KellyxLee said

New to Quality Teas!

Hi there! I’ve always been a tea lover, but up until a few weeks ago, I’d just been drinking poor quality, pre-bagged teas (Tetley, Celestial Seasonings, etc.) I didn’t realize how magical the world of loose leaf teas was! Unfortunately, I live in a small town on the East Coast of Canada and there are no stores to buy loose leaf teas in my area. Therefore, I’m forced to buy online. I’ve noticed that a few people on here like to sell samples of their teas, so I’m wondering if anyone would be interested in doing this? I would do a tea swap, but so far I’ve only accumulated a handful of teas from DAVIDs (which I would be more than willing to swap if you’ve never tried them). In the alternative, would anyone be willing to suggest an online company that I should purchase from with a suggestion of a good tea or two? Thanks!

21 Replies
Uniquity said

Bluenoser here, where do you live?

Try www.teavivre.com (they do a free tasting activity, check it out!) They do free shipping over $30.
www.verdanttea.com also has really decadent teas, but a bit more expensive. They also do free shipping over $30, I think. Maybe $40.
www.butikiteas.com has good flavoured teas.

Many others on here like Della Terra and 52Teas but they aren’t my personal favourites. Could be good for you though! Just check the shipping costs for companies before getting too enthralled, being Canadian can be expensive! :)

KellyxLee said

I live in Cape Breton…the land of no teas. Thanks for the info…I’ll definitely check out the websites you mentioned.

Dexter said

Is Verdant still doing their 5 teas for 5.00 for new customer offer? That’s a great way to get introduced to high quality straight teas.

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Dexter said

Hi KellyxLee,
Welcome to the wonderful world of Steepster. I’m not sure what type of teas you are looking for, but I’ve bought from quite a few online sellers. I would suggest buying small samples until you learn what you like and then replace your favorites with larger amounts.
A couple of Canadian companies that I’ve bought from with no issues are:
Tealux – I really enjoy their straight teas, but am hit or miss with their flavors. They offer inexpensive samples for most of their teas.
http://www.tealux.ca/
The TeaCupany – It’s a new company out of BC that has sample sizes and some ususual flavors. http://theteacupany.com/
Tao Tea Leaf out of Toronto has amazing high end Chinese Teas.
http://www.taotealeaf.com/
Camellia Sinensis in Montreal had great teas – more on the high end.
http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/tea-store

Two others that I really like are
Teavivre – they are in China, but have wonderful customer service and are highly recommended here – takes a while for tea to arrive (it is coming from China) but worth the wait. http://www.teavivre.com/
Della Terra had what seems like 100s of flavored teas and they have try me packs – 5 sample sizes of your choice for 10.00.
http://www.dellaterrateas.com/try-me-packs/

There are tons of other really good vendors (Butiki, Verdant, Mandals). If you let us know what you are most interested in, I’m sure someone will be able to suggest a great for those specific types of teas.

ifjuly said

haha, you beat me to Tao Tea Leaf as I was typing and checking my order to see if it really was as reasonable as I remembered. (:

KellyxLee said

Thanks for your suggestions! I’ve bookmarked all of these sites.

As of right now, I’m interested in mostly all types and flavors of tea. I’m not picky and will try anything. As someone who hasn’t tried much in the way of tea types, I’m really into fruity flavors (I really like DAVIDs TEA’s Organic Blueberry Jam) and teas that have cinnamon or chocolate in them.

Dexter said

lol I love Tao Tea Leaf.

Dexter said

If you are looking for flavored teas, Della Terra as I stated has a large selection pretty reasonable. They are about the quality of Davids but you can get more choices and the try me sample packs makes it really inexpensive. (Their Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie is my favorite pumpkin tea)
I also really like New Mexico Tea Co. They have both straight and flavored teas. I love their Cardamon Black. http://www.nmteaco.com/

Dexter said

oh and if you like fruity teas and cinnamon, may I suggest Davids Kanpe. OMG I LOVE IT. It’s a fruit tisane with cinnamon and spices. It’s more fruit than spice, but really nice and unusual. I think the tins of it are onsale at their web site.
http://steepster.com/teas/davidstea/21927-kanpe-tea
http://www.davidstea.com/kanpe-tea-rainbow-tin?&TF=27F5948F6518&DEID=

KellyxLee said

I just checked out Della Terra’s flavors and they have a lot that are right up my alley. I love that they have the sample packs as you mentioned and that they offer a tea of the month club. Oh, and thanks for mentioning your favorite pumpkin tea, I’m a big fan of anything pumpkin flavored.

Dexter said

:)) No problem.
I think you would like Harney & Sons too. Their tea is cheap, but shipping is pretty expensive to Canada. They occasionally have sales and/or discounted shipping. I usually wait for one of those to order. Love Florance and Soho blends from them.

Della Terra has sales all the time but the sales don’t usually include the try me packs, if you want to order quantities of any of the teas, watch the forum here, they post their sales.

Also Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming, there will be great deals them. Maybe order some samples now and then wait for those sales?

Are you overwhelmed yet?

KellyxLee said

It’s becoming a little overwhelming…but I’m loving it. I didn’t realize loose leaf teas were such a big deal, but after trying them, I totally get it and was quickly pulled into the obsession myself. I’m currently in the process of deciding between three different companies to place an order with…all of which have been recommended through this discussion. Luckily I drink a lot of tea in the run of a day, so I’ll get the chance to try those companies and a lot more in no time.

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ifjuly said

I’m in the US so I don’t have any good advice about shops, but here is a thread that might be useful to post in for swapping samples:
http://steepster.com/discuss/5156-us-and-can-tea-swaps-for-us-and-canadian-folks-north-america

Oh, I did just remember—Tao Tea Leaf is Toronto-based, offers cheap (usually between .65-4 USD) sample sizes of everything online, and the tea is very good quality (I just placed my first order with them about a month ago). Free shipping for orders over $35. Pretty reasonable, especially for the quality; I ordered a bajillion samples, pretty much every tea they offer it felt like, and my order still was only like $35.

http://www.taotealeaf.com/

KellyxLee said

Thanks! I just checked out their site and I love the fact that they sell samples for just over a dollar! I’ll definitely try this one out!

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yyz said

For straight teas from the Indian Subcontinent Capital tea has a good selection. They have 20g samples starting at about 2.50.

http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/home.php

Luxberry Tea offers free shipping in Canada. They have some nice desert teas and if you contact them. They may be willing to put together a selection of samples as special order.

http://www.luxberrytea.com/

PurAroma tea from Germany has 10g sample sizes and fast shipping. I got my tea way before I would have received a package from the US.

http://purearomatea.com/

KellyxLee said

Thanks for your suggestions! I’m adding Luxberry Tea to my list of places I definitely need to try. Their dessert teas are right up my alley. I’ll try emailing them and see what they can do for me in the way of a special order.

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Courtney said

I’m from Nova Scotia too :) I have a few Butiki oolongs I can send samples of if you’re interested :)

I’ve ordered from Butiki, Della Terra, Harney & Sons, and American Tea Room – all in the US and generally the shipping can be expensive, but I’ve made friends here that I split orders with and it works out so well.

I know David’s does flat $5 shipping in Canada and free over $50. They do have some great teas, especially for starting out I find. I also just placed an order with Tealish in Toronto and their shipping was free over $50 within Canada as well.

Welcome!

KellyxLee said

That would be great of you! I can send you some samples of the teas I have from DAVIDs, or some of the ones I plan to order this week from whichever company I pick (I’m leaning toward The TeaCupany at the moment).

Courtney said

Sure sounds good! I’m following you, just send me a message with your address and I’ll get those ready for the post :)

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I highly suggest looking into Harney and Sons (harney.com). They have really solid, high quality tea and I don’t think I’ve ever not liked stuff from them. In fact, I think I’ll go steep some up now…

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expertmax said

The first time I bought tea online was with Butiki teas. They are based in NJ, USA so it’s quite a fast shipping. For every order you make you can request two samples and Stacy (the owner I think) is a very sweet lady and can give you advices on what to buy depending on what you want.

http://www.butikiteas.com/Teas.html

If you like mint I would recommend the Spicy Mint Oolong or Peppermint Patty (herbal). If you like fruits go with the Foxy Roxy’s Banana Walnut Treat. Watermelon Xylophone is a no-brainer, just look at the ratings.

Good luck with your tea adventures !

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