JayinHK: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

Check out members who are in the business of TEA/teaware!


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Jul 7th, '16, 23:08
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JayinHK: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by jayinhk » Jul 7th, '16, 23:08

I've officially started a company for this enterprise and I'm looking at warehouses today. I have some good tea up, with much more to come! Please check out the site at TeaLifeHK.com! Suggestions more than welcome and let me know if there is anything in particular you're looking for!

Jay

Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/TeaLifeHK/
Last edited by jayinhk on Jul 8th, '16, 10:37, edited 2 times in total.

Jul 8th, '16, 00:12
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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by ethan » Jul 8th, '16, 00:12

jayinhk wrote:I've officially started a company for this enterprise and I'm looking at warehouses today. I have some good tea up, with much more to come! Please check out the site at TeaLifeHK.com! Suggestions more than welcome and let me know if there is anything in particular you're looking for!

Jay
Congratulations, Jay. Tasting tea w/ you was an excellent learning experience. You have an accurate palate & deal w/ vendors very well. I am sure you will find very special teas. I am surprised to read the word "warehouses" though. How many kilograms do you think you may have on hand?

All the best.

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Jul 8th, '16, 02:12
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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by jayinhk » Jul 8th, '16, 02:12

ethan wrote:
jayinhk wrote:I've officially started a company for this enterprise and I'm looking at warehouses today. I have some good tea up, with much more to come! Please check out the site at TeaLifeHK.com! Suggestions more than welcome and let me know if there is anything in particular you're looking for!

Jay
Congratulations, Jay. Tasting tea w/ you was an excellent learning experience. You have an accurate palate & deal w/ vendors very well. I am sure you will find very special teas. I am surprised to read the word "warehouses" though. How many kilograms do you think you may have on hand?

All the best.
Thanks Ethan! Just looking for one large warehouse where I can spread my wings and receive, store and pack things up. I need space for tea storage, scales, packaging materials, vacuum sealers, desks for labeling and addressing packages and computers for myself and any staff I may take on. Need to keep accurate records, too, so I need to keep accurate files. Not looking to mass warehouse pu erh (yet)!

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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by kuánglóng » Jul 8th, '16, 03:25

Congrats, Jay. Sounds like an interesting journey and an ideal place to store your preferred teas, experiment and shop around, including trips to Taiwan and neighbouring provinces. Just wondering how HKG compares to Guangdong from a business perspective (rent (ouch), taxes, shipping, ...) ...

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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by CWarren » Jul 8th, '16, 04:42

jayinhk wrote:I've officially started a company for this enterprise and I'm looking at warehouses today. I have some good tea up, with much more to come! Please check out the site at TeaLifeHK.com! Suggestions more than welcome and let me know if there is anything in particular you're looking for!

Jay

Very cool! Congrats again Jay!


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Jul 8th, '16, 07:12
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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by jayinhk » Jul 8th, '16, 07:12

CWarren wrote:
jayinhk wrote:I've officially started a company for this enterprise and I'm looking at warehouses today. I have some good tea up, with much more to come! Please check out the site at TeaLifeHK.com! Suggestions more than welcome and let me know if there is anything in particular you're looking for!

Jay

Very cool! Congrats again Jay!


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Thanks! Located suitable premises not too far from home today. Made offers on two places; one is larger, the other is a little smaller but has a partition in the back so I can use that area as an office. Probably signing the lease on one of them tomorrow, and after a good cleanup, it'll be time to move in!

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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by Drax » Jul 8th, '16, 07:19

Congratulations, Jay, and all the best for the endeavor!

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Jul 8th, '16, 08:24
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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by jayinhk » Jul 8th, '16, 08:24

kuánglóng wrote:Congrats, Jay. Sounds like an interesting journey and an ideal place to store your preferred teas, experiment and shop around, including trips to Taiwan and neighbouring provinces. Just wondering how HKG compares to Guangdong from a business perspective (rent (ouch), taxes, shipping, ...) ...
Thanks! There are pros and cons to setting up shop in Hong Kong. Rent is definitely higher, but I'm on the outskirts of town, so not TOO bad. I was born here, so nothing to worry about re: visas. I am going to have considerably more space to work with than I did in the city, where I was (sometimes literally) tripping over stuff. My rent here will be the same for 5-6x the square footage. I still need to go into town to restock, so I'll have to maintain stock levels of my most popular teas since it's an hour's commute each way.

Taxes are lower in HK than on the Mainland, and bureaucracy is a lot less of a pain in the ass down here. Shipping tea from China will cost me more (teaware is only slightly more expensive to ship here), but I'm primarily focusing on the best locally sourced teas that aren't available to the world at large (now they will be) from vendors who don't do computers. This is an idea Marshal had been bounding around and suggesting someone look into. He said the world needed access to traditional storage pu erh, and I think that is definitely true. I like oolongs, too, so lots of both, as well as HK dry storage sheng (which is excellent storage, since it is humid, but not too humid). Basically, good tea (and teaware) that is specific to Hong Kong. There are a few places here that specialize in teaware that is handpainted right in HK. It's a dying trade down here, so I'd like to help keep the art alive. Hong Kong was once a major manufacturer of porcelain teaware, but not anymore. In addition, there are some VERY talented potters down here who make some amazing (and very creative) teaware. I'm more old school when it comes to my tea and teaware, but I'm all about supporting local artists and businesses, so that's something to consider for the future too!

Shipping from here is about the same price as from China, but is much, much faster than shipping from China, so that's a plus. There's even a way to send discounted airmail from here that is trackable in the US. I'm definitely signing on for that program since it cuts costs and saves me having to wait in line for shipments (there's a separate counter for that kind of shipment), meaning greater productivity/more free time for me. :)

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Jul 8th, '16, 08:28
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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by jayinhk » Jul 8th, '16, 08:28

Drax wrote:Congratulations, Jay, and all the best for the endeavor!
Thanks! I need to figure out how best to promote the site and what I do without being an annoying spammer. :D

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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by Bok » Jul 8th, '16, 09:49

Best of luck mate!

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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by Bok » Jul 8th, '16, 09:52

jayinhk wrote:
Drax wrote:Congratulations, Jay, and all the best for the endeavor!
Thanks! I need to figure out how best to promote the site and what I do without being an annoying spammer. :D
One thing would be nice are descriptions of the teas, you know the little marketing blabla that makes people want to buy :mrgreen:

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Jul 8th, '16, 09:53
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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by jayinhk » Jul 8th, '16, 09:53

Bok wrote:Best of luck mate!
Thanks! As with any new venture there's some risk involved, so hopefully there's enough interest in the teas I offer for this to work! Some great old school, high fire dahongpao and loose pu erh (what most people in HK drink) next!

As for descriptions...click on the text below the pictures! :wink:

Ethan, you asked how many kg I intend to keep on hand. Having just graduated from business school, I am going to use what I learned and keep my business lean to start with, meaning I keep as little as possible on hand until I can better gauge demand for each tea. This minimizes my risk and the amount of money I have tied up in tea! If all goes well, I'll look into a second warehouse exclusively for pu erh and heicha dry storage, ideally in the same building. I'll leave the traditional storage up to the pros whose families have 60-100 years of experience under their belts!

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Re: Jayinhk: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by Bok » Jul 8th, '16, 10:46

jayinhk wrote:
As for descriptions...click on the text below the pictures! :wink:
Haha, sorry about that, did not see it on the my laptop...

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Re: JayinHK: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by daidokorocha » Jul 8th, '16, 11:05

I like how all your teas are able to be featured products at the moment. :mrgreen:

All I have to say is WOW :shock: Congratulations. I feel like you really earned this with all the work you've put in finding great teas and really getting to know tea. I always get the impression that a lot of vendors do not know tea that well and probably aren't delivering you something special. I think I would feel safe in your hands, jay. I'm glad those oolongs are still around because I still want to try them. Best of luck on the venture!

It will be interesting to see what you decide to expand into and what you don't expand into. Something tells me you'll probably keep it in line with your tastes and knowledge base in order to source nothing but quality tea you are confident in.

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Re: JayinHK: TeaLifeHK.com Is Now Up!

by oolongtimenosee » Jul 8th, '16, 11:36

That 33-year-old shu pu'er looks delicious! :D

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