LadyA-
A few thoughts:
Wouldn't this get a bit complicated if someone asks for specific preferences
We could consider having some basic guidelines for the swap (e.g. loose-leaf only/bagged only)
...preferences, like only decaf or no greens
If the idea of a swap is popular and takes off, we could organize themed swaps: one month it could be all greens, the next month it could be nothing but decaf.... I'd want to do a "anything goes" swap first, to see how it would work and identify any kinks.
EDIT: By doing monthly themed swaps, people can choose month by month whether or not they want to participate...if it's rooibos month and you can't stand the stuff, simply don't send in any tea.
Hrm, as long as you don't send our own teas back to us.
Of course not, silly!
But if two people sent the same kind of tea there may be a repeat.
Would everything have to be separated out before sending?
We could do this one of two ways:
1. I organize the swap and all teas are sent to me, along with a dollar or so to cover postage. I send everybody a package with samples of what everybody sent. If I do this, don't worry - I have a ton of small plastic Ziploc bags that I can use to easily repackage the tea and all I'd have to do is print labels for the bags, which is no big. (While Ziploc bags aren't ideal for tea storage, they're inexpensive and will be fine for storing what will probably amount to enough leaves to make one or two cups of each type of tea sent to me.)
Incidentally, if we do this, the person organizing it would need to spend a little time on it. Marlene has already volunteered to organize a swap so I was thinking that we could rotate swap organizers. Anybody else interested in organizing would get a chance that way.
2. I post a list that says something to the effect of "LadyArden sends to Marlene, Marlene sends to Klemptor, Klemptor sends to LadyArden." This would mean each person would get tea from one person only. The downside of this is that somebody could back out at the last minute, leaving their recipient in the lurch (while the backer-outter has already received his/her tea). And I don't really anticipate that happening but the first way is a good way to prevent it.
If people are interested, I'd like to do a general tea swap to see how it goes before we try the custom blend tea swap that I mentoned in the "flavors" forum.
Sound OK? Hope I made sense!