Do you reuse tea bags?

[OakLeaf]

FWIW, fair trade certifying organizations don't work in developed countries like Japan (or the USA) - so there's no such thing as fair trade certified gyokuro or matcha. I suppose the theory is that those countries have reasonable labor laws. Which of course is no barrier to slavery being rampant in agriculture in the USA , I don't know about Japan. Anyway all I'm trying to say is that the lack of fair trade certification may be a good reason not to buy Teavana's Chinese, African and Indian teas, but not so much their Japanese teas.

I'm not aware of anywhere to buy Rishi tea in bulk at retail. If you want more than a two-week supply without buying a tin, it's mail order. I don't find their shipping costs especially high though (especially when you consider what the tea is costing ). (And oddly - FWIW - no matter how much you mail order from Teavana, they send it all in 2-oz plastic packets. )

[Thorn]

With regards to Rishi's shipping, may I suggest developing a very bad habit in Rishi's vanilla tea? Buy it by the pound and you're more than 1/2 way to the free shipping mark

Orders over $100 have free shipping. Although I could just stop in when I'm on their side of town, I am rarely near them so I do mail order ever 6-8 months. Between a pound of vanilla and a pound of chai I haven't paid for shipping since the first order.

[OakLeaf]

Teavana's instructions for steeping Taiwanese tea. Five brewings - the second is very short, since the tea leaves are already saturated; after that, they get progressively longer.

I don't think I've ever had Taiwanese tea.