I am back again after so long!! During the 9 and half months pregnant, I was only able to consume limited amount of tea, I was so bump out and missed my TGY so dearly. Anyhow, I am so happy to back to my lovely tea drinking ritual. Instead of feeding Jacob my little boy sugary water, I guess I will indulge him with a nice cup of just4tea.

P.S. I did drink Dragon Well sometimes because it has smaller amount of caffeine in it compared to other teas I have.

Cheers!

June from www.just4tea.com

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I received a lot of love and hate comments about my roasted style Tie Guan Yin (TGY). I am not surprise at all after reading reviews and it’s my honor to get to know my tea lovers what they like and dislike on certain style of teas. The Chaozhou (Chiu Chow) style TGY is my signature tea and you definitely need to be very open minded if you want to check it out. It’s truly an acquired taste.

Comparing to other non-roasted or lightly roasted TGY in US or even in China, our family still carry the tradition of roasting and blending our TGY. My papa always serve this TGY to his Chaozhou friends. Gong Fu (Kung Fu) Tea was synonyms to TGY to me when I was a kid till I realized it’s a tea ceremony recently after doing more research on my own. It was a popular tea choice in the old days; but it becomes an ancient tea and rarely any people know about it except older generations from ChaoZhou.

Papa and my brother mentioned that this is not a popular tea as it used to be with a long sigh. Despite knowing that this is a fading way of making tea, it is very labor intensive and knowing that they should have spent more time to market the tea store instead, they can’t help to admit that they both love to feel and smell the teas by roasting and blending the teas. I was watching them doing it all the time when I was a kid and they would get really mad and yelled at me if I messed around their teas and tools. The roasting part and hand blending requires extremely high concentration and they usually shut themselves at the backstage of our store to do the work. They would come out with their bodies full of tea dust and sweat, then they would make a pot of hot water immediately to taste their newly made tea. Like any good tea maker, they would discuss and write down details of the tea features and the differences between this one and the previous teas and the changes of the new season teas. Like wine that each barrel taste differently, each batch of our Tie Guan yin also does not taste the same.

I am surprise when Alex, Martin and Maria told me that they love this tea especially Alex can describe how the tea transformed from each brewing and my jaw was dropped completely. I am proud that my family has been crafting tea for so many years and I intent to carry this tradition to my next generation too with my ridiculous stubbornness.

June from www.just4tea.com

5 Comments » Posted by june / My life as an Entrepreneur

I become a regular customer of post office since I launched just4tea.com. I was at the post office last Thursday afternoon and put my tea samples on the counter. The post office staff looked at the sender address with www.just4tea.com on the packages and smiled to me and asked if there are teas inside. I smiled back proudly and told him that those are tea samples for my favorite tea bloggers.

I love to read food and tea blogs especially the ones with review and recommendation on it. Tea bloggers are very passionate about the teas and they often hunt for the goodie and give out a very honest and independent review. I am so happy that my favorite bloggers Alex from http://anotherteablog.blogspot.com and Marty from http://www.martea.com agreed to be the first reviewers to try out my teas. If you read their blogs, they shared a lot of cool tea information and I bet you will enjoy.

At the end of the conversation, the staff smiled again and said ‘See you next time’. I guess he is right, I will definitely see him again.

I am planning to launch a campaign to give out free samples for tea bloggers. Stay tuned!

June from www.just4tea.com

1 Comment » Posted by june / My life as an Entrepreneur

Hello, my name is June Lau and people call me Tea Lady or Tea Nazi! I am very please to announce this exciting news to everyone today that my dream of opening an online tea store, Just4Tea, finally comes true.

I am thirsty if I don’t drink tea a day. Being a blessed kid whom has a family tea business running over a decade, I always receive the best quality of tea from my parents no matter when I was studying aboard or living in US now. Some tea lovers search for their beloved teas around the world, but teas follow me everywhere I go.

My then fiancé David registered me the domain www.Just4Tea.com for my birthday last year to encourage me to expand my hobby of selling family tea to co-workers and friends into a bigger project. My parents and brother also think that would be a tremendous experience for me to pursue my own dream. I love it and it’s the best inspiring gift I have ever received.

My Slogan is “Live Healthy and Feel Refreshed Everyday - Starts with a Great Cup of Just4Tea”. To support my own motto, the money you pay for the best cup of Just4Tea shall be less than a cup of coffee. I strongly recommend my customer to spare a moment everyday to make a cup of tea with your friends or family from your hectic schedule. This ceremonial drinking style is meant to relax your mind and spirit in a friendly, shared experience. Paying close attention to the evolving taste, aroma and aftertaste of the tea from steep by steep, slowing to observe the dance of tea leaves against beautiful ceramic cups enhances your appreciation of both the tea and the moment.

My friends ask me why I sell these premium teas so cheap which are at least 25%-40% less comparing to other tea stores and my answers are as simple as they are:

1) Online store costs less comparing to those high rent retail stores. In addition, I do everything on my own including getting a license, finding a web hosting company, learning to build a website, taking pictures for teas, designing my own in-house labels and packaging, getting an interesting vanity phone number. My most amiably experience is to be able to meet so many talented tea lovers and friends who volunteered to contribute their idea and efforts to this website for FREE; thereby overhead cost is reduced significantly.

2) I imported tea from my parents from Hong Kong and Canada. Our family is a well established tea merchant over the decade and we received a very competitive pricing from highly regarded plantations; thus middleman layers are minimal as you could image.

At last, I want to specially thanks for my husband, family and friends. I met so many interesting and cool tea lovers who contribute so much efforts and ideas to this website and they are:

Writer Maria Goodavage from http://www.caldogtravel.com,

Artist and Writer: Yip Wun from http://www.rhymingleaf.com

Artist and Writer Maki

Entrepreneur Paul Joyce from http://www.simplifymedia.com/

Best friend Allison Ferenstein and Melanie Tai

Tim Prime, Lisette Yung and Danny Cheung.

June from www.just4tea.com

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