Ordering tea from online vendors

Try vendors who offer sample sizes (Upton, Harney… others that I can’t recall but other people surely will chime in shortly) for less money. And if you have tea you really don’t like, you swap it with people here who may have samples of teas you will like. Start following people, read their reviews, see who likes teas like you like and swap, swap, swap. :)

Agreed, start by buying small sample packages, until you learn what you like and what you don’t. Della Terra has choose 5 for $10.00. Verdant has a 5 teas for $5.00 for new users. Tealux, Steep This!, The TeaCupany all offer small sizes of their teas. Teavivre also does samples.
If you are interested in a tea, read the reviews, see what others have to say. If someone loved a tea because of the fennel in it, I wouldn’t like it – I don’t do well with licorice anything. If you see the same comment over and over again, it’s probably true.
If you end up with a “not for me tea” that doesn’t mean others wouldn’t enjoy it. Sway it out for something else. :))
Welcome to Steepster!!!

Welcome to Steepster. Everything on Upton tea’s website is available as a sample, usually for just a few dollars. I like to order from them and usually purchase quite a few samplers every time I place an order! The best way to decide what you like is to try a lot of different teas.

Welcome if you delve into puerh I can probably help you some.

Lots of online vendors offer sampler packs, some are awesome enough to even let you pick out each type, so you’re only ordering a few cups of each tea type. Worst case scenario you don’t like it and you’re only out maybe 2-5 cups of tea (and as mentioned, swapping is big here!). I’d suggest starting there. There are some threads on the boards about places that do this or similar (some spots like Butiki and New Mexico Tea Company don’t offer samplers per se but you can buy most of their teas in sizes so small they’re pretty much samples, 1/2 oz sizes, plus when you order they give you a free sample and sometimes you can request which one you want ahead of time by putting it in the note to seller box). If you search the boards for “samples” or “samplers” they should come up—off the top of my head there’s Persimmon Tree, Della Terra, Golden Moon (really great!), Upton Imports (offers just about anything they sell, and they have hundreds of different teas, in sample sizes that cost around $1-4 usually), Teajo Teas, Joy’s Teaspoon, American Tea Room, Teavivre (smooth Chinese teas), Den’s Tea (Japanese greens), and Verdant (I don’t know if Verdant’s still doing it, but sometimes they offer a “5 teas for $5” sampler that is an awesome introduction to higher quality pure teas like oolongs and Chinese blacks). The cool thing for a couple of them is the money spent on the sampler pack is given back to you as a coupon code towards your first “real” order after that (Den’s and Verdant used to do this, might still).

The other thing to keep in mind is some spots are really amazing at customer service—Mandala, Butiki, and Harney and Sons come to mind—and if you contact them asking for some guidance they might be super helpful giving you some suggestions or general direction to go in if you tell them which teas you’ve liked in the past, or what kinds of flavors/astringency/body you know you like, or what you’re looking for in a tea (a wake-me-up strong morning eye-opener, something pretty and delicate to relax you after work, something that tastes fresh and green, good tea to ice, tea to replace dessert, etc.).

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I’ll try ordering samples from some of the mentioned vendors. There are so many different types of tea that it’s overwhelming!

I would suggest, from a fellow new person tryg to navigate themselves around tea, buy samples of a few kinds of teas. Try an assam. Try a darjeeling. Try a yunnan. Try a keemun. Try a long jing. Try a kie kwan. But only samples. Whenyou have an idea of what flavors you enjoy, you can buy samples of varieties of what you enjoy, as well as you are more able to scope out what kind of teas you’re looking for and what teas just don’t sit well with you.

Welcome! I’m relatively new to tea and started buying primarily online. I made a few mistakes along the way, so I’ll share my learning experiences.

Start with a small order from a particular vendor. If you can do a sampler, great. If not, read some reviews here to get a general idea and place an order for one tea or two.

I quickly realized I preferred black tea, and generally liked flavored teas but that is a matter of personal taste. You probably already have some idea of what you prefer.

Since I like flavored teas, a lot of vendors will tend to use similar bases for their teas. So if I try one, I try to see how I feel about the base as well as the flavor, and if I like it, I’ll try more.

As others have said, many of the tea vendors are great about making suggestions. Plus a lot provide samples with an order, and if you are interested in a particular tea, you may be able to request a particular sample.

This site is also a great place to do “trades” for teas you want to try. If you get something you don’t like, odds are, someone here may want to try it and you may be able to trade it for something you prefer. The trade thread is a useful thread!

Small quantities are a good start, usually enough for 2 cups, maybe more. It is a good way to learn.

Also ask about on here, if I like a Darjeeling, what other teas would I like that are similar in style, can anyone suggest a good Japanese green tea etc

Oh and most of all have fun, you will discover great teas and teas that taste like your dirty dishwater too.