TeaChat

We all buy tea we wish we hadn't. In my case, I won't torture myself with a tea I don't like. I'll throw it out and move on.

What do you do?

Depends on what I paid for it. If it is expensive then I'm likely to experiment with different brewing techniques to see what I can get out of it before sentencing it.

If its really intolerable, or sometimes if a tea is just boring, its added to the mulch in the garden. If the tea has potential to change (mature, mellow) or if my opinion of it has potential to evolve I put it away somewhere and forget about it for a while. I remain ambivalent about certain teas (roasted oolongs) so I keep a small stash to retry in the event of a change of heart.

It depends - if the tea has potential to improve with aging i keep it for a while and try again. If it's still bad i throw it away.

I try to introduce tea I do not like to other tea drinkers I know. Generally there is someone who does find it to their liking.

Most of the times I hold the tea, in order to observe if within weeks/months, the tea could improve.

The only tea I've thrown away was some mini-tuos that were crawling with bugs. My brother was given a ziplock baggie full of them by someone at his previous job. I tried one, saw the bugs, brewed some up anyway, and promptly binned the lot.

NPE wrote:I try to introduce tea I do not like to other tea drinkers I know. Generally there is someone who does find it to their liking.

If I can find something to like about it, I try this; if I cannot find anything to like about it, and let it sit a few months, try it again once or twice, and still can't like it, off it goes to feed the worms.

I tend to save it, because sometimes you need tea you can use up in a rather carefree way.

E.g. Keep some TGY you don't like drinking to season a new pot. You avoid wasting it and you don't feel guilty about pouring 20g of tea leaves into a pot of boiling water only to throw it out the next morning.

I stick it in a small bowl use it as deodorizer in the refrigerator and closets.

Most of my less-than-wonderful tea gets taken to work where not much tastes especially good anyway.

Or I try to fob it off on unsuspecting acquaintances...

Cold brew it (or several in a blendable combo), and if too poor add lemon and sugar for ice tea-ish.
But I do blame myself until very sure, and keep trying. There are happy surprises. If from a good vendor I tend to think the tea just wants to be understood, as do we all.

I've learned not to buy more than 50g at most if they are teas I've never had.
usually samples are the way to go for me, If I like it enough I'll order more.
I did buy a large quantity of tea once, and its pretty bad, so I'm going to throw it out soon.

I'm making my way slowly through the world of tea. My best experience so far has been an unidentified oolong I had at a Chinese restaurant. I've been on a quest to find it again. It had a strong peach overtone.

I've suffered through a lot of mediocre teas over the years in the search for it. Fortunately I haven't had to throw out too many. It can be an expensive habit.

Thanks for commenting.