Mandala's 2014 Wild Monk on sale

I am happy you asked! We are working on that this week. We should have a raw and a ripe sampler available starting sometime next week. We are shooting for 4 samples of each style of tea. A few more details to work out. Going for $5, shipped for each 4-tea sampler. I’ll post about it when it is available!!

looks like I’m getting that

Hopefully Canadian shipping isn’t too prohibitive for me, as the sampler sounds brilliant! So glad to hear this was already in the works. :)

THIS!! That sampler sounds super exciting! I only just got into loose puerh, so cakes still seem super intimidating to me- the only reason I didn’t jump on that last Wild Monk! It had been sitting in my cart but I couldn’t do it!

Flyawaybirdie – HI! Why are you intimidated by cakes of pu’er? Perhaps I can help assuage your fears.

Color me excited about the sampler idea. I’m just starting to experiment with pu-erh, and I’m a little intimidated, to be honest.

Me too (intimidated). Love the idea of samplers.

A sampler is a great idea. Start slowly.

Eventually you’ll be gleefully busting cakes open with the rest of us. :p

(Yes, believe her when she tells ya…she does bust them cakes open!!)

If money weren’t an issue, I would have cakes of everything! Sadly, such is not life.

HI! I’d be happy to speak to this question. Up until just last week, our international shipping was taken care of like this: http://shopmandalatea.com/customer-service/

We wanted to open a flat-rate shipping policy for all of our Canadian friends. Since shipping is much more expensive to Canada, we adopted a $9 flat-rate on orders up to 4 lbs. All US orders (the only country we really shipped to until recently) are $5.

We are in the midst of an overhaul of our site and our web helper has not yet changed the $5 shipping thing to say “US $5 flat-rate, Canada $9 flat-rate, all other countries contact us for shipping quote” or something to that effect.

No false advertising. We wouldn’t have the rep we have if we had been doing that all these years.

I apologize for any confusion. It will be changed as quickly as we are able.

With gratitude,
Garret

They used to ship to the US only, and all orders $5 shipping. They just recently, as of a couple days maybe a week ago, started shipping to Canada at $9 as long as the order is under something like 4 pounds. Looks like they haven’t changed the site to reflect the expanded shipping to Canada is my guess.

Thanks for the reply, Garrett. I hope you are able to change the homepage shipping info soon, as it is confusing.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

(To read the words “false advertising” in association with Mandala made me twitch a little. Just saying)

(yup)

I understand your sentiments, TheTeaFairy & Mzpriss. I would feel the same about a tea co. that I thought highly of.

But there are many tea drinkers who do not know of Mandala (like myself), and thus would be confused (at the least) with the mixed messages given.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

Oh, I totally understand how it could be confusing, I get that.

It’s the “false advertising” claim that rubbed me the wrong way. It’s not as if you did not notice that Mandala gets “good press” here, as you eloquently said it yourself…

Not belabor the point, but I agree with TeaFairy and not because it’s a company I like. This is a happy little community here, full of nice, polite people and to immediately jump to “false advertising” instead of simply asking a question bothered me a little. It would have bothered me a little about any tea company. I don’t really have anything else to say on the subject, but it seemed a little harsh to me.

You said it best MzPriss. Now subject closed.

MzPriss – I did not jump to a conclusion about “false advertising”. Notice the question mark after those words. Also notice that I also offered another choice, viz. a simple mistake.

I admire the loyalty that both you and TheTeaFairy have shown toward Mandala!

In any case, I apologise if I have offended. I assure you that it was unintentional.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

I see that Garret has updated the shipping rates on the Mandala home page, but not other pages on the site, e.g.,

http://shopmandalatea.com/ripe-pu-er/cakes-bricks.html

Best wishes,
sherubtse

Doing our best here, Sherubste. Our web designer has to do all the coding for the bigger changes and since we are in the middle of doing re-design work to the entire site, some things are having to wait. Sorry to disappoint.

Thanks for the reply, garret. But I would think that correctly informing your customers (and potential customers) of all charges and fees is something that would not have to wait.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

There seems to be only one person here who feels incorrectly informed.

Also, sherubste, since you seem to be the only one on Steepster who’s having a beef with this situation, why don’t you just address your issues directly on Mandala’s website where feedback is available? There’s no need to try to discredit a company who’s work ethic is beyond any reproach.

Well, I am posting my requests in this public forum so that others know there is a slight problem on the website. If I did it privately, others would not know this and may run into the same problem I did when trying to place an order. It is unfortunate that my attempts to point out errors on the website, and thus allow Garret to make improvements and have a better site, should be taken amiss.

In any case, it time for me to let the matter drop.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

If poeple read whatever you are trying to address here, it means they’ve also read the VERY CLEAR explanation Garrett has provided in this thread. Therefore, your attemps at making a big deal out of nothing are pointless and useless… And that’s the very last thing I will ever say to you.

Don’t let reality hit you missy, but i think we pretty much followed one another, and I’m pretty sure we did more than 3… :-o

I know. I’m trying to pretend I don’t have a problem

Hehe! How is that working for ya???

Not very well. Do you know how much tea (and teaware) I need to find a place for?? I wish my tins would get here. And that it was the 1st so I could um, get more tea

Let me tell you that the tin thing did not work so well for me.

No? Why? Oh I did Harney this time and I also got some 8 oz ones. Kind of a lot of them, because, um Tea Eraser. Although I think some of y’all are trying to steal my title there

Haha! Well…the tins are great really. But the goal was to re-organize the stash. Now, there are no more tins available, and new tea everywhere!!!! In conclusions: it works great…if you quit ordering tea like there was no tomorrow.

And I do like Harney’s tins…(tea eraser, how many did you get?)

That’s why I had to make the H&S tin order. I used all the David’s ones and I still have tea everywhere. Every. where.

I got 30 of the 4 oz and 15 of the 8 oz. (bless my heart)

And what the HELL am I going to do with all the pu cakes now???? I need a pumidor. And some space to put one…

YES, BLESS YOUR HEART!!!
someone gifted me with a nice fairy box to put my cakes in. It’s not closing anymore. I have no idea where to put them now… And Oops, and I just realized we are totally spamming people with this thread. Sorry people :-o
I will pm you instead!!

Ya’ll are out of control! I want to be out of control, tooooo!!!!

Hahaha, Sarsonator! You made me laugh!!

Mz Priss, the Wild Monk 2014 will be around for a while. Though just here in the shop I sold 3 in the last 1/2 hr!!

Tea Fairy, do you really want me to count your number of orders? :)

I hope y’all are having a fantastic day. It’s a sheng pu’er day here in the shop after drinking Noble Mark pre and post yoga and Autumn Song mao cha during yoga. I’d say life is good/

And…. a tong just sold online. Who let the tea buyers out today? I thank them!!

Uh oh, TTF… you may just have your orders outed!!!!

I wonder if my stepdad can build a pumidor… Then I can consider buying a whole tong of something!!!!

(sars, I can’t tell you what I just did…)

NOOOOOOOO!!! Please don’t tell me garret…I l’d rather be a delusional tea freak!!!

And I so love Autumn Song!!

Great tea day to you Garret :-)

TTF!!!! You got some ‘splainin’ to do!!!! LOL :p

Hi! The 7 cakes come packed in the traditional bamboo wrapping. It’s beautiful. Looks like the ones in the pic here: http://shopmandalatea.com/ripe-pu-er/cakes-bricks/phatty-cake-ii-the-sequel.html

Let me know if you’ve any other questions. Grateful, Garret

Ok I am in for 1, the discount is really good here. I don’t need any samples in the box.^^

Just got the order!!! I will shoot to get this out today, my friend!! I’m the only person in the shop today as Jamie has a day off but will do my best to get it out to you. Thank you so much. I really and truly appreciate your continued patronage. I am grateful.

This is an awesome deal, and I plan to use a few of these as gifts. Monk is a great tea for people new to puerh, and the 2012 made an awesome gift in a formal situation for me earlier this spring. It is Friday, don’t sweat it, Monday is fine for shipping.

Cwyn! Brilliant idea!!!

Now, help me out…If I buy a tong and justify the purchase by saying that I will give the cakes away as gifts, do I, in fact, HAVE to give the cakes away as gifts? :p

There is nothing wrong with gifting oneself. I do it all the time… only I do it with 500 or 600 cakes at a time. :)

LOL… That is SO MUCH TEA!!!!!!

You have a “tea fridge”? That is so awesomely excessive! ;-)

sherapop – you have to ask mrmopar about his pumidor…I want one

“only” 7 cakes! ;-)

garret (at) mandalatea.com

You are now followed!

And thank you, Dexter!!!!

Well pffft Dex :p

And thanks, G!

Garret, did you get my PM about yixing pots? I’m on the lookout for another one but wanted to know if you will get new models anytime soon…ya know…I may have an addiction to little pots.

Hey TF…. did you send it to my email or did you message me on Steepster? I’ve got 3 new models coming but won’t be here for 3 weeks or so. I believe they shipped out today. I think I have 4 of each coming in.

New teawares? Hmmmm…

I PM’d you on the same steepster thread from earlier this week. Do you prefer I email you when I have questions business related?

But no worries, you just answered now thank you. I am happy you are getting new ones, will be waiting to have a look at them.

Are they traditional looking? I am looking for clean lines.

Well, it’s actually a planned purchase sars…like planned from about 4 days ago.

OMG, TTF. I wasn’t trying to supervise you, LOL! I was planning my next Mandala order around the arrival of this new teaware. :p

Hahahaha! Oh my, I’m so used to get in trouble, I did not even realize! You are too much sarsy :-)

<3

Garret, since you mention getting new teaware. I really need Yixing 100 cc +/- 10
It’s so hard to find reasonably priced. Any chance, pls?! Traditional plain

I hope Garret gets more of the 3 legged gaiwan type Yixing pots like the one he sent me, it is completely handmade, thin walled and worth far more than he charged for it.

I love mine too, I’m not sure it’s good news that he’s getting more styles in. :))

Oh yes, it’s good…

LAUGHS! I do need one more. Don’t I LTF?

Dex don’t you just love to pet it?

LOL It’s nice and smooth, the etching is sharp and crisp. Considering the price I was a little surprised how shiny it is. I’m not actually petting it – just admiring it from afar.

Fairy – don’t you still have a Mandala pot incoming? And you are plotting another already?

Yeah I wasn’t sure what it would be like at that price – but it’s so nice!

This was actually my second Mandala pot, but I paid more for the first one – love it too – I was sure this would be nice, but was surprised at HOW nice it was.

I think I need one for my fujian blacks… The one coming now is for sheng.

Glad you gals are enjoying your little pot :-)

I have the Legendary Beauty Green Yixing and it’s already my second favorite pot :)

5oz is your smallest pot?

@Nicole – that Green one is so pretty

@apt most of my pots are around that size range. I actually prefer a somewhat bigger pot. Part of that is I have very longer fingers and tiny ones feel a bit disproportionate :)

hopefully you don’t use cliff teas in that pot! expensive!

@apt I actually don’t have a cliff tea pot now that you mention it, lol. I use this one for raw puerh and all of my others are for larger leaved oolongs.

I’m about to buy my cliff tea pot!

How are the results for clay pots with high mountain oolongs or dancongs?

I find that they work really well for those. It takes years of regular use to truly season a pot but I’ve definitely noticed that the aroma has been enhanced.

Maybe I’ll cheap out and buy a bunch of Chaozhou pots instead of Yixing, those are a lot cheaper.