FIRST OFFICIAL PUERH TEA SWAP (CANCELED)

[Drax]

All right, the interest between a box pass and a tea swap was split after 2 weeks (though only about 9 people voted). So accordingly, I'm going to try to run both. This is the thread for the tea swap.

This is an experiment in arranging tea swaps.

Like the tea box, the point of this is to try new teas, learn about Pu'erh and make some friends. Further, the point is to brew your teas "together" with your swap partner and compare notes. If you have any questions, please contact me.

You may participate in both the tea swap and the box pass if eligible.

Who can participate?
*To participate you must be a registered TeaChat member joined prior to 1 September, 2009 and must have a minimum of 75 posts.
*There are no geographic restrictions to participating in the tea swap.

Rules
1) Participants must provide me (via PM) the following information:
a) Location (country and city is fine)
b) Willing to swap internationally?
c) Experience level with pu'erh (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
d) Prefer to be matched w/ somebody with (more, less, same, don't care) experience?
e) Do you have: a yixing pot for young raw pu'erh? Aged raw pu'erh? Cooked pu'erh? A gaiwan?
f) (Any other information you want to know...?)
2) Once I receive information on people desiring to participate, I will try to pair people based on their preferences. Please keep in mind that you may not get paired if your information is too restrictive and nobody meets your criteria. I will try to let you know if somebody is 'close' to what you want.
3) Pairs will be identified and then these people will PM each other with personal contact information and preferences.
a) Recommend swapping 3 samples (10g each).
b) Recommend figuring out how to swap stuff you haven't tried.
4) Once agreed upon, pairs will prepare the samples and mail to each other. Recommend adding brewing instructions so that tasting notes can be more evenly compared.
5) Pairs should inform each other when the tea has arrived. You may arrange to brew "together" and chat in real time, or brew separately and compare notes later. For fun, post the results here!

DISCLAIMER
* You may back out of the tea swap at any time BEFORE you both agree to send samples to each other. If you decide to do so, you must make that clear (via PM or post) to both your pair and to me.
* If you both agree to the swap, you MUST follow through. If you do not (or your partner does not), please let me know. Unfortunately I can't do anything other than blackball the person from participating again.
* Which leads to the last "cover my arse" disclaimer -- you participate in this swap at your own risk. We are keeping swaps small in order to minimize loss if swapping with a bad partner (or in case of postal losses).

How to register?
To register you must PM me by 8 November, 2009. I will post pairings if everything has gone according to plan (ha!).

If you have any ideas on how to make this swap thing better, please let me know that as well.

[AdamMY]

Just wondering have you been getting people interested in this PM-ing you?

I'm still trying to decide.


(Although I'd ultimately leave it up to how strict you are on the post count, as in the upgrade my previous account and 100+ posts were lost)

[edkrueger]

You only need 13 more.

[AdamMY]

yeah I guess I could go on a pointless post spree. I mean I guess there are some topics from 2+ years ago that I could comment on long after they are dead.

[TomVerlain]

maybe one day I will have 75 posts too

[TIM]

yeah I guess I could go on a pointless post spree. I mean I guess there are some topics from 2+ years ago that I could comment on long after they are dead.

Hello Adam, how are you today?
I am good thanks, and you?
1 down, 12 to go.

[Drax]

The account post # is flexible, especially considering many people lost posts in the upgrade, so please don't worry about that.

Uh, though it's been an extremely slow weekend (even on TeaChat in general) and so far, interest has been extremely minimal...

[aKnightWhoSaysNi]

Ah, I want to join in... but my collection is somewhat limited. I was going to buy some more pu... I really had my eye on a 1990s CNNP offering that was a blend of Guangdong and Yunnan leaves. However, I spent all of my tea budget for the month on two bags of sencha and one kyusu.

[AdamMY]

Tom I remember a day when you had I believe over 600 hundred posts.

And Tim, I am doing well, and yourself? I am looking forward to your next blog post.

[Drax]

Canceled due to lack of interesting.

Maybe next time!