You know you're "addicted" to tea when ....

1533 Replies

When you take all of your college graduation gift money from friends and family to start your journey at being a self run online tea shop… :)

No better time to take risks and follow your passions.

Indeed. It is very intimidating to start though, I am starting to understand what these stores have to do to keep up: emails, accounts, passwords, numbers, connecting accounts, updates, and all sorts of other stuff all over everywhere. In a way it is exciting but at the same time I keep checking to see if I messed something up because I want it to be done correctly so I don’t look like a kid building a tree house as fast as he can because it was his dream and he just got the materials. Looks at that run-on

Ubacat said

You’re braver than me. I’ve considered it but thought there’s too much competition out there.

Being unemployed and living with my parents in the meantime I decided to take a months rent money and dedicate it to startup cost. To me $500 on a dream is worth seeing where it can be taken. I have a passion for tea so it helps a lot to be involved with the community and being honest. I am trying to work on blends that I don’t even like which is kind of fun. Overall it is an amazing learning experience to see all the legality, cost, and time dedication that small shops go through day to day. Etsy is actually more complicated than I thought it would be too :P

In addition to that
When you live at your parents and spend rent money on the expansion of that tea company.

(I’m moving out in November though so it’s not like I’ll be the forever tenant of my parents basement creating teas :p)

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AllanK said

When you buy so much tea from a particular EBay seller that they email you and offer you a 10% discount on all your purchases.

Allan… if they sent you a 10% reimbursement on all your purchases I will be baffled.
I am pretty sure you mean 10% on all future purchases, but how crazy would the above be o.O

yyz said

Actually not so impossible. I have had a seller I deal with apply a 30% discount to my purchase before and another that regularly gives me so many samples that he almost doubles the tea in my order.

Ubacat said

Wow, yyz! Which sellers are those? Or should I be asking? lol I already have too much tea.

The group order I had with YUNOMI went over $600… but with communication with Ian I was able to get a nice discount to get everyone to a decent price. Everyone still paid less than what the split portions would be which is okay I took this on as a gift to the community, but from my experience I think it comes down to communication. I have two Ebay sellers that offer me discounts. One dealer does it if I buy outside of Ebay because of fees and the other does it because they messed up an order of mine and we emailed a lot.

yyz said

The 30% discount was from Han Xiang Ecological teas. If you get into a conversation with him and are buying more than one tea he often further discounts for repeat customers. The extra tea is from Capital Tea Ltd. The owner usually includes at least one generous sample and if you let him know your willing to review, post, blog about often many more.

Ubacat said

I already buy from Han Xiang Ecological Teas but maybe not enough for a discount. They do have some great teas and great prices. Problem is, they come in big 250g bags.

I’ve sampled some Capital Teas tea and liked it. I’ll look into that for future orders!

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AllanK said

When you have one of nearly every ripe tea that Yunnan Sourcing and Puerhshop sell or have at least tried them.

yssah said

gah! that is such a scary/dreamy image for my future

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A When your summer job isn’t something normal, like an ice cream place, it’s your local tea shop.
B When, for said summer job, you are literally paid in tea. (To be fair, it’s illegal to pay me with real money, but still)
C When you can only read your book (about tea) with an accompanying cup of the type of tea the book is discussing.
D When you don’t care/notice when you burn your tongue because it was all worth it.

yssah said

wow..to start young :) looked into getting your birthyear puerh yet? ;)

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Chameo said

A. Your dentist complains that she found tea leaves in your teeth
B. You choose your meals around which would go best with your favorite flavor of tea rather than the other way around
C. You drive 10 minutes away from home only to turn back because you realized you forgot your thermos
D. When someone asks you how many cups of tea you drank today, you really have to think…
E. When someone asks you how much tea you own, your answer ends in lbs.

The first and last one tho hahaha xD

yssah said

B!!! hahaha. havent gotten there yet. i got E with the excuse of being able to sell them off, lol

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A When neighbors give you tea when they see you on the street. This happened yesterday, and the tea was excellent (Australian Rainforest Tea)
B When you get excited over a gaiwan
C When you join Steepster
D When your exam day preparation consists of a review game with friends and tea.

I need neighbors like that.

yssah said

welcome to steepster! XD

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Talking a kinda long walk in warm Santa Fe just go by a place you found online.

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When you go to put student loan documents in your safe box and find an ounce of samples inside that you completely forgot about..

yssah said

lol. samples in a safe box. must be pretty expensive tea!

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When you plan your traveling around reputed tea shops (you also need to convince who ever you’re traveling with to go along with you).

yssah said

i have done this! lol

OMara said

I do this all the time, and am always disappointed when there are no good tea shops where I’m traveling

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I’m about to have my most epic tea related post office trip ever. Today I am mailing-

One traveling tea box
Four packages of tea to folks to participated in a group order with me
One gift
One swap

SO MUCH TEA

yssah said

first and last. ditto!

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