TeaChat

Maybe this is a dead horse, I don't know because I'm new to the forum. But looking through reviews on Adagio, I keep seeing comments like "tastes great with sugar" or "I add a few spoonfuls of stevia when I make it".

I found teas because I wanted to be healthy and I couldn't find an off-the-shelf drink that wasn't full of sugar, corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners. So I guess I don't understand the mentality of taking a great tasting and extremely healthy drink and adding all of that junk. I mean, some lesser quality teas I've tried from the supermarket and Teavana might have tasted better if I added a little sugar, but the higher-quality loose-leaf teas I've tried from Adagio have had a wonderful flavor that would have been masked or ruined by adding sweeteners. Do people not understand that good tea tastes good on it's own? (Sorry for the rant, just needed to get it out of my system.)

I think in general people are used to sweet drinks. I even admit to growing up with sweet drinks. I do however drink my tea plain unless it's a off the shelf tea bag (very small amount of sugar with little cream). Now that I am older I don't really like sweet, my iced tea I brew is plain and strong.

Most people I think need to get used to tea without all that stuff. Once they do I feel they will appreciate the tea more. I couldn't imagine cream &/or sugar in my Pu-erh.


Shawn

Mine is not to question why ... but I did on this forum years ago, not soon after I joined. Back then there was a very strong contingent of sweet tea toothies. I thought I would ... enlighten them with why it was wrong to sweeten equating it with the whole super size, super sweet mentality in the US.

I got quite an earful ... and ran for cover The topic turned into a flame war of sorts. It is still a controversial topic from time to time on the forum, but the tea-demographics have changed greatly on TeaChat.

Someone much wiser than me who I am sure never sweetens shared something that stuck with me, "like what you drink, drink what you like." This has become my mantra ever since ... another way of wording it is, "brew how you like, like how you brew."

Though I add "but be open minded and willing to try other ways, other teas."

Chip wrote:"like what you drink, drink what you like."

Hmm, bet you don't hear that slogan at AA meetings

I guess my mantra would be something like: "make good decisions or be willing to pay the consequences". But I suppose that's not a terribly cheerful message.

I actually think that my adopted mantra was borne in wine tasting circles which I am sure has plenty of AA candidates.

My original point being, is to be willing to accept and not judge where others are on their TeaJourney no matter how right I feel I am in my choices (or how wrong I feel they are). They are my choices for my personal enjoyment. We all started somewhere and are still at some point in our TeaJourney ... likely not arrived at our final destination.

Often, if encouraged "the sweeteners" will one day try unsweetened tea and may never sweeten again ... or they may sweeten til the day they die.

I began as a "flavored tea drinker" ... and moved on to trying teas of all types ... and moved to focusing on green teas of all kinds ... and finally became acutely focused on Japanese greens. Though I am quite happy where I am at, I do not kid myself into thinking that "I have arrived."

This journey was not the result of anyone telling me I was "doing tea wrong" ... it was simply borne of my desire to ... TeaJourney and discover more of the TeaWorld.

Reminds me of a guy at work, always fills his flavored coffee with cream and sugar, I asked him why he drinks coffee if he doesn't like the way it tastes and he said "I like coffee, it just needs something"... my reply was "if you like coffee you wouldn't need it to taste like something else, you probably just like sugar and caffeine!" to which he admitted I was probably right.

Truth be told, I think if it's cheap tea it doesn't taste good and sugar/milk make it more enjoyable... therein lies the problem, too many people buying tea that just isn't tasty enough!

rabbit wrote:Reminds me of a guy at work, always fills his flavored coffee with cream and sugar, I asked him why he drinks coffee if he doesn't like the way it tastes and he said "I like coffee, it just needs something"... my reply was "if you like coffee you wouldn't need it to taste like something else, you probably just like sugar and caffeine!" to which he admitted I was probably right.

Truth be told, I think if it's cheap tea it doesn't taste good and sugar/milk make it more enjoyable... therein lies the problem, too many people buying tea that just isn't tasty enough!

Rabbit, my memory may be slipping a bit, but I think it may have been you who posted the topic to which I refer. Sadly, I think that topic was accidently deleted along with around 1000 posts during an upgrade as I cannot find it.

I'm like that with coffee, can only stand it if it's full of stuff, which is why I don't drink coffee. There's no point since I might as well go all the way with it and just buy a milkshake.

rabbit wrote:
Truth be told, I think if it's cheap tea it doesn't taste good and sugar/milk make it more enjoyable... therein lies the problem, too many people buying tea that just isn't tasty enough!

I think this happens a lot, with both tea and coffee
people just drink for the caffeine and don't actually like the taste

entropyembrace wrote:

rabbit wrote:
Truth be told, I think if it's cheap tea it doesn't taste good and sugar/milk make it more enjoyable... therein lies the problem, too many people buying tea that just isn't tasty enough!

I think this happens a lot, with both tea and coffee
people just drink for the caffeine and don't actually like the taste

... plus may also be preparing the tea improperly (often following crazy vendor directions).

"Bleh, maybe a couple teaspoons of sugar and dairy will make this drinkable."

I mainly drink black tea with milk - for me it really tastes too bitter without some sugar. It "makes" the taste or so to speak. I tried it without but I just couldn't manage - tasted bland and boring. 3 cubes of sugar for me!