Considering a new Traveling Tea Box- [SIGN UPS CLOSED- UPDATED 8/16]
Ok, looking for some more advice. Does this look like a good addition for what I am removing?
Adding to box (weights include packaging, no tins):
Adagio – Watson’s Mustache 1.5 oz
Upton Tea – Finest Russian Caravan .5 oz
Teavana – Gyokuro Imperial 1.1 oz
Tea Source – Downy Pearls .4 oz
Damman Freres – Breakfast 7 teabags
Goshopstreet (ebay dealer) – Organic Anxi Strong Aroma Tie Guan Yin 1.2 oz
Harney and Sons – Tower of London – 6 teabags
Harney and Sons – Royal Wedding – 6 teabags
Verdant Tea – Yunnan White Jasmine .5 oz
Tea Source – Jade Spring Oolong 1.5 oz
Tea Source – China, Precious Eyebrows 1.9 oz
Starwest Botanicals – Mango Ceylon Organic Blend 4oz
Adagio – Decaf Vanilla .9 oz
Upton Tea – Bond Street English Breakfast 1.1 oz
Upton Tea – Baker Street Afternoon Tea 1.2 oz
9 prepackaged samples from TeaVivre, Butiki, Republic of Tea, Adagio
Taking or have finished all of (weights include packaging):
Green Darjeeling no estate or company 1.7 oz
Harney and Sons Florence 1.2 oz
Mary Queen Co Thai Chai .9 oz
Purchased in India Masala Chai .8 oz
Adagio Captain Mal 1.2 oz
Harney and Sons Boston 1.1 oz
TeaGschwender Indian Chai 1.4 oz
Ahmad Tea Kalami Assam 1.1 oz
Ten Ren Lychee Black Tea 1.2 oz
EnjoyingTea.com Phoenix Mountain .3 oz
Harney and Sons Paris .7 oz
Verdant Autumn Tieguanyin 1 oz
Teavivre Mengku Palace Golden Buds .6 oz
This looks great to me. If anything you are being too generous. I count 13.2 ounces going out and 15.8 going in, not including samples, teabags, etc. The quality of the brands seems equivalent. I think there is a natural tendency to be fair that sometimes causes us to reach too much in the direction of generosity. That isn’t bad, but the goal is to maintain a certain weight to the box.
My one specific suggestion is that 4 ounces of a single tea is kind of a lot. If it were me, I’d only send 1 or 2 ounces of the mango. It wouldn’t hurt if you also left out one of the other teas you mention. For selfish reasons, I won’t suggest deleting the smaller samples and bags, but do take credit for their total weight. If we all do it right, but box shouldn’t grow much.
If those Upton tins are the 1" high cylinders, please include them. I’ll take them out of the box. I use them for storage, and was considering buying some. If you don’t want them I do. As a general rule, however, I’d agree with the consensus that tins just add weight.
Hope this message isn’t too late; I was away overnight.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the great feedback. Unfortunately I jumped the gun and mailed the box out to you already. It should arrive tomorrow.
I wish I had thought about the 4oz addition a little more, you are right that it is too much of any one tea. It is an unopened packaged so I just sent as is, but it is a lot of one tea. You are also right that I wanted to make sure I added at least as much tea both in weight and price and so erred on the side of more must be better. I will keep both of these things in mind with any future boxes I participate in.
Perhaps on the good news front, the cost of the box to send to you was the same as from Ellyn to me: 11.85, including delivery confirmation. Please feel free to help me out and if there are any of my teas you like, take out more than you add back into the box. Keeping the mailing cost of the box down is important.
I will send you a message about the tins. I didn’t include them, but I’m happy to send them to you. It’s absolutely no problem for me.
Two further updates on the box in addition to what I posted earlier:
I also took out:
Upton Tea – Poire Crème 1+ oz
Butiki – The Killer’s Vanilla .4 oz
And I added:
Upton Tea – Season’s Pick Green Snail .5 oz
Upton Tea – Special Oolong Buddha’s Palm .5 oz
Teavivre – Yun Nan Dian Hung Golden Tip .6oz
No worry. To be honest, I was kind of hoping you’d already sent out the box. I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks. Don’t worry about the tins. They aren’t worth the postage. I actually decided to go in another direction for storage, though I’m still using the ones that I got with my sample set.
The box just arrived. It’s huge! This is about twice as big as the other travelling tea box I’ve seen. Can’t wait to dig in.
I’ve finished with the box and plan to put it in the mail for Iridium on Thursday. I’ll PM the tracking number.
I went crazy and sampled about 50 teas in 8 days (over 3 ounces of samples). The sampling finished off the Mad Monk GABA Oolong and the Teavivre Silver Needles.
I also removed the last of the Whispering Pines Imperial Gold, the David’s Tea Main Squeeze, and the Strawberry Sencha.
I took samples of approx 6 grams of each of the following: Teavivre White Peony, Teasource Precious Eyebrow, Rishi Coconut Oolong, Upton Buddah’s Palm oolong, Teasource Jade Spring Oolong, Upton Spring Dragon Oolong, and Takaowaka Aracha.
I added approx 1 ounce each of Teavana Golden Monkey, David’s Tea Lime Gelato, and Teavana Love Spell, and approx 1/2 ounce each of the following: Thunderbolt Tea Arya Moonbeam 2nd Flush Darjeeling, Thunderbolt Tea Turzum Clonal Delight 1st Flush Darjeeling, Harney & Sons Florence, Harney & Sons Vanilla Comoro, Adagio Decaf Mango, Teavivre Balin Gongfu, Mountain Tea Jade Oolong, Mountain Tea Medium Roast Osmanthus, and Mountain Tea Black Pearl Oolong. Also, about 9 grams each of Upton Singtom in-between Darjeeling, Upton China Panyang Congou Select, and Upton Hong Tao Keemun
Just as an FYI: I’ve been trying to keep track of what’s in the box based on people’s notes on Steepster, but was only about 90% accurate. Several teas I was expecting to try were missing (probably sipped down) and there were a number of small items not on the list. All in all it seemed to balance.
The box has arrived in Cambridge!
And wow, there’s so many teas! I’ve just gone through the box and looked at everything – I have to admit, I giggled a little bit at “Watson’s Mustache” and the fact that the Cocoa Canela is not just double or triple, but quadruple bagged… =]
Time to start tasting…
Ha. I had originally double-bagged the Cocoa Canela. Apparently that wasn’t enough.
BlueLotus — Yes, I do have your address.
Ellyn (and everyone) — The box is great! It’s really fun just to see so many different teas, and all the different packaging, and everyone’s different handwriting (is that weird?), and knowing that it’s come from so many different places. And a lot of it is tea companies that I’d never even heard of before! So it’s been pretty exciting.
It did come at a bit of a bad time… I went out of town for the weekend and I wasn’t able to send out the box before I left, so I’m holding on to it a little longer than I should. Sorry! I’ll try and get to the post office tomorrow, and if not then definitely Thursday.
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