When You Want the Best: JAS-eTea.com

What do you do when you have a passion for premium teas from the birthplace of tea drinking, China? Well, you could just move there and hang out with the tea vendors. Or you could start your own tea business, importing those teas and sharing your passion with others by opening your own online store. The latter option seems to be quite a trend in the U.S. these days, with online tea vendors setting up shop and then hopping on sites like Twitter and Facebook to let you know they’re there. JAS-eTea.com is one such vendor and has already been around over 3 years.

One of the great deals now being offered to JAS-eTea.com customers!

Janice and Stephen Shelton joined their names together to form JAS and added “-eTea” to the name (you know, like in ecommerce, ebook, etc.). Rather cool, don’t you think? JAS-eTea is quickly becoming the source for a variety of quality pu-erhs. And more.

While Steve is focused on pu-erh teas, he carries quite a selection of oolong, green, white, yellow, and black teas. You can shop by tea type as well as by tea factory, and yes the factory does make a difference, since they often follow a sort of recipe for making the tea cakes. He goes into the specifics here.   

Which brings me to another point. The JAS-eTea site is chock full of this and other great tea information so you can make an informed choice. That breadth of choice, though, can be the downside. Where to start? Don’t fret too much. Steve offers samplers. Yay!

Steve goes beyond the tea to look at the culture and the people, including the ethnic minorities of the Yunnan Province, to bring some great tea books to your attention, and to offer up some teawares perfect for making up the best tasting tea you’ll ever experience outside of China. (He carries some Taiwanese oolongs, too, and some other teas like Japanese matcha, both green and black versions.) So, who is this “Steve” guy? He’s one of those techie guys who has been attracted to tea. It seems to be happening a lot lately (so much so that I just had to do an article on them, which will be posted in a couple of days). He and Janice (his wife of 30 years and co-owner of JAS-eTea) share their tea adventures with a black and white “parti poodle” named Orion. A true self-made man, Steve states that he put himself “through college using grants and scholarships while supporting a family.” Bravo!

Twitter: @JASeTea
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JASeTea
Store site: http://www.jas-etea.com/  

© 2012 A.C. Cargill photos and text