Travelling Teabox on the way! - Round 1

Apparently there isn’t for this one. We’re thinking I’ll get it by this week though…

I’d HIGHLY recommend future shipments use delivery confirmation (which tracks through most major hubs). It’s only 19 cents!

Hey TTB — I’m rootin’ for ya’ !

Aaarghhhh!…was so looking fwd to opening the TTB and taking in the aroma…let’s put out some positive tea vibes and hot tea thoughts to the postal gods for protection of the TTB…

@cofftea - Be not of fading hopes! Despair is not yet strong of mien! USPS has improved their tracking system in the past few years, although it is still far inferior to, for instance, the tracking used by UPS. I think delivery confirmation is a default for USPS packages, isn’t it? What you need is the receipt from shipping the TTB. Anyhow, a tracking number may be on the receipt. - OR — USPS may be able to find the tracking info from the other data on the receipt, even if there is no tracking number, per se, on it.

If the receipt is not at hand, is it possible for a tea lovin’ friend to search the vehicle? Your Mom can search her purse, and you can check the area where you would ordinarily keep receipts in the house. If the receipt cannot be found, then go to USPS station where it was mailed, and tell them the estimated weight, dimensions, date, and time of shipment. They can check to see if there’s a similar box sitting in the area where they keep the “astray” packages. The bar code may have been misprinted or smeared. There are many things which can go wrong with an automated system which humans will fail to predict and which heretofore have never occurred in the exact same form. What seems like magic to us may at times behave in a manner fit to prove out that very inanely magical theory! What did I just say? I don’t know, but it’s true! :-)) [ big cheesy grin ] In the afterlife, the TTB will re-appear in your high school locker.

The TTB is not disappeared into thin air. It is somewhere. We may yet have some fortunate occurrences converge eventually to produce it. I retain my hopes, and intend to continue nourishing them.

And should our TTB One never be found, I have several nice items to donate to an effort to have it finish the route it was on.

We’re still in the process of determining if it has actually been lost or is still in transit. I’ll update everyone as soon as we find out more. Thanks for your patience.

I think the first step would be to get ahold of Cofftea and determine beyond any doubt that the TTB actually was sent on.

I have talked to her and confirmed that it was sent. Now I’m just making sure I give it enough time to get here.

Jillian, we may have to just trade tea between the two of US!!! Want to start a new TTB? ; } ~ sigh~

I think that’s about the only way we might end up seeing the damn thing. ⌐_⌐

Pete & Jillian!!!! Are you the only 2 left or are there others!? Who was supposed to be next!? I might be able to help. I MIGHT be able to start one and send it – it might not be immediately – but let me know if you would like me to do this if it’s a lost cause and not found. I have a LOT of tea in my personal stash right now so I could start one to pick up where it left off. PM Me – I don’t always check this thread!

Ahem. I’m still here too…waiting quietly, to be sure, but here.

The Texas tea drinkers are still here quietly waiting.
I believe that the box was only about half way through its journey!

More like two-thirds of the way I think, but yeah, nowhere near the end.

Cofftea was just over the halfway mark, so there are still a lot of people to go. I’m at work at the moment and I won’t have time to take a look at it until tomorrow (Jillian, I got your email too). Then I’ll figure out who was left and we’ll see what we do about it. TeaEqualsBliss has volunteered to possibly put a TTB ver. 1.2 together, so the rest of the list won’t be completely cheated of the fun. Maybe others would like to donate to the replacement box as well or something.

I’m glad it was so succesful for the while it actually worked as it should and I’m sorry for those who got cheated by the disappearance of it, and I’m especially sad that the logbook is gone too. I was rather looking forward to looking through that logbook.

Apart from this rather unfortunate snag on the way, I had lots of fun organising it, and I hope those who missed out on the original box aren’t feeling discouraged from participating in similar activities some other time.

Angrboda – I didn’t even think of the logbook! Now I’m even more sad!

I would love to donate to a replacement box, especially to YOU! The others didn’t get to participate, which is, I know, dissapointing, but you put in teas and did not get the opportunity to take teas out.

Yea, I’m not sure what can be done about the log book :(. But we definitely want the rest of the people, including Angrboda, to get their turn at the TTB. So we’ll make sure that happens!

I am indeed most sad by the loss of the logbook, however, I did scan the pages when it reached me, i wasn’t that far in but i’ll find them and post them, they weren’t great scans b/c they were more for myself to find out more about the teas i choose :(

I would like to suggest a few common sense aspects of shipping: Always include your return address; always confirm with the person next in line that his or her address has not changed; always get Delivery Confirmation if you are in the USA (or the equivalent in other countries if it exists). Don’t store tea in a hot car for a long time.

I would also consider getting insurance as a possibility. The tea itself can end up having a great value; the Post Office is interested in delivering insured packages and insurance does not cost a whole lot. You could insure it for the replacement value: i.e. if you were going to buy new all of the teas in the box.

And since Tea Equals Bliss has had three boxes that she shipped disappear recently, I would wonder if she has resolved her problems with the Post Office before she proceeds.

I agree with Doulton – I would go a step further and say that future TTBs are not going to work unless we all agree to add insurance and delivery confirmation to our packages. If that is too costly for a person, that person should opt not to participate.

http://www.usps.com/prices/extra-services-prices.htm

As you can see, it will not add a terrible amount to the shipping price, and will give both sender and receiver great peace of mind.

I didn’t want to send this message privately to Jason because I wanted everyone to know how I felt :) If we decided that this would be too strict of a rule to participate, I would opt to not participate in future TTBs.

Doulton, I feel your pain and your common sense direction is appreciated. I too was sincerely looking fwd to the log…I really think that was the icing on the cake so to speak but we must move on…we will not blame anyone but take your advice and get insurance…be proacitive and if one wishes to participate then, ensure one can afford to insure – the TTB…Jason, let’s go! I am sure you have contacts to get this going quickly! Teaequalbliss…you are awsome!!!!

@Doulton – I have been requesting insurance on them ever since, yes…I asked if it gets lost it will cover the costs up to $50 (or more if you go higher with the insurance) and they said yes and that would be the ‘confirmation’ as they put it to me.

I’ll be glad to help out. Just let me know where to send some stuff :)

Ditto what Ricky said.

This community is wonderful!

My offer to do a replacement box still stands…I would like to be upfront about two things right away and then if the majority would like me to still do this I will. ONE…I will NOT be able to mail out until the 15th…I wanted to let everyone know that right away. And TWO…they will be teas from my own stash so there will be a variety of companies in a variety of sizes.

If this is still ok with everyone let me know…thanks!

@TeaEqualsBliss The 15th is fine with me. I have things to send you (insured) as soon as you PM me your address. Whatever doesn’t make it into the TTB is yours to keep. I don’t know what the original box weighed, but I’m guessing we won’t want it to get above a few pounds. Thank you for being willing to do this.

What I received and sent back out was a large flatrate shipment box. I believe the cost to ship was Approx $14.80-ish…but then again that was a few months ago!

Cheer up, steepsters! Today I mailed a package to TeaEqualsBliss to be used toward TTB-1B. There are several pure leaf, self-drinking black teas represented. They are nice for giving the palate a rest from flavored blends, or for learning more about tea types and origins. I’m not a big fan of green tea, but the pinhead gunpowder has charmed me with it’s citrusy, lightly smoky greenness. The Chamraj Estate Oolong simply delighted me! And the Nepalese is great for gongfu brewing; hard to say whether it’s a black congou or an oolong. Of course, the Tie Guan Yin Diamond Grade is amazingly floral. These are some of the tastiest, most interesting teas I’ve tasted recently.

I’m grateful to TeaEqualsBliss for putting the TTB back in play. She will be using the teas along with everything else she has, in order to get a good variety of teas for the TTB. So I’m not sure exactly which ones she’ll use, but I thought you might be interested in the list. Some are small samples, while others are an ounce or more.

Type of Tea:
B – Black
H – Herbal
G – Green
W – White
O – Oolong
M – Yerba Mate
P – Puerh
Y – Yellow

Nilgiri Chamraj Frost, O, Silver Leaf Tea
Castleton 1st Flush Darjeeling, B, Silver Leaf
Pinhead Gunpowder, G, Silver Leaf
Yunnan TGFOP1, B, Silver Leaf
Golden Monkey, B, Silver Leaf
Ya Bao Wild Tea, W, Norbu
Tie Guan Yin Diamond Grade, O, Norbu
Dian Hong Bi Lo Chun, B, Norbu
Keemun Finest Chuen Cha (560), B, Tea Gschwendner
Yunnan Golden Downy Pekoe (571), B, Tea Gschwendner
Gyokuro Premium Organic, G, Orient Organics
Yunnan Tippy (ZY88), B, Upton Tea
Matevana, M, Teavana
Assam Reserve, B, Teas Etc
House Blend, W, Tropical Tea Company
Buckingham Palace Garden Party, B, Metropolitan Tea
Nepalese Organic, B or O?, Mountain Rose Herbs

Thanks so much for sending these! I am sure this box will be full of goodies! I am positive the future TTB peeps will be happy with the selection/variety! Thanks to AmazonV as well…she’s going to send something, too!

Thanks :) I am sure those who haven’t received the box yet will be grateful! CHEERS!

@Cofftea I am downstream from you and Jason. The Red Pepper Oolong and Mayan Chocolate Puerh would be some of the teas I’d have tried, had they made the trip. You sure went all-out to give us a lovely variety to choose from! Did you ever find out why the Kekecha Yellow group of tea is known as yellow?

I really do not like the fact that Cofftea took all the tins. The box “was” flat rate, so the weight didn’t matter. Yes, it was stuffed full…but come on…take what you want and replace what you took. Simple as that. It was pretty cool to see a box that size and open it to find that it is literally stuffed with wonderful teas. I personally enjoy seeing all of the different packaging/tins of teas. Some were from companies I’d never even heard of. This is a shame.

I have to agree with Lena and PeteG here. There’s no need to re-package all the contributions. If weight is a problem take more tea out instead. Repackaging something that one isn’t even interested in keeping is just unnecessary handling of the leaves, and as mentioned the different sorts of packaging is part of the experience. I would really prefer if nobody else did this.

I wish to thank all those who have participated in the TTB – with all the many, many hands and states, provinces, and nations throughout this "tiny"world…the law of averages is that the box was bound to be lost!
Soooo, we move on, we are mature, and we accept the reality of the moment. This is healing!! Let’s get on with it!!! Where’s the BoX? I am going crazy here in Nova Scotia!!!

LENA, the box was not flat rate by the time I got to it. The person before me paid quite a bit just to send it the 100 or so miles. There was no rule about packaging either way. It’s funny that several people here have commented on my packaging soap box. I’m not sorry I want to pay to ship tea and not packaging. And less packaging means more tea. And more tea is a good thing, isn’t it? Unfortunately my efforts to contribute extra tea were ruined anyway. Which brings up a point- the box is who knows where so does my choice of packaging really matter?

PeteG, TeaEqualsBliss is sending it out later this week I believe.

PS: The reason I shipped in a large flatrate box is because that is what type of box it was originally shipped in to me several months ago so I wanted to follow suit. That AND it’s actually cheaper to ship that way for what we have.

Thank you…thank you…thank you…your awsomerest…my fresh well water is waiting…yum, yum…yummest! Thank you all who have made this possible…you know who you are!

Ready, Set, GO!!!!!

Glad you got it and thanks for posting it was received! :)

AWESOME! Don’t forget to take and post pictures for us Jason!

Happy dance. (^_^)

Figuring…looking at the calendar…I am #19…doing the happy dance:)
Go TTB 1.2! Woot!!!

16 is Jason, who is 17?

and thanks to AmazonV for providing the camera! :)

i warn everyone, it’s a pretty “meh” camera on “high res” (it was 9$) – for those getting the box the instructions and software are here: http://www.crazy-mice.com/steepster/ but it is much better than nothing!

(make sure camera is on hi res, take pictures, install software, then plus in camera and open software to pull pictures off camera sadly it doesn’t show as a drive like many cameras do)

AmazonV – My Avast detected a Malware virus on your ’main URL" not the steepster one – just wanted to let you know…

oh my! thanks, drat i wonder what happened :(

PSA: use SFTP and not FTP or your web server will get malware, dang nabbit i only use it as a ebay holding ground i didn’t think anyone would bother!