Chá Subscription Box

25 bucks a month sounds a little too steep for only three teas a month. Although I enjoyed taking the ‘personality quiz’ on the site. I got Lapsang Souchong, Puerh, and roasted Japanese green :)
Cute idea, I’d never get it though.

Whee, a quiz! I haven’t tried their tea but I love quizzes. It recommended Pan Fired Japanese Green Tea (yuck), English Breakfast (meh), and Lapsang Souchong (no thanks!). So, wildly inaccurate for me but still fun. :)

I hadn’t heard of this one before.

So I subscribed in October on a bit of a whim (I like subscription boxes! and it’s Canadian!). Then at the end of November I got a personal email from one of their co-founders explaining that the November boxes had been returned to their office, so were being resent. I got the box about 10 days later, so I replied to the email saying I got it and providing a bit of feedback (really cute design and packaging, but consider including ingredient lists and a link to the blender in case someone wants to get more of a particular tea). The guy emailed back thanking me for my feedback and asking if I would be willing to talk on the phone for 15min so he could get some more feedback about my experience with the company. Stuff happened, so the phone call just happened this evening. He had a lot of questions about how I found out about the site (sadly, I couldn’t really remember), my motivations for subscribing, how I’m finding it so far, etc. It was a perfectly pleasant conversation, but thinking about how little actual info there is about them online, I’m beginning to wonder if I’m currently their only subscriber! :)

Ok, so it comes in a flat, brown cardboard box (similar to Tea Sparrow). But when you open it, you get… another box!
http://i.imgur.com/riWzZVa.jpg

The cover slides off to reveal a card, and 3 pouches of tea.
http://i.imgur.com/QdRatix.jpg

The card has a friendly message.
http://i.imgur.com/tI81xOs.jpg

Here are the 3 teas I got in my December box.
http://i.imgur.com/dmxLcqn.jpg

Here’s a close-up of the label.
http://i.imgur.com/uLcBIPi.jpg

I can’t remember which way they had the cards in the box, so I took a pic both ways. Sorry about the sideways-ness of the first one.
http://i.imgur.com/dFJJH3d.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JasrKHI.jpg

Close-ups of one of the cards, so you can read it:
http://i.imgur.com/pRyLSTd.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WfXLNPQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SNcupi6.jpg

My Thoughts:

1. Full marks for design; this is a very attractive and well put together subscription box. Cute “finger monkey” theme. The product cards are whimsical and entertaining.

2. A little shaky on the details. The intro card needed a better proofread. I don’t know why a Canadian company is using American spellings and only posts brewing temperature in F, not C. And the label on the green tea suggests to brew it at 212F (ie. boiling), which is just wrong. Also, “vibrant bush of Chunmee”? Really?

3. The teas were good but not fantastic. I liked all of these, and will happily finish these samples, but probably won’t try to acquire more of any of them. If I had wanted to, there’s no information anywhere in the box about where one might buy more. I don’t have any food sensitivities, but on behalf of all of you who do, I was annoyed that there were no ingredient lists.

4. A bit of googling later, I know that 4 of the 6 teas I have received from them (over the course of 2 months) have been Metropolitan Tea Co blends, and the other 2 are probably from ESP Emporium.
November:
http://www.tweedandhickory.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/nonsuch-bop.html
http://www.tweedandhickory.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/trafalgar-anniversary.html
http://www.espemporium.com/p-392-lomi-lomi-aloe-vera-herb-tea-blend.aspx

December:
http://www.tweedandhickory.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/tiger-hill-fbop.html
http://www.tweedandhickory.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/chunmee-special-grade-1-green-tea.html
www.espemporium.com/p-250-cafe-latte-black-tea-blend.aspx

I wish I had remembered to weigh these when I got them, but here are the current weights. This includes the plastic ziplock-style bag (which is about 5g, I checked), and excludes the ~1-2 teaspoons I’ve taken out of each bag so far, so they’re probably a rough estimate of how much tea you actually get.

November:
Nonsuch Nilgiri – 20g
Trafalgar Anniversary – 18g
Lomi Lomi Teaki Teaki – 13g

December:
Tigerhill Nilgiri – 16g
Chunmee Green – 21g
Vienna Cafe Latte – 16g

So, $25 a month for about 50g of tea is not much of a deal, but obviously you’re paying for the experience, and the opportunity to try teas you might not have otherwise been able to try. Tea Sparrow is probably a better deal, since it’s $20 a month for 4 types of tea, though I think their samples are a bit smaller – maybe in the range of 10-15g.

If anybody wants to stalk the company online (anyone besides me, lol):
https://twitter.com/tastecha
https://www.facebook.com/tastecha
https://www.pinterest.com/tastecha/
http://instagram.com/tastecha/

You can see that the design and makeup of the boxes has changed quite a bit since they started:
https://okayadrienne.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/discover-tea-with-cha/
http://www.pbjmag.ca/2013/10/09/taste-cha-tea-subscription/
http://www.jamieleighto.com/2013/10/02/review-cha-personalized-tea-subscription-service/

In case anyone is curious, I just got my January box and here’s what’s in it:
20g of Superior Gunpowder
http://www.tweedandhickory.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/superior-gunpowder-green-tea.html ($9.60/100g)
10g of Orange Cookie Black Tea
http://www.espemporium.com/p-257-orange-cookie-black-tea-blend.aspx ($5.95/50g)
10g of Temi Sikkim
http://www.tweedandhickory.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/temi-ftgfop.html ($19.20/100g)

So basically, they sold me $5 worth of tea for $25. LOL ok, I’m done throwing money away just for the entertainment value of suprise tea in my mailbox. Cancelling my subscription now.

So I cancelled my Taste Cha subscription, and got a refund for this month’s box, and then they sent it to me anyway! So… yay for free tea? They took enough of my money already that I don’t really feel too guilty about it. ;) Anyway, for your edification, here’s a little review of my February bonus-box.

The return address on the box says:
Cha Incorporated
123 Dundas St W. – 2nd floor
Toronto, ON M5 B 1C4
… which is coincidentally pretty close to my old stomping ground. Aww, nostalgia. Anyway, according to google they’re upstairs from either a yoga studio or a Denny’s. That’s a bit reassuring, in that it’s presumably a commercial space and therefore not just some guy operating out of his apartment.

Anyway, here are the three teas I got. Weight measurements include the bag, which I think is about 5g?
Creme de Early Grey – 15.8g (that’s a cute typo)
Kenyan Lions Mane – 15.6g
Gojiberry & Pear – 24.0g

The cream earl grey is the hardest to source, because practically every tea company has a version. I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think it’s probably this one:
http://herbalinfusions.ca/products/creme-de-earl-grey
$6.50/50g = $1.30 for 10g
(Which might actually be a Metropolitan blend: http://www.tweedandhickory.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/cream-earl-grey.html – why does everybody have to add cornflower petals to their cream earl greys? They’re all so damn similar.)

The Kenya Lions Mane is a fairly rare Metropolitan tea. Here are a couple of places selling it:
http://the-specialist-tea-co.myshopify.com/products/425
http://www.britishtea.com/kenyachangoilionsmane.aspx
I’m actually kind of looking forward to trying this one, just because it’s so weird-looking and unlike anything I’ve ever tried. :) Then again, I’ve also never had anyone try to sell me fannings as loose leaf tea before.
Anyway, $6/57g = $1.05 for 10g

The gojiberry & pear probably originates from either
https://www.dethlefsen-balk.us/ENU/12391/Item.aspx?FromNo=12391&ItemNo=22163
or
http://www.espemporium.com/p-912-gojiberry-pear-melon-fruit-tea-blend.aspx
$7.50/50g = $3 for 20g