High-Quality Tea Subscriptions?

[klepto]

klepto I've already told you
Have you received your tea mail yet?

It will be here Thursday Oh.. and Doh

[klepto]

Packet #1: First steeping it tastes like a green/white tea, very delicate and delicious although basic
Later steepings the spice and typical puerh profile comes in
4-5th steeping it went back to that gentle sweetness and stayed there.

Packet #4: This tasted very close to the cake of EoT's Wuliang wild, creamsicle flavor
with some spice and astringency popping up.. I'm happy to have more of this.

[tea.avatar]

Hello Loveteas!

I'm just getting started in the tea-drinking world and want to try all sorts of teas! It seems like a Tea of the Month Club or a Tea Subscription box might be a good way to do it, especially since some places throw in free shipping.

So I'm wondering if any of you tea experts have any of these you could recommend or just like the vendors in general?


Here are the ones I found so far-

White2tea : $29.99 + free shipping, whatever they feel like sending

Yunnan Sourcing: $28 & $48 options, you can pick a tea type for 28 or get a mixed "premium box" for 48

West China Tea : $30 listed at 50g, whatever they feel like sending

Bitter Leaf Teas: $27 for ~200g this month, 'from the market of Kunming' I'm not so sure about details on this one?

Essence of Tea : $34.99 + free shipping, new and interesting (?) finds

If there are others you know of and could recommend, please share! As I said I'm new, and all the available teas/vendors are kinda overwhelming.

Thanks!

[Victoria]

Welcome to TeaForum @tea.avatar. Moved your new topic into this existing one where several tea subscriptions are discussed.

[tea.avatar]

Thanks @Victoria!

[Victoria]

Thanks Victoria!

All the sellers you listed focus on Chinese teas. Is that what you are mostly looking for? Also, there are tasting sets that are nice, like these at Lazy Cat.

[tea.avatar]

Thanks Victoria!

All the sellers you listed focus on Chinese teas. Is that what you are mostly looking for? Also, there are tasting sets that are nice, like these at Lazy Cat.

Oh, I had no idea! I'm looking to try a little bit of everything of "true teas"(?). Thanks for the Lazy Cat recomend it looks like they are super popular given how sold out they are ^-^ maybe I can grab something from them when they restock.

[Victoria]

All the sellers you listed focus on Chinese teas. Is that what you are mostly looking for? Also, there are tasting sets that are nice, like these at Lazy Cat.

Oh, I had no idea! I'm looking to try a little bit of everything of "true teas"(?). Thanks for the Lazy Cat recomend it looks like they are super popular given how sold out they are ^-^ maybe I can grab something from them when they restock.

If you are new to teas in general the fastest and most economical way to find what resonates is to visit a tea shop, smell each tea and try as many as possible. Next, get sample sets of different types of teas you think might work for you; Chinese black/white/green/sheng/shu/maocha, Taiwan oolong/black, Japanese green/oolong/black/fermented, Indian white/black... etc Next, narrow it down by each countries region/type...

[tea.avatar]

All the sellers you listed focus on Chinese teas. Is that what you are mostly looking for? Also, there are tasting sets that are nice, like these at Lazy Cat.

Oh, I had no idea! I'm looking to try a little bit of everything of "true teas"(?). Thanks for the Lazy Cat recomend it looks like they are super popular given how sold out they are ^-^ maybe I can grab something from them when they restock.

If you are new to teas in general the fastest and most economical way to find what resonates is to visit a tea shop, smell each tea and try as many as possible. Next, get sample sets of different types of teas you think might work for you; Chinese black/white/green/sheng/shu/maocha, Taiwan oolong/black, Japanese green/oolong/black/fermented, Indian white/black... etc Next, narrow it down by each countries region/type...

That would be great! Unfortunately, I don't have a local tea shop and I'm not traveling during the pandemic! I think if I tried to take off my mask now at a shop and stick my nose in their tea they may actually chase me out and ban me!

I've tried a sample set of 6 tea types (white, yellow, green (CH & JP), oolong (TW & CH), black, and puerh (ripe & raw) ) from Mei Leaf, I just thought most places would have a mix from different places. But Mei Leaf is the only vendor I've tried and they don't have a TotM, I've also noticed some mixed opinions on here about them.

I'd like to branch out, and since I have to have them shipped to me anyway the TotM seemed the most reasonable, especially since shipping is included in a lot of them. I just ordered some samples from W2t and shipping was 1/4th the order so it's an important factor for me!

[belewfripp]

At the start of the year I subscribed to White2Tea's monthly subscription. The best thing I can say for W2T's teas is that I always finish them. None have completely blown me away - save for their 2020 ZeroSum white tea, which really was excellent - but there's never a dud. It's all been eminently drinkable, at worst (so far). I also actually kind of like the sarcastic/non-sequitur marketing style - to me it says, "Anyone can call their tea anything, 90% of Western buyers will never know if the tea is real or not, so why not just dispense with the usual marketing entirely?".

Last months's yancha was nice - not as good as the best of what I recently ordered from Daxue Jiadao, but still quality teas. This month is a 2016 maocha leftover from their 2020 Fortune Teller (puerh blend, processed in 2016, pressed in 2020, save for this maocha), Fireside Tieguanyin (described as a "daily drinker", not high end) and Butterjam Red (described as a strong black/red tea). I won't be trying the maocha anytime soon as my stomach has developed a distaste for young sheng puerh (ironic, since that is what got me into drinking "serious" tea) but I look forward to drinking the others.