Well, here I am again! Sometimes it seems the time passes by so quickly, as was the case for this weekend. I can't believe how quickly it flew on past me!
So, it's Monday, and that means processing the orders that I received over the weekend. I've had such a huge demand for my sample packs (note: I'm not complaining! I'm thrilled), that I've had to temporarily remove the sample packs from my website, as I don't have enough sample bags at this point to fill any new orders. (sorry!) However, I'll be placing an order for more, and will be getting them in next week... then it will be back to business as usual.
There will be a new improvement to the way I handle samples. Rather than pre-filling the two T-Sacs with enough tea for a cup each and selling this as a sample, I'll be measuring out enough loose tea into smaller, foil lined bags (which are better for tea storage). This will eliminate the "pre-filled" T-Sac, so I will also include a small package of T-Sacs for the customer to use when they steep my samples.
I think that this will be a better way to handle my samples, I know it will eliminate much of the bulkiness that is associated with my samples at the current time (makes it more of a challenge to ship with the bulky packaging).
So what tea are you sipping today? I'm indulging in a cup of Orange Grove this morning. I love the fresh, bright taste of this tea. I must admit that when I first started drinking teas, I was rather "turned off" by the grassy nature of the green teas. I liked it alright in small "doses" -- like if I were to visit an Asian restaurant, I would always partake of the green tea, it just seemed like the thing to do! But, as far as brewing the green tea myself, I didn't really care for it.
I think that this was due to two factors:
- I didn't know the proper way to brew tea back then. I didn't know that the water should be slightly cooler for green tea and that you shouldn't steep as long as you would black teas. Since learning otherwise, I have come to appreciate even the more earthy notes in green teas.
- I hadn't tried flavored green teas, I had tried only dragonwell and bancha without embellishment, and I wasn't very fond of either. I have since grown to appreciate some unfettered green teas, such as Sencha and Genmai-cha (which some would consider an embellished tea due to the brown rice addition).
Since my disaster days with green tea, I've grown to become rather fond of green teas, especially those in my collection. My favorite often changes from one to the next... right now, my favorite has been the potpourri tea, which I'll no doubt enjoy a little later today.
Art... I actually was able to get creative yesterday. It took some doing... normally, I'm itching to get into my goodies and start playing right away! But over the past couple of days, I've just not had much of an inclination. I think that part of it stems from the guilt I've felt over one particular swap that I had to bow out of, much to my own personal disappointment. I feel terrible about this, because I don't like committing to something and then not being able to deliver the goods.
In my own defense, I will only say that I just couldn't find the inspiration to create this series. I thought I'd really enjoy it, but, I just couldn't get with it, and find what I needed inside to create this collection. I feel like I did the right thing, to contact the hostess before the due date, rather than keep her waiting for my cards that weren't going to arrive.
Oh well, I'm not going to continue to dwell on this. It will only depress me.
LOL I was looking for a way to neatly and discreetly slide my friend Aileen's name into that discussion about art, but I failed miserably. So, I'll just be overt about it. She owns Outside The Margins and it was her blog that inspired me to get my blog. So you have her to thank (or blame) for this.
OK... so I'm going to log off now -- gotta get those orders filled! Thanks for reading!
