Awesome or stupid, you tell me?

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing something different with our iced tea series.

I kind of like the idea of packaging them up as “Frank’s Every Flavored Teas” and NOT indicating on the outside of the packaging, what flavor the tea is, but instead, having a card on the inside that tells what it is, so it’s kind of like a grab bag.

In addition, I’ve been thinking maybe I could make the card inside the packaging part of a collectable card game like Magic.

The thing is, I could sell displays of them to retailers which would be guaranteed not to have any duplicates in them, and I could similarly take orders for up to x quantity and guarantee a different flavor for each, but I wouldn’t want to sell any specific flavors—it would all be random, both because I want to do a serious TON of different flavors and I DON’T want to have to keep them all in stock; and because I wouldn’t want people to be able to get specific cards they wanted for the game except by chance.

So tell me, is this awesome or stupid? LOL

25 Replies
Claire said

Collectible cards with tea…this sounds dangerous for my wallet. ;)
The only problem I could see with this is for folks who have food allergies (like myself).

I don’t think the allergies would be a problem. These would just be premium tea and quality natural and/or organic flavors (less than 3%). Nothing to trigger allergies, unless you’re allergic to tea. :)

Claire said

Sounds good then! I have some quirky allergies (like watermelon) and have actually run across tea before with watermelon in it. Camellia sinensis is a ok though. :)

Claire said

Random thread hijack: is the price for the iced teas for one teabag or several?

It is for one 2-quart teabag, which you can easily reuse for a second steep. These are premium teas, and the price does include shipping to the US. Also, there is currently a discount available if you purchase $10 or more, you can take 10% off; $25 or more, you can take 25% off. http://www.52teas.com/2012/06/26/southern-boy-teas/

You can also find reviews of most of the teas here by searching Steepster for SBT (Southern Boy Teas): http://steepster.com/search?products=on&q=SBT

Claire said

And just when I thought I didn’t need more tea… ;)
Thank you for the info!

as long as there would be no bergamot I’d totally be into it!

Login or sign up to post a message.

Azzrian said

I don’t think it is stupid but I’m not sure I’m in with awesome either. Really there are no stupid ideas as long as there is some profit to be made which is hard to tell without trying so if your outset expenses are not too over the top why not try it? On the other hand in business its hard to say what will be “awesome” until you give it a chance to bring in profit – if it does bring it a nice profit then it is awesome even if quirky or silly.
Good luck with it – sounds fun really! I mean this is a totally new idea so why not go for it?
I am positive there are plenty of tea drinkers who would totally go for this idea!

Login or sign up to post a message.

I think it’s wonderful. It reminds me a lot of Harry potters’ “Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans” and the collectible cards in the chocolate frogs! Who doesn’t need a little tea magic in their life…

inguna said

It sounds cool but I would be careful with it because of copyright issues precisely because it’s too close to Harry Potter.

And I’d request no liver, tripe or earwax flavored teas, please.

Amanda said

lol. this is funny and i feel the need to share. i bought some of those harry potter jelly beans as a joke for a co-worker, and he tasted them and was like “these taste like earwax” this is coming from the guy who was seen actually eating his own earwax. yuck and funny all at the same time!

Login or sign up to post a message.

what happens when somebody really likes a flavor, and can’t get it back again?

Login or sign up to post a message.

Ninavampi said

I think it is worth a try :)

Login or sign up to post a message.

Lynxiebrat said

How about Frank’s Crazy Flavored tea? (to get away from the ‘Every Flavor’ mention so there is less worry of Copyright. Or maybe a goofy name like Pinkie Toe’s

Login or sign up to post a message.

Uniquity said

It’s not the sort of thing I would be willing to take a gamble as I’m selective about flavours and would be very disappointed to get anything with coconut, chamomile, etc. However, I’m also not necessarily the target demographic for an idea like this either, so my reluctance probably doesn’t reflect the way the bulk of your customers might feel. I think it would be risky, but worth a shot if you could try it on a small scale rather than committing to lots of flavours up front and potentially being stuck with the inventory.

Login or sign up to post a message.

MsWhatsit said

You might also consider calling it something like tea roulette. That’s how I always considered the every flavor beans, and it too would be less connected with the Harry Potter thing. It could be fun to take a “dangerous game” approach. Some people like that sort of thing.

I don’t know about the collectable cards. Good original art could really run up your overhead, but could also be very appealing, kind of like decorative boxes and tins.

Login or sign up to post a message.

This sounds like Tea and Pokemon cards combined…. GOTTA DRINK THEM ALL!!!

My only thing is on the price and size of them. $10 is a lot to gamble on getting a tea you don’t car for, and would make it hard to collect a lot of cards. Maybe if you made the tea bag’s smaller and a little cheaper. Lets say around a 1 quart tea bag for $5. At least for the mystery flavor ones. You could also have your permanent flavors (regular or smaller size) with the cards too(of course the cards would still be hidden). That way the less adventuress don’t feel left out.

I do like the idea though. Defintly unique.

Not sure where the $10 came from. These would be $2.99 for a 2-quart teabag.

ahhhh, I think it was because of what you told Claire. I thought that it was the same price for the mystery ones. In that case….http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/115/988/Spongebob%20Money.jpg?1303396682

Login or sign up to post a message.

I really like the name Tea Roulette!

As long as it isn’t as scary as Chat Roulette.

Babble said

“As long as it isn’t as scary as Chat Roulette.”

LOL!!! Glad to know I wasn’t the only one who thought of this.

^ahaha wrong minds think alike (X^D) Tea Roulette is starting to sound catchy though…

Login or sign up to post a message.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.