You demanded more flavours, you're going to love what we've been blending.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Fulfilment update: orders on the way + a note about tracking info
10 months ago
– Mon, Jun 26, 2023 at 06:48:19 PM
Hi D&Tea Backers!
Just a quick update this evening to let you know that we've received the remaining materials to fulfill your orders. 🎉 We still have more tea on its way, scheduled to be delivered this week, to keep things moving smoothly. As of now, all orders (with the usual disclaimer about sampler orders arriving next month) are ready to be filled, and we are working diligently to process them as quickly as possible.
The first batch of orders went out last week, and we are currently fulfilling approximately 200 orders per day. With around 2000 orders to go through, everything is progressing well without any additional hiccups!
A quick note regarding your tracking number and "label generation" notifications: we purchase our postage labels in batches, which allows us to optimize shipping locations and organize orders by weight and volume. However, this means that your label may be generated a few days before the actual fulfillment and shipment. Rest assured, this is completely normal. There can be (and usually is) adelay between us packing and fulfilling your order and USPS scanning it into their systems. You should receive updates as your package makes its way to you (don't forget to check your junk mail).
We wanted to address this because some of you have expressed concerns about your shipment being lost or delayed due to the lack of tracking updates. Fear not, everything is on track!
Once again, a massive thank you to all of you. We are eagerly anticipating the moment when you can start enjoying these delightful new blends.
All the best,
D&Team
Update on fulfilment + project progress!
11 months ago
– Thu, Jun 15, 2023 at 12:32:15 PM
Hi D&Tea Backers!
The last six week have continued to be so busy, but productive! Apologies for anyone who has waited longer for this update than they'd like, we've had some staff turnover and comms is a gap we have not filled yet! If all you want out of an update is "When will you ship my things?!" and you don't care about Kickstarter creators discussing the joys of re-supplying some products that had issues:
Current shipping estimate for all non-sample pack orders* is Wednesday June 21st
*A reminder for any backers that added Sampler tea sachets / tea bags to their orders, these ship an estimated 30 days after our initial shipments go out. Our new tea bagmachine has been purchased and is currently making its way to us.
All the tumblers... so many tumblers
Progress + Where We are at
We've been hard at work bringing all the elements together for shipping out all orders and have met a couple of speed bumps along the way (see "Challenges" below for more info) but in general we are really pleased to say (almost everything) has gone according to plan!
- Every product has been designed, blended, created, printed and packed
- 95% of all our backers have responded to their surveys and completed their shipping information (if you are in the 5% please search your email for that survey or let us know if you haven't seen one!)
- All our new teas are blended, delivered and taste just amazing as they did during our sampling. We had to re-blend Tavern Brawl a couple of them to get ingredients just right, but we expected this so it did not cause any delays, the final tea was delivered at the start of this week.
- All of our new packaging printed fantastically, it was delivered a couple of weeks ago allowing our team of dedicated tea packers to pack tea like the wind, they are looking and smelling amazing, and everyone here is super excited for you to taste them!
Tea!
Challenges + setbacks
- Two of our *old* teas (Elven Bazaar and Underdark and Chill) had ingredient supply chain issues (a black tea that forms the base of the blend was not available in the quantities we needed) so we have so far only received a third of the volume of that tea that we ordered. The remainder is being blended today and tomorrow and shipped to us Friday (expected Tuesday June 20th), hence Wednesday being out current expected day to fill orders.
- Our blankets had some shipping delays, but are supposedly being delivered today, so that shouldn't effect our updated delivery schedule of Wednesday, but we are always a bit nervous until things are in our hands! So many shipping issues the last 12 months :(
- Some of our new teas cost more to make than initially anticipated during our Kickstarter campaign. While this issue does not affect our Kickstarter project directly, it was disappointing for us as the prices of ingredients significantly increased during the production process. The quotes we received were not as reliable as we had hoped. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the teas we have already purchased and packed are unaffected, and we take pride in maintaining our commitment to using high-quality ingredients. However, certain blends, such as Arborean Thickett, are financially unsustainable for us at the moment, and we need to find a solution to continue producing them, as we currently incur losses with each tea.
- Aside from product and supply chain issues, as we said in our last update our former CEO moved on and they were the primary communicator at the company. The work of actually bringing together inventory, reordering print runs, chasing shipments and double checking quantities and packing everything up has taken up every minute we've had, but we've posted fewer KS updates along the way than we planned for, I'm sorry about that. All this has caused a few morale issues, but we are still here and we are working really hard to bring you a product we love and we hope you will too.
- Their departure also meant we had to rearrange a lot of duties in the company which has brought with it the challenges you'd expect. One of those was ordering stickers and we did not realize we did not reassign that task until last week. That's just us screwing up but we've rush ordered these now and they are being delivered ASAP and we expect them... you guessed it Tuesday.
Upshot and conclusions
We are a week behind our estimated shipping date. We are really sorry that we aren't bang on time, but we are working absolutely as hard as we can to get everything into your hands ASAP and in general are really proud of every product created.
Reminder! Fill out your surveys to receive your kickstarter! + An update on the future of D&Tea
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Apr 15, 2023 at 10:30:46 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Surveys Go Out Tomorrow & Check Out Tabletop News
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 01:23:52 PM
Surveys Going Out Tomorrow
Hello everyone, I just want to start off by expressing my gratitude for your incredible patience and support. You are all amazing! I'm thrilled to announce that we are on track to hit our deadline for sending out our surveys tomorrow, and we couldn't have done it without you.
As you know, we've been working tirelessly to ensure that all of our new products are absolutely perfect before they launch, and I have to say that we've had a bit of a challenge with our sacheted tea bags. We love a great challenge though. We've been asking ourselves all the important questions - like how big should the bag be to fit all the different types of tea, what kind of packaging should we use, and should we put a wrapper around the sachet? And of course, we want to make sure that everything is beautifully designed and intentional.
While we're not quite finished with the sachets yet, we have enough to create a mockup of the product and I'm happy to say that it will still be delivered on-time. Thank you again for your patience and understanding, and we can't wait to share our amazing products with you soon!
Tabletop News
Check out this awesome new Kickstarter by our friends over at Tabletop News. We have been helping support this Kickstarter since the beginning and we are so excited to see that it launched today.
Tabletop News is a weekly news series covering tabletop roleplaying games, card games, board games, tournaments, streaming, and entertainment. TtN is the first consolidated weekly news show of its kind covering stories from not only the biggest companies in the tabletop gaming space, but also highlighting talented independent developers, and showcasing unique projects from BIPOC creators. It’s a celebration of tabletop gaming in all its forms.
We are also running a partner agreement with them so when you back them through our links, they can see how much the D&Tea community has supported them. This helps us negotiate better ad deals and product placement and other things. That said, I have had tons of different companies ask if we could cross promote their Kickstarter but I haven't been passionate about any of those Kickstarters except this one.
Thank you so much. We did it.
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 24, 2023 at 03:52:30 PM
We wanted to get this out sooner, but as you might imagine we have been so busy and we really wanted to put time and effort into writing something nice instead of rushing it:
We cannot express how much your support means to us. From the bottom of our hearts, we are truly grateful for your contribution to our Kickstarter campaign. Your generosity and belief in our brand have surpassed our wildest dreams, and we are thrilled to announce that we have successfully met and exceeded our funding goal!
To say that we are over the moon would be an understatement. It's hard to put into words just how much it means to us that you have chosen to support our small business. We've poured our hearts and souls into D&Tea, and to see so many people rally behind us has been nothing short of humbling.
We're excited to get your surveys out soon and start fulfilling your rewards. We can't wait to hear your feedback on our teas and products, and we're eager to keep growing and improving as a brand. Your support has made it possible for us to expand our business and bring new ideas to life, and for that, we are eternally grateful.
Thank you again for believing in us, and for helping to make our Kickstarter campaign such a success. We couldn't have done it without you, and we can't wait to continue this journey with all of you by our side.
