True kudos to a tea vendor

I know I've covered some of their teas here and at my blog, and as
anyone here would know I have no affiliation or benefit from it, but I
want to publicly thank Daniel and Teaspring.com for service above and
beyond anything I could have asked for.

I have an upcoming wedding planned, and since tea plays such a large
role in mine and my fiance's lives we wanted to incorporate it into
our day. I came up with the idea of building the gifts around the
concept and including one of her favorite teas and one of mine with
information on the tea, brewing, enjoying, and our story and tie in
with the chosen tea.

Everything was coming along nicely until we hit a snag in that while
Teaspring had plenty of my fiance's favorite Shui Xian they had no
more Bi Lo Chun for my part and none up to snuff available. Of course
there are other sources, and even higher quality hand produced
options, but either prohibitively expensive or we were over the
quantity available with our need for around 600g each. These two had
been selected specifically for other reasons which I will share the
final result here once everything is done... so I was driving myself
crazy trying to pick a suitable alternative. Also, we fully realize
that some guests may not really care and the potential to massacre an
even more delicate tea was high.

After placing my order for just the bride's half, I figured it was
worth one last shot to email Daniel and ask nicely if it was worth it
for him to either find a source or find a good enough BLC since it was
a decent sized order (but not so huge as to really request special
favors). He obliged and while he could make no promises he would try.
Today I got an email that he successfully sourced some and he can
complete my order! I really could not have asked for more, and that
type of service deserves some recognition in my book.

If anyone is looking for a solid, daily drinkable, affordable, Shui
Xian or BLC I can't suggest you at least try their offerings out as
they easily eclipse most other offerings in the price range and even
slightly above. Yes, there are some expensive crafted versions which
are in another league which I still treat myself to but FWIW, these
are unbeatable values. My other hope is that by planting the seed if
even one guest gains an appreciation or learns more about tea from
this, it would make it all worthwhile to me.

I figured I would share the tale,
- Dominic

On Jun 3, 8:44 am, "Dominic T." <dominictibe...@> wrote:
> I know I've covered some of their teas here and at my blog, and as
> anyone here would know I have no affiliation or benefit from it, but I
> want to publicly thank Daniel and Teaspring.com for service above and
> beyond anything I could have asked for.
>
> I have an upcoming wedding planned, and since tea plays such a large
> role in mine and my fiance's lives we wanted to incorporate it into
> our day. I came up with the idea of building the gifts around the
> concept and including one of her favorite teas and one of mine with
> information on the tea, brewing, enjoying, and our story and tie in
> with the chosen tea.
>
> Everything was coming along nicely until we hit a snag in that while
> Teaspring had plenty of my fiance's favorite Shui Xian they had no
> more Bi Lo Chun for my part and none up to snuff available. Of course
> there are other sources, and even higher quality hand produced
> options, but either prohibitively expensive or we were over the
> quantity available with our need for around 600g each. These two had
> been selected specifically for other reasons which I will share the
> final result here once everything is done... so I was driving myself
> crazy trying to pick a suitable alternative. Also, we fully realize
> that some guests may not really care and the potential to massacre an
> even more delicate tea was high.
>
> After placing my order for just the bride's half, I figured it was
> worth one last shot to email Daniel and ask nicely if it was worth it
> for him to either find a source or find a good enough BLC since it was
> a decent sized order (but not so huge as to really request special
> favors). He obliged and while he could make no promises he would try.
> Today I got an email that he successfully sourced some and he can
> complete my order! I really could not have asked for more, and that
> type of service deserves some recognition in my book.
>
> If anyone is looking for a solid, daily drinkable, affordable, Shui
> Xian or BLC I can't suggest you at least try their offerings out as
> they easily eclipse most other offerings in the price range and even
> slightly above. Yes, there are some expensive crafted versions which
> are in another league which I still treat myself to but FWIW, these
> are unbeatable values. My other hope is that by planting the seed if
> even one guest gains an appreciation or learns more about tea from
> this, it would make it all worthwhile to me.
>
> I figured I would share the tale,
> - Dominic

Dear Dominic,
Firstly,
Congratulations, again on your nuptials.
I've been dealing with Daniel for a while and their courtesy and
competence is unparallelled.
The shipping is incredibly fast, especially for the low price and the
teas are consistently good quality.
If there is any problem with delivery or taste, it is handled
expeditiously.
I second your props to Teaspring!
Shen

Dominic,

Congrats on your nuptials.

Include me as a very, very satisfied customer of Teaspring. They are my
main tea source now, and when I am in the Chicago area I found a nice
tea shop in Evanston; but Teaspring is the best mail order shop for me.

What are the "expensive crafted versions which are in another league"?
Are you referring to other Xian's and BLC's?

My most recent order from Teaspring was:

Pu Ti Cha
Song Zhong Dan Chong
Traditional Da Hong Pao
Huang Guan Yin
Yang Yan Gou Qing
Sichuan Gongfu

Thanks,

Alton

On Jun 5, 4:25 pm, TokyoB <dragonwell...@> wrote:
> Dominic,
> Which other boutique tea vendors can you recommend for the highly
> roasted Shui Xian? It sounds great.

Well, everything I had was from 1+ years ago and some were gifts from
folks which I don't have sources for. Mr. Wang is one of the artisans
I was speaking about and twice I have had the joy of drinking Shui
Xian from him. Hou De and Jing's are two other places to find good
Shui Xian. I do know Stephan (Teamasters) did a writeup on Mr. Wang a
while back and may also be a resource. Everything else (like the gifts
I spoke of) came from small shops and individuals who either live or
travel extensively in that part of the world and I've never been able
to put their name or info together with anything online or even via
phone/mail/email so I'm S.O.L. there. I can ask and get the names and
info like address etc. for those who could make use of it but it isn't
in my notes.

Outside of that I just scour the web and places like eBay for some
that catches my eye or is mentioned to be fired with charcoal or looks
particularly roasted and give it a shot. Sometimes I catch a winner
and then the seller is never to be found again and sometimes I get
some terrible tea and those sellers are always available :) Any vendor
who deals in really good WuYi Oolongs or Oolong in general can be a
hit.

I'll try to add to this post later if I can dig up anything from my
notes this is all from the top of my head.
- Dominic