Hummm....tea....always in some sort around me.
My early life was dominated with Sun Tea and Sweet Tea, usually Lipton/Tetley/HEB cheap stuff. Growing up in south texas it was just the way it was. Family gatherings meant tea, lots of tea.
I remember being 4 and going to eat Chinese food with my parents. They got me tea, hot tea with the pot and the little cups and everything. It has since become a ritual part of my Asian food experience. I loved the pots and cups but mostly the warm tea inside it.
I kind of fell of the wagon at some point in late elementary and got into caffiene land...Dr. Pepper and Coke was my main drug, but I would suppliment with coffee/espresso when desperate..which lead to all the time. Finally I OD'd myself on caffiene...as in I couldn't make it to 10am without a fix or pay the price with a migrane. My stomach was torn to hades. And then I found Red Raspberry Herb Tea from Bigelow (yes...i know). It was a life savor.
I was also a big fan of Star Trek: TNG at the time and decided to try Earl Grey, Hot. OMG <3 How could something warm, without bubbles, with little sugar, and less caffiene be so wonderful?? How did I forget this??
I graduated HS and went to College...drinking my happy teas. I became a part of an online community, Ars Technica. One of the regular posters "Gendou" regularly drank green tea and finally someone asked him what he recommended. After calming telling us minions that only loose tea would do...he recommended Adagio. Which of course was approved by "Wynk" and many others on the board with recommendations for their favorites.
I nervously made my first order that day, never having tried loose tea and not knowing what I was getting into. I've never gone back. My favorites have expanded...but I still adore Raspberry Patch (which is so way better than Bigelow). I became known as the "weird" grad student who carried a coffee traveler mug with tea all the time.
I then graduated, got a job and proceeded to find tea friends where I worked, showing them the light as well. I've since left that company, but enjoy sharing tea and conversation with some of my "Tea Time" friends.
Since my midwife has banned coffee (and tea...I ignore the tea bit) tea still reigns at my house. We've converted many in our family (sisters, parents, godparents, cousins, etc) and I've even convinced my husband...who would not touch any hot drink...to try it out. (his tea shrine now rivals mine)
I'm a total loose tea virgin!!
I drank tea from teabags for years (Lipton, Celestial Seasonings, Tazo) until my brother went traveling and brought back a bag of loose green tea leaves from India (Darjeeling). For months they sat because I didn't know what to do with them. Then I got a teapress from Tazo. After some failed attempts (leaves somehow got in no matter how slow I pressed, tea very bitter) I gave up.
I decided a couple weeks ago I AM going to use those leaves so I went online and googled "tea" and "how to make tea." Adagio's was one of the sites I looked at first and the IngenuiTea was right on the first page along with the samples to choose from! I read all the rave reviews about this cool looking way of making tea and I'm expecting to recieve it this week along with the black tea sampler and another sampler of herbal teas for the afternoon. I can't wait to try my brothers tea as it was intended and start playing around with all the great looking Adagio teas!
Great site!
I drank tea from teabags for years (Lipton, Celestial Seasonings, Tazo) until my brother went traveling and brought back a bag of loose green tea leaves from India (Darjeeling). For months they sat because I didn't know what to do with them. Then I got a teapress from Tazo. After some failed attempts (leaves somehow got in no matter how slow I pressed, tea very bitter) I gave up.
I decided a couple weeks ago I AM going to use those leaves so I went online and googled "tea" and "how to make tea." Adagio's was one of the sites I looked at first and the IngenuiTea was right on the first page along with the samples to choose from! I read all the rave reviews about this cool looking way of making tea and I'm expecting to recieve it this week along with the black tea sampler and another sampler of herbal teas for the afternoon. I can't wait to try my brothers tea as it was intended and start playing around with all the great looking Adagio teas!
Great site!
You get out of it what you put into it.
I actually started drinking hot tea not too long ago. It definately feels like I've been drinking tea longer than several months. Weel, I first got start with iced sweet tea. I have been making iced sweet tea for years, and was also addicted to coffee. Sometime at the beginning of this school year, I decided that I can't drink coffee in the morning because it always made me feel sick, so I started making tea in the morning. I would just brew any old teabag in a cup of hot water, and added so much sugar to it.
Sometime later while browsing on a skateboarding forum which I still go on often, I learned about loose-leaf tea, and about YiXing teapots (strange place to learn about this stuff, eh?).
After trying my first cup of loose leaf tea, I never went back to coffee, or even sweet tea. I started drinking about 8 cups a day, and eventually got a Yixing pot for Assam (which has been reaseasoned for oolong now).
Not too long ago, I started drinking green tea without sugar, and black tea started tasting weird with sugar. I didn't like black tea much without sugar, and liked it even less with sugar. So I now drink green, white and oolong teas. My once large stash of green tea is just about gone, and I'm hoping I can get more soon before I go insane from tea deprivation (I think their should be a medical term for that).
Sometime later while browsing on a skateboarding forum which I still go on often, I learned about loose-leaf tea, and about YiXing teapots (strange place to learn about this stuff, eh?).
After trying my first cup of loose leaf tea, I never went back to coffee, or even sweet tea. I started drinking about 8 cups a day, and eventually got a Yixing pot for Assam (which has been reaseasoned for oolong now).
Not too long ago, I started drinking green tea without sugar, and black tea started tasting weird with sugar. I didn't like black tea much without sugar, and liked it even less with sugar. So I now drink green, white and oolong teas. My once large stash of green tea is just about gone, and I'm hoping I can get more soon before I go insane from tea deprivation (I think their should be a medical term for that).
I call myself a compulsive beverager. Meaning that for as long as I can remember, I've been attaching myself to drinks I like and downing them constantly throughout the day. I used to drink too much juice as a kid. Then too much Sprite soda. Then too much--well, a lot of water. Then too much cocoa. And oh, goodness--too much coffee.
I started drinking hot tea as an alternative to coffee every now and then, because after all--cup after cup of coffee throughout the day can lead to some unpleasantness. I began with grocery store bagged tea--green, and then white, exclusively. The turning point that shoved me over in the direction of loose tea and into tea as my new obsessive beverage generally was working at a coffee shop in a local mall, right as a bubble tea booth opened there. After working so much with espresso, I was tired of all the chocolates and white chocolates and caramels of latte flavoring, and bubble tea flavors were a nice, clean-tasting contrast for me, even though they were still pretty sugary-sweet. I started going to the bubble tea stand on every lunch break. I bought a few cups of their plain loose tea, and after Christmas, with some of the gift money I'd gotten over the holidays...I finally let myself by a loose tea kit from them, which included a Personalitea and four loose sample tins--coconut black, citron green, fruit medley, and rooibos caramel.
I haven't had a bagged tea since. I did a little research online to try to find a supplier with a little more variety than that little booth could hold, and after searching a few of those flavors I found Adagio--I've wondered if they might be the suppliers of the tea I had at the bubble tea booth, since the names are the same, but the Coconut Black and Citron Green teas seemed slightly different in flavor here, so I'm still not sure. But that didn't stop me from placing an order. Since late December, I've ordered three or four times from Adagio, and once from three other online companies. I now have 34 varieties of tea on my kitchen counter. I'm a little out of hand.
I love greens, whites, and oolongs (my god! where has oolong been all my life?--I love it!), but I have to make a conscious effort to like black teas. They remind me too much of iced sweet tea, which I've never liked despite growing up southern with sweet tea as a ubiquitous force. I drink coffee black, and most of my teas unsweetened, but it's still very difficult for me to drink many black teas without at least a little milk. But those tastes are changing every day.
I'm so vocal and obnoxious about how much I love tea that I've already made tea minions of my boyfriend (who now tries to compete with me over who can add the least amount of milk to black tea) and most of my immediate family. I see no cure in sight...
I started drinking hot tea as an alternative to coffee every now and then, because after all--cup after cup of coffee throughout the day can lead to some unpleasantness. I began with grocery store bagged tea--green, and then white, exclusively. The turning point that shoved me over in the direction of loose tea and into tea as my new obsessive beverage generally was working at a coffee shop in a local mall, right as a bubble tea booth opened there. After working so much with espresso, I was tired of all the chocolates and white chocolates and caramels of latte flavoring, and bubble tea flavors were a nice, clean-tasting contrast for me, even though they were still pretty sugary-sweet. I started going to the bubble tea stand on every lunch break. I bought a few cups of their plain loose tea, and after Christmas, with some of the gift money I'd gotten over the holidays...I finally let myself by a loose tea kit from them, which included a Personalitea and four loose sample tins--coconut black, citron green, fruit medley, and rooibos caramel.
I haven't had a bagged tea since. I did a little research online to try to find a supplier with a little more variety than that little booth could hold, and after searching a few of those flavors I found Adagio--I've wondered if they might be the suppliers of the tea I had at the bubble tea booth, since the names are the same, but the Coconut Black and Citron Green teas seemed slightly different in flavor here, so I'm still not sure. But that didn't stop me from placing an order. Since late December, I've ordered three or four times from Adagio, and once from three other online companies. I now have 34 varieties of tea on my kitchen counter. I'm a little out of hand.
I love greens, whites, and oolongs (my god! where has oolong been all my life?--I love it!), but I have to make a conscious effort to like black teas. They remind me too much of iced sweet tea, which I've never liked despite growing up southern with sweet tea as a ubiquitous force. I drink coffee black, and most of my teas unsweetened, but it's still very difficult for me to drink many black teas without at least a little milk. But those tastes are changing every day.
I'm so vocal and obnoxious about how much I love tea that I've already made tea minions of my boyfriend (who now tries to compete with me over who can add the least amount of milk to black tea) and most of my immediate family. I see no cure in sight...
Apr 10th, '06, 20:48
Posts: 21
Joined: Apr 7th, '06, 15:27
Location: New Jersey
My story is simple:
I had the old-fashioned polish grandmother from the other side who would brew me tea with lemon and honey any time i ever had a cough or sneeze (which, to her ALWAYS meant i was sick, haha). I did the same when I was at my house growing up because I thought it worked. And it did. I don't remember when I started to drink tea regularly instead of just when I was sick, but one day I got hooked and finished off every tea bag in the house. Eventually I started buying loose tea, it just seemed more...i dunno, spiritual. More comforting and natural. I don't know, something like that. But my obsession stemmed from it being thrown at me while i was "sick."
I had the old-fashioned polish grandmother from the other side who would brew me tea with lemon and honey any time i ever had a cough or sneeze (which, to her ALWAYS meant i was sick, haha). I did the same when I was at my house growing up because I thought it worked. And it did. I don't remember when I started to drink tea regularly instead of just when I was sick, but one day I got hooked and finished off every tea bag in the house. Eventually I started buying loose tea, it just seemed more...i dunno, spiritual. More comforting and natural. I don't know, something like that. But my obsession stemmed from it being thrown at me while i was "sick."