Users Can Now Directly Add New Teas

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012When we first launched, we did not allow users to directly add new teas to our database. This was inconvenient, as if you wanted to review a tea that was not listed, you had to wait for a site admin to add the tea, and we were often slow at responding to these suggestions. To address this issue, we have now made it so that our users can add teas directly to our database, and rate and review teas directly after adding them. This feature is only available to registered users, so if you wish to add teas, you will need to sign up for a free account if you have not already done so. To add new teas:

• Go to brands, locate the brand, and then go to the bottom of the page to find a link to add a new tea from that brand.
• There is now a link to add a new tea at the bottom of search results, when searching for teas using the search box.
• You can also go directly to the page for adding a new tea.
• If you work for a tea company, please read below.
• We still require site admins to add new brands. You can suggest these at the bottom of the brands page. You can, however, freely add new teas to brands with no teas listed.

Before you start adding teas, however, it is important to understand why we did not add this feature initially. We put a great deal of care into how teas on our site are classified. Each tea is listed by brand, style (the type of tea, how it is produced), and region of production. The style describes not just broad categories like black tea or green tea, but often, specific sub-varieties, such as sencha or Tie Guan Yin. Furthermore, we separate style from region; for example, teas in the style of Keemun are historically produced in Anhui, China, but are now produced in other provinces and even outside of China.

We ask that when you add new teas, you do your best to correctly classify them, and that you first search carefully to make sure that your tea is not already listed. Do not worry if you don't know everything about how to classify a tea; we have help documentation on the page to add a tea, and you can add comments if you are unsure about anything, and we will check each submission and fix any errors.

If you work for a tea company:

If you work for a tea company, our terms of use specify that you may not rate or review your company's teas. We would still like for you to add your teas, but we ask you not to use the tool intended for regular users, as we have a different tool so you can do this more easily.

Listing your teas will benefit your company with free visibility even if no one reviews your teas. We link directly from our page on each tea, to the product page for that tea on your website. Teas that you add will be listed under the various categories of your brand, and the styles and regions in which the tea is classified, and your tea will also be returned in searches. If you would like to list the teas sold by your company, please contact us and we will get your account set up to do so.