Tea Thoughts Favs Gift Guide!
Hello everyone!
I wanted to share some of the teas I’ve been loving and a few other things. While I could make you an exhaustive list of small companies you should consider supporting, I tried to make this easily digestible by sharing some of my tried and true favorites and a few new places I’ve tried! Here is a list I made a couple years ago that has more companies tea and non tea!
*Please note that a couple of these links are affiliate links which means if you purchase through them I will receive a small commission. This kind of support helps Tea Thoughts going!*
For the person who needs to CHILL
The Qi: Do you have someone on your list that needs a drink with lovely flavor but can’t have caffeine or prefers not to have it? I was recently sent this lovely set by The Qi and it includes 3 full blooms: rose, chrysanthemum and lotus. You can purchase them alone or you can purchase a set with a beautiful glass. I would suggest glass with these blooms as they are so beautiful! The rose is the most fragrant and I think packs lots of flavor. The chrysanthemum is less sweet and also blooms up beautifully. The lotus was the sweetest for me and is super delicate!
Code: NAZANIN10 for 10% off
Steep It Real Box: I created this box with the stressed person in us all. It's one thing to say self care is key and another to practice it! You know, the person who says they'll make time for themselves but doesn't always get around to it because you feel like you don't have time or don't know where to start?
You can brew yourself some amazing hojicha from Hojicha Co.
You can take care of your skin with 3 green tea infused products
You can indulge that sweet tooth and get a little serotonin boost with a green tea crunch bar
You can blow off some steam by coloring a couple pages in the tea time coloring book I created
And just for fun a little tea and a good book enamel pin and two crochet face scrubbies by me as well!
Code: GIFTGUIDE for $15 off your steep it real box!
For the Fashionista
Tea Shirts & Pins: You can wear your love of tea on your body in a few ways! You will find two tea shirt designs with a bunch of colors! The pins have a variety of designs with 3 new fun pins. All of my older pins have a HUGE sale going on ! No code needed, you can check out the pins here and the shirts here!
Shop Shirts - Code TEASHIRT for 10% off
Tea for everyone on your list
White2tea: Ok, this is probably my favorite and most frequent place to buy tea. Not only is this tea affordable and really delicious, if you follow along on social media you get to see into many of the processes of the teas that end up in the shop. I really love when a company shows this side of tea. Please also be advised that they are having a black friday sale this week so it’s the perfect time to stock up!
While I suggest you try ANY of their teas, my favs from white2tea are flapjacks, snowflake dancong, brown sugar, Autumn mengsong and natural redhead.
Bitterleaf: I mostly buy teaware from bitterleaf and suggest you definitely check out their teaware! I have also had some of their teas which are equally good in quality as their teaware! While they recently had a big sale, they also have a sale in the early months of the year for teaware with small defects.
I recently bought this pot support and am so excited about it!
Mansa: When I first had their tea, I got exposed to many of their offerings through a curated set called the taste of first step. If you want to give someone the gift of variety I would go with this! It allows the person to try white, pu’er and black tea in one set! If you are a person who already knows their preferences, they recently added gift tins for their tea to make a lovely gift.
I think it’s important to note that their raw pu’er changed my mind about raw pu’er and now I love it all!
While it was hard to pick, my favorites are the Wild Lao and Golden Flower Brick!
Hojicha: It’s getting colder in most parts of the country and you’re looking for that hearty, nutty, roasted tea. Hojicha to the rescue. Hojicha, especially the dark roast which is my fav is perfect for this time of the year! If you hurry you can catch their holiday sale today and tomorrow! I
Holiday Sale Code: HOLIDAYGIFT for 20% off expires 11/27
Code: TEATHOUGHTS for 10% off anytime!
Sencha App: I got introduced to sencha app when I did a giveaway with them! I was lucky enough to try their gyokuro and it was delightful! This company is also pretty cool because they created an app that you can download to help with brewing your matcha and sencha which they sell!
Code: BLACKFRIDAY19 for 20% off and free shipping! Good through Monday!
Verdant: I had the please of trying this tea recently for a project in the shop and wanted to share this wonderful company who has lovely teas and a great connection with their farmers. It’s so awesome to see how Verdant spotlights the tea growing families and how much you get to learn about the people behind the tea! We often take this for granted!
They have an awesome listing where you can create your own tea sampler which I highly suggest for anyone who wants to try a bunch of teas from their site!
Code: THINKTEA for $5 off! Excludes Tea of the month club and their 5 teas for $5 offer.
They also have a bunch of other deals on their site for this weekend! Some last the whole weekend, some are for certain days, so check it out!
A special section
I recently saw that Blue Willow Tea had a break in where much of their funds were stolen and are left without those funds and a broken skylight. I haven’t personally tried their teas (yet )but know many friends who enjoy their teas! I have placed an order for myself for their red and green dragon oolongs and am excited to try them! Please consider purchasing tea from their shop to help support their recovery after this incident!
For the person who loves tea but needs to go go go
Zen’s Tea Travel Brewer: This brewer is a lifesaver! I love this brewer when I have a long day at the office or not at home and I want to be able to brew tea on the go, but well! The brewer is made of glass which i really like and it’s all in one! The brewer also comes with a convenient carrying case and in two colors, I have the white. The button allows you to easily control the brewing time.
Make sure to click the box under the price on the listing that says save an extra 15% for a discount!
Ippodotea Thermos: I won this thermos in a giveaway. This thing is legit. It holds heat so well. I have made tea ahead of time for events where I wouldn’t be able to brew and It’s so nice to have something to depend on…hot tea! Ippodotea also has delicious matcha :)
Moylor: Another recent discovery of mine! I bought these white tea balls from them and was so pleasantly surprised at how lovely they were! They are also in ball format so it makes it perfect for when you need to take tea with you easily. I paired the tea balls with my Zen’s travel brewer many times!
They are currently having a black friday sale, check it out!
For the Reader
Tea-spiration: This is a lovely book created by Lu Ann of The Cup of Life and it is the perfect mate for tea time. I feel like this books helps create meditative time around tea!