Share your in store purchases/stories thread!

I got this http://www.davidstea.com/portal.aspx?CN=E7FD64FA83DC as well as the other three colours. I love love love them.

STORYTIEM:

A few years ago, I was leaving my barber’s, and I passed by a pretty-looking little tea shop that I had never seen before. It appeared to be newly constructed. I was still extremely new to loose-leaf at the time (the only loose tea I owned then was a bag of Strawberry Fields from Teaopia that a customer had accidentally left behind at my till at work), and otherwise only had a lifetime of fond experiences with Tetley tea bags. I still basically considered myself a tea lover, and my heart went pitter-pat when I saw this little shop, so I immediately stopped and went in.

There were two employees there: a young blonde girl (maybe in her early twenties) with her hair in a ponytail who was bustling about, and a good-looking youngish guy (maybe early thirties) who enthusiastically greeted me when I crossed the entrance. I believe I said something really dopey like, “I saw the word ‘tea,’ and I had to come in!”

He practically glowed. “A TEA LOVER!”

“Yep! Definitely love tea.”

“We’ve got lots of tea I can show you! What type of tea do you like?”

…Oof. Type of tea? There’s more than one type? What, like chai vs. orange pekoe? I knew the bag I had from Teaopia said “flavoured white tea,” on it, but I didn’t actually have a clue what that meant. I realized I had (unintentionally!) misrepresented myself – he obviously considered the question he’d asked a basic one, and I had no idea how to answer it. With some embarrassment, I explained that while I had grown up drinking tea bags, and always considered myself to love the stuff, I had only learned what “loose” tea was a few weeks prior, and that I didn’t know what the stuff I had was. I really didn’t know what “type” I liked.

He assured me that was fine, that he would start pulling wall tins, and we would DISCOVER what I liked. Which he did – he had pulled nearly every tin on the wall down by the time I left, and the counter was covered in them. I would smell, we would discuss my impressions, and by the time I lifting my head from sniffing, he would already be bouncing off for another tin he thought I might like.

He also popped from behind the counter at one point to discuss teaware with me – I most likely told him I was awkwardly using a kitchen strainer at home because I didn’t have an infuser, but I don’t remember. It was at that point, standing in the middle of the store, that we made more personal introductions. We started talking about life in general. I mentioned that the store seemed new, and he agreed that it was their opening week. “I’m the owner.”

Wow! Good luck, I told him, I really hope the store succeeds. And it must be so amazing to own a store so young – I really admired that, to really be doing something with your life at that age, and to not be a mess-up still in school like me. He asked me what I did, and I told him what I was doing in school. Wow! he said, now those courses are tough, and he admired me, and told me I had nothing to be ashamed of. After that, we then learned something quite personal about each other, and I won’t violate his privacy by sharing – what you tell someone you have an immediate personal connection with is not necessarily what you would tell a forum of strangers. But we have had similar personal struggles in our lives. We discussed how important it is to not give up when life shits on you. We discussed Life and Stuff alone for at least an hour, aside from showing me tea. A few people came in while we talked, but the blonde woman handled them all.

I eventually decided on two teas he told me were among his absolute favourites, and got them in tins. I felt a little embarrassed he had gone to so much work, and I could only afford two, but he assured me that it was his pleasure to talk to me. He wouldn’t be in town anymore after the store’s opening, he said, so he probably wouldn’t see me again. But he hoped I liked the tea, that I would come to discover what a big world tea is, that I would drink tea all my life, and that he really wished me success in life as well. Don’t give up, he said.

I left with my tea, absolutely happy, and vowing to continuously be back to that little tea shop whether I even liked the tea or not – I really wanted that nice David guy’s store to succeed.

Of course, I had no idea yet that DAVIDsTEA probably didn’t need my help! I have still always been back, though.

(The two teas he got me? Pumpkin Chai and Rooibos de Provence. Still staples to me.)

Technically not MY in store purchase, but they are for me.
16g of the following
Quanghzhou Milk Oolong
Banana Dream Pie
Ceylon Star
Kiwi’s Big Adventure
Stormy Night
Bear Trap

I got a small collection of teas over the weekend and even somre more coming in from yssah – Love is Tea (LIT)

But, from the stores, I got a hazelnut, apricot, and oolong tea from Coffee Tree & Tea Leaves Co. I got a yunnan pu-erh, ti kuan yin oolong, acai white, blood orange, and strawberry and roses tea from The Coffee and Tea Exchange, and then I discovered there was a number of stores just down the street from where I’m staying and picked up a Temple of Heaven Special Gunpowder Green Tea, Sunflower Jasmine Tea (I think sunflower is the company), and Choicest Tea Golden Dragon LIchee Black Tea.

I went a little tea shopping crazy. I’m cutting myself off for a while after this trip. I went to Lupica, David’s, Teavana, some macaroon place that had Mariage Freres teas, Red Blossom, Aroma, Bird Pick, Samovar, Vital Tea Leaf and some place in Japantown. Didn’t buy tea from all of those places, but I got to check them out. I still want to stop into Zhena’s Gypsy and Teance.

I went to China Town yesterday and found Gaiwan from $3-5 dollars, I got two new glass gaiwans around 150ml, 1 thicker and one thinner walled and one thicker ceramic one. I also bought a handmade cast iron 0.8L teapot at a good price, As well as bilochun, and honeysuckle teas.