LeafSpa's Steepster Select Comment Contest Winner!

Woo Hoo Chrine Congrats! LeafSpa has some yummy teas so I am sure it will be delicious. You must report back with the details :o)

’grats!

Congrats Chrine! :D

Congrats big C!

YAY! Congrats!

Congrats Chrine!!

Yay, congrats Chrine!

congrats Chrine ;)

Aww.. Thanks guys! And thanks LeafSpa and LeafSpa Steve! Winning the comment contest combo (alleration! yay!) totally made my day yesterday. I’m excited that it’s a surprise. And there will be tealogs when it comes. =)

Entitled The Leafspa Tea Has Arrived
Subtitled This May Be Rambling

After I sent my shipping info off to LeafSpa Steven on the 26th, I got both a reply back from him and a generated tracking info email on the 27th. I track the tea the next day in the morning just to see where it was shipping from. It said something to the effect of order entered into the system but package not started the shipping process yet.

About an hour and a half ago, I check again and imagine my surprise to see that the package had arrive at 1:30pm today. I was home then and it was right around when the husband left for work so I knew no one knocked with it. I live in an apartment complex so I thought the USPS guy/girl might have just dropping it in the office. Dang, it was after 7pm and the office was closed. At least they are open on Sunday, I thought. I decided to go check the mail on the off chance they put it in a package locker. I wasn’t too hopeful though. I thought about taking a load of newspapers down to recycle so I didn’t waste the trip (I live on the third floor).

I opened my mailbox and there was a package locker key right in front. I procured the LeafSpa tea package and headed back inside. I opened the package and was completely surprised to see not two but FOUR shiny silver canister tops showing after I removed a modern leaf-background LeafSpa tea brochure and a typed tea reviewer letter with a brief handwritten note on it.

The letter told about how LeafSpa was started, why they are organic and some fair trade, and their commitment to the environment and global trade. As someone who goes to the farmer’s market, shops local and/or organic when I can choose to, without going out of my way or overboard to do so, and in general likes to support companies who have green and good-for-people business practices, I liked this about LeafSpa.

Yes, I read both the brochure and the letter before pulling out the tea tins to see what I got. I like to savor the anticipation. I am one of those people who slowly unwraps presents at Christmas. Below are the teas I received with brief descriptions of looks and smells in the order I pulled them out of the box.

Blink Bonnie Green Tea
Long thick beautiful dark grey-green with light yellowed white and reddish brown hints rolled spirals. They are an inch and a half to two inches long and two to four millimeters thick in the middle. The smell is honeyed sweet dusky sharp. Lovely.

A word about the canisters. They are tin with a plastic rim inside the lid which fits very snugly yet isn’t a hassle to open. As others here have pointed out, they are absolutely full to the brim with tea. I remember and was careful opening not to spill any.

Kenchajangha Green Tea
A deep dark green-brown with lots of mid to light yellowy olive green. Kinked and curved, short and thin. The smell is clean, peppery, and green.

Darjeeling Goomtea Black Tea
Black, brown, reddish tan, and muted green. Small, some straight, some curled. The smell is black, paper, airy, slightly floral, and a bit of fresh raw olives. Good.

Honeybush Apple Herbal Tea
Dark brown to light tan chippies with rather large apple pieces. The smell is sweet, appley, and vaguely of a good fruit liquor.

My initial impression were with no description of the teas since there was none on the tins. I thought the Blink Bonnie was beautiful and wanted to try it right away. I was also very tempted to eat an apple piece out of the Honeybush Apple. Not having browsed the LeafSpa website recently or in depth, I thought that these may not have been teas I would have picked out on my own but none were teas I would have not picked.

My cats were very interested in the opening of the tea package by the way. Having put my jeans on from house pj-style bottom, I decided to walk down two loads of newspaper recycling for good karma in response to good tea karma and urged a bit by the greenness of LeafSpa. When I came back the cats were still liking the tea package. Don’t worry, it was closed.

I then brought the tea to my desk to look it up on the LeafSpa website and Steepster and to post about getting the teas. First to the LeafSpa website, which was clear and easy to browse. Upon further reading about the greens and the black, I realized they were indeed teas I’d be interested to try and sounded like ones I’d like taste-wise. I subscribed to the newsletter, which I was apparently already subscribed to from ordering, and opened their blog in a tab to check out later.

Then to Steepster, where I found that only one of the teas has been logged – the Blink Bonnie. A bit sad not to be able to read what others thought, but pretty neat to be the first to log them, which I gotten to do much, be the first to try a tea on Steepster, that is. My, that was a badly constructed sentence. Lissa was one of two others to try the Blink Bonnie and she gave it a good score. Overall, all the LeafSpa teas on here seem to be well rated.

As much as I wanted to try a tea right then and there once I got done opening the package, it was late in the day caffeine-wise and multi-steep-wise, I was warm from my studying being the hotter room in our apartment and running recycling up and downstairs, and I’m about to cook dinner once I’m done posting. I will definitely drinking the Honeybush Apple tonight for my reading-in-bed tea. I’m happy for the inclusion of an herbal so I can try one today without having to wait until tomorrow. So I’m happy, happy, joy, joy excited about the arrival of my LeafSpa tea package.

Overall impression so far: LEAFSPA TEA ROCKZ! FREE TEA ROCKZ! TEA CONTESTS ROCK! TEA ROCKZ PERIOD!

Very speedy shipping. Nicely boxed. Nice informative letter about the company. Handwritten note! Solid hardy canisters with clean simple earthy/naturey labeling. Lovely smelling and pretty looking tea leaves. Happy Chrine. If LeafSpa wants to win over new (and returning) customers with good service and nice looking products, they are doing a terrific job so far in my book.

So far I’ve had only great experiences with online tea companies, especially compared to other online companies. And I will effusively love on their teas and them verbally because of it and, of course, the yummy teas. Maybe tea people are just nice good people in general, I’ve certain found that to be the case here on Steepster, compared to other forums/social sites. (The other two online tea companies I’ve ordered from at Andrew & Dunham’s Damn Fine Teas and Frank at 52 Teas.)

If the teas taste as good as my whole LeafSpa experience so far, I would definitely purchase from them in the future and would recommend them to others. And there will be tealogs about them very soon. I am just happy right now. Unexpectedly happy. I can see why people order large numbers of teas often.