Canadian Steepsters, how do you get your tea?
I have bought a lot of tea from yunnansourcing.com , and meileaf. Recently discovered wuyiorigin which has the best teas I’ve ever bought. I recently had a bad experience buying from yunnansourcing.us using their “free” DHL shipping option. It is sitting at DHL as they want $26 to clear customs. Beware buying from US shippers. Anyhow, this looks like a great list. I will check definitely be checking out some of these places.
Ouch! Other people have had similar experiences with DHL and customs. Apparently, orders from China are moving faster these days, though I can’t verify that personally.
Has anyone ordered from the U.S. using regular mail, and if so, have there been extra charges? Tillerman’s oolongs are calling my name!
As for Canadian companies, Camellia Sinensis just got a bunch of new green teas and some Darjeelings, though the prices have gone up and they’ve eliminated the 25 g sample bags for the more costly items. They do, however, still have sample sizes, just much smaller. I also recently ordered from Cha Yi and have liked the teas I’ve had so far.
I heard about Camellia Sinensis as they wrote a book on tea I saw has good ratings. I meant to do an order from them at some point. My general preference these days is to try to buy closer to the producer if possible. The yunnansourcing.us will be my first time paying customs on tea. I’ve never heard of customs on tea!
You’re not supposed to be charged customs on tea, but couriers like FedEx and DHL do it anyway, along with randomly adding miscellaneous fees for some orders. I’ve never had to pay customs for orders via regular mail, though.
I also like to buy close to the producer—and it can be slightly more affordable, too. But there are currently no shipments to Canada from Taiwan, so that’s not an option right now.
I think I paid about $25-35 to DHL when I ordered over a year ago from YS. I’ve paid customs before. It is sometimes a hazard of ordering tea.
I also got hefty charges on my Yuuki-Cha order shipped by DHL. However it came within about 4 days (Japan to Canada). I’ll take the outrageous shipping if I can get my tea fast. I’m still waiting for my Teavivre & Yunnan Sourcing orders placed in April & beginning of May. Maybe China is holding my tea hostage until Meng is released. LOL
I just got an order from a new company – Tea Joint, https://teajoint.ca
Hopefully, I will get around trying the samples out and posting reviews.
I was looking at that company myself. I’ll be interested to hear your opinion of their tea.
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