Tea and chocolate swap brag!

[Sumire]

I hope you like the Cincy spice tea, I always get the rooibos version and i love it with milk so I thought you might enjoy it given your tea preferences. 

I tried some Cincy spice tea this morning! It's like liquid cinnamon toast! Perfect for the season! Thanks again!

Karma, your Advent box idea is fabulous! I want to try that next year. What fun!

[BethyVic]

I got a wonderful package from Princess-Sparkles and I will post as soon as I can. I have not been feeling well and my goddaughter is visiting me.  I will post in the next few days. 

[SunPony]

I'm really glad you liked the Cincy spice tea!  I wasn't sure if you would or not, its a pretty strong flavor.  But I love it so I'm glad to hear you do too!  I'd be happy to send you more if you like 

My neighbor texted me that she's holding packages for me so I'm hopeful one might be my own swap box 

[Karma]

I'm glad you liked it! I forgot to mention that the little crystal things are rock sugar. I love them in my tea.

I'm still not feeling 100% but I managed to upload photos~
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 everything was wrapped adorably! I love the little ribbons.
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 Here's everything unwrapped! I'm excited to try the teas, I'm jealous since one of those bags here would have costed a lot.  I'm slowly snacking away at the chocolates <3 I love the little ornaments too. Thanks Mirnyj!

[SunPony]

So I did indeed get my swap package today from the lovely and talented Sumire!
Look at these beautiful packages, my fave Christmas colors and reindeer even
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So I tore into them like a mad woman and ended up with this massive pile of treasure:
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Ahhh look at all the goodies!  I was totally spoiled!    Delicious looking chocolate, amazing extras including Totoro origami paper and phone charm, postcards, a gorgeous Christmas card, and even a bird-themed bracelet she made herself!  Also you can't see it but she sent me a cookie recipe that I am excited to try out over the holiday.  Mmm, it looks delicious 
And so many teas!  And all non-caffeinated, huzzah!  But wait, isn't that one tin black tea?
NO!  It is a blended herbal tea MADE BY SUMIRE JUST FOR ME!
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I was so touched that you made this for me Sumire! 
She also made me this Princess Tiffany ornament which is super cute.  I don't know why but I always associated her with Christmas.  I hung it on my tree immediately!
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I also got into the origami paper right away and found it was winter/christmas themed!  I made a crane:
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Thank you thank you thank you Sumire for this lovely swap box, you put a lot of thought into it and it meant a lot to me to see how you personalized it just for me. 

[BethyVic]

This is my wonderful package from Princess-Sparkles.  The funny thing is that she was my partner too.  The wrapping paper is amazing, I saved a lot of it and re-used some.  The card is amazing! 
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I am so excited about the chocolate, I love getting candy from other places.  I am planning on having a Christmas tea party with my family.  Thank you so much Princess-Sparkles, I am so happy!
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I have to add something about the blue box of Lindt Hot chocolate flakes.  I served it to six of my family members and each of them said that the hot chocolate was the best they had ever had!  I am not sure if it is available in the US.  If not, I will have to charter a plane to Australia sometime soon. 

[Mirnyj]

Here's my awesome box from brighteyes! I'm sorry it took me this long to post a brag.

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The cardinal paper is so pretty and the gingerbread house boxes make perfect Chistmas decorations since I can't fit a tree in this apartment.

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Some yummy candies and homemade fudges! Thank you for sending these, they were delicious and inspired me to make my own to gift this Christmas.

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Some more yummy things.

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A cute pony glass.

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Pumpkin spice tea! My favorite! (You can't get anything pumpkin spice in Finland )

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Felt sewing kit.

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Some very interesting mexican hot chocolate tablets! They smell divine.

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And finally some cute mugs, candy and hot chocolate sticks.

Thank you!

[brighteyes]

Brighteyes, I'm so glad that you like your box. Tim Hortons makes many of my favorite teas, so I started there when deciding what to get you. I didn't have room to send the Blueberry White and Pomegranate White both in full boxes, so I went with the Blueberry since you'd listed that under Davids Tea when I asked anyway.

Your Davids flavors were inspired by their winter and Christmas / holiday collections--and I could kick myself, I meant to send you one of their menus as a fun momento and it somehow didn't wind up in there. I chose to go with the Mulled Wine and Cardamam French Toast teas because I knew I was including some unique cocoa mixes and those plus hot chocolate themed tea seemed like they would be redundant. The dark blue and gold star contained a tea that wasn't on your list, but with the colors of it I just had to get it for you. Plus, the tea it contains smells lovely. (I got to smell or taste samples of several winter / holiday teas when I went out.)

The samples were chosen because of what I mentioned above for the Pomegranate White (which is my *favorite* tea, by the way) and because I wanted to send you Pumpkin Chai but my local DT was sold out. It was still in stock online when I shipped to you, so now you can at least try it if you do decide to place an order.

The stickers and the Sweedish Berries are for your daughter. When you mentioned she liked Sweedish Fish, I thought it might be fun to send her the local variety.

I've sent a few people Lindt bars, so I knew they had Coconut and Chili even though those wouldn't be my thing. I've never had a bad bar from them (my favorite is their caramel and sea salt) so I figured those would be safe choices. I was originally going to get you a dark chocolate and orange bar, but I didn't see it there and then spotted the pineapple and thought that would be unique and fun.

My mom grabbed the chocolate covered almonds for me. We thought adding something in milk chocolate might be nice to balance things out. The dark chocolate pomegranate bites are fabulous. I buy those and the blueberry variety for myself around the holidays each year so I hope you like them, too.

I thought the hot chocolates would be a fun addition. The After Eight one is probably my absolute, hands down favorite cocoa mix. The Rollo is sweet and yummy. And the Coffee Crisp is based on a chocolate bar that is popular over here.

I hope you enjoy all of your goodies and your Bright Eyes ornament. I had a ton of fun shopping for you! And I think it's cool that you're part of a tea club. I bet you've got some stuff there that they haven't seen before.

Midi was super excited to try the Swedish Berries and she likes them as much as the Swedish Fish.  She also really liked the stickers.  She has a sticker book and loves to add to it.  The Pomegranate tea was her favorite.  I love all the kinds- but the Cardamom French Toast was my absolute favorite.  It's so neat that you have a place to get really cool teas near you- Tim Hortons.  We have some really great chocolate factories near us, but no place sells a huge variety of teas so I am loving all the kinds you included.  The hot chocolates were so yummy too and I loooooove the pomegranate bites.  Everything was great

Mirnyj,

So glad you liked everything!  I forgot to say in the card- we put the gummy bears in to because they are a specialty of the Albanese, the candy factory we went to.  The Mexican hot chocolate is our favorite- you just add a tablet to a cup of hot milk and stir or you can put a whole disk in a pan of hot milk.  It takes a lot of stirring though to get all the mix dissolved, but it's totally worth it.  We thought the little houses would be cute to put tea or candy in as decorations.  I know what you mean about having a little apartment- we have used our potted tree as a Christmas tree because we don't have space for one right now. 

[ladybastilla]

So glad that you guys liked the goodies, BrightEyes. If you ever want to swap to get more tea / candy in the future feel free to pm me. I still need to buy and try the French Toast. (Actually just went to David's today--got a big tin of Pumpkin Chai (!!), two white teas and a chocolate and blueberry one). As for the Pomegranate, yes!! That tea is so lovely. I really do wish I'd had room to send boxes of both it and the blueberry. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

[Princess-Sparkles]

This is my wonderful package from Princess-Sparkles.  The funny thing is that she was my partner too.  The wrapping paper is amazing, I saved a lot of it and re-used some.  The card is amazing! 
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I am so excited about the chocolate, I love getting candy from other places.  I am planning on having a Christmas tea party with my family.  Thank you so much Princess-Sparkles, I am so happy!
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I have to add something about the blue box of Lindt Hot chocolate flakes.  I served it to six of my family members and each of them said that the hot chocolate was the best they had ever had!  I am not sure if it is available in the US.  If not, I will have to charter a plane to Australia sometime soon. 

I'm so glad that you like everything, I was worried I didn't get enough for you. If there's anything you want feel free to message me and I'll send you some more. ^_^

[Sumire]

SunPony, the holidays have kept me crazy busy but I wanted to thank you for the great brag! I'm so glad you liked all the teas! I hope the Breath of Spring tea suits your tastes. I am still a little embarrassed by my ornament after the amazing one you made but I'm glad you like it. You were really fun to shop for and it was great being secret swap partners!

Are we giving feedback for this swap? I didn't know there were some that we don't so now I'm unsure.

[Mirnyj]

You'll get feedback from Holiday Swaps eventually.

[brighteyes]

Oh shoot!  I thought we were giving feedback to our individual partners so I left feedback for mine already.  Are we not supposed to do that? 

[Mirnyj]

The official arena holiday swaps are rated by the swap organizers, but no harm done if you already rated your patner.

[Vintageg2]

Haven't read the brags for a long time, but great boxes everyone!
Hope you all enjoy them!