The Sunday after Super Sunday, designation: TeaDay

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How long have you been SERIOUS about drinking TEA?

<1 year. Newbie
15
27%
1 up to 2 years
13
24%
2 up to 4 years
14
25%
4 up to 7 years
4
7%
7 up to 10 years
7
13%
10 up to 15 years
0
No votes
15 up to 20 years
0
No votes
More than 20 years.
2
4%
 
Total votes: 55

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Feb 10th, '08, 03:31
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The Sunday after Super Sunday, designation: TeaDay

by Chip » Feb 10th, '08, 03:31

Sundays are great TeaDays. They are also great days to come to TeaChat and share your cup with everyone on TeaDay. So, stop by, see what everyone else is sipping, and then share with us what you are sipping as well!!!

Everyone is invited, newbies, oldies...new to tea, old to tea...hmmm, what a curious thought!!! This would make a great TeaDay TeaPoll question and topic.

How long have you been drinking tea, seriously??? That is the official question, but please fill in the blanks a little, share your personal TeaStory with everyone. You can hit upon when you first started, how and when you became serious...and even why you turned to tea.

So, everyone, have fun with this one...don't forget to tell everyone what you are drinking as well. And as always, stop by often and post as much as you want.

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Feb 10th, '08, 04:17
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by olivierco » Feb 10th, '08, 04:17

After my usual early morning Yunnan Golden Tips, I had a Yuncui green and Kaburagien Hand-rubbed Sencha (It is already 10 AM in France)

Concerning the poll, I have been drinking tea for a long time (25 years). I started with everyday black tea, earl grey and jasmine tea (Twinings).
I took it more seriously seven-eight years ago after being offered some good chinese green teas by a enthusiast tea drinker.

I drink now every kind of tea: Gyokuro, Sencha, Puer, Oolongs, Darjeeling, Chinese blacks, greens and whites, Rooibos...

Last week I ordered matcha (from o-cha and zencha) for the first time.

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Feb 10th, '08, 05:17
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by Selaphiel » Feb 10th, '08, 05:17

I`m in the newbie category :oops: Been drinking tea seriously since September 07. Never really drank much tea before I started to take tea seriously. I used to appreciate good coffee, so read a lot on the net about coffee and then I stumbled upon an article about people who took tea seriously and that kind of fascinated me, so I read the article and in that article the tea store I use regularly when I`m not shopping online was mentioned there. So I went down there and the clerk had the insight and kindness to bother to do a Gong Fu Cha ceremony for me and a friend of mine. That resulted in me buying a beginners gong fu cha set and some Dong ding.

It did not take long before I was back in the store, bought more tea and signed up for a beginners tea course where we tasted representative teas from the white, green, oolong, black, smoked and pu erh categories. After this my interest in tea have just increased over time and I`ve spent an unhealthy amount of money on equipment and teas, but it is worth every dime because it gives me a lot of pleasure.
I love everything about tea, not just the good and diverse taste. It`s the look of the leaves knowing how much work and expertise went into it, the feel of cleaning out the leaves of a used gong fu cha pot and hold the wet leaves who has awakened back to life in your hand. I love the legends behind famous teas and I love the culture (Been interested in Chinese and Japanese culture for much longer than I`ve been interested in tea).

Ok, now I have ranted away too much, well at least if you`re interested you know my little tea story now :)

Gonna start my day with some Yunnan buds, then move onto a Gong Fu Cha ceremony with some Iron Godess of Mercy, then some Matcha later.

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Feb 10th, '08, 05:22
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by omegapd » Feb 10th, '08, 05:22

I'm at probably 10 years now...but still have a lot to learn, it seems.

Grocery store blacks were the start. Still like a couple of them, too.

Learned a little bit and jumped on the green tea bandwagon at the time (still grocery store stuff, though) and then somehow or another I got on Stash's mail order catalog list and that paved the way for what has become a full time tea obsession. Now, it's all on-line ordering, but I can thank Stash for planting the seed...

Hadn't had any tea yet (at work) but got the kettle going and the mug warmed up. I was gifted a box of Bigelow's Green Peach the other day. May as well try it... :wink:

EW

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Feb 10th, '08, 08:23
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by Selaphiel » Feb 10th, '08, 08:23

Had my Gong Fu Cha ceremony now, first time with Iron Godess of Mercy. It was interesting since it`s an oolong with 30-40% oxidization just like Dong ding which I`m familiar with, so it was interesting to compare the two.
The color of the liquor is similar, golden yellow, maybe a tad darker than the Dong ding. The taste is different, Iron godess of mercyhas a touch of acidity you don`t find in the Dong ding. When it comes to the aroma I would describe the Iron Godess of Mercy as a Dong ding with less vanilla like aroma but with marine notes intead, so it has the floral aromas + cooked salmon and iodine aromas. However, as the number of infusions increased I think the floral notes became stronger and the cooked salmon aroma got a bit weaker.

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Feb 10th, '08, 08:44
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by Ladytiger » Feb 10th, '08, 08:44

As far as I know, I've been drinking tea my whole life in the way of Sleepytime and other herbals. I dropped tea for a while, but picked it up again when I was in 8th grade when I had an interest in Japan, so I leapt into green teas. In 10th grade is where my adventure really began. At this point, I had a little interest in tea and felt left out of my Grandfather giving my uncle and my father tea at Easter dinner, so I asked my grandfather from some of his tea and he gave me some of his homemade iced tea. I fell in love with it with my first taste on Upton Tea Import's Russian Caravan. A few weeks later, my Grandfather bought me a whole packet of Russian Caravan for me, and a few weeks after that was my first Upton order.
Today, I have grown with my knowledge of tea past that of my grandfather's and my uncle's. Russian Caravan from Upton still remains a staple in my tea cupboard almost a year later. Sadly, I lost my job in July and have been living off of what money I did make and Christmas money, but it hasn't stopped me, it just have stopped me from getting too expensive.

Anyway, nothing is in my cup at the moment but there will be soon.

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Feb 10th, '08, 09:04
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by caradrake » Feb 10th, '08, 09:04

I've been "serious" about tea for around a week or so now. I'm such a TeaNoob. Padre introduced me into the wonderful world of tea. Before then, I hadn't realized that it was so vast. I'd had Lipton-like sweet tea, and I had tried some unsweet black tea before... blech.

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Feb 10th, '08, 10:40
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by FoxMackenzie » Feb 10th, '08, 10:40

My fiance and I got into tea together, lacking a soothing morning ritual to help us cope with the workday ahead. We've had so much fun sharing tea together, taking turns making it in the morning, choosing which samples to get...it's really kind of brought us closer together, corny as it sounds. :)

That being said, I think my interest really took off the first time I got to play with an ingenuitea. It makes it so damn easy you can't -not- get into tea!

-Fox
Try the romantic "1 heart" blend! Chocolate, strawberries and jasmine tea..mmmm.

<script></script>

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Feb 10th, '08, 11:02
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by JRS22 » Feb 10th, '08, 11:02

I'm another newbie. For whatever reason I'm overly sensitive to bitter flavors, and maybe some others. That sensitivity eliminated coffee, tea, soda and anything alcoholic. What was left to drink? Water and fruit juice.

Then I went to the country for the weekend with my friends who have a house that's a 10 minute drive from Millerton, home of Harney's. After an extended visit to the tasting room I discovered that tea doesn't have to be bitter or even seriously astringent. I left with "beginner" teas - citron green, african autumn and chocolate mint.

Then I discovered samples from Adagio and Upton, and now I do taste tests and comparisons at home. So far my favorites are Japanese greens and Jasmine. I moved up from Jasmine pearls from Tenren in chinatown to the Jasmine silver buds at Upton. I found that if I compared the cost of a cup of fine tea to wine or Starbucks tea was always a bargain, so I could justify treating myself to special teas.

This morning I compared 3 dragonwells from Upton. So far I'm not in love with dragonwell, but it was still fun to try them all. I'll go back to Sencha for lunch.

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Feb 10th, '08, 11:35
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by caradrake » Feb 10th, '08, 11:35

My first cup of the day was genmai cha. The first steeping was for 1.5 minutes with a water temp of 178.8. This produced a very astringent tea. I loved the aroma, but the flavor was lost.

The second steeping was for 1 minute with water at 155.3. The wonderful aroma is there, but the astringency is gone. The tea is much smoother, and I am able to taste the tea and the rice much clearer. The second steeping has given me a better appreciation of this tea. I'm glad I stuck with it.

This tea is disappointing in a way. The aroma (I believe because of the added rice kernals) gives me the impression of a very hearty meal. Then I sip the tea, and my senses realize they've been fooled.

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Feb 10th, '08, 11:45
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by Cinnamon Kitty » Feb 10th, '08, 11:45

I've been drinking tea since somewhere in high school, so roughly 6 to 7 years. Theoretically, I could have picked longer, but that was when I really started drinking tea consistently.

I will starting the morning with something green and then switching to the fuka-midori from Den's to get me through the afternoon of reading political theory that may or may not be useful for my thesis this semester.

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Feb 10th, '08, 12:07
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Had my first real cup of tea today!!

by TimeforTea » Feb 10th, '08, 12:07

I guess I'm no longer a tea virgin. :wink:

Today my husband and I had a cup of citron green from the adagio green tea sampler. It was a really nice, light, refreshing tea.

I can't wait to try other teas! :D

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Feb 10th, '08, 12:08
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by Victoria » Feb 10th, '08, 12:08

According to Adagio I have been a customer for 3 years. Adagio was my first whole leaf experience. I have enjoyed tea as long as I can remember, even as very young child. But all I was exposed to was black and then in bag form. I still love blacks but once I discovered oolongs, I knew I found my true love. It was then I realized, hey I really like this better than coffee, so why am I still drinking coffee? And then I found TC. From the day I landed here things began changing very fast, new ideas, new ways to brew and a whole new world of tea and people entered my life. Still feeling like quite the newbie, thanks to all of you who have welcomed me and nurtured me, befriended me. I have so much to learn!

Today I decided to try and match my fragrance with my brew - I'm wearing an orange blossom perfume and drinking an orange blossom oolong from Chado Tea Room on Los Angeles.

Have a lovely day all!

Feb 10th, '08, 12:15
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by Pentox » Feb 10th, '08, 12:15

For me it's a bit hard to put a date on when I started drinking tea seriously. When I was growing up I would always have some, but I never sought it out. Then during college I actually started wanting tea, but didn't look into it at all, the cheap stuff from the asian store was good enough for me. Then last year I started going all out on the stuff. When I took my steps toward tea lunacy.

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Feb 10th, '08, 12:31
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by Victoria » Feb 10th, '08, 12:31

Pentox wrote: tea lunacy
Love it!

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