CLOSED: Travelling Tea Box C Round 2

So then… First – Pictures! XD
http://tinyurl.com/TTTCMessy – This was after I just upended the box onto my table. Lol.
http://tinyurl.com/TTTCNeat – And here it is all nicely laid out. It nearly covers my whole table top.
- Can anyone confirm what’s in the Orange Teavana Bag? It doesn’t smell like the labeled Earl Grey Creme. But it does smell like the Harvney & Sons Florence (hazelnut/chocolate) that’s masking tape labeled on the top, so I want to make sure. Lol.

So next up, what’s here. From what I can tell after going through all the lists and whatnot, Darby took out the following teas: (Unless Sorceress or Moraiwe can confirm they took any of these out instead)
Teavana Black Dragon Pearls
Teavana Cococaramel Seasalt
Mountain Tea Jin Xuan Milk Oolong
Enjoying Tea – Wuyi Rock Oolong
52 Teas – Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal
English Tea Store – Vanilla Chai
DavidsTea – Long Life Oolong
Tealish – Carrot Cake
Della Terra – Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Georgia Tea Co. – Immortalitea
Della Terra – Swiss Mountain
Della Terra – Dubbele Chocolade
Rishi – Earl Grey Lavender
52 Teas – Caramel Apple Oolong
La Java – Tulsi Signature
Fava Tea – Lemon Basil Oolong
Simpson & Vail – Cinnamon Chocolate Brownie
DavidsTea – Mom’s Apple Pie
English Tea Leaves – Ti Guan Yin
Teavana – Kuki Matcha
Teavana Earl Grey Creme
And I’m not sure out of what was left was sampled on a cup by cup basis.

Darby added:
King’s Crown – Rooibostee Karamell
Republic of Tea – Get Passionate
Caraway Tea – Blood Orange Rooibos
Tea Forte – Kiwi Lime Ginger
Tea Forte – Peach Rhubara Preserves(?)
52 Teas – Neopolitan Honeybush
Ovation – Chocolate Orange Bliss
Ovation – Raspberry Earl Grey
Ovation – Lavender Earl Grey
Adagio Peppermint
Bag of tea bags (Unless Sorceress or Moraiwe can confirm they added this)

Overall, I’m disappointed in the aftermath of the box’s arrival and sorting through it. I assumed that if someone takes out a type of tea , it would be replaced with the same type, or similar, so that the selection is still there. Mainly I was hoping to try some of the oolongs and black teas that had been put in the box before me, but they were all taken out and replaced with tea bags, rooibos and a few large amounts of very strongly flavored, orange peel filled black tea that wasn’t really an equal replacement. Now there’s very little here that I want to even try. I managed to pick out three or four that I’ll be trying, but that’s all. While I understand that’s a risk I take being a participant of a box like this, it’s not exactly fair in my opinion. It just makes me wonder if I should drop out of the other box for this list altogether if all the ‘good stuff’ gets taken out before it gets to me again.
I know I’m posting this at the risk of sounding whiny about not getting to try the things I wanted, but I’m kinda bummed about the whole thing right now. Maybe my expectations were just higher than they should have been.

Alright. Update on the box.
So I’ll be shipping this box back out likely Wednesday before I go to work. That’s the plan at least.
I ended up trying Cherry Green (Georgia Tea Co.), Vanilla Black (Upton), Guanabana (Adagio), Florence (Harney & Sons) & White Melon Yogurt (California Tea Co.). 1 tsp from each except the Florence I took 3ish because the first wasn’t that strong and I was hoping 2 would be (By the way, it wasn’t. Lol!)
Unfortunately none of them turned out to be anything I would actually order from the company. Ah well. I’ll cross my fingers for better luck in the second box when it arrives.
I ended up adding Chocolate Cake (David’s Tea) & Sherlock (Adagio Blend). I might toss another tea in there for the hell of it before I send it off, but we’ll see. Lol.

Oh. And it’s got a different box because I couldn’t reship it in the priority box I got from Darby. I’ll post a tracking number here when it goes out.

This is a cross-post from the other list.

Martine has asked to be removed from the tea box circulation, so I’ve taken her off the list.

I just shipped the box out today. Sorry for the delay on it.
Tracking number is 9405 9036 9930 0097 5429 23
It’ll be in a Verdant Tea box, so keep an eye out Fiddling.

The box was originally scheduled to arrive today, but found it in my mailbox last night which was an awesome surprise.

My first reaction was, “Holy shit, that’s a lot of tea.” Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:

http://oi44.tinypic.com/2uigpqe.jpg
http://oi41.tinypic.com/25kifrb.jpg

Stay tuned for tasting notes. :)

Just wanted to update everyone on the status of the box. I set aside 23 of the teas in the box to try (there are about 35 types of loose leaf in total), and have gotten through 16 of them. I’ve been taking notes as I try the teas, but I haven’t gotten a chance to convert them all to tasting notes yet.

I’ll post a list of what I’ve taken out/added before I send the box off to Shelley (which will hopefully be on Tuesday).

I shipped the box via Priority Mail and it should be delivered by Friday. It weighed 2 lbs, 11 oz. and cost $8.75. The tracking number is: 9505 5214 6701 3274 0002 43

Overall, I was pleased with the box. There were 33 types of loose leaf to sample, and I eventually tried a little over half of them. I tried to balance out what I removed by adding the same amount/type of tea. However, the box had mostly black/rooibos to begin with, so I added some white and green for variety. I also added an inventory (with rough estimates) of everything in the box.

Initially, I was a bit disappointed with how the teas had been packaged. Most of them were in a single, thin ziplock bag. The scent of the box was overwhelming at first. Luckily, none of the teas that I tried tasted like they were contaminated. I couldn’t re-bag everything, but I made sure to use better packaging for what I did add.

Removed
52 Teas – Neapolitan Honeybush – 1 tsp
Adagio – Coconut – 1 tsp
ATTIC – Immunity – 1 tsp
California Tea House – White Melon Yogurt – 3 tsp
Cameron’s – Spicy Plum – 1 tsp
Caraway Tea – Blood Orange Rooibos – 1 tsp
Della Terra – Double Berry Burst – 1 tsp
The English Tea Store – Bourbon Street Vanilla Rooibos – 8 tsp
Georgia Tea Company – Cherry Sencha – 1 tsp
Harney & Sons – Black Currant – 3 tsp
Harney & Sons – Decaf Earl Grey – 3 tsp
Harney & Sons – Rooibos Chai – 1 sachet
King’s Crown – Rooibostee Karamell – 8 tsp
The Loose Leaf – Organic Rose Vanilla Rooibos – 2 tsp
Ovation Teas – Lavender Earl Grey – 4 tsp
Ovation Teas – Raspberry Earl Grey – 3 tsp
Republic of Tea – Get Passionate – 1 bag
Rishi – Maghreb Mint – 1 tsp
Tea Forté – Kiwi Lime Ginger – 3 sachets
Tea Forté – Peach Rhubarb Preserves – 1 tsp
Teavana – Lemon Lime Kanpai – 1 tsp (Completely Removed)
Upton – Vanilla Black – 1 tsp
Yogi – DeTox – 1 bag
Yogi – Mexican Sweet Chili – 1 bag
Chinese Oolong Tea – 1 bag

Added
52 Teas – Earl Black – 4-5 tsp
52 Teas – S’mores Genmaicha – 5-6 tsp
Butiki Teas – Pineapple Cilantro Cream – 6 tsp
Butiki Teas – Tamarind Pop – 2 tsp
DAVIDsTEA – Lapsang Souchong Star – 4 tsp
Della Terra – Gingerbread Man – 2 tsp
Della Terra – Honey & Spice – 2 tsp
Della Terra – Snow Fairy – 2 tsp
Teavana – Maharaja Chai Oolong – 1 tsp
Teavana – Rooibos Chai – 7 tsp
Teavana – Rooibos Tropica – 7 tsp
Harney & Sons – Earl Grey Supreme – 4 sachets
DanFeng’s Tea – Tie Kwan Yin – 3 bags
Sadaf – Special Blend w/ Cardamom – 3 bags

Here’s a picture of the tea I added to the box:
http://oi39.tinypic.com/1z3zf47.jpg

I got the tea box . Yay! I think it actually arrived yesterday and I am slightly bummed that I didn’t get it then. Usually, my mail is delivered to a neighborhood lock box, but I had some outgoing packages that the mail lady picked up from my porch and replaced with two incoming boxes. I assumed that would be everything, but apparently, one box was put in the mailbox. boo. So today, I wanted to go to the mail box but it snowed! a bunch. and it is cold. So I whined and waffled to and from the door for an hour and finally determined to go outside and make the journey to the mailbox. Yeah, i know, really tragic :p

So anyway, I got a couple pictures, of course, to share, but I gotta make dinner now before my husband gets to itchy about it.

In the meantime, I created this excel file with the current box inventory. I’ll update it when I am finished with the box, but this link will remain the same to access the file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mi28tuql49y0akn/TTB-C.xlsx

Hopefully you can all access it.

Tea Pictures!

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h353/flightysprite/Tea/IMG_1106_zps295d2b4f.jpg

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h353/flightysprite/Tea/IMG_1108_zpsc6cd119c.jpg

I was a bit worried at first that this box wouldn’t have a lot that I’d want to try, but I was wrong! I’ve sorted through it all and picked out the ones I want to sample and I’m not disappointed. I’ve tried six of them already this evening. yikes! I haven’t found anything I love yet, but thats OK.

Much better! Ya I was getting excel files from a drop box :)