occurred to me! One seller has teas that look identical to DT’s Pumpkin Chai and Santa’s Secret (those little candies are pretty distinctive). It says home-blended and I wondered if that was really the case. I don’t know anything about where tea-blending ingredients come from so I supposed they could just be copies.
Yes, Jessie, there are some that think that by purchasing a tea wholesale, and putting it in a different container, that this process is called “home-blended.” It is one of the things (but not the definitive thing) that helped me come to my decision to close shop. I worked very hard on my blends, and it was a bit of a slap in the face for me to see these other companies slap a label on something and call it their own.
That’s such a shame after putting your heart into creating something! It’s also a shame what you said about Etsy below. I love buying on Etsy but have heard a lot of similar talk. I’ve played with the idea of selling soaps and bath products, but everything I hear can be discouraging.
Jessie: the soap market seems pretty competitive on both etsy and artfire. I have a friend who makes soaps, and she told me that with the amount of soaps that she sells, the etsy fees are really unbelievably high and take a sizable chunk out of her profits. Artfire would be more economical in the long run for her, however, Artfire just doesn’t have the traffic that Etsy does, and she sold more on etsy than Artfire… even with the huge fee, she was making more money on etsy than artfire.
But it didn’t work that way for me. I actually did pretty decent on artfire, and in the short time that I had a store there, I ended up selling more on artfire than I did on etsy, and I was on etsy more than double the amount of time. I think I had a store for about a year and a half (?) on artfire, and sold a lot more tea than I did for the four or five years that I was on Etsy.
That’s disheartening – that people would do that, pass off others’ blends as their own. I assure everyone I would not do that!
If you’re talking about Tea for All Reasons, I’m pretty sure they’re only taking ideas from Davidstea. They’ve put out a few blends that were blatantly copying the idea of something from DT, but had different ingredients. (For instance, their Glitter and Gold is chocolate cherry while David’s Glitter & Gold is cinnamon.)
Now, I can totally see why that would also make you want to avoid them, but I do not believe their blends are just redistributed from other companies.
That isn’t the company I was referring to. There are others on etsy that do resell other companies tea as their own, though.
Unfortunately that’s pretty par for the course for everything on Etsy. It’s kind disgraceful how resellers go completely unchecked by the Etsy staff. I suppose they’re making too much money off of them to want to rock the boat. :/
There are also some teas on Artfire – which is like etsy … and becoming more like etsy all the time. See, once upon a time, artists were really fed up with the way etsy kept elevating their costs (like ebay does), and so Artfire was born to give artists a more cost effective alternative. However, Artfire is now starting the same price hikes as etsy… so they have pretty much become one and the same.
Thank you for all your answers. I look forward to more discourse. Are there any sellers that you would reccomend?
I bought a very very nice Chai blend from http://www.etsy.com/shop/Chaime
She also provides really good instructions for brewing it up properly and all that jazz. It turned out to be delicious.
I have only purchase teas on Etsy from The Teaman; he blends his own tea. I am fan for his tea; how to say…sacrament pledge of allegiance.
I also viewed a Victorian tisane seller on etsy (months ago) and price was as reasonable as the Teaman.
Having just viewed the site there appears to be quite an abundance/numerous number of tea sellers all of a sudden. I missed this somehow. Ha, jokes on me; slow poke that I am.
I purchased some tea from the shop called “DuvalTea” The shop sales loose leaf tea. Great shop, and great products! Especially, their descriptions are enchanting!
Here’s the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/duvaltea
Enjoy!
I just launched my Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/keenteathyme
Score 10% off with GRANDNEW2012 now through 1/9/13
I recently ordered some samples from TheCozyLeaf on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheCozyLeaf
The samples are inexpensive and worth a try. Just brewed a cup of the Organic Fit and Active oolong and it is expertly blended and delicious. Plan to order more after Christmas!
I’ve ordered from http://www.etsy.com/shop/DryadTea and I’ve only tried one so far but I got them so fast and they’re really unique blends and names. I ordered way too much tea at once so I need to get back to trying them.
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