OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA ... and Reviews!

by **Rithmomachy** » Jun 15th, '10, 01:07

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Rithmomachy » Jun 15th, '10, 01:07

Hooray! I admit I was getting impatient, but I never doubted you for a moment, Chip!

And I just got a lovely new scale today, so I can give consistent tastings.

by **Chip** » Jun 15th, '10, 01:18

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Chip » Jun 15th, '10, 01:18

I was realllllly impatiently awaiting the "bonus teas." They were paid for and confirmed the beginning of May ... he never shipped it :evil:

. The guy had my cash (a lot of cash) for 28 days and never sent the tea. :evil:

In fact, never replied to emails, never sent any notice ... period. :shock:

I will be writing a "review" on this vendor in due course ... this will blow your freakin' minds.

by **the_skua** » Jun 15th, '10, 08:34

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by the_skua » Jun 15th, '10, 08:34

I was not aware that you were still waiting to have teas come in from the vendors themselves. I was operating under the assumption that everything had been staged.

Curious to see which vendor was so difficult and excited to try all the teas!

by **puerhking** » Jun 15th, '10, 11:52

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by puerhking » Jun 15th, '10, 11:52

Chip wrote:I was realllllly impatiently awaiting the "bonus teas." They were paid for and confirmed the beginning of May ... he never shipped it . The guy had my cash (a lot of cash) for 28 days and never sent the tea. In fact, never replied to emails, never sent any notice ... period.

I will be writing a "review" on this vendor in due course ... this will blow your freakin' minds.

Wow....how brutal. Perhaps there is a reason for this. It is so rare to hear of something like that. Family emergency etc. Otherwise that is just criminal.

by **Chip** » Jun 15th, '10, 22:46

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Chip » Jun 15th, '10, 22:46

the_skua wrote:I was not aware that you were still waiting to have teas come in from the vendors themselves. I was operating under the assumption that everything had been staged.

Curious to see which vendor was so difficult and excited to try all the teas!

Well, the original plan was a single OTTI that would have different choices from the same 3 categories ... at that point everything was in hand.

Then in a moment of inspiration, I decided to split it up into 3 seperate OTTIs which required a much larger selection. There were unfortuantely a few glitches.

puerhking wrote:
Chip wrote:I was realllllly impatiently awaiting the "bonus teas." They were paid for and confirmed the beginning of May ... he never shipped it . The guy had my cash (a lot of cash) for 28 days and never sent the tea. In fact, never replied to emails, never sent any notice ... period.

I will be writing a "review" on this vendor in due course ... this will blow your freakin' minds.

Wow....how brutal. Perhaps there is a reason for this. It is so rare to hear of something like that. Family emergency etc. Otherwise that is just criminal.

I would say highly unprofessional, rude, etc. I will be posting my experiences somewhere on the forum, just not sure where yet.

by **Chip** » Jun 16th, '10, 22:06

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Chip » Jun 16th, '10, 22:06

WOWZA! The last few days have been crazy. This was the craziest of the 3 OTTI because of trying to accomodate everyones individual requests, it was pretty insane! But hopefully everyone will be pleased!

Sooo, looks like everything will be going out this week. International orders will be a day later due to the "awesome" customs forms! :evil:

Thanks to the Mrs. for her assist ...

FYI, I had to improv a bit on the packing since the packing order is still on backorder and I had to get these out to all you very kind and patient participants. :roll:

by **Chip** » Jun 16th, '10, 23:29

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Chip » Jun 16th, '10, 23:29

BTW, had a session of the Kinari as we were packing, brewed a bit stronger than normal, wowza!

Facebook · by **Proinsias** » Jun 17th, '10, 00:02

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Proinsias » Jun 17th, '10, 00:02

Thank you Chip. I really appreciate all the effort you have put into this, and the forum in general.

Might be worth being selfish for the coming OTTI's. Opinions to be considered instead of requests to be met.

If everyone is drinking the same few teas it will make for a better thread than everyone drinking thier own specific orders.

by **Chip** » Jun 17th, '10, 01:10

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Chip » Jun 17th, '10, 01:10

... and so it shall be! There might be one wild card out of necessity, but future ones will be pretty much the same.

The one downside, if someone has 1 or 2 of the teas, then they may be less inclined to play along. In this case, I might make an exception to the rule.

Oh, and thanks for your kind words! :mrgreen:

by **TubbyCow** » Jun 17th, '10, 01:30

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by TubbyCow » Jun 17th, '10, 01:30

Proinsias wrote:Thank you Chip. I really appreciate all the effort you have put into this, and the forum in general.

Might be worth being selfish for the coming OTTI's. Opinions to be considered instead of requests to be met.

If everyone is drinking the same few teas it will make for a better thread than everyone drinking thier own specific orders.

+1 on all three of these paragraphs. Chip, I think making things easier for you is both a good idea in that it makes your life easier and that it means OTTIs are more likely to happen somewhat frequently.

Though not too frequently because my wallet needs a break now and then.

by **Chip** » Jun 17th, '10, 18:32

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Chip » Jun 17th, '10, 18:32

Thanks for the input, TubbyCow! I will be looking for ways to improve the process AND to make the OTTI-s enjoyable to all.

The Shincha OTTI has left the house and is on its way to new homes around the globe.

Facebook · by **Proinsias** » Jun 17th, '10, 18:34

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Proinsias » Jun 17th, '10, 18:34

Yay. My little kyusu will be very happy, it's been living on a diet of Chinese greens for a few months now.

by **brlarson** » Jun 19th, '10, 13:33

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by brlarson » Jun 19th, '10, 13:33

Hey Chip.

My OTTI Shincha was just delivered!

Bruce

by **the_skua** » Jun 19th, '10, 14:04

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by the_skua » Jun 19th, '10, 14:04

Me too! I got both of my rounds. Woohoo! I can't wait!

I'm going to have my lovely fiancee kindly prepare them for me blind, so that expectation will have less influence on my evaluation.

by **Dresden** » Jun 19th, '10, 14:12

Re: OTTI 2010 Round 1 ShinCHAAA!

by Dresden » Jun 19th, '10, 14:12

Perhaps it's time to post some general brewing guidelines so we all get roughly the same taste?

Otherwise, how can we accurately compare?