At The Tea Spot, we've been awarded a USDA grant to study our new product's viability and part of our research involves gathering feedback from tea drinkers. I found this great forum and thought it would be a great resource for finding interested members of the tea-drinking community.

As a thanks to you, we're offering 20% off your next order through February 28, 2011 on our online loose tea shop, The Tea Spot - Loose Leaf Tea & Steepware - Green Tea, White Tea, Black Tea, Oolong Tea, Rooibos, Yerba Mate, Herbal Tea -- simply complete the enclosed survey by February 1 to receive your coupon code! After completing the survey, you'll receive the coupon code!

This makes for a great discount, especially if you've been wanting to try new teas or are an existing customer looking to reorder!

Copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
Survey | Qualtrics Survey Software

Thanks,

The Tea Spot Team

teaspot > wrote:
>At The Tea Spot, we've been awarded a USDA grant to study our new
>product's viability and part of our research involves gathering feedback
>from tea drinkers. I found this great forum and thought it would be a
>great resource for finding interested members of the tea-drinking
>community.

The thing is, your survey doesn't actually allow anyone to give you actual
feedback.

The gadget you have looks to have MUCH too large holes to be used with a lot
of teas. It would be fine with a large leaf tea, but a CTC tea is going to
go right through that infuser and into the cup. You need to look into very
different fabrication for the basket if you expect it to be useful for a
wide range of teas.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Hey Scott,

Thanks for your response. The survey is not meant to allow free-response feedback, as it is a valuation survey only. The product has already been developed and tested extensively; at this point, we're completing a marketing and commercialization for the steeper.

As far as the size of the holes, we have tested the steeper with a wide range of teas and have not found any usability or steeping problems. Were you referring to a specific type of tea? The steeper is only meant to be used with loose tea, so finer, lower-grade tea dust and fannings will not work with the product.

The Tea Spot

teaspot > writes:

>Scott Dorsey;1575723 Wrote:
>> teaspot wrote:-
>> At The Tea Spot, we've been awarded a USDA grant to study our new
>> product's viability and part of our research involves gathering
>> feedback
>> from tea drinkers. I found this great forum and thought it would be a
>> great resource for finding interested members of the tea-drinking
>> community.-
>>
>> The thing is, your survey doesn't actually allow anyone to give you
>> actual
>> feedback.
>>
>> The gadget you have looks to have MUCH too large holes to be used with a
>> lot
>> of teas. It would be fine with a large leaf tea, but a CTC tea is going
>> to
>> go right through that infuser and into the cup. You need to look into
>> very
>> different fabrication for the basket if you expect it to be useful for a
>>
>> wide range of teas.
>
>
>Hey Scott,
>
>Thanks for your response. The survey is not meant to allow free-response
>feedback, as it is a valuation survey only. The product has already been
>developed and tested extensively; at this point, we're completing a
>marketing and commercialization for the steeper.
>
>As far as the size of the holes, we have tested the steeper with a wide
>range of teas and have not found any usability or steeping problems.
>Were you referring to a specific type of tea? The steeper is only meant
>to be used with loose tea, so finer, lower-grade tea dust and fannings
>will not work with the product.

Scott said €œCTC tea€�. If you dont know what that is, please look he

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush,_Tear,_Curl

If you are determined to write CTC out of your market, please note that
the vast majority of tea drinkers in the Indian subcontinent brew CTC
tea. Not to mention that only an extremely high grade of whole leaf
tea, stored extremely carefully, will have no small fragments at all.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

Can you give me a number at the USDA I can call and complain you are
wasting taxpayer money.

Jim

On Jan 25, 3:03 pm, teaspot >
wrote:
> At The Tea Spot, we've been awarded a USDA grant

On Jan 26, 3:26*pm, teaspot >
wrote:
> Scott Dorsey;1575723 Wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > teaspot wrote:-
> > At The Tea Spot, we've been awarded a USDA grant to study our new
> > product's viability and part of our research involves gathering
> > feedback
> > from tea drinkers. I found this great forum and thought it would be a
> > great resource for finding interested members of the tea-drinking
> > community.-
>
> > The thing is, your survey doesn't actually allow anyone to give you
> > actual
> > feedback.
>
> > The gadget you have looks to have MUCH too large holes to be used with a
> > lot
> > of teas. *It would be fine with a large leaf tea, but a CTC tea is going
> > to
> > go right through that infuser and into the cup. *You need to look into
> > very
> > different fabrication for the basket if you expect it to be useful for a
>
> > wide range of teas.
>
> Hey Scott,
>
> Thanks for your response. The survey is not meant to allow free-response
> feedback, as it is a valuation survey only. The product has already been
> developed and tested extensively; at this point, we're completing a
> marketing and commercialization for the steeper.
>
> As far as the size of the holes, we have tested the steeper with a wide
> range of teas and have not found any usability or steeping problems.
> Were you referring to a specific type of tea? The steeper is only meant
> to be used with loose tea, so finer, lower-grade tea dust and fannings
> will not work with the product.
>
> The Tea Spot
>
> --
> teaspot

I don't know what "valuation" means, but I agree with Scott that this
"survey" does not feel like a "survey" to me-- it feels more like
early stage marketing.

How many people here regularly drink to-go tea? I doubt many of us
do: We are interested in fine-tuning our infusions, evaluating *this*
crop of Hao-Ya Keemun as opposed to last year's, or trying out our own
blends of leaves.

How many people here regularly avoid drinking tea in public because we
have so little control over what we are served?

Tea Spot doesn't even know what CTC means? Why would we want to order
tea from a company like that?

This strikes me as fancy spam from people who *think* they know
something about tea. I agree that USDA is wasting its money.

teaspot > wrote:
>
>As far as the size of the holes, we have tested the steeper with a wide
>range of teas and have not found any usability or steeping problems.
>Were you referring to a specific type of tea? The steeper is only meant
>to be used with loose tea, so finer, lower-grade tea dust and fannings
>will not work with the product.

Not just fannings, anything normal OP sized is going to be a problem. Any
CTC tea is going to go right through, and that is a lot of teas.

Should not be too hard to make a stamped grille in place of the die-cut.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Thitherflit > wrote:
>
>I don't know what "valuation" means, but I agree with Scott that this
>"survey" does not feel like a "survey" to me-- it feels more like
>early stage marketing.

It clearly is early stage marketing, and that's okay by me if it means
potential users actually get to have some say in the product.

>How many people here regularly drink to-go tea? I doubt many of us
>do: We are interested in fine-tuning our infusions, evaluating *this*
>crop of Hao-Ya Keemun as opposed to last year's, or trying out our own
>blends of leaves.

I actually spend a lot of my time on the road in hotels and in other
facilities, and I have got pretty good at making my own tea on the fly
in such places. And that brings to mind your next comment...

>How many people here regularly avoid drinking tea in public because we
>have so little control over what we are served?

THIS is a serious, serious problem. If you don't bring your own teamaking
apparatus with you, you're pretty limited. I'd say, though the MOST SERIOUS
issues that I see with tea on the road all have to do with the quality of
the water. It's not hot enough, or for greens it's sometimes too hot. And
it is almost invariably contaminated with coffee residue. Why don't people
drink tea in the US? Because when you order tea in the US, what you get is
usually pretty vile. ANYBODY who wants to help this state of affairs, even
if they are a little spammy in their marketing, is on the right side.

>Tea Spot doesn't even know what CTC means? Why would we want to order
>tea from a company like that?
>
>This strikes me as fancy spam from people who *think* they know
>something about tea. I agree that USDA is wasting its money.

True, but maybe the response will encourage them to find out, and that would
be a good thing. It's not as if most of the people in the food service
industry know a damn thing about food anyway.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I cant remember the last time I used an infuser. I drink my teas off
the top. Saturated leaf is always heavier than water no matter the
size. I prefer whole leaf aesthetics. With CTC there are maybe a
couple of stubborn particulates that you may have to swallow or spit
out if in a hurry. In Situ leaf is always adding something to the
taste. Its easier tossing a cup of leaves than leaves in a pot. In
polite company you have to be more civilized.

Jim

On Jan 27, 8:52 am, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> teaspot > wrote:
>
> >As far as the size of the holes, we have tested the steeper with a wide
> >range of teas and have not found any usability or steeping problems.
> >Were you referring to a specific type of tea? The steeper is only meant
> >to be used with loose tea, so finer, lower-grade tea dust and fannings
> >will not work with the product.
>
> Not just fannings, anything normal OP sized is going to be a problem. Any
> CTC tea is going to go right through, and that is a lot of teas.
>
> Should not be too hard to make a stamped grille in place of the die-cut.
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Space Cowboy > wrote:
>I cant remember the last time I used an infuser. I drink my teas off
>the top. Saturated leaf is always heavier than water no matter the
>size. I prefer whole leaf aesthetics. With CTC there are maybe a
>couple of stubborn particulates that you may have to swallow or spit
>out if in a hurry. In Situ leaf is always adding something to the
>taste. Its easier tossing a cup of leaves than leaves in a pot. In
>polite company you have to be more civilized.

The problem is that if you're spending a long time over a cup of tea, it
just gets stronger and stronger.

I really like the mesh basket infusers. They don't leak little fragments the
way the metal ones do, and they don't prevent free flow of water around
the leaves the way all of the smaller ones do.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."