Cool! I'm excited about this. :)

Also please keep in mind when I say late tonight I basically mean the middle of the night lol

Addresses are out!!!!!!! Please let me know if you didn't get a copy, or if there are any mistakes to your name or address or preferences and I will take care of it.

I didn't set a deadline for sending out teas, probably should have in retrospect, but please by kind to the other participants and send your teas out in a timely manner. Thanks!

PS: Wh1ms1n, your name was not found in the database and wouldn;t send you a message but the name Wh1ms1 was.

CCB, thank you for setting this tea exchange up and corralling the address and such. It's appreciated! :)

You're welcome!!! I'm really excited!!! I decided to tailor my teas to what I think each person might enjoy, we'll see how close I come.

Hmm...very interesting!

I chose a different path and decided to send everyone the same tea as a means of testing the likeability of that particular tea.

I am very excited too, and am already looking forward to the next one! Mine goes in the mail today, just waiting on the post office to open so I can buy more stamps. :)

Thanks so much, CCB! I am awaiting bags to fill loose leaf tea into for each participant. I will definitely mail immediately once they arrive. I had one further questions for everyone. Does anyone have nut allergies? I ask because one of mine has almonds.

Just a quick heads up...I just returned from the post office. Seems the lone tea bag in a note card makes the envelope just thick enough that it doesn't slide through the mass mail sorter with enough ease to satisfy the USPS regulations. So instead of the usual .49 stamp for US destinations, it cost .70, and where it is normally $1.15 for International/Canadian destinations, it was $1.36. You will also have to take them to the post office and have them stamped as Non-Machinable.

Thanks that's helpful to know.

Thanks for letting us know, Jesse. Sorry if I led you all astray, I could've sworn I sent a teabag with a stamp once.

I do not feel you led us astray by any means, I hope I didn't give that implication. Weight wise it was well under, at only .6 of an ounce so I felt certain I could send it via first class letter. The thickness was the problem. He actually had a cardboard with a slot cut out to see if it would go through smoothly, which it did in my opinion, but he said it had to go thru smoothly and quickly or it would bunch up the letters following behind at something like 100 per second. :readfineprint: Perhaps it's because my teabags are individually sealed and have more air? Who knows for sure, perhaps my PO is just odd! ;)

At any rate, I just wanted to give ya'll the heads up because he said if it doesn't get stamped with the Non-Machinable stamp it will end up going to nowhere land. :|

P.S. The post office sells the .70 stamps. Who knew?!

I sent my tea out today. My postage expense was $31.30.

Holy shit!!!!

I never meant this to be an expensive project. :/

Mine are packaged and ready to go- just have to get to the post office! :)

Holy cow! Why so much? My postage was just under $10.

I know that. No worries.

I asked the clerk why it was cheaper in Florida, and she told me to go there and send my cards. Ha!

No we are not, not from me, anyway.

Seriously. I got so excited about the spoon... sigh.

Mine will be going out Monday.

Wow, Gemme! You got it fast, considering all of the snow and bad weather along the way! I hope you enjoy it! :)

As for your question, either way works for me.

Mine are all set and ready to go out Monday. Now, I've been pen palling a long time and I'd be surprised if these WEREN'T machinable. But we'll see Monday I could eat my words.

I'm fine with sampling as you get them as long as the surprise isn't ruined. I'm curious because I sent everyone a different tea based on what I thought they'd like. I want to know if I was even in the ballpark or not.

Do you know a special trick that may make them machinable? If so, please share. This is my first project of this sort so I am flying by the seat of my pants. Any shared tricks of the trade are well appreciated, plus they make help those who haven't yet mailed their teas.:)

When I mailed out yesterday they had a large plastic board with a slot in it at the post office. If your envelope could pass through the opening as well as weighed under a certain amount you could mail out with just a regular stamp. Mine didn't but then I sent people multiple teabags. I also put each one in its own mini Ziploc bag to try and help keep the different tea smells from blending, as well as placed them each in small, party invitation type, odd size/shape envelopes. Though small, it made for a pretty thick envelope, the weight was under limit but it wouldn't pass through the blue measure-o-matic template thing at the post office. Knowing that, next time I would package them differently so they'd easily fit through. I'd also only buy teas of the same brand/flavor if thinking to include extras, rather than different types, so that way I'd only have to use one plastic bag for them rather than multiple mini ones. I'd also cut the zipper top off that one bag, just heat seal it closed, fold over and tape to keep other smells out while in transit as well as reduce the weight. If I'd have done it that way then I would have only had to pay for a regular first class postage stamp to send to those in the states, worst case scenario maybe needed to slap on an additional stamp. Then I’d have only had to mail those headed to Canada at the post office. I hate having to go into the post office here so the quicker I can get through the line and out of there the better. Anyhow as for mailing out to Canada by putting them in a cardboard mailer the shipping cost was about the same as those mailed first class here in the states. However since I had to buy the mailers basically it doubled the cost. But generally only one or two people from Canada participate. So that means I only have to pay a little extra to ship to Canada. On the other hand I'm thinking people in Canada have quite a few more people to ship to outside of Canada at a higher rate. Anyhow long story short next time by packaging differently I would be able to send the same amount of teabags out (assuming two participants to Canada, the rest to here in the states) for half what I spent yesterday. To me anytime I can pay 50% less it’s worth the fuss. Knowing next time it will be less work as well, because I’ll just be slapping everything together into one zipper less Ziploc for each participant, that I figure is substantial enough savings (in terms of both time and money) to be worth discussing here for those who might be thinking of participating in this type of exchange in the future.

I received the tea in the mail yesterday and should receive the bags to put the loose tea into on Tuesday. Therefore, mine will be sent by end of next week. Sorry for the delay but those tea bags have taken forever to get here!!

I have received packages from Jesse and Liam. Thank you!

Mine went out this morning and were sent with regular postage. I asked the postal worker three times if she was sure and she assured me they would go through just fine. So... we shall see!

Well, here's a couple things. Send only one teabag, FSF learned. I also chose relatively flat tea bags tazo and twinings and stash are all good brands for this. I also chose small note cards as something of uniform thickness is more likely to be machinable. Also, I smushed down the tea bag a little. Not enough to harm it but just enough to make it a little thinner.

But like I said , I could be eating my words tomorrow lol

I'm finding it interesting how different people's experiences with the post office are.

I received tea from Liam moments ago. Thanks Liam, I love the card and looking forward to sampling the tea! :)

So did you try the tea? lol

Liam, I got yours! I have to tell you, I saw the return address and only saw the organization on it and I wondered when I had joined that site. I assumed it was a card from them and even when I saw the tea bag I thought, that's weird, they are sending me a teabag as a way of saying thanks? DUH!!! lol It took me minute. Love the card and can't wait to try the tea.

I have not been able to get to the post office this week so I will definitely go Monday.

My tea has been sent out!!!

I eat my words, my friends, as my letters were NOT machinable. The po guy didn't try sliding it through the the plastic slot. He was just like "no, not machinable" at one look. So I paid for the 70 cent stamps. :P