Q. How much tea does an ounce make?
A. It typically makes between 6-8 cups(8oz) of tea. It will vary based off the fluffiness of the tea. Herbal teas typically need more tea to have the same flavor as traditional teas. For example, Peppermint is light and fluffy and will take 1.5-2 teaspoons to steep one 8oz cup of tea, which a green tea like Sencha will steep an 8oz cup with only a teaspoon of tea leaves.
Q. How long do you steep loose tea?
A. Different tea types steep at different times. Our recommendations are only general times, you may find with experimentation, that you prefer and lower and higher steep time than we recommend. It's all preference. We recommend 5-6 minutes for herbal and white teas, 3-4 minutes for black and oolong teas and 2-3 minutes for green teas.
Q. How is the tea priced? What do the prices on the products mean?
A. The teas are priced by the ounce. If you see $2.00 on a tea listing, that means it's priced at $2.00 per ounce. Again, an ounce of tea makes roughly 6-8 cups(8oz) of tea.
Q. Why is tea sold by the ounce and not by the pound like coffee?
A. One pound of coffee makes roughly 40 cups, but one pound of tea makes between 200-250 cups of tea, according to the type. When you break it down, loose tea is actually cheaper per cup than most coffees.
Q. How much caffeine is in tea?
A. Herbal teas are naturally caffeine free, except for any teas containing Mate Yerba. Mate contains about 40 mg of caffeine per 8oz. Green teas contain about 15-20mgs of caffeine, oolong teas contain about 25-30mg per cup and black teas contain about 35-40mg of caffeine. White tea does contain the most caffeine when picked and processed, but white teas go through a very safe decaffeinating method, called the CO2 method, which leaves only about 5-10mg of caffeine left in the leaf.
Q. What is the CO2 Method of decaffeinating?
A. This process is technically known as supercritical fluid extraction. In the carbon dioxide method, the caffeine is stripped directly from the leaves by a highly compressed semi-liquid form of carbon dioxide. This form of decaffeination is very safe for the tea and is not harmful like other forms of decaffeination using chemicals such as dichloromethane or ethyl acetate.
Q. Do you ship to Canada?
A. We do ship to Canada. Shipping is calculated based off weight and area of country. We use First Class Mail International through the United States Postal Service.
Q. Where is your phone number?
A. Our customer service hours are between 8AM-5PM Mon-Fri. We can be reached toll free at 1-888-978-2160.
Q. Can I request new teas?
A. Sure. We're always open to suggestions. Many of our teas came from great suggestions from customers just like you.
Q. Are you a large company?
A. We are a very small company with only 5-6 employees. We have been in business over 7 years now. We have over 15 years of loose tea experience working for other companies and we've brought that experience with us.
Q. Do you have a physical retail location I can visit to buy teas?
A. We do not have a physical retail location at this time. We are online only and because of this, we keep our overhead low and pass on the savings to the customer. We have high quality loose teas, at a low price. If we had a retail location, our tea prices would have to be higher to pay the extra costs.
Q. Do you drop ship?
A. No, we physically carry and store the teas at our location. We also custom mix many of our popular blends. We purchase our loose teas from reputable import/export tea companies in the US with high standards.