Hello again Steepster. (`u`)

Hello, nice to meet you. I’m Rie, and I’m a returning member – I used to post a bit last year (same name), although I’m not sure if any you guys I used to bother are still here (hopefully!). Anyway, I tend to be oolong-biased, with an odd fixation for Earl Grey, and I love tiny pots. I’m also pretty easily excitable, especially when food, sweets or teaware are in discussion. :D

That much hasn’t changed about me, but some new things: since last year I’ve gotten more into the Instagram tea community (lovely, funny people too!), and it was through an Instagram comment that I met Elyse from Tealet – then joined the team. Now I do tea tastings and some general upkeep at Tealet, and I’m very fortunate to be able to be in the industry as a just-your-average tea drinker, and am learning so much thanks to them. If there’s anything you’d like to know about a Steepster-gone-industry, let me know. :D

In any case, I’ve come back for a couple reasons: immediately speaking, we need a new Tea Shirt at Tealet, so we have this design contest going. The grand prize is our entire Tealet tea collection (a $500 value)! I remembered there are some talented tea-drinking artists on Steepster, so I wanted to post this on the Tea Companies/Promotions page, is that okay?

In addition, I also wanted to get back to posting on the forums, I had a lot of fun back then just discussing tea and doing swaps, and these days I really like doing tea experiments/comparative tastings in my free time (I’m pretty active on Instagram now, @oolongcity). Hope to reconnect with some old friends and make new ones, thanks Steepster!