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