Show us your Tea Cupboard!

I have a bookcase set up too!

Love seeing other people’s stuff thanks for sharing!! Very colorful!

If you didnt spend so much money on David’s tea you wouldnt have to eat ramin noodles ;) Just kidding. Great colorful collection

So adoring this!

Thanks Kasumi no Chajin!

impressive

Thanks T.C.!

Very nice setup :)

This is so . . . organized! Sometimes I think the bar is set way too high for me here.

Thanks Em and cuppaT

Thank you for sharing these awesome pics!

Uh oh.. I want a designated hutch for tea… I’m loving this!! Thanks for sharing :)

Nice and neat! Very organized…but just you wait…hahahaha!

Bonnie..thank you! It’s getting so hard to manage! Since I posted this the other day my cupboard is overflowing….I’m running out of room!!!!

I love your cabinet! So beautifully organized!
And I see we have the same green dragonfly teapot!

Looks like it has some great teas in it though!

Thats sort of what I’m looking at too.
I need some organization!

It might be disorganized but it’s full of delicious tea!! :) Now you can do before and after pics. I wish I had taken a pic of my tea drawer when it was still filled with bagged tea only. That was before I switched to loose tea and kicked half of the bags out of there… lol

Soon you’ll have a non-toxic spill!

I want to be a tea nerd just like you one day! That is so awesome!

Only took me a year to become a nerd, and I’ve been really slow about it. A fixed income proves that you don’t have to be rich to enjoy tea and have a ‘healthy’ addiction!

Thank goodness for that. I keep thinking I need a second job just to support my tea spending. I’ll have to see how far I get in a year but wow…I have a long way to go to catch you! Impressive :)

Make sure you keep a heads up for vendors free samples. Look for information on Teavivre’s free sample program which most people here have received at some time (including me). Often the offers are here in the discussion boards so keep and eye open for what’s new. Ordering online, some vendors offer more free samples than others. Swaps with other steepsters increases your stash and experience.

I’ve certainly got the swap part down (8 packages sent out this week alone!). I’ll check out Teavivre since I don’t know much about them yet. And still looking for good free sample vendors. I’ve ordered from Della Terra, New Mexico Tea Co., 52Teas, Tao of Tea,& my local Mad Hat Tea Co. and have yet to get a free sample from any of them (so disappointing!). Honestly the only one to send me a free sample has been Laurnent from Nina’s and I haven’t even bought anything from them yet! They are just sending me free samples because they are awesome! Thanks for the advice though, I’m certainly learning as I go :)

Butiki is one of the best for samples (if not the best!) and all the flavors are natural. I have some Taiwanese Black Mountain Tea coming that is one of the best Black tea’s I’ve ever tasted. Wild and sweet! The owner Stacy always asks what sample tea’s do you want to try and tucks some into your order. She’s fantastic.
Verdant tea always puts in a sample and handwritten note. The tea’s are excellent! Kally Tea, Steapshoppe all give samples. Whispering pines gives samples.
After a bit, companies will contact you if you regularly review tea.

love it Bonnie! Love it!

I am visiting your house!

This is awesome. Thanks also for your tips on slowly (and inexpensively) building the collection! As a college student, I don’t have spare money to buy nice teas… but often do anyway haha.

Wow!!! Amazing collection Bonnie!!! Beautiful! I love your Yixing set :) I love it all!

My yixing set was a present and at least half my tea are samples and trades or Holiday gifts (most of the puer was gifts). You can always ask for tea on Valentines Day or a Birthday.

Bonnie – thank you for sharing! SO SO beautiful and truly an envious collection. LOVE IT!

Thanks Az, and I’d love visits especially around the Rocky Mountain Tea Festival Boulder Colorado in July!

oooh hey if I don’t make it to the NY tea festival maybe i’ll see if i can go to colorado for yours! :)

July you say … plans may be able to be made … I have not been to Colorado in years although my son wants to move there soon. I have many reasons to come! I have another friend who lives in the area as well. :) So many wonderful reasons!
Do you have a link to the festival by any chance?

Az,not sure whats listed yet but it’s held at and around the Dushanbe Tea House in Boulder. The classes are worth taking. I took an oolong class for 2 hours and got pretty tea drunk! $15 for the class. Same with cooking with tea and included a gourmet lunch. Free tastings are everywhere from vendors (many you know). Not on my computer right now…

Bonnie, that sounds like a dream! :)

http://www.boulderteahouse.com/rocky-mountain-tea-festival/

info not up for this year but that should have it when it does..

Thank you Sil! :)

Absolutely stunning, Bonnie. You’ve curated a gorgeous collection!

Fantastic set up! Impressive collection :)

Aww, so sad! I got all excited because a bunch of my family and I will be vacationing in Colorado in mid-July, so I thought I might be able to swing by the festival… but it takes place about a week and a half after we’ll have left. So close, and yet so far…

Beautiful display, Bonnie!

Stunning Shiboridashi!

It’s like an organized tea explosion lol!
That’s……..a lot of tea

Ahh, the legendary Towers of Matcha! :)

T.C. haha yeah and the sad thing is its far more than it looks. Before I had to dig everything out to find the one I wanted – now its an organized mess.

CuppaT ROFL that cracked me up!

Nice cupboard Az! I just had to put mine AWAY! Except for the PU! My counter space was being compromised, so that’s when I got the 3 drawer bin for samples that needed reviewing. Smaller footprint!

Bonnie I completely understand. I would love to have all my goodies spread out – I have so many pretty tea cups sitting in the basement – they are safer there. I just took one out and decided I had to start using it and enjoying it!
I have used the three drawer system before but then had to arrange other furniture which cost me to lose the spot for that. Its always this evolving process isn’t it!?

Wow, nicely organized! I see the Peach HoppiTea. ;) That’s a real nice sized tea tray you got there and gorgeous too.

:) Yes Peach HoppiTea is right up front :) The tins are also ones I grab regularly.
Yes it is a super large tray! It was from my hubby for Christmas although I picked it out. :)

Nice! :) Very lovely gift. Hahaha, I do that with my husband all the time. Everyone wins that way.

Beautiful collection Azzrian!!! I can’t get over your matcha stash!!! And I’m in love with that wooden tea tray… Gorgeous! :)

Thank you Kamyria! :) The tray is from Dragon Tea House.
Butiki – lol indeed – exactly!

Another beautiful cabinet, & an amazing array of teas!

Azzrian – I have to ask, what is that ice pick looking thing on the tray? I’m not sure if it’s a thermometer or one of those knife/pick things I’ve heard you need for puerh. I’ve seen it now in both your’s and Bonnie’s pictures. Lol.

I’m starting to get an inferiority complex! :)

I’m following the Bonnie plan….slow and steady! Eventually, I expect to wake up one day in a tea mecca surrounded by tins from the four corners of the world!

T.C, I’m with you.

Again, my bookshelves were the $15 kind at walmart. I had no furniture 2 years ago when I moved here from California. No bed, no silverware…but I could sleep on tea leaves now!

Ha ha ha … I’m with you guys… Total inferiority… Every time I look at my itsy bitsy tea drawer I remember the mountains of tea some people are surrounded by… :)

Love the see through shelving!

Thanks! There are doors on both sides, which is awesome.

Yeah, nice shelving!

I love the idea of hanging the bags up :)

What a great way to organize the bags!

I envy your David’s Tea collection.

Adored your blog. Just stole an hour of my day :)

Thanks Maria!! Be warned it sometimes gets a bit risque / not safe for work :)

Oh my gosh, tea packets on clothes pins! Ingenious and hilarious, all at once! XD Brava!

Yeah! The clothesline, uhh…TeaLine, is great! Very innovative!

If you have to, storage ottomans are one of the best ways to store things you use but want to keep out of sight (also handy if you have animals and don’t want them poking around in your tea). I’m a big advocate of having furniture that multi-tasks, because I too live in a tiny space. Good luck! I might think of some more suggestions later.

if you haven’t already, check out my pictures (above) the clothes pin method works super well and you could also clip them onto vertical strings if you dont’ have a place for horizontal ones.