Friday/Saturday TeaDay 2/25-26/11 Uh oh, bait and switch?

[Chip]

Greetings TeaFriends, welcome to a new TeaDay. Please drop into TeaDay throughout the day and share what is in your cup with us.

Thursday we discussed desperate measures when we run out of teas we like, and what to do. You can still vote and discuss Thursday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. So yesterday we ran out of tea, today we reorder our faves from same vendors. But when they arrive we are dissappointed as they fail to wow. Does this happen to you? What do you do when it does? Please share.

We are looking forward to sharing this TeaDay with everyone. Bottoms up!

[Chip]

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15185

[AdamMY]

The truth is for the most part I am still in the experimental phase of things and only recently have I started to go back and try some ones that I thought were great the first time around. So I was a bit unsure how to answer this one.

[entropyembrace]

I voted other/other because I only rarely reorder teas I´ve had before with my preference being to explore teas I haven´t tasted before....especially since many of my favourites are only available for a limited time. In the few cases where I have re-ordered teas I´ve never been disappointed...I suppose if it were to happen that I re-ordered a tea and it was drastically different in a way I did not like I would contact the vendor to ask why it was so different.

[Herb_Master]

I voted other/other because I only rarely reorder teas I´ve had before with my preference being to explore teas I haven´t tasted before....

+1 except I voted Not Really

Have online ordered from about 25 places, and found about 6 from which I will not order again and 2 which I was disappointed with but may order from again - 7 Cups and Hou De

Have reordered from 6 - Dragon Tea House, Tea Habitat, Wan Ling UK, Jing (UK), Jing Tea Shop, Yunnan Sourcing and so far reorders have matched my expectations.

[Annabelle]

I voted "not really" because I haven't had problems with this . . . not yet, anyway.

[JRS22]

Generally this happens to me if a tea is great one year, and considerably less great the next year. So I've learned to order the smallest size the next year to make sure that the tea will meet my expectations. This is mainly with Japanese tea since this is the first year I've tried a number of Chinese teas. It's also why I'm staying away from the companies that don't publish the harvest year.

My plan today is to open the 2 small bags of green tea I purchased to tide me over until the 2011 harvest - An Ji Bai Cha and Tai Ping Hou Kui from 7 cups.

[hopeofdawn]

I tend to do more tea buying in person than online so far, so I can have the chance to taste before I buy--keeps unpleasant surprises to a minimum!

Tie guan yin this morning ...

[Tadpole]

Only happened once. I go to 2 local tea shops in San Francisco, both with generally great reputations, families steeped in tea for the past quarter century minimum, owners personally visit the tea farms where they source their teas, honest service, long term buying relationships with tea farms, etc etc etc. A few years back I tried a phenomenal Wen Shan Baozhong at the shop. I bought a couple ounces of it to enjoy at home. I wished I bought more that first time!

A week later I went back to ask for the same tea. They had sold out already, and they said more was on the way the next week. When it arrived, I went back to buy a pound of it, split up into multiple bags to share with other people. Well, at home, this new batch didn't taste as ethereal and fruity as the very first one couple weeks prior. Hmmmm....I definitely saw them scoop the tea out of the correct container, it looked and smelled the same as my first purchase, and it most definitely was the only canister of fresh Wen Shan on their shelf.

I felt bummed, for sure, waiting 2 weeks for more of something I was really looking forward to have again! I decided the tea overall wasn't horrible, just not as memorable as the first taste I had. It became the default tea I had in my cabinet for a long time. I left a bag in my desk at work, a bag at my mom's house, always kept some in my backpack. Anything to help move it along so as not to go to waste. In the grand scheme of things, I think I should have said something to the shop owners. I guess I was younger, and too chicken to speak up. I worried if I came back this one time disappointed with their usually 99.999999% great tea, that whenever I set foot in their store, it would be awkward. I have seen another one of their long time customers post their displeasure about a certain tea publicly on the store's Facebook page, and they handled it with every intention to make it right for the customer, even so far as giving a refund for the opened tea.

Like I said, it only happened ONCE so far! I'm still a regular customer at that store.

[artmom]

No problems so far.

Granddaughter Samantha Lyn returns to Japan in April. She will be an assistant in the public schools of Ichihara in Chiba Prefecture teaching English as a Foreign Language. She was in Japan for two years working as an accountant for a Presbyterian Mission in Chiba, and returned in August. She can't wait to get back. I'll miss her -- but am happy for her.

[Cael]

I've only had it happen once or twice when I got a tea that was so bad that I didn't like it. I've generally contacted the vendor and they never have a problem with giving me a refund or a fresh tea. However, I've replaced my tea before and ended up with something better as well, so I don't get too worried about it usually.

[dokpm0]

Other - I'm still in the early sampling stage. The only thing I've run out of and reordered so far is chamomile.

At the moment on this Tea Day my mug contains some Keemun Mao Feng Imperial.

[Chip]

I am late to the TeaDay.

Yes, this has happened to me, and yes it really bothers me. I once purchased an exceptional sencha from of all places, SpecialTeas, even came in the Japanese packaging. It was really good and confirmed my interest in sencha. I reordered and received some really bogus replacement that looked like 2nd flush and was not in the Japanese packaging.

Next I ordered a really nice oolong from SpecialTeas, reminiscent of Rou Gui with cassia/cinnamon notes. I really liked it, and when I reordered I even asked, is this the same harvest, etc. The guy on the phone said yes. It arrives and was just a rather pedestrian oolong.

I never ordered from them again ...

Great TeaDay beginning with Kiwami from Zencha with the Mrs. Next up, Musashi from O-Cha.

Finished the TD with day 3 of TKY from IPT and day 2 of Pu-OTTI from Brandon.

[Chip]

This TeaDay will continue into Saturday.

Please continue to share what is in your cup and share your thoughts on the topic.

Or talk about whatever ...

[brad4419]

I've never had that problem before but if I did I would contact the vendor. So far I haven't really experimented with many different vendors and the ones I use have been excellent.

No tea yet this morning but I had everyday milan dancong yesterday