Twitter, Technology, and Tea Swapping
I love when a small moment and choice becomes something wonderful. In October 2008, I was surfing around on tea sites one day when I came across a little blog where a few people were trading teas. I couldn’t tell how long it had been since anyone posted but I submitted a comment saying I would like to swap some tea. In response, I received an email from Laura Rebolledo in Michigan and the swap was on! But, the benefit of this was all mine. It turned out that Laura is a reviewer for Teaviews.com and she purchases and receives hundreds of teas each year. My sparse tea package went to her and in return I received several boxes full of various teas and my world was changed forever. Now, I’ve been exposed to teas and tea companies that it would have taken a long time to discover on my own.
Floating around on Twitter, I ran into Laura again and this connected me with all of her tea tweet-peeps. There is a live and active world of tea going on on Twitter. (You can follow me on Twitter by going to www.twitter.com/rebeccalong.) One thing lead to another and all of the sudden I’m participating in twice monthly swapping through Nikki at Co-op Tea Swap and I have tea friends all over the country.
Technology is allowing tea lovers to find each other and connect. I am having so much fun meeting people who love tea, and these connections are allowing me to greatly expand my repertoire of tea. I look forward to connecting with more tea lovers in 2009, so join in the community and drink up!
If you know about more swap options, please share the details by leaving a comment below.
photo by romainguy
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What a great post! Over the last year I have met and come to know many other tea lovers myself-all over the Internet and around the world. It has been such a great experience. While I participate in my own Co-Op Tea Swap, I periodically swap with other people I have met on Twitter as well. Tea is such a wonderful habit.
Thanks again for providing the tea for the baby shower. Thanks to this blog entry I now understand why you had such a wide selection. I’m interested in obtaining a wider variety of teas, but I’m the only person in my home who drinks tea. Do u recommend joining a Tea Of The Month club or participating in a tea swap? The key is that I don’t want a large volume. -Abbie
@Tea Escapade Thanks for the comment. You are definitely one of the pioneers of tea-swapping and your efforts are very much appreciated. Thanks for stopping by and see you on twitter.
@Abbie Thanks for hosting the shower. All those little outfits were adorable! Yes, swapping is why I have so many different varieties of tea. Sterling and I did a tea of the month club last year and it was wonderful, but if you don’t drink that much tea, it may be a bit much. Swapping is nice because you can be in a tea-of-the-month and at least know that you can share extra with others or just use the swap as your source of variety and buy a bag from a vendor here and there. Thanks for the comment- want to do tea ceremony at the Tea Grotto (SLC)?
@Rebecca I enjoyed reading about your online tea adventures. It’s amazing how tools like twitter & blogging have made the world a much smaller place.
who would have thought that tea swapping would work? well, probably you because you run a tea orientated site but not something I would have thought about. great niche!
Andy Bailey’s last blog post..My haircut calamity
I haven’t come across any tea swapping sites but I did notice this tea coupons site at http://www.retailmenot.com/coupons/tea.
@Andy Bailey – Thanks for dropping by. Your wordpress plugins are legendary. Thank you for providing such great technology.
@Internet Strategist – Thank you for the helpful coupon code links. Loved your blog post.
Tea swapping is so much fun: Helps me to get out of any ruts, and introduces me to new teas, new tea producers, and new tea friends!
There are SO many teas out there, and it is so easy to share them with others. I am glad that some of us can take advantage of this and make friends at the same time!
I can tell you that from my perspective as a microblender of teas: Twitter may very well have single-handedly saved our business. We were shipping out one or two packages every two to three weeks. With our new project and website (http://www.52teas.com) and Twitter, we are sending out about 40 packages a week now, and growing. I’ve always known we have a superior product. I just never could attract enough attention. Twitter has changed that for us.
@Andy Bailey @internet strategist @Lainie Petersen @Frank Horbelt Thank you all for commenting on this blog entry. Glad to see the support for tea swapping.
Twitter is great- I’ve met Lainie and Frank thorough Twitter and got to vote on the new 52teas logo. Tea and technology- bringing the world together, one tweet/sip at a time!
Interesting post! Just loved your concept and your online tea adventures. Myself being a tea lover, I love to meet and know people who loves tea. Anyways internet has made the process easier with Twitter and blogging I found great communities who love to share their experiences and love for tea like you.
Great post, thanks for sharing your experiences. Being a geek I followed the movement and tried tea around 5 months ago as an alternative to soda and coffee. Now I am going a little tea mad, though haven’t ventured too much after adapting the taste buds.
I’d love to do some tea swapping and will check out the sites you mentioned for sure. Again, thanks for sharing!
@Eugene Thanks for stopping by! My next tea adventure takes TeaThis to the World Tea Expo in Vegas coming weekend. I’m sure that there will be lots of blog, twitter, facebook, and britekite material at the Expo! I can’t wait to tweet-up with other participants.
@Matt Definitely look into tea swapping. It’s really fun and I cannot think of a more economical way to experience a vast variety of tea every month. AND you get to meet some really cool people! We’ll see you in the swap!
I am in same way like you
I love green tea and I want to find more freinds like you
Regards
I had no clue that there is something called as tea swapping! This is completely new to me. I love tea too and am addicted to one called ‘Elaichi’ tea. It is a strong, unique and intensely aromatic kind. I also add a small piece of ginger to it sometimes. It is the only thing that can wake me up in the morning 🙂
Must be fun to swap and try new teas. Well, we’re happy to have tea bloggers like you as a part of Livefyre 🙂 Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you’ve any questions for us. We’re always happy to help!