Butiki TTB - Finished

178 Replies
carol who said

I’m #1, I’m #1, I’m #1, I’m #1, I’m #1, I’m #1, I’m #1, I’m #1, I’m #1!

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So I failed at getting the box out when I intended on Friday/Saturday. But fingers crossed it’ll go out Monday.
Though apparently (according to the usps website), with the weight of this box as it is (3lb 10oz) shipping regular priority mail 2-day (not flat-rate) will cost about $9 as opposed to the med flat rate which is $12.35. I even upped the weight to 4lb and the cost was still around $9. Unfortunately the stupid website doesn’t give first-class mail quotes anymore so I can’t give that as an option. I really hope they do soon because it’s a pain in the butt as it is now. Lol.

So my question to you all in this box is do you want to keep it in a med flat rate box or should I switch it out for a plain brown box and we’ll all just ship it regular priority 2-day instead?

Marzipan – Unfortunately not. It just gives Priority rates at the end anyway. Well, that and media mail, but we can’t send this via that. Lol. Thanks for the try though.

Try this, it’s usps via Paypal, first is an option. You nan see the rate before paying. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

Marzipan – It won’t work. There’s no way to calculate first-class postage on a package over 13oz. Believe me. I’ve tried every which way and go around I could figure online. Thanks though.

Our tax dollars at work! =\

I’m fine with whatever! Excited about the boxes!

First Class only goes up to 13oz, then you would need to use Parcel Post (14oz and higher), which takes some time and is often not much better price wise than Priority Mail.

moraiwe said

I would switch it to a brown box. In the end, you get the same shipping, but save money (and that’s always a good thing haha).

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carol who said

Either is fine for me.

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The box is on its way! Yay! Sorry for the delay everyone. Getting to the post office turned out to be alot harder with my work schedule than I anticipated. But it’s out and should be arriving at Carol’s door maybe tomorrow (since she lives so close to me) or Thursday.
I ended up shipping it in a plain brown box with priority mail for much less than the cost of the flat rate box. So if everyone could just ship it plain priority mail, that would be great.
I did some tastings/comparing which I’ll be posting up in the ‘Random Steepings’ entry here as soon as I can get on my regular computer. I figure since these teas don’t really have a set entry that that would be easiest. Especially if people are tasting more than one tea at a time to compare them. I’ll be sure to label them Butiki TTB so it’s easier to find them.
Hope everyone has fun with the box. I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s reviews.

Shadowfall-You might want to consider making a new “company” for the tasting notes. Like, maybe “Traveling Education Box” or something. That way, everyone’s notes will be together and can be pulled up at the same time. It’s up to you though. With “random steepings” there will be a lot of other notes as well.

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carol who said

Thanks! I guess I’ll have to cancel all other activities so I focus my entire week to tea tasting!

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carol who said

Thanks Shadowfall! The box really did come quickly! It was delivered at about 8:30 am. (Wed) WOW! what an assortment. BTW, the directions are nice and clear. And thank you Butiki for everything!
It is hard to decide which type I should explore! I really don’t know much about any of the straight types. I tend to go with flavored, tisanes and blends. I think I should explore blacks or maybe greens or maybe whites or maybe darjeelings or… Looks like I’m going to have a hard decision to make! :-D

Uniquity said

If there are any Chinese blacks in there, they tend to be sweet and often have cocoa or caramel notes. I almost signed up for the second one just to have a shot at some new unflavoured blacks but then realized that not being able to get more would make me insane! Postage to, through and from Canada is really prohibitive as well, I think Canadians were dropped from this one altogether. Why don’t our postal services want us to have friends? :)

:D

You’re welcome! :)

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carol who said

Thanks for the suggestion about the Chinese Black! That sounds like a perfect place to start!

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carol who said

Okay after sampling black teas I have a couple of suggestions. You probably already know these but I had to think about it before I started. What me plan? What me think?
1. Use cups that are all white inside, one cup per tea
2. Have as many infusers as cups
3. have a saucer for each tea for when you take the infuser out of the cup
4. Number the cups in some way
5. Obviously measure the tea. Put in infuser basket before starting to pour
6. Pour from the same batch of water, measure the water
7. Let steep all at the same time
8. Try to taste at least a sip of them all before you go back and take note.
9. Go back and describe all the teas. do all the smells at one time, then do all the tastes, etc. I think I did appearance of liquor at the end
10. then go back and look at leaves both dry and wet

I hope this may be of help to others as they taste these wonderful teas. Really I don’t want to be pedantic but I was a first grade teacher for 30 years. :-p
The paper for the tasting notes is very helpful.
BTW, should I do a tasting note for each tea or for favorites? I had nine black teas today… this will take a while before I can go on to try the other types.

I might also add that it’s helpful to put a post-it or sheet of paper under each cup, then write your observations down as you make them.

You can do a tasting note for each tea if you want. Or take notes and do one for all the black teas/green teas/etc.
When I put my tasting notes up, I was originally intending to do a tasting note for each set of comparisons, but since I never posted in here as I tasted (I wrote notes on post-its) I might just do a single entry for the ones I tasted.

Great suggestions.

Would love to know overall if this was educational, fun, worth it in case we think about doing this in the future. Also, would love to know if there is anything we should do differently.

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If anyone is interested in trying to find common notes within a terroir, I highly recommend trying a variety of teas from Kenya. Personally, Kenya teas have a very distinct, unmistakable flavor that make them instantly recognizable.

This is super cool. I’m geeking out! Can’t wait!

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carol who said

Stacy and Shadowfall, this box is amazing! Thanks for all the hard work you put into it:) To all of you waiting to get your grubby little mitts on this box… It has 87 bags of tea. Some just a little but some are probably an ounce. I’ve started with blacks and now I am moving into oolongs.I see teas in here that I’ve read tasting notes about and always wanted to try them. I needed something to compare them to before I could make any purchases. Now I’m really getting so great ideas for a shopping list. This is REALLY educational and fun! It’s like having a little tea store visit your house :-D

So glad you are enjoying the box and finding it educational! :)

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