Too much?

[Poseidon]

Do any of you have way too much tea open at one time? I noticed tonight that I have so many open packages of tea open... Its a little ridiculous. Granted, I am "new" to loose leaf so I sort of went noobie crazy a few months back. I know a lot of TC'ers have lots and lots of tea and ive even seen some of you alude to having storage areas full of teas that would bring a tea fan to their knees; so why have so much? Are you planning to sell? Pass down in your family? Do you buy teas that age well such as puerh or roasted oolongs and pick up the seasonal tea to drink? Is it tradition to have more tea than you can drink in a lifetime? As an American, Asian culture is fasinating but is very complex and some things just dont process with my mind.

Anyway, I was thinking about this on the way to work today and wondered why so many of us tea fans have piles of tea... What is your reason?

[ethan]

"Too much" open bags = something going wrong w/ the tea because it is "open", I assume.

I bought 16 oz. of oolong from thePuritea going out of business offer, named by the seller as Milk Oolong. I loved its simple, floral flavor. Now that has become a vegetal flavor. Now I will drink this about twice a month instead of twice a week; so, I do have too much of it.

I bought kilograms of other teas to secure a supply that I could enjoy for years & to get the cost down: E.g., I recently bought 10 kg. of Himalayan Orange from Jun Chiyabari, Nepal. Upton Tea sells this tea from 2012 but not 2013; some other companies also sell this; however, there is difficulty in knowing exactly how the flush offered by them will be & in the price which w/ shipping is > US$9 an ounce. I bought a flush from 2013 that I knew I liked for about $6 an ounce.

This is a black tea that will not change for the worse for a couple of years or so; nonetheless, I have too much because I am too broke to have so much $ tied up in tea & am old enough that I might not live long enough to drink it all myself. I hope to sell a significant amount of it (at my cost).

[Poseidon]

"Too much" open bags = something going wrong w/ the tea because it is "open", I assume.

I usually have open bags because I like variety although I do keep them sealed or in airtight containers after they are open. One day I may want a nice green tea then move to a high fired oolong.

[Chip]

Once upon a time, I had almost 50 bags of green tea open. I became so stressed that I vowed to never go there again ... and I have not.

Samples do not count right?

[miig]

Yes, I was there in my first tea year and then stayed clear for a long time - until I got started with Pu-Erh. These do have the problem that they don't turn bad with time - so the sky's the limit

But yes, like Chip said - its just beginning to get stressful once too many choices are present. So I got some kind of storage where I try not to go too often and then a tea shelf with my pots and cups, and a limited number of teas. So I can still buy too much tea without having their presence drive me crazy.

Still, Chip - 50 open bags of green tea- thats quite something

[entropyembrace]

too much open sencha was a problem in the past, since it degrades fairly quickly

but pu-erh, oolong, and black tea are generally ok to have an excess of around

I used to have a lot of excess tea because I was buying more than I could drink just for the sake of trying more types of tea, but after a few years of university studies and less money to buy tea that stockpile is mostly gone other than some special teas I'm saving and stuff I don't like very much.

[debunix]

I discipline myself now to keep fewer green oolongs and green teas open at once, but I still get some variety because I have different versions open at home and at the office.

[daidokorocha]

I don't feel that I really have this problem. I came back from Japan about a month ago and brought with me 15 or so greens, mostly 100 or 200 grams. I'm nearly out! In that space of time I am finishing off several other teas I bought in Japan, as well as older ones I've had kicking around. Luckily, I have 17 new teas on the way as we speak...

[BW85]

Lucky for me I prefer puer and higher fired oolongs I have no idea how many opened teas I have... 20 - 30 oolongs at least, and only 3 are greener minnan or Formosa. And I don't usually have more than 2 or 3 green teas in my stash at any time... Green tea is usually just a casual afternoon tea for me, maybe twice a week at most.

[Guozhiliu1603]

I think I am taking black tea too much ,Beuase I am so addicted ,before that I am not drinking any tea ,but don’t know few years back I had started this Jinjunmei Black Tea. Through teanaga store ,You must be thinking that black tea doesn’t look good then too people have great charm for black tea. If you want to work till late, and don’t be able to work because of tiredness, one cup of black tea will give you freshness to work till morning. But I think I am drinking too much tea ,because in a day I am taking 5-6 cups .

[Rui]

At the moment I have such a stash of, mainly pu-erh, tea in my office drawer that it does not close anymore.

Due to this fact I try to restrain myself to about 4 to 6 cups of tea a day.

[mganz42]

Ugh I have definitely gone way past the point of having too many teas. The amount of tea itself isn't that large, but I have so many types of tea that I feel like my yixing/banko/hagi collection is being neglected. I think next year I will buy large amounts of maybe 10 teas and stop buying samples of whatever catches my attention.