I first stumbled upon the deliciousness that is the Goji berry through Snapple's Goji berry juice. I wish could begin to describe the flavor, but I'm still trying to figure it out myself. Now I have discovered that Yogi tea makes a green tea with Goji berry in it. If you are a berry fan, or simply looking for something unique, I highly recommend. It's not very strong tea, but the Goji berry adds a potent flavor to it. And if anyone knows of a loose leaf tea with Goji berry in it, I'd love to hear about it!

(Mods, if you feel this is inappropriate, feel free to delete)

My husband just pointed me to Wine.woot.com for today - normally, it's a kind of wine sold every day, but today they are selling six varieties of Teatulia Tea for $29.99 (plus $5.00 shipping). It looks like a good deal to try out some new tea, so I thought y'all might be interested. I ordered some for myself, and will probably post a review or two when I get them in and try them.

If this is too off topic, I understand if the mods delete.


I was browsing amazon for replacement parts for me french press and found a mystery book series called A Tea Shop Mystery at the bottom corner of the screen. The books are named after different teas such as, "The English Breakfast Murder". I'm not a big fan of mystery novels but I might give this one a try!

The last posting on this group was a nice sharing of tea shops found during the poster's recent travels. I thought I'd follow suit. I've just returned from two weeks driving about the Northwestern states, and everywhere I went I kept an eye out for good tea shops (particularly Chinese tea shops). I even planned part of our route to meet specific destination shops.

1. Salt Lake City, Utah -- The Tea Grotto. I came here a year ago on business and was thrilled to find a shop that specialized in good Chinese teas and that allowed patrons to borrow a tray and gaiwan to brew in gongfu cha style. Unfortunately in the past year they must have had financial hardships -- they sold off many of their Chinese decorations (darn - I would have loved the 3-foot stone Guan Yin!) and half of the store in being renovated as a gelatto shop. The college students behind the counter looked bewildered when I asked to brew with a gaiwan. Oh well.

2. Steamboat Springs, Colorado -- Deep Steep Tea Co. I read about this one in the tea trade journals. It just opened a few months ago and specializes in higher-end Chinese teas. The town, being a tourist Mecca, was packed, but the tea shop was empty. It was nicely decorated but sparse. The tea menu was impressive, but you either bought in loose-leaf or bought a cup to go, and there was no tea tasting available. The tea I had there was very good, but I suspect he'll be out of business within a year.

3. Boulder, Colorado -- Dushanbe Tea House. This is a destination tea house! Boulder's sister city is Dushanbe in Tajikistan, and as a gift they sent over this carved and painted palace of a tea house. High colorful ceilings, carved columns, paintings, frescos, low tables with gilded lounging pillows, life-sized statues of the seven muses, and more make the environment VERY memorable. The food is incredible too. It's a shame the tea itself is standard and mediocre. Ironically none of the tea is served traditionally.

4. Boulder, Colorado -- Ku Cha. Discovered this one by accident, a few blocks from the Dushanbe. A very well-appointed Chinese gongfu cha tea house with tons of accessories, teas, and a separated sitting area. I immediately gravitated to a table where a man in a cowboy hat was sitting at a deluxe Kamjove tea tray (drain tray plus induction kettle plus water dispenser) and was roasting some pu-erh over a home-made re-roaster. He served us a few samples and then it became apparent he didn't even work there -- he just supplies the store with some pottery and hangs out experimenting with tea with the owners. My kind of place!

The rest of the trip was a disappointment, tea-wise. We stopped in Butte, Montana after hearing about their extensive Chinatown, but apparently that was demolished almost a century ago in the anti-Chinese riots.

Anybody else have tea travel tales to tell?

So I've been doing a lot of traveling around the province in the past couple weeks, not all of it for pleasent reasons, but I'm not going to discuss that here.  The upside is that during my travels I managed to find two great tea stores, one of which is in a very small town (which surprised me).  Being the tea fanatic that I am I went nuts and stocked up on various loose leaf teas and other goodies. 

From the Lavender Basics store located in Creston, B.C. (leeeetle tiny town in the Kootenays) I got:

• China Gunpowder green tea (contains no actual gunpowder) ~_^
• Formosa Oolong (I've never really tried oolong teas so I'm really curious about this one)
• Russian Caravan Tea, a black tea with a smokey sort of scent to it. 

They sell their teas and other products - they've got a great selection of lavender products as well - online which made me a very happy camper.  Their website is located here.

Another wonderful tea store that I discovered in North Vancouver, B.C. was The Blue Teapot located in the Lonsdale Quay Market (which is a must-visit if you're ever in the area).  There I got:

• White Pearl of Fujian, a white tea flavoured with jasmine and apricot. 
• Yerba Mate, which isn't a tea at all but a herb that's often used as a coffee substitute.  Coffee makes me horribly sick so I figured I would try this out as an experiment. 

The Blue Teapot's website is here.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I've recently purchased enough tea to almost double my 'collection.' If you are a person with a lot of tea (part of it loose leaf), how do you store it? Do you have to use a cabinet or load up a few shelves? Do you just put it anywhere? I'm looking for economical ways to store my teas. I'm also looking for a place to get inexpensive but decent glass jars or plain tins for storing loose leaf. Any suggestions?

I iced Celestial seasonings Vanilla Almond or something. Added a little sugar while it was hot. a little milk while it was cold and OH MY GOD. So. Good.

Hello. New tea drinker. Warning: Sad experiences and long drawn out storyline.

My tea drinking experiences in the past have been scared. In fact the simple fact that it tasted more like watered down leaves made me not wish to have more than that snapple bottle I tried years ago, which also gave me a stomach ache. I guess tastes change, and the more coffee I drank the more heavy and unfulfilling it became. My mother is a daily drinker, though stuck with one kind. Celestial Seasonings Peppermint tea. I tried it once, and it tasted like watered leaves with some minty freshness. I still wasn't convinced. It would only be Starbucks a while later that would make me see things differently. I became interested in Passion iced tea when my mother bought it once, and it tasted more refreshing than a frappu-thingie. That lead me into wondering if it was sold in stores, so I could drink it outside of the chain. Huzzah, I find it in a store, and became fascinated with the fruit flavored tea with a giant kick of flavor - which got me hooked.
I enjoy the idea of fruit teas more, so I went on the hunt for them. I picked out a fruit sampler by the previously mentioned Celestial Seasonings...and I was severely disappointed. To be exact they tasted of hot water with a phantom taste of the actual fruit tea...something that just made my soul deflate like an insert unneeded metaphor here.

Anyway, the story relates to my question. After being disappointed I went back to getting the Tazo brand of teas, which gave me something more to look forward to in terms of flavor (is Refresh true that it tastes like chocolate? That sounds awesome). I want to know if that's normal for the Celestial Seasonings brand to taste as such, or if I did anything wrong. Also, if one could tell me some flavor rich fruit teas to look for next time I browse the stores like Wal-mart or WinCo (preferably filter bagged teas), it'd be very lovely.

Hello all! I'm a new member and ecstatic to find this community. Recently I've taken to adding some fresh Sage, Lavender and/or Mint from the garden to a few green tea blends. The undertones they add are fantastic, but are not that strong. Does anyone have any hints about using fresh herbs with loose leaf teas?? Thanks

i grow my own spearmint behind my house that i usually use for a sun tea but recently i've been looking at drying it out and using it for other things. however, i've noticed there are bugs just munching away at it and it's almost impossible for me to find a good stalk. i need to find some kind of insecticides that will keep the bugs off but won't alter the taste or harm me when the tea is dried and ingested. ideas?