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Customer Service

We strive to provide you with excellent customer service! Please don’t hesitate to contact us with your questions or concerns. Our normal business hours are 9-5 EST,  weekdays and some weekends. When you contact us by email we will respond just as soon as we can, most of the time very quickly. If you haven’t received a reply from us within a few days, please try again. Sometimes emails do not arrive or are misrouted. Our phone number is available upon request for US callers only. Email us a service@bloomingtea.com or Contact Us on the website.

Shipping & Delivery
We make every effort to process, pack and ship your order within 1-3 business days following receipt of your order. This is the time it takes to leave us. Delivery can additionally take anywhere from 2-5 business days depending upon how far the package is traveling from Michigan and which carrier is being used for your order. During the busiest times of the year (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas etc.), please allow an additional day or two for your order to be shipped. We will notify you by email after your order has been shipped and provide tracking information when available.

Standard shipping: We ship both USPS Priority Mail and UPS ground. The carrier is determined in part by the weight of the package on each individual order and how far it will be traveling from us (Michigan).

Overnight Delivery: We offer only standard shipping through the website checkout pages. The cost for expedited shipping varies with each delivery destination and the day that delivery is desired (weekend delivery costs much more than weekday delivery).  If you would like to get a quote for expedited delivery from us please email us at service@bloomingtea.com with the address you would be shipping to and the item that you would like to order.  We will contact you via email or phone with the charge for overnight shipping as soon as we can get a price calculated for your approval.  Please include your phone number if you would like us to contact you by phone.  Overnight ship orders must be placed via phone order.

We ship within the 48 contiguous United States.  At this time we cannot ship internationally or to Alaska and Hawaii.

Our standard shipping rate table is below:

 Order Min Order Max  Shipping
$00.01
  $24.99
 $5.95
$25.00
 $49.99
 $7.25
$50.00 
 $74.99
 $8.75
$75.00
 $149.99
 $10.50
$150.00
 $249.99
 $12.25
$250.00
 $499.99
 $14.95
$500.00
 $799.99
 $19.95
$800.00
 Up $25.00

Ordering
   
We accept most major credit cards and PayPal, through our website, for payment of your order.   If you would prefer to pay with a check/money order, you will be given that option on our payment pages.  Please understand that we must wait until your check or money order is received and deposited before we can ship your package to you.  Lastly, if you wish to place a phone order with us, email us at service@bloomingtea.com or Contact Us on our website.  If you would like for us to call you, please provide your phone number.  We will email our phone number to you upon request if you prefer to call us with your order. For your safety, please do not email your credit card information to us.

When placing your order you will be asked to provide us with the information needed to process your order (name, address, email address, etc.).  If you are a new customer, you will be given the opportunity at checkout to register with us or "check out as a guest".  Registering has it's advantages:  You can check order status, set up a wish list, save your shopping cart and return at a later time, and more.  Returning registered customers can login to their account with their names and passwords.  If you have forgotten your password, click "Forgot your password?" and we will send you an email with instructions for resetting your password.
 
Each order receives our personal attention.  If you have any special requests, (for example if there are certain tea blooms you would like to receive in your assortment) we can often times make that happen.  Please contact us with your order number and your request and we will let you know if it is possible. We sometimes pack an order within a short time of receiving it, so let us know immediately after placing your order if you have special requests.  Not all requests can be granted but we try very hard to do our best for you.

We will automatically leave the price off the packing slip if an order is received containing a request to include a gift message with the package or if the shipping recipient is different from the customer placing the order.  You will have the opportunity to add a gift message to your order during the check out process.
Billing for your purchase will appear on your credit card statement as charge from RJTea LLC, Michigan, along with our telephone number.

We are required to collect 6% tax on orders being shipped within the state of Michigan.

Returns & Replacements
We want you to be happy with your purchase. If you need to return an item, you must obtain a return authorization number from us first.  Please email us at: service@bloomingtea.com or Contact Us on our website, for a return authorization number and complete return instructions. We will gladly refund your purchase price minus the original shipping charge. Requests for returns must be made within 30 days of purchase.

If you break a pot, part of a pot or a cup, we have a small number of replacement pieces available to you for the cost of shipping only. Contact Us or email us at: service@bloomingtea.com and we will be happy to help you with that.  If an item arrive broken during shipping, please email us so we can assist you.

Security and Privacy
Shop with confidence. Any information that we gather is strictly for our use and is not shared with anyone else for any reason, ever!  We do not sell or give away our customer list or any other data we store. Additionally we do not purchase any such information from any other source.  Information from your order form is stored for the purposes of tracking issues with your order or to refer to if we need to provide customer service.  We do not store customer credit card information. We will only contact you by phone if we have a question about your order that needs an immediate answer, otherwise our first form of contact with you will always be email. We might occasionally email you with a promotion or with new product information but we don’t do that on a regular basis.  If you do receive an email from us and don’t wish to continue to receive  them, just reply back to it and we will immediately take you off our email list.
Credit card information is transmitted through our payment pages using 128 bit SSL(Secure Socket Layer) Technology. Your personal and payment information is encrypted for safe transmission.

Steeping Instructions
Boil water in a separate tea kettle and let stand for just a few seconds. Place 1 tea bloom (ball) into a clear tea pot or large clear mug and add the water.  The tea leaves and flower blooms will open in approximately 3-7 minutes.  If you find that your tea blooms are opening up very slowly, it may be that you water is not quite hot enough.  Use near boiling to boiling water for best results.  As you pour off and drink the tea, gently refill the pot with hot water to make many ounces of tea. You can refill the pot several times (3-4) at one sitting. We do not recommend saving the used bloom to re-steep the next day.  
Often pieces of the tea leaves and bits of the flowers will break off and float in the tea.  For that reason, we include a coiled metal strainer in the spout of each of our tea pots to catch as many as possible.  It is, however, perfectly okay to ingest the tea leaves and flowers pieces.  
It is not unusual for the tea blooms to initially float when the water is added. As the tea leaves absorb the water the blooms should settle into the bottom of your pot.

Tea Facts
Our Blooming Tea is natural green tea and has 0 Fat, 0 Carbs, 0 Calories!   Also, green tea is rich in anti-oxidants (EGCG).   Studies show anti-oxidants inhibit the growth and reproduction of cancer cells without harming healthy cells.  These potent antioxidants provide health benefits beyond their ability to neutralize free radicals.  EGCG’s also raise the rate at which calories are burned and hence increase energy expenditure, in otherwords an increased metabolic rate! Studies show evidence of: Lowering bad cholesterol(LDL & triglycerides), elevating good cholesterol (HDL), reducing risk of heart disease, controlling blood pressure, lowering rates of cancer: colon, esophageal, and pancreatic and is a  proven anti-inflammatory. Studies also show that green tea drinkers have lower risks of stroke. It's shown to inhibit abnormal blood clot formation as effectively as aspirin(supports an aspirin regimen, not replaces it) and naturally contains fluoride to protect teeth.
Green tea is low in caffeine and typically contains 15 – 30 mg (Coffee = 130 mg,Cola 40 mg, Mountain Dew 55 mg, for reference)
. Green tea has been used in China medicinally for at least 4,000 years!  We now also have one black tea blooming tea variety available which contains slightly more caffeine than the green tea blooms.

Frequently Asked Questions
How are the Blooms made?
Each tea bloom is individually handcrafted. Premium whole tea leaves are gathered around beautiful, natural flowers and expertly hand tied by talented tea artisans. They are then wrapped and dried into their individual shapes. No two look exactly alike!  The flowers gently influence the taste of these light delicious teas.

How do I store my unused tea blooms?
Our tea blooms come vacuum-sealed in foil/plastic pouches with each pouch containinga pair for the same tea bloom variety. Unopened, these teas stay fresh for a long time(18-24 months or longer).  As with any tea, the blooms should be stored in a cool, dry location out of direct light. It is important to keep them dry until ready to use.

Can I reuse a tea bloom more than once?
You can gently add hot water to the tea bloom over and over to make many ounces oftea. Some people keep a pot on their desk and keep adding hot water to enjoy the tea formany hours. We do not recommend saving the tea bloom to reuse the next day.

 You can always refrigerate any leftover tea to enjoy the next day.  This tea makes a delicious, light iced tea!

Why do you sometimes show your Blooming Tea in a glass instead of the BloomingTea Pot?
Blooming Tea is often photographed in a glass for demonstration purposes. While you can drink the tea from a glass, we recommend steeping your tea in a tea pot for ease in serving.  If brewing in a glass or mug, please make sure it is safe to use with boiling water.  A clear glass pot is preferred for enjoying the beauty of the tea flowers.


Where do the tea leaves come from?
White, Green, Oolong and Black teas, all come from the Camellia Sinesis plant. The processing methods for the teas vary according to the kind of tea desired. White tea is the least processed of all teas. Green tea is ‘withered’, rolled and immediately heated to prevent oxidation. Oolong tea is withered, rolled and slightly oxidized. Black tea iswithered, rolled and completely oxidized. Our tea is predominantly whole leaf, greentea (the exception being our Black Pearl Bloom which is black tea) from China. Our tea blooms come from the beautiful Hangzhou Region of Shanghai China

© 2011 RJTeaLLC. All Rights Reserved.