tea ware and green kisses from Czech!

The new year has been great so far! In the first two weeks of 2011, I had minimum tea. But in the beautiful southern Mexico, drinking jugo de naranja (orange juice, each glass of it freshly made from 5-6 oranges!) all the time, I was totally satisfied. Then, shortly after arriving home, I received my order of Petr Novák tea ware from darjeeling.cz. I am so excited!

I am usually not a tea-ware-shopaholic. While constantly visiting websites and admiring various types of teapots and tea bowls, I wish I could have a lot of them, but can surely live with my modest collection of tea ware without buying more. Then, occasionally, probably just a few times a year, some teapot or tea bowl would suddenly take my breath away and make me want to grab it in hands immediately. That's how I felt when viewing photos of Petr Novák's tea ware on teachat and then on his web album. They are so beautiful and different from anything I had ever seen before. I knew I would lose a lot of sleep without getting a few pieces from Petr soon! 

Realizing Petr is far away in Czech, I first searched for American sources that carried Petr's tea ware. There were not many, options were limited, and many of them were out of stock! Then I contacted Petr, and learned that the artist himself was out of stock on all his tea ware as a result of great demand at the end of the year - good for him! Then from Petr, I learned of darjeeling.cz, which carries a lot of Petr's tea ware. 

It takes a lot of time for the package to travel from Europe to America. But darjeeling.cz does the best for shipping. The package was shipped within 24 hours after the order was placed. When they arrived, all the pieces were wrapped and cushioned very well. Furthermore, included in the package are some very lovely complimentary samples! There is a sample of Korean yellow tea and a sample of Korean green tea (Nokcha Sejak), exactly what I've never had and want the most at this moment! Besides, there are three pieces of Green Kiss, a very lovely Green Chocolate made with green tea powder and cacao! It's certified organic, made with real tea and real cacao, and absolutely tasty! I have to admit, the samples led me to visit their web store again immediately! 

Here is what the chocolate looks like. And you can find more information about this and other similar products on their website http://www.darjeeling.cz/en/keiko/green-kiss-keiko-tea-sweets 

A little more about Petr Novák tea ware -- since the inter-continental shipping is quite expensive, I bought several pieces from darjeeling.cz to make shipping cost for each piece relatively small. I would love to keep them all, but also realize it's good for my soul not to keep too many personal possessions :-p So I will soon put a few pieces for sale on this blog. 

The sale is for fellow bloggers and readers in the States, and is not for profit. Price of each piece will be price I paid at darjeeling.cz (including 20% VAT tax) + a fraction of shipping from Czech to US (about 4-5 euro, to be computed) + domestic shipping cost to the recipient (to be computed, about $6-7 including insurance). All summed up, it's probably the best price one can get in the States for Petr Novák tea ware, minus the painful, long waiting for inter-continental shipping! I hope this is an opportunity for more people to enjoy Petr's work. Meantime it will allow me to make better decisions about what types of Petr's tea ware to carry in future at Life in Teacup (yes that's the plan!) 

Stay tuned for the blog sale!

People who want more of Petr's tea wares and people out of the US may consider contacting Petr Novák himself, as well as darjeeling.cz.