Tea Tuesday

I Want to Buy You a Cup of Plum Deluxe Tea

Happy Tea Tuesday and welcome to An Opportune Moment’s first ever giveaway!

This post comes to you in 3 parts:

Part the 1st

I want to talk about customer service (Or, why I’m having a giveaway)

By now, I think you’ve all heard about the fire that destroyed my apartment and most of my possessions, including my elaborate collection of teas and tea accoutrements. Someday, I will write a blog post that doesn’t link back to that event, but today is not that day!

Anyway, I am a sporadic twitter user at best and, back in November, I happened to sign in and see that Plum Deluxe (a lovely lifestyle blog I follow) had launched a line of teas and was looking for bloggers to help promote this new endeavor. I messaged Andy Hayes (founder of Plum Deluxe, tea blender extraordinaire, and genuinely nice dude) saying I was interested in working with him, and he sent me an email that opened with, “WOW, I was really moved by your fire story” and went on to offer me any kind of tea I wanted from the Plum Deluxe store to help me rebuild my collection, free of charge.

Plum Deluxe

Although I am now blogging about the experience (months later), he didn’t offer me tea on the condition that I have a certain number of blog followers and/or promise to write about his product. He simply offered me an excellent customer service experience.

A few weeks before the fire, E bought a new water bottle from contigo — a company that makes high quality products. I’m talking $20 for a water bottle, which he got to use for about a week before he lost it in the fire. E decided to send contigo an email explaining what happened and wondering what they could do. Not only did E hear back, but a customer service representative offered him a more expensive water bottle free of charge because the one he had originally purchased was out of stock.

For Christmas, I asked E for a travel mug from contigo, which I love and recommend wholeheartedly. My point is that good customer service means something! E and I are loyal contigo customers and I want to buy you a cup of Plum Deluxe tea not only because I like these products but because I like the companies behind them.

Part the 2nd

I want to talk about about tea (Or, what I’m giving away)

I have tried two different teas from Plum Deluxe — the Full Moon Chai, which is still available in their store, and the Black Magic: Vanilla Rose Tea, which was the tea of the month back in November.

Guys, if you’re into flavored teas, you’re going to love these.

The mana-tea approves of Plum Deluxe's Full Moon Chai
The mana-tea approves of Plum Deluxe’s Full Moon Chai

The Full Moon Chai is more chai-inspired than chai tea. For starters, the base is rooibos (an herbal tea), not black tea, and then a close inspection of the ingredients reveals more fruits and flowers than in a typical chai spice mix. Apples, rosehips, raspberries, and hibiscus join more traditional chai ingredients such as cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger. The resulting flavor is very autumnal, with cinnamon and cardamom at the forefront as well as orange, apple, and hibiscus. It sounds almost like a kitchen sink tea, but the ingredients come together quite nicely.

The packaging says Black Magic pairs well with "quiet pauses and simple elegance." I think it also pairs well with blizzards.
The packaging says Black Magic pairs well with “quiet pauses and simple elegance.” I think it also pairs well with blizzards and Harry Potter.

I feel bad telling you how great the Black Magic blend is since it’s not available anymore, but hopefully it will help illustrate how well this brand does flavored black teas. Black Magic is a solid black tea, and you can definitely taste both the vanilla and the rose. E doesn’t generally like rose-flavored things and he still thought this was delicious, so the floral notes aren’t overpowering. This tastes like an afternoon tea to me, like it would pair well with finger sandwiches and mini cakes. It’s decadent, but it’s not dessert. I also think it would make a great tea latte, so, I’ll let you know when I get a new milk frother and try that out.

Part the 3rd

I want to buy you a cuppa (Or, how to enter the giveaway)

This is going to be a pretty low-key giveaway. I’m not using any fancy tools to help me choose a winner or count down until the contest is over. Plum Deluxe isn’t even donating the tea for this giveaway. I am literally going to buy one of you a cup of tea because I like this product and I want this company to succeed.

So, if you want to enter, you should follow this link to to the Plum Deluxe tea shop and decide which tea you would most like to try. Come back to this post and leave a comment telling me your choice. Next Tuesday (February 17th), I will put the name of everyone who comments into a hat and draw one of you randomly. Then, I’m going to email the winner asking for their address and buy them a package of the tea they mentioned in their comment. Because Plum Deluxe only ships to the US and Canada, this giveaway is going to be limited to those two countries. Sorry international readers, y’all are great and I promise my next giveaway will include you.

Sound good? Leave a comment if you think so!

Emma Holliday is well-traveled. After 5 years in Boston, she and her husband upended their lives to move to Berlin where she is currently writing a (funny) book about travel and grief and attempting to learn German.

12 Comments

  • xxjessabelle

    What a sweet and thoughtful giveaway! I love tea, and i also agree that good customer service is the thing that keeps me the most loyal to one company over another.

    Given my on-again-off-again relationship with caffeine, I’m delighted to find that the Full Moon Chai is caffeine-free! So that is my selection. 🙂

  • Vanessa

    This is so exciting! I would love to try the cuddly camomile sleepy tea. I would love something that helps me with jet lag when I travel and I think having something hot, something comforting, and something sleep friendly would help a lot when it comes to getting to sleep after long trips.

  • Andrea

    Aw, this is so thoughtful of you! And I’m so excited to have a new tea company to check out 🙂

    I’d love to try their elderberry apricot self care blend.

  • Colleen Brynn

    Seriously amazing customer service stories… it makes me so happy. I hate hearing about companies who only abide by their “policies”. I have experienced that kind of crap first hand way too often, and when someone just gives a shit, it’s so so nice.
    For the giveaway, I’m a sucker for Earl Grey, so I’d have to go for the mindful morning blend! 🙂

  • Farley

    Looks like a good company with some tasty tea blends. Put me and a cup of cuddletime chamomile in the hat for the giveaway please. Cute cups, pictures, and post Emma. 🙂

  • Stacey

    I spent several long minutes going over your post, the links, and the teas in detail. Wow, a lot of great work. It was so delightful reading about all the teas, you really set things up so expertly. It’s also nice to see the company is trying to keep things organic, natural, and so lively and colorful. I loved all the added flower petals, fruits, spices and well thought out descriptions. I had a hard time choosing my favorite, and changed my mind several times. I think I finally decided on the after dinner party blend, since I’m very fond of white tea, ginger and spicy pepper. Even if I don’t win, I feel I’ve already been treated to something wonderful. Nice job, Emma.

  • joannesisco

    Sorry to read about your traumatic life event – losing everything would rank really high on my list of stressful events! Hope 2016 treats you with a lot of kindness.

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