SimpliciTEA

UPDATE: 6/6/2012

Overall Experience: VERY POSITIVE. I made one purchase from them so far this spring 2012, and during the fall of 2011 they sent me a shipment strictly consisting of free samples that I had requested.

General Information:
Life in Teacup is run by a woman named Gingko. They offer a wide selection of Chinese loose-leaf tea in all six classes (including a few tisanes). Many useful pieces of information are listed with each tea (including things like Production Year, Production Season, Production Region, Style, etc.). The location and year of harvest on all of their green, yellow, and (I believe) white teas are provided (many tea retailers do not do this). Gingko has written extensive articles on her blog about many of the teas they sell (possibly all, I haven’t checked). As far as green (and yellow) teas go, when the new harvest starts to arrive in the spring they put their old stock on sale and then once the new teas arrive they update the website with information on the new teas. Most green teas are priced with two options: samples (they vary from tea to tea, and for green teas they are mostly between 4 to 9 grams) and 25 gram packs (or one ounce). Their sample prices are not much more per ounce (i.e. by weight) than if you buy the standard 25 grams. During early spring of 2012 they offered the ability to pre-order some green teas, such that you pay for the tea before they order it from China, allowing them to pass on a 20% savings to you (on some it was actually more than a 20% discount as compared to the price they listed for the tea on their website after the tea arrived). Gingko sometimes has sales through her blog where she offers tea and tea related items that are hard to find elsewhere; sometimes, she also offers buyers of the blog sale to “feel free to claim some free stuff” that she lists. They offer a number of tea accessories. To my knowledge, other than putting the old green tea on sale in the spring, they have no sales. Gingko occasionally offers promotions through a newsletter.
My Experience:
They have a very wide selection of fresh green teas priced from inexpensive (under $4 / OZ) to some of the most expensive Chinese Teas I have ever seen (for a particular tea style, like Bi Lo Chun green tea). The prices for her less expensive teas are priced very competitively, and are some are the best prices I have ever seen on the Web (within the US). Every time I ordered they processed my order very quickly. Their tea has always been fresh and has accurately matched the description on their website. UPDATE: I just recently made another purchase from her through her blog and, although I have yet to receive the package filled with lots of wonderful Teas and a couple of other tea related items (I hope to update this in the future), so far she has—once again—exceeded my expectations.

Website:
Very simply designed, with the teas of each class (green, white, etc.) on one page, such that you have to scroll down to see the description, picture(s), and price of each tea. The simple design is in large part due to the fact that (I believe) she manages the webpage herself; my understanding is that this helps to keep their costs down. She has great pictures of each tea—usually one of the dry leaves and one wet (and recently she has been including pictures of where the tea is harvested). The website is relatively easy to navigate. I have yet to use their cart to buy tea (I have communicated with her via e-mail and paid via PayPal invoices she sent to my email address directly). Although there was no way to review the status of my order online, she has been great about keeping me informed about it (for example, the status of the tea harvest when I pre-ordered one spring green tea). They offer a few interesting resources on their website (i.e. a Tea Harvest Calendar). She has what I consider to be the best tea related blog on the Web (I decided to put a link here as I judge it’s hard to find her the link on her website) http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/ You can find reviews of most of their teas on Steepster. They use PayPal for payment.

Shipping: http://www.lifeinteacup.com/shipping
http://www.lifeinteacup.com/100-security
My Experience: For my order in early spring she offered to split up the order into two shipments (without any extra charge to me) so that I could enjoy some of the teas I ordered right away while waiting for my pre-ordered spring green tea to arrive from China! She has always processed my orders in a timely manner. When I pre-ordered, the estimate from when I would get the package to when I actually got it was right on. She has always sent me a tracking number to allow me to track my package online once it was in route. She has always shipped everything I paid for (including free samples). She has included a nice business card with the last two packages I received from her.

Contact Experience:
More in Overall. I have only had contact with her through e-mail and from discussion threads on Steepster. She is very timely with her e-mail responses, seems very willing to answer questions, and is not only very professional but seems willing to share freely of her enthusiasm and wisdom around all things Tea.

Packaging:
Her packaging is the simplest I have ever seen: sealed, sturdy, silver zip-lock bags with a plain white label displaying the name of the tea (in both English and Chinese) and the harvest date (if applicable). The samples come in either sealed, small silver bags or in a sealed, kind of sturdy brown paper bag.

Would I buy from them again?:
YES!

Life in Teacup is currently my favorite on-line tea retailer (especially for fresh, Chinese green tea). I have been holding off writing this as I knew I would want to take lots of time in writing this to really do Life in Teacup, and Gingko, justice.

The following is what I consider to be a few (minor) downsides: 1) I really don’t like paying for shipping, and so I have to spend $70 before I am not charged for shipping (I wish the break-point was lower—$40, or even $50 would be much better); still, I will say that at least her shipping fee is reasonable—a flat $5 for all (domestic) orders. 2) With a few exceptions, they don’t offer discounts for buying a large amount of tea (any larger than 25 grams); my guess that this is because she focuses more on offering quality tea rather then selling tea in large quantities. And, 3) In my judgement, some of her teas are very pricy—a few are $25/OZ and higher—thus putting them well out of my reach; still, my guess is they are worth that price to those that can afford Tea in that price range, and she does price her samples very reasonably (and on a number of ocassions she offered to give me a small sample—4 grams—of an expensive tea for free).

Everything else I have to state about Life in Teacup is very positive, if not, incredible. From what is stated on her website they like to keep things simple and that seems to reflect in the price of their Teas. I have exchanged numerous e-mails with Gingko (including commenting on and getting replies from her blog), and she is always professional, friendly, helpful, and willing to share information about her experience with all things Tea (I have even made requests regarding information about tea that is not the tea she sells, and she has willingly offered up information about them). I really like that she has what I consider to be a great selection of green teas, including many ‘well-known’ teas (like Long Jing, Bi Lo Chun, Huang Shan Mao Feng, etc) and a few lesser known teas (I have been really enjoying the both of the Frosty Yunnan and the Tong Cheng green teas). She is, in my opinion, very active on Steepster and always seems happy to answer any question bloggers have of her. Twice I asked if she was willing to send a small sample of a tea (after I paid already for the order) from her while waiting for a pre-ordered green tea to arrive, and she sent both with my order.

Finally—and most important to me—I feel she has a genuine passion for all thing Tea; I believe she runs her business to help connect the rest of us tea enthusiasts with the best tea for the best price. (Especially for Chinese green tea enthusiasts) Life in Teacup comes about as close to the perfect online tea shop that I can imagine.

Overall Experience: POSITIVE. I made one purchase from them during their Black Friday sale, 2011.

General Information:
According to their http://www.thepuritea.com/pages/about-us webpage, this company is run by a mother and son team. “We source all of our teas and teaware directly from China, Taiwan and India to ensure the maximum quality, value and freshness for our customers.” For their selection of loose leaf teas they have a reasonable number of black, oolong, green, and white teas; it looks like they are (almost) all pure (I just checked their website and they do have a few flavor-added black teas along and a few scented teas; still, most of their teas being ‘pure’ must be one reason why they are called ‘The _Pur_itea’!). They offer a very limited number of teapots and other tea accessories. I like that they don’t have too large a selection of items, as that gives me the impression they carefully choose what they carry. They have a reasonable description of each tea (no information on location and year of harvest). They had at least one sale that I am aware of during Black Friday, 2011. They offer samples and 4, 8 and 16 ounces sizes for most teas, such that the price per ounce decreases for larger quantities.
My Experience:
My order was processed relative quickly and came within a reasonable amount of time. There were a couple of samples included with my order. Each Tea was reasonably fresh. I ordered mostly samples (see Packaging); the amount in each sample was smaller than I was anticipating (most had only 3 -4 TSP of dry Tea, and yet from something stated on their website I had the impression it was going to be twice that size); this was disappointing to me. On one of the discussion threads on Steepster I remember reading that they were ‘revamping’ their website, including how they package their samples (I hope they are larger and come without the unnecessary packaging that I mention below). To me their prices on their Tea seem reasonable.

Website:
The overall presentation of the site is simple and elegant (although, to me, the ‘Hellobar’ at the top gives the site a somewhat cluttered sense), it is very easy to navigate, and they have decent enough pictures of each tea. The use of a cart when purchasing items and during checkout seems fairly straightforward. They have a blog, but it doesn’t look like they post there very often (less then once a month).

Shipping:
Straight from their homepage: “Free Shipping Over $50, Free Samples w/ Every Order, $7.50 Flat Rate Shipping, We Ship with USPS Priority Mail”
My Experience:
Everything I ordered was in stock and shipped (and included a couple of free samples).

Contact Experience:
None.

Packaging:
(This may have changed) Their samples were sealed in tiny thin silver-colored bags, which were enclosed inside another thin collapsible cardboard box with their company logo on it. Although the ‘boxes’ were somewhat stylish, I thought they were unnecessary, and thus wasteful.

Would I buy from them again?:
MAYBE.
Nothing really stood out about the tea or my experience with them. I thought the samples were very small, and yet I did like that they sent a couple of free samples with my order (although they weren’t really Teas I care for). There would have to be some special event (like another big sale) or some other reason for me to consider buying from them again (especially since they don’t include harvest dates on their green Teas). If there were ‘half’ ratings, I would rate them 3 1/2 stars.

_{This review regards a communication with the owner about making a purchase from the sister site: YunnanSourcing.}

Overall Experience: DISAPPOINTED. I have yet to make a purchase from either YunnanSourcingUS or YunnanSourcing.

Contact Experience:
Last year I spent quite a bit of time looking at number of different Teas on YunnanSourcing (as I was originally researching the possibility of making a large purchase). After making a decision to try a number of them, and adding them to my cart, I finally entered my shipping information (I know now to look into the shipping cost first before I spend lots of time looking at their teas). I then found out the shipping cost was going to be about half of the cost of the tea itself. OK, maybe that’s because I have several different items in my cart. So let’s try reducing them. … Long story short, I got down to just one 50 gram bag of tea (the smallest available), and the cost of shipping ended up being much more than the cost of the tea itself! Just to clarify, there were no breakable items in my order, and I chose the least expensive method—the one which states may take up to two months.

Well, the cost of shipping for the 50 gram bag of tea was not acceptable to me. So I e-mailed the owner (Scott) looking for a better solution, and I told him I had a number of concerns, foremost being the cost of the shipping. After exchanging at least three different e-mails with him (with an initial statement by him that cheap or inexpensive shipping options existed on his site), and lots of time—and creative suggestions on my part, he finally put forth a solution to address one of my concerns. Unfortunately, his solution did not even address my original concern, as the shipping was the same. So, although I do give him credit for attempting to address one concern, I judge he did not address what was most important to me—the cost of the shipping—even though I repeatedly stated this. My responses were very detailed, and I spent much time making sure I was clear as I could be; his responses were very short. Still, I give him credit for responding. I have admittedly been eying a few teas on his new US website (this site did not exist at the time of our communications, and the shipping is much more reasonable). Overall, though, as I judge he handled our communication poorly, I am apprehensive about doing business with him.

Overall Experience: POSITIVE. I made one purchase with them during Black Friday (November, 2011).

General Information:
Art of Tea specializes in organic, fair-traded, loose-leaf Teas. They have a good selection of loose-leaf Teas and flavor-added Teas in every class, including tisanes. You can buy the tea in tins. You can buy their tea in pyramid bags. The quality of information describing each tea is reasonable, although there is no information on location and year of harvest for green teas. They occasionally have sales (they offered 30% off your order and free shipping during Black Friday 2011). The sizes for most teas are: sample, 4 OZ, 8 OZ, 1 LB. The price per ounce decreases the more you buy.
My Experience: Their teas tend to be on the pricy side as compared to other online retailers, but this is probably because most of their Teas are organic and fair traded. It took roughly a week for them to process my order, but I believe that was because of the holiday (Thanksgiving weekend). Each Tea was fresh and accurately matched the description on their website.

Website:
Their website is very colorful, elegant, and well-designed; they have lots of quality pictures of their Tea. It’s easy to find your way around. You have the ability to review the status of your order through an account system. Reviews of their teas are available on each tea page.

Shipping:
It’s a flat $6.97 to the Continental US; they also ship worldwide; you can get free shipping for orders over $75 with the code ‘ILUVT’ http://www.artoftea.com/shipping_and_returns/
My Experience: After ordering online I contacted them about sending a free sample with my order (more in Contact Experience), and a very generous one was included (enough to fill two sample bags). Everything was carefully packaged. Everything in stock was delivered.

Contact Experience:
I initially contacted them via e-mail and they were not very timely in their responses (I believe it took over three days for each response). However, later I chatted with them through some kind of online chat software (accessible through a black tab in the lower right-hand corner of my browser that states, “Talk to us!”), and the woman I talked with was very responsive and very helpful (she agreed to send me a very generous sample of a tea I wanted to try).

Packaging: Fairly standard zip-locked bags: the samples were in transparent plastic bags, and the 8 OZ of tea I bought was in a brown, earthy-colored zip lock, with their label on them; they were sturdy and elegant looking bags.

Would I buy from them again?:
YES
I was impressed with how well they responded through their online chat software. Of the six different teas I received (two green and four white), I would consider buying two of them again; the others really didn’t do much for me. Still, a set of six different Teas is a small sampling of their overall offering, so if I do buy Tea from them again I hope to be able to try a few I hadn’t tried before (especially since the green teas were two of their least expensive ones).

http://steepster.com/places/2897-adagio-teas-online-naperville-illinois

Overall Experience: POSITIVE
I made one purchase with them in late 2011 (during Black Friday)

General Information:
They have a great selection of loose-leaf tea in each class of tea, including lots of flavor-added teas, tisanes, fruit teas, and iced teas. They offer teabags as an option for most of their teas. Although they have decent descriptions of each tea, they do not offer any information on location and year of harvest for their green teas. They offer samples for most of their teas at a reasonable cost. Rarely do they have sales (they had one during Black Friday in 2011 — free shipping). They are starting to advertize some of their teas as coming direct from the farmer (with a little bio on the spotlighted farmer). How much of each tea you can buy seems to vary for each tea, but there seems to always be a price break for buying more.
My Experience: Their prices are fairly reasonable for the quality of tea they offer. Their tea has not best the freshest tea I have had, but overall it has been acceptable.

Website:
The website is easy to navigate. You have the ability to review the status of your order and other ongoing personal information through an account system. They have a very active blog, which I believe is called TeaChat. They have tons of reviews of their teas on the page of each tea.

Shipping:
Ground is a flat $3.75, and free if over $50 http://www.adagio.com/pages/shipping_domestic.html?SID=a2aeb61d04bdf0a2f24b5f29b46e2791
My Experience: Everything came as ordered (with a one-cup teabag sample) in a reasonable amount of time.

Contact Experience:
Other than placing my order online, none.

Packaging: Samples: fairly standard, resealable Mylar bags with their company logo and the weight and the name of the tea on it; the back has some general information about Adagio.

Would I buy from them again?:
PROBABLY.
With the exception that they offer a wide variety of tea for reasonable prices, to me there is nothing that really stands out about them. Still, I do like that they seem to have samples for just about every tea. They also offer custom made, ‘signature blends’. Overall, they seem to be a good place to start if you are just beginning to get acquainted with loose-leaf tea. If I could I’d rate them 3.5 stars, but as it is I gave them a 3.

Overall Experience: POSITIVE. I made one online purchase with them at the end of 2011.

General Information:
The business is owned and run by two women, one of whom has a culinary background http://www.culinaryteas.com/About_Us.html They seem to specialize in flavored-added teas, but they also have a solid line-up of Teas in every class (except yellow), including tisanes. Their prices run the gamete, from very inexpensive (less than $1/oz.) to one of the most expensive teas I have ever seen: a rare white tea that goes for about $35/oz.! Most of the tea is available as loose-leaf, but some are only available as tea bags, and some have the option of either (I am not certain as to why some have the option, and some don’t). You can buy as little as an ounce, or (for most teas) as much as 2 KG—4.4 lbs! The more you buy, the cheaper it is per ounce (or per bag). No availability of information on location and year of harvest on any of the green teas is provided. They sell tea accessories, tins, cozies and a few other tea related items—including mulling spices. They commonly seem to have some kind of discount code you can use (listed on their homepage) and at least one tea on sale each month. You can subscribe to get a monthly newsletter. They had a sale during Black Friday/Cyber Monday, 2011, for 25% off of your order over $25.
My Experience: The prices for their flavor added teas seem very reasonable (most are less than $2/oz.). They didn’t process my order very quickly, but I ordered during their Black Friday sale, and my understanding was that they were very busy (see Contact Experience below). All of the tea we have tried so far has been fresh and accurately matches the description the on their website.

Website:
Their website is very simply designed, changing colors with the seasons. It is very easy to navigate and add items to your cart for checkout. You have the ability to review the status of your order and other ongoing personal information through an account system. One item I ordered ended up being out of stock, but that situation was successfully resolved (see Contact Experience below). They have what I consider to be reasonable descriptions of each tea. Some of their teas have reviews directly listed on the webpage for the tea. For security of payment they are verified by GeoTrust.

Shipping:
They ship UPS. It’s not flat rate, but instead it’s seems to be based on how far you live from their shipping site, increasing in increments determined by weight. It’s free if your order is over $75. I believe you have the ability to track your package online once it is in route.
My Experience: My shipping cost was a little under $8 for roughly a pound and a half of tea delivered a few states away. I received everything I ordered, and it was carefully packaged. No free samples were included.

Contact Experience:
After making my initial order (Thanksgiving weekend), and checking the status on their website for almost a week, I did not see any evidence that my package had been shipped. At that point I e-mailed them, and they promptly responded, explaining the busy weekend for the delay, and that one of the teas I ordered was out of stock. They said they could ship it without the out-of-stock tea, or that I could wait for them to get it back in stock before they shipped my entire order. I asked if they were willing to include a couple of inexpensive items (of my choice) if I decided to wait. When they responded, they stated that they were happy to comply with my request. I believe it was shipped about a week later.

Packaging:
Their tea comes in labeled, standard opaque black, sturdy, zip-locked bags.

Would I buy from them again?:
YES.
Overall, I am impressed with Culinary Teas. They offer an impressive array of flavor-added teas. So far the flavor and aroma of each one we have tried has—at the very least—reasonably matched the name and the description. Although there was a little ‘blip’ in the ordering and shipping process, I was reasonably satisfied with how they handled and resolved it. I really like the options they offer in terms of the amount of each tea I can buy, such that buying larger amounts equates to a reduction in the price per ounce. I like the simple design of their website (which may be part of the reason their teas are so reasonably priced). We bought lots of samples in our first order, and we hope to order larger quantities, of the teas we like, sometime in the near future.

Overall Experience: MIXED
I made two purchases from them at the end of 2011.

General Information:
They are both a restaurant in NYC (with a separate website) and an online tea shop. They have a great selection of each class of tea including tisanes and fruit teas. There is no information available on location and year of harvest for their green teas. As mentioned in another review, they sell a few food items and spices. They had a 30% off + free shipping sale during Black Friday 2011. They sell teas in two, four and eight ounce sizes. Two ounces come in a tin. They also sell what they call, ‘teasers’ for a few teas (not all) that are listed as one ounce (see below). I judge the teas are expensive at the two ounce price, but the price (per ounce) when you buy eight ounces is reasonable.
My Own Experience: I had a very strange experience with my both of my orders (more below). A few of the teas I got were somewhat mislabeled. The teasers I ordered are stated on their website as being one ounce, but there is no way the ones I received are one ounce. I got about 7 – 8 teaspoons out of one of the flavored rooibos teasers (I would expect to get the standard fourteen if it’s truly an ounce). The teasers are no where near half of the amount of tea that is in their two ounce tin I bought. I was not happy about this. If a teaser is supposed to be only half an ounce, it should be clearly stated as such on their website. On a positive note, all of the teas (and the brownies) are clearly good quality.

Website:
They have one of the most appealing websites around (check out their restaurant webpage for great pictures of some yummy looking food!). Although there is supposedly a way to access the status of your order, I personally was never able to get any reliable information about the status of my order, or a tracking number. That was very frustrating to me (more below).

Shipping:
Very expensive, but you can use a code to get free shipping (listed on their website).
My Experience: This was, well, to put it lightly, a cluster. First off, after waiting over a week for the package, and then contacting them via email, I finally received it, but it was someone else’s order. They figured this out the day my packaged arrived, and they apologized and promptly mailed the correct package, which came a few days later with one free ‘teaser’ (again, I could not find the status of that shipment on their website). They graciously offered me a significant discount on my next order, so I ordered from them again about a month later. As with the previous package, I was unable to find the status of my order online. Again, after over a week without any sign of getting a package, I emailed them. I had to email them again three days later since they had not responded, and was finally told they were contacting the owners about the status of the package (with no information as to the status). I got no other communication from them, but a little less than a week after that the package finally arrived. I was in the process of drafting an email to tell them to cancel my order the day the package arrived. Oddly enough, the box had a printed message on it, “Make tea, not war.” So I decided to follow that advice and drop the whole matter (I was considering sending them a not-so-nice email). I have not had any other communication from them since (no explanation as to why my order took so long to get to me). Luckily, at least I got everything I ordered.

Contact Experience:
Details in Shipping. I judge they have some serious work to do in the email/contact and shipping department, though.

Packaging:
Their two ounce tins are very nice looking steel cylinders, with tightly fitting lids. 8-oz packaging is standard. Teasers packaging is standard. They use quality boxes and nice looking filler material.

Would I buy from them again?:
I wish I could say, Yes, but it’s hard to say. All of their tea seems to be of good quality, and they did make a few efforts to try to make thing right, but I had such an odd experience overall that there would have to be some good reason for me to think about ordering from them again.

Overall Experience: POSITIVE. I made two purchases from them in a very short period of time in the beginning of 2011.

General Information:
Sadly, they went out of business in the beginning of 2011 (Teavana bought them out). I didn’t get an opportunity to purchase from them until they were having their going out of business sale at that same time. From what I remember, they had an unbelievable selection of both flavored and unflavored teas (they may have had over 400). Their website provided great information on each tea, I believe they even included information on location and year of harvest. All of the tea I purchased accurately matched the description on their website.

Website:
Their website was not laid out in a very intuitive manner to me, but I liked their cart system (you could see it in the upper right corner of your screen, similar to the way Teavana does it now). I remember that they had a tea of the week, for a special price.

Contact Experience:
Very similar to my experience with Teavana at that same time period (My guess is that Teavana had basically taken over at that point, as I noticed the return address on both my Teavana and SpecialTeas packages were identical). There was one item listed as ‘in stock’ that did not ship. When i found out, I called them (that fateful Monday that Teavana announced that they had taken over SpecialTeas) to find out what they could do for me, and although you could not get to their website at all by then (you would be redirected immediately to Teavana’s if you tried), they were still answering calls, and I bought a few more 2-lb packages of tea at 75% off, and they didn’t charge me for the shipping; that was enough to make me happy.

Would I buy from them again?:
If they were still in business, a resounding, YES! Although the teas I have tried (seven) were not the highest quality (admittedly, I went for the least expensive ones), their prices were about the best I had ever seen (even before the 75% discount). Alas! they are no more.

Here is some interesting information I just discovered about SpecialTeas: http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=8455
Search for, “Randy Altman”

Overall Experience: VERY POSITIVE. I have made three purchases from them at the end of 2011/beginning of 2012.

General Information:
The current owner is the grandson of the company’s founder (who started the business in the 1916). A full history can be found on their website. They carry only Japanese green tea and offer a number of flavored-added green teas. They also sell pyramid tea bags, organic tea, cold brewed iced-tea bags, and many different tea accessories. They provide a detailed description, including a harvest date, for each Tea. A green tea starter kit costs only $3 (that includes shipping), and I highly recommend the kit for those new to Japanese green tea. They occasionally have sales, and you can be notified of them by subscribing to their email list. The parent company in Japan (owned by the same man) is the one who sources their teas. They sell tea in two ounce and one pound packages (the pound is only slightly cheaper per ounce then the two ounce package). ADDITION (3-3-2012): I noticed that they increased their prices, slightly, on a number of teas (possibly all of them).
My Experience: His prices seem to be very reasonable when compared to other tea retailers, especially considering that their tea is fresh. I believe they processed each of my orders and shipped them within 48 hours (or less) of ordering. Every tea I bought was fresh and matched the description on their website.

Website:
Their website is very well laid out, intuitive, and thus easy to navigate. You have the ability to review the status of your order, and other ongoing personal information through an account system. The only time I have seen tea go out of stock is during a sale. They have a fantastic section on general information about tea, with a number of helpful graphs and charts (including data about how the steeping temperature effects the caffeine and theanine in green tea).

Shipping:
Shipping is pretty standard, and it’s free if over $50USD. http://www.denstea.com/shippinginfo.html#shipping
I believe a free sample is always included with each order.
My Experience: For all three orders I got everything I paid for, everything was very carefully packaged, and a sample was included.

Packaging:
Fairly standard. The samples (either 5 or 10 gram) come in a thin silver package with a nicely colored label predominately displayed on the front. The two ounce sizes of tea come in fairly standard silver packaging, with a nice colorful label on front; they all include one of those little white-colored packets of oxygen absorbers. Each bag or tin has a label with a ‘best by’ date (which seems to be about a year from harvest); I have been removing these labels and attaching them to the back of whatever container I store them in so I have an idea as to how old the tea is. Love it!

Contact Experience:
I exchanged a few e-mails with the owner, and he is prompt and very courteous with his replies.

Would I buy from them again?:
YES!
I can’t say enough about how much I like Den’s Tea. I really like it when a tea retailer responds to my requests, and I made two different requests of the owner via email, and he was very amenable to both of them. I find their tea—and everything they do—to be of the highest standards: I have tried nine of their teas so far (some were samples), and every one has been fresh, of the highest quality, and reasonably priced. I like that they have a ‘deal’ basically once a month. I love the general information they provide about green tea. I really like that they provide harvest dates (and ‘best by’ dates) on their Tea.

Thank you to all of you Steepsterites whom have touted Den’s teas to the point that I was exposed to them. They are definitely my go-to online tea shoppe for Japanese green teas!

Overall Experience: MIXED
This was my first exposure to Teavana (there are two more stores that I have been to). I made two purchases from them near the beginning of 2011 during their year end sale.

General Information:
Facts and Observations :
The only tea they sell is loose-leaf. Their focus seems to be on fruity, flavored teas. They do not have a wide variety of unflavored teas, but they do have a reasonable selection in every class of tea (with the exception of yellow), including Mate, Rooibos and other herbal teas.They offer a 10% discount for purchasing a pound or more, 15% for two pounds, and 20% for five or more. They sell many different tea accessories. You must buy at least two ounces of each tea (I personally don’t like this). The very rarely have sales. They offer little to no information on the location and year of harvest of each tea.
They do make charitable contributions. Some of their teas are organic (last I checked, it was only one).
My Experience:
I have found their teas to be very pricy when compared to the prices that other tea retailers offer for similar products (when SpecialTeas was in still business, their teas were comparable, and about half the price. Now Teavana owns them. Go figure). They seem to respect your wish to simply browse in this store (I have been there when it has been busy, and when it hasn’t been busy at all). I have to say that their stores (considering the physical structure and layout only) are very inviting. They clearly put lots of time and thought into the overall layout of each store. I like their ‘tea wall’ and how all of the teas are arranged and displayed in large colored tins. They are willing to pull down any tea for you to look at and smell. All of tea I bought from them looked, smelled, and tasted good.

Customer Service:
Hesitantly positive. Most of their staff do not seem very knowledgeable (I interacted with at least four of them). And there was a small issue the first time I purchased with them; but after a few phone calls and then going back to the store, my decision to conduct myself in an assertive and respectful manner seemed to win out in the end, and I got what I wanted. I would be remiss if I did not mention here that they have one staff member who is honestly a joy to interact with (I think his name is Sean, but I am not certain). He is knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and not pushy, at least not by my definition; I think he said he has been working for them for five years. He is probably as close to the perfect salesman as I have ever met. He strongly influenced my time while I was there to be a pleasant and enjoyable experience. An interesting side note: as he was pouring tea into a tin for a customer that seemed to me to be new to Teavana I did overhear him say, in a very pleasant manner, “Feel free to fill up this tin so you can get 10% off!” In my judgement, that’s not pushy, that’s just creative selling! In the end, saying, ‘No,’ is not much of a problem for me, so I have little to no fear of walking into any of their stores and walking out with something I didn’t want to buy.

Would I buy from them again based on my overall impression of interacting with them?:
CONDITIONALLY, YES
In my judgement Teavana does do a superb job of consistently producing tea that looks, smells and tastes good. However, in looking closely at the base tea leaves in a few of their teas, the quality of the tea seems mediocre at best: there are lots of stems, not very many buds or bud sets, the color of what is there is a little faded, and there are lots of broken pieces. I haven’t personally found or heard of any exceptional teas they sell either. And when it comes down to it their tea is too expensive for me. I think the quality of tea I get is not commensurate with the price. A large portion of the tea I buy is green tea, and they do not provide harvest seasons/dates for their any of their teas; since I do not know how old the tea is, I am only willing to buy it at a discount. The only reason I bought tea from them was because it was on sale. And given their prices, that is the ONLY way I see purchasing from them in the future.

Overall Experience: VERY POSITIVE
I have made two purchases from Verdant tea.

General Information:
David is the owner, and he seems to be genuinely passionate about tea and connecting others with his tea. I discovered his online shop after spending time reading the reviews and posts on this website, and for that, I am grateful. He specializes in small farm Chinese grown teas. He offers many different pu-erh teas, but he also has quality oolongs, greens, whites and blacks, and a number of blended, or flavored, teas. He is among the best on the web when it comes to how much information he provides about each tea, including information on location and year of harvest (which is very important to me). One thing lacking about each tea: information about how to best steep each particular tea (although he happily responded to an email I sent with questions about how to best steep one of his teas). He sells a few tea accessories. He had a sales event the weekend of Black Friday (Thanksgiving 2011). My understand is that he sources his tea directly from the farmers in China. He sells his tea in one, two, four, and 16 ounce sizes for most of his tea, providing a price break for each successively larger size. Gift-wrapped boxes are available. He offers samplers for a reasonable price, and he offers a tea of the month club. Although the prices of most of his teas are beyond my reach (over $5/oz.), I have found his teas to be of the highest quality anywhere. All of the tea I have purchased from him (mostly green) has been very fresh and it accurately matched the description on his website.

Website:
I like the ‘earthy’ look-and-feel to his website (lots of blues, greens and browns). It is well laid out, and easy to navigate. He provides very clear closeup pictures of each tea. There have been a few issues with his cart system, but if you alert him of the issue via email he is very responsive, and he will not only correct the problem, but my experience is that he will reward you for your patience by including extra tea with your order (if you purchase from him). I believe he uses PayPal to process your order and to send out information about your order, which allows you to review the status of it. To the best of my knowledge, he currently does not have the ability to create personal accounts on his website. His seasonal tea does sell out. On his website he provides information about tea and the tea business in a section called, Encyclopedia of Tea.

Shipping:
It is about as good as it gets on the web: free to the US if your order is over $10 (over $25 internationally); otherwise it’s $2. He offers the ability to track your package online once it is in route. He ships USPS (first class or priority mail). For me, everything listed as in stock was delivered in both purchases. He will happily include samples if you ask, or include one of his choosing if you don’t ask. He included a personally written card with each package (something only one other tea retailer has done for me).

Contact Experience:
I have exchanged many e-mails with him and he is very responsive; in them he comes across as very personable while still being professional. I have also found that he is very flexible and willing to work with you to meet your needs.

Packaging:
The tea comes in sturdy, resealable, ‘earthy’ light-brown colored bags. The labels are colorful and have the name of the tea handwritten on them.

Would I buy from them again?:
YES!
In my experience buying from roughly 15 – 20 online tea retailers over the past year, his customer service is the best, bar none. I really like the information about the farmers he provides on his website and that he provides the year and season of the picking (especially for the green teas). I like the close up pictures of each tea. I like his packaging and that he offers free shipping to the US (If over $10). When I emailed him requesting a sample of a tea I wanted to try before buying he sent me a very generous one (roughly 20 grams). In my experience, everything he does is professional. I judge his prices are fair, and I personally don’t mind paying a little more when I know when and where the tea is harvested and for many of the other reasons I list above. But the only downside to Verdant tea for me: the cost: the prices of most of his teas are beyond my reach. C’est la vie!

SimpliciTEA hasn't written a review for this place yet.

Overall Experience: POSITIVE I sent Angel a Steepster PM requesting she send a few samples from a list of teas I was interested in, and she sent me 15 grams of basically every tea on my list! Thank you Angel! Each tea was fresh and was packaged exactly as advertised on her site: http://cdn.teavivre.com/media/wysiwyg//product_packaging/teavivre_package.jpg
The tea came in one silver sealed bag inside another creative looking zip-locked bag. She is great about replying promptly to any requests. They have lots of detailed information about each tea on their website.

Positive. The owner, Aaron, graciously offered to send me samples in response to an email query of mine regarding his shipping policy. They currently offer ten teas I believe to be reasonably priced (2 oz, 4oz, 8oz). Aaron has stated that he plans to offer more soon. They allow you to choose free samples with every order. He has responded promptly and thoughtfully to every e-mail I have sent. Their website is simple and well designed. Shipping is $4.95 USD, free if your order is over $50 USD. All of the tea I have tried has been fresh.

Overall Experience: POSITIVE
It was my first time buying from them (I ordered in March 2011).

General Information:
Facts and Observations: An Arizona couple started the business in 2002.They have a brick and mortar store in at least two states (Arizona and Colorado). They have a wide selection of loose leaf Chinese tea in every class. They do not sell flavored tea, although they do sell scented teas. Many of their teas are organic. One of the owners (Austin) spends many months out of each year traveling in China. They have the most detailed and comprehensive descriptions of any tea that I have ever encountered on the web, including providing information on season and year of harvest, province and town/city of the tea garden, tea bush cultivated, picking standard, etc (one yellow tea has 1100 words in its description!). Every month they have specials on certain select teas (20% off), and they have a year-end 25% – 70% off section for older teas (some of these seem to sell out pretty fast, and others don’t). They sell tea by the gram: 25, 50, 100, 500 (unfortunately, it does not get much cheaper when buying larger amounts). They sell tea samplers. According to their website they: 1) source their teas directly from “the growers and tea masters who make them,” 2) are committed to Fair Trade and the Environment, 3) make ‘green’ choices. They offer annual trips to China in the spring. I believe they have some kind of rewards program. Besides tea, they sell a few Yixing teapots. In general, I find their teas to be expensive (when not on sale); they range in price from about $3/oz to as much as $33/oz or more.
My Experience: They processed my order quickly; it came two days after it was processed. Each tea was appropriately fresh and exactly as described on their website.

Website:
Their website is colorful, simple, elegant and pleasing to the eye (colors are used sparingly). It is easy to navigate. You have the ability to review the status of your order and other ongoing personal information through an account system if you register. They have a very comprehensive section on information about tea. They have a related blog. They have a few ‘videocasts.’ You can pay by credit card or with PayPal.

Shipping:
Facts: Shipping cost is dependent on destination location and weight. I don’t believe there are any ‘free shipping’ break points. You have the ability to track package online once it is in route. I believe they ship Fed. Ex. I am not sure of international shipping, but I would be surprised if they didn’t as they state that people all over the world buy their tea.
My Experience: I paid $5.45 for shipping to the Midwest for 450 grams of tea. I purchased five different teas. Everything in stock was delivered. Box was carefully packaged with the tea, some filler, and the invoice. No free samples were included.

Contact Experience:
I phoned them once and they were very personable and helpful. I have e-mailed them a couple of times and they have been reasonably responsive.

Packaging:
Fairly standard opaque silver vacuum-sealed zip locked bags. The ink on the labels is water based (It rubbed off when I tried to take it off to put on a jar).

Would I buy from them again?:
YES. I really like their overall approach to selling tea; they seem genuinely passionate about everything and anything to do with the noble leaf. And they seem very professional and take great care with everything they do. Unfortunately, I can only afford their tea if it is on sale, so I keep my eye on their sales.

_{I updated this on 01/2012}

Overall Experience: POSITIVE (with reservations regarding customer service, listed below)
I made three online purchases with them: one in January 2011, and two in January 2012.

General Information:
Facts and Observations : The only tea they sell is loose-leaf. Their focus seems to be on fruity, flavored teas. They do not have a wide variety of unflavored teas, but they do have a reasonable selection in every class of tea (with the exception of yellow), including Mate, Rooibos and other herbal teas. The descriptions of each tea seem to focus on the flavors of the fruits and other additives rather than on the base tea itself. They give no detail on the harvest date and little information on location—country only—-on any tea, with a few exceptions (Darjeeling is one). They offer a 10% discount for purchasing a pound or more, 15% for two pounds, and 20% for five or more. They sell many different tea accessories. You must buy at least two ounces of each tea. According to their website, they currently offer free samples with every order (although I received none). They occasionally have promotional offers. The have a big online sale at the end of the year, tea and items going for 30% – 75% off.
My Experience: 2011: I made an order for three different teas. After ordering it took over a week or more for my order to arrive, as they had to wait for one tea to come in from overseas before they could ship my order (even though it was listed as ‘in stock’). It turns out only two teas were shipped (see note below in shipping). Those teas, at least, were reasonably fresh. My understanding is that they source their own tea (being as large as they are). They have stores in most states, so if you live in the US it is likely you will be charged tax on your order, the amount of tax depending on where you live.
2012: They had a large selection of sale teas in their end-of-year sale. I received everything from my two orders, with the exception of one tea (that is currently on it’s way). Overall, I am happy with ordering from them. One interesting thing to note about their website, though: I noticed one tea that appeared that was not previously listed on their sale page. I put it in my cart, and took some time to decide on whether or not to order it. Less than an hour later it disappeared from the site, and later from my cart. What happened? I have NO idea. Yes, interesting indeed.

Website:
Their site is possibly the most colorful and professional looking tea site on the web. That is not to say it is the best. I personally do not like the continually changing images on their home page. And the pictures of their tea look like they put much more effort into the presentation than needed, and my guess is that that is reflected in the price of each tea. They do not give any specific information on how to brew each individual tea but only how to brew each class or type of tea. They have a section at the bottom of each tea page where they tell you which other teas blend well with it. You can maintain a wish list. You can get 5% your order if you choose auto-delivery. They have an account system whereby you can find the status of your order or shipment. They have some general information about tea, but its relegated to the bottom of the home page, which tells me they don’t think educating their customers about tea is very important. They have an interesting ‘Product Review’ system, but very few reviews have any criticisms at all about the tea, so I personally do not trust those reviews. They use secure server software (SSL) when you pay.
NOTE: When you buy their tea at the sale/discounted prices in the store, they do not add any bulk discounts in addition to the sale discounts. However, your online cart automatically takes the additional discount on sale teas. Yes, very cool. They currently have two discount codes: ‘5off30’, and ‘10off50’.

Shipping:
Facts: They use UPS for US and Canada, and IAPP worldwide: $4.75 per order in US ($8.75 for Canada; rates vary worldwide). You can also choose Priority, Air or Overnight shipping. Free shipping if order is $50 or over. You have the Ability to track the package online once it is in route. No matter how many ounces you buy they send it in tow ounce packages (I find this very wasteful when ordering over eight ounces of one particular tea).
My Experience: January 2011: there was one tea that was listed as ‘in stock’ but was not delivered (I was not charged for it). The invoice that came with the package stated that the tea was ‘backordered’. After waiting many days—-and checking my account on their website—-I finally called them to find out that they were completely sold out and would not be getting any more in. I was disappointed about that fact.
January 2012: I ordered twice; while both orders took a while to process and ship (at least a week from date of ordering to when they arrived), I did get everything I ordered in both shipments (there were no free samples in either, although their website states that they send free samples with every order). After I made my second order online, they sent me an email stating one tea was ‘on back-order’ and may take up to 30 days to get back in stock. A few days later I was notified that it shipped; although I have yet to get package, I expect it soon. I am glad that at least this year I have received/will be getting everything I ordered.

Contact Experience:
2011: I have called and talked to the sales people at the corporate offices and in local stores a number of times, and I judge that, although they seemed to know their ‘products’, they were not very knowledgeable about tea in general.
2012: I had a reasonably pleasant experience with the sales staff at one local store this year. She didn’t seem to be able to answer many questions I had about their teas, but she did make an effort to look for, and then find, answers to most of them; I was at least satisfied with that. I made two separate calls to this toll free phone number. The first time I was put on hold, and an automated system told me I was #164. I decided to wait, and was updated periodically on my place in line (which I appreciated), but after about 10 minutes, the system forced me to leave a message, due to ‘high call volume’. I left my number, and a message, but no one got back to me. The second time I called, I was, once again, put on hold (but for this call it did not give me my place in line. Strange.), and after 10- 15 minutes of waiting, I opted to leave a message for them to call me back; but something happened in trying to leave my number using the buttons on my phone (may have been my error) and I don’t think they got my number. Thus, again, no resolution. I have concluded that it’s about a snowball’s chance in h**l to get through to them (well, not really, but I mean really, come on guys! It shouldn’t be that hard to get a message through, let alone get called back!). Luckily, after each call an acceptable solution presented itself (not by Teavana).

Packaging:
No matter how much tea you order, it comes in small, decorated 2 oz vacuum-packed zip lock bags with the name of the tea and the ingredient list on a label (interestingly enough, I could not find the ingredient list on their website).

Would I buy from them again?: Conditionally, YES.
It is my belief that the quality of the tea they sell is not commensurate with the price. A large portion of the tea I buy is green tea, and they do not provide harvest seasons/dates for their any of their teas; since I do not know how old the tea is, I am only willing to buy it at a discount. The only reason I have ever bought tea from them was because it was discounted. And given their prices, that is the ONLY way I see purchasing from them in the future. I also realize I will very likely not get good customer service if there is an issue and I have to call them during a busy time. Having said that, I do think that most of their tea is worth buying at 50-75% off the regular price, and I have enjoyed every tea I have bought from them so far.

Overall Experience: POSITIVE
First time buying from them (I ordered from them in April of 2011).

General Information:
Facts and Observations: They offer a wide selection of tea in every class with the exception of yellow tea (only one; my understanding is that very few yellow teas are available in the US). They offer a few flavored teas, organic teas, and a small number of blends and tisanes. They offer tea from China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Korea and a few other countries. Their descriptions of their teas are the most comprehensive and well written of any I have ever encountered (with the exception of Seven Cups). They provide information on location and year of harvest for their green, yellow and white teas, some Darjeelings and pu-erhs, and a few other black teas and oolongs. Two of their books-–The Tea Enthusiasts handbook and The Story of Tea—are the most contemporary and comprehensive books written about tea I have ever encountered. They occasionally have sales on their teas (especially when the new years harvest arrives). They travel to a different tea producing country each year and provide information on their travels on their website. They sell some tea-wares and accessories. Although I do not like the price of their samples—-very expensive for the amount you get: $5 – $8 for half of an ounce—-their prices on the four, eight and 16 ounce packages are very reasonable as compared to teas of similar quality anywhere else in the US.
My Experience: They processed my order in a reasonable amount of time. The teas I ordered—eight different varieties—were very fresh and accurately matched the descriptions on their website. They included one free sample with my order (a quality spring green tea).

Website:
Their website is very professional looking and very easy to navigate. They provide great pictures of every tea. They provide helpful information for each class of tea and each country. The use of the cart/basket when purchasing items is intuitive. You can review the status of your order and other ongoing personal information through an online account system. My experience in regularly looking at their website is that their teas rarely sell out. They have a great section on general information about tea (health benefits, definition of classes of teas, ‘tea 101,’ etc). They also have a related blog.

Shipping:
Facts: Their shipping policy: $10 for shipping if the total order is below $15; $8 if order is below $25; $6 if below $50, and free if over $100. They provide a shipping number so you can track your package.
My Experience: Everything I ordered—-and stated as ‘in stock’ on their website—-was delivered. Invoice (initialed by the owner) and one free sample included.

Contact Experience:
I e-mailed them once with a general question that had nothing to do with my order. One of the owners (Mary Lou) replied with a satisfactory answer in a reasonable amount of time.

Return Policy:
You can return items purchased for a refund minus a restocking fee (I believe it is 7%).

Packaging:
All four-ounce teas came in black (the yellow tea came in a red bag) zip lock re-sealable bags with a small oval ‘window’ on the back to view the tea through. The label has the name and weight of the tea with brewing parameters displayed on it. The sample came in a small, thin transparent bag with a label.

Would I buy from them again:
YES. I hope to buy from them at least once a year (when the new spring greens become available). They offer many fresh spring green teas for a reasonable price, and the prices of most of their other teas are also very reasonable. They will always have a special place in my ‘tea’ heart, as they so masterfully introduced me to the wonders of artisan loose-leaf tea!

Overall Experience: POSITIVE
It was my first time buying from them (I ordered in June 2011).

General Information:
They have a reasonable selection of loose leaf teas in each class: Oolongs (many , they seem to specialize in these), Greens, Reds/Blacks, and Pu-erhs, but only a few White and Yellow teas. No flavored, and only a few scented. For most every tea you can order a sample (25g) for about the same price as per gram as their standard size (100g). They sell some tea ware. They offer a few teas in an ‘Everyday Teas’ section for very reasonable prices. Most of the rest of their teas are very competitively priced. Update: They now offer modest price breaks for buying larger lots of tea.

Website: They updated it as of 10/2011
Very simply designed and very easy to navigate. Most teas have pictures of both the dry and wet leaves (and a close-up shot). There is detailed information given for each tea they carry (including year and time of harvest). They do occasionally sell out of some teas they carry, and it seems that once it’s gone you have to wait until next year or season. They list newly added products on their homepage.

Contact Experience:
The owners responded in a reasonable amount of time to two e-mail inquiries.

Shipping: Their shipping policy changed as of 10/2011
Facts: They ship from China. They offer a flat rate of $5.90 to any country. They offer two ways of shipping: Registered Airmail, and upon request, EMS.
My Experience: The package arrived sooner than time frame given. From the tea I have tried so far, it is all fresh and exactly as described on their website. Each tea I purchased was in stock. They sent me everything I ordered, with two free samples (weighing seven grams each), all very tightly packaged, without any filler material.

Packaging:
Each tea came in thin foil-like bags, with the tea name and their company logo simply and elegantly displayed on a white label.

Would I buy from them again?:
YES. They have great prices as compared to most other online tea retailers I have encountered, and all of the tea I have ordered from them has been very fresh. I hope to buy from them again next year (2012).

Overall Experience: POSITIVE
It was my first time buying from them (I ordered from them in July 2011).

General Information:
They have a wide selection of every class of tea, including tisanes, iced teas and fruit teas. They sell loose-leaf, as well as teabags and tea sachets. They provide a least a few sentences describing each tea. Although no detail is given on location or year of harvested tea, each tea has a five-digit lot # displayed on each tin or sample bag, representing the ‘date of production’: first two digits are last two digits of year, last three digits are the number of days in the year (my understanding is this number is indirectly related to the harvest date, not directly). They have a rewards program, I believe it is for every $100 USD you spend, you get a five dollar credit toward your next purchase. They sell many tea accessories and other related items (including books). They offer $2 – $4 samples on many of their teas (most are $2). Occasionally a few of their teas will go on sale. They often have promotions (through their mailing list): for example, 10% off your entire order, or free shipping. On occasion, they stop carrying some teas (I, at least, have seen a few that are no longer listed on their website).

Website:
Their site is very professional-looking, well laid out, and easy to navigate with colorful pictures of each tea.

Shipping:
Facts: They ship US Postal and Fed Ex. For US, if your order total is under $25, shipping is $4.50, if it is up to $50, shipping is $5.50, if your order is $50 or over shipping is free. They do Two Day and Next day delivery. They deliver to Canada and internationally.
My Experience: I ordered after business hours, so my order was processed the next business day, and the package was promptly delivered via Fed-Ex. Although there was one item I wanted that was listed as out of stock on their website, everything I ordered (and advertised as in stock) was delivered, all packaged with the invoice and a small amount of filler material (no free samples). From the tea I have tried so far, it is all fresh and exactly as described on their website.

Contact Experience:
The gave me a reasonable response to one e-mail query. No phone contact attempted.

Packaging:
The black tins (prism shaped) have a rounded-square base, are outlined in gold trim with tea name and company logo elegantly displayed on front, and are well sized for the amount of tea purchased. Samples are in small opaque similarly decorated zip-lock bags. I like their tins as they are very elegant.

Would I buy from them again?:
VERY LIKELY. What drew me to this company was Michael Harney’s book. In it he writes like he really understands the world of tea, and I believe he has a genuine passion for it (those two things don’t seem to come together too often). I like the elegant look that they maintain in everything they sell. I have enjoyed every tea I have tried so far. I like that they offer samples for a very reasonable price.