Hello TeaChat!

Please introduce yourself here to our membership


Aug 26th, '17, 09:40
Posts: 13
Joined: Aug 23rd, '17, 13:12
Location: Speck of dust, Milky Way

Hello TeaChat!

by HotLeafJuice » Aug 26th, '17, 09:40

Hi everyone, I've been reading this website for a few weeks now, learning more and more about tea, and I figured it's about time I start joining the discussions here; so I'll introduce myself.

My "name" is HotLeafJuice :P , and this is my tea story:
I'm Romanian, so I grew up surrounded by herbal/medicinal teas, but my first cup of real tea was probably a cup of gunpowder green. After that, I slowly started learning how to properly brew tea (in a general sense), and started learning about different types of tea, but wasn't really into tea yet, since the highest grade of tea I could get my hands on was a simple Tie Guan Yin.

My tipping point into actually loving tea was when I watched "Avatar: the last airbender" (where my username is from :lol: ) in which a character (uncle Iroh :D ) is passionate about tea, and I understood that tea can be more than a beverage; it can be a hobby/pastime.

After that I found out there is a great teashop in a bigger city nerby, and after I had a whiff of my first Dong Ding; something just clicked, and I was sold :D.

As expected, I started tasting Pu erhs, Daejelings, Senchas, etc, but my favorite tea for a long time was Kukicha, due to it's freshness and vigor.
At one point, I got hired by the same teashop where I got my teas, and that gave me the chance to get acquainted with even more teas and types of teaware. Also, I turned into quite the tea snob too for a while :mrgreen: ...

Right now I'm not working at the teashop anymore, and am now discovering an even bigger, vast world of tea, online vendors, and tea knowledge.

I have already ordered tea from Sazen tea and Yunnan Sourcing, and have not been disappointed by what I revieved :) .

BTW, if anyone has a favorite, less known vendor that they can recommend, especially for good japanese greens, I'd be grateful :wink: .

Anyway, this is me, and I'm glad I can join this community of tea lovers.

Sep 28th, '17, 15:21

Re: Hello TeaChat!

by Steve@Adagio » Sep 28th, '17, 15:21

Welcome! We look forward to conversing with you!

Sep 29th, '17, 02:24
Posts: 1
Joined: Sep 29th, '17, 02:11

Re: Hello TeaChat!

by Mandy30008 » Sep 29th, '17, 02:24

Hello,

Long time tea drinker, first time blogger. I like a variety of teas. My introduction to really liking tea was Queen of Babylon (discontinued :( ) at Teavana. Now I like White Peach, Earl Gray, Lapsing Souchong, and various Chai Mixes. One of my favorite chai's is the Pumpkin Spice Chai and the Masala Chai. Recently I've been experimenting with Chai Toddys so any tips on those I would greatly appreciate.

User avatar
Oct 1st, '17, 00:58
Posts: 320
Joined: Jul 10th, '15, 23:36
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Hello TeaChat!

by Frisbeehead » Oct 1st, '17, 00:58

Hey there HotLeafJuice, weome.

Your tea introduction story sounds bit like mine actually, as I was also inspired to start drinking tea because of a TV show. Although, my TV show was quite a bit different: Top Gear (UK, aka the only real one in my eyes). I was getting sort of into this romanticized British culture, and watched Top Gear all the time. After hearing them mention tea on several occasions, I figured I'd try to give tea another shot (I went through a short phase in high school where I was sort of getting into tea, but all of my tea came from Teavana, an overpriced US tea store chain known for pushy sales tactic. So at the beginning, I stuck with what most British people drink - Assam/Ceylon/Darjeeling/Indian blend/and of course, Earl Grey teabags. After doing more research online, particularly on Reddit's r/tea board, I started my tea journey.

So yeah, on this board you'll find more in-depth discussions about tea than on r/tea (and any other tea forum, for that matter). A lot of us are obsessed with teaware as well, especially artisan crafted stuff (Japanese and Chinese mostly).

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask. Also, if you think it might be a common question or one that probably has been asked before, check out the search function at the top right of the page.

Have fun!

-FH

Oct 4th, '17, 09:17
Posts: 13
Joined: Aug 23rd, '17, 13:12
Location: Speck of dust, Milky Way

Re: Hello TeaChat!

by HotLeafJuice » Oct 4th, '17, 09:17

Frisbeehead wrote: Hey there HotLeafJuice, weome.

Your tea introduction story sounds bit like mine actually, as I was also inspired to start drinking tea because of a TV show. Although, my TV show was quite a bit different: Top Gear (UK, aka the only real one in my eyes). I was getting sort of into this romanticized British culture, and watched Top Gear all the time. After hearing them mention tea on several occasions, I figured I'd try to give tea another shot (I went through a short phase in high school where I was sort of getting into tea, but all of my tea came from Teavana, an overpriced US tea store chain known for pushy sales tactic. So at the beginning, I stuck with what most British people drink - Assam/Ceylon/Darjeeling/Indian blend/and of course, Earl Grey teabags. After doing more research online, particularly on Reddit's r/tea board, I started my tea journey.

So yeah, on this board you'll find more in-depth discussions about tea than on r/tea (and any other tea forum, for that matter). A lot of us are obsessed with teaware as well, especially artisan crafted stuff (Japanese and Chinese mostly).

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask. Also, if you think it might be a common question or one that probably has been asked before, check out the search function at the top right of the page.

Have fun!

-FH
Thanks for the warm welcome! Yeah, I too would be obsessed over teaware, if I had the budget that is :-). But I'm slowly trying to gather a tea stash, and we'll see...

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