MONDAY, TeaDay 5/12/08

[olivierco]

Kirameki shincha. First session. Very nice leaves as expected for a light steamed and hand picked sencha. I had five good steeps. (I used 1g leaves/oz water). It deserves further experiment, but it was a good start.

[daughteroftheKing]

I'm with you ThinkingOutLoud - Rooibos, ick, into the compost bin.
Some poor-quality pu-erh also found its way out, even some cheap Jasmine from an Asian market finally left, among others.
I always give them a few tries and let them sit in the cupboard for a few months to try again. After that, well, life's too short for bad tea.

This morning I'm drinking Darjeeling 22 with Raspberry-Mint. A bit strong for me hot, but really good on ice. Happy Monday, everybody!

[chamekke]

I've certainly thrown away teas. The most recent one was a locally bought bancha that was flavourless in the extreme. I also purchased some loose pu ehr at a local tea shop thinking that even if it isn't superb pu ehr, at least it would give me some idea of what to expect from the good stuff. I've only tried it once, but blech. If I don't detect any positives on a second or third try, it's on its way out.

It generally takes a few tries for me to really give up on a tea. Once it really strikes me that I'm drinking it with a feeling of "using it up" rather than enjoying, however - out it goes.

In my cup - some instant coffee*. I'm rushing to work and for me, tea requires time and relaxation.
______

*I may be deported from the West Coast because of this. One of my secret vices.

[jogrebe]

I did, numberous times. Most recently I threw away to garbage can was Xin Yang Mao Jian I bought at supermarket which was one can as expensive as a buck. Furthermore I am thinking about disposing 98' shu brick as quick as possible. This tea is so bad..with a smell like fertilizer..

Don't throw puerh out, offer it to puerh drinkers online.

[TimeforTea]

I have thrown out a stale tin of Rishi tea that I bought at Whole Foods. Had I known better then, I would not have purchased it. I have also thrown out horrible tea bags.

I don't like throwing out tea just because I don't care for the taste. I'd rather try to give it away to someone who would enjoy it. Or, I try to rebrew it, thinking I just brewed it incorrectly.

No tea yet today. I am looking forward to a nice cup of tea to help me through this rainy Monday! I plan to brew a sample from Cinnamon Kitty.

[scotty X]

the teas i dump have generally been of low quality, purchased early in my tea life, or given to me by well-meaning but, well, uninformed friends. i tend to dump teas that are both old and not to my liking, simply to avoid clutter and feeling like i should use them up.

then there's the pouring out of brewed teas - i can't count how many times i've gotten rishi tea at a cafe in a pinch - i mean, i know it's not ideal, but sometimes i just really want tea and don't have the means to brew it - and dumped it because it was brewed incorrectly or just smelled/tasted nasty because of the paper cup.

[Cinnamon Kitty]

The ones I remember dumping were two Rooibos samples from Dragonwater, the Green Rooibos Mango Papaya and the Green Honeybush Strawberry Peach. Both of them smelled so bad when brewed I didn't even want to taste the tea. The mugs of tea from those got dumped and the sample bags got immediately thrown out. The other one that got thrown out was a sample of a cheap jasmine tea from a local oriental store. I've also thrown out old teabags. There have been teas that I disliked, but I know there are people who do like them so I've kept them to send to people when I get around to it.

Today is starting with a mug of Oolong #8 for my first final.

[Jeremy]

Currently drinking Sencha, Chiran Kanayamidori. I need to find an hour to get up to Ito En and get me some Shincha!

I have thrown away numerous teas, and the funny thing is they are usually not cheap. I got a gift of some flavored tea from republic of tea or something. It was like raspberry apple banana or something awful. The smell from this tea was not unlike Watermelon Jolly Ranchers!

I do keep the teas that I don't like, only if they are drinkable, in case some visitors come over. Or, I have also re-gifted the teas as well.

Jeremy

[ThinkingOutLoud]

It was like raspberry apple banana or something awful. The smell from this tea was not unlike Watermelon Jolly Ranchers!

I don't know whether to laugh or retch. Ugh.

[Salsero]

Yesterday I made some Barooti Assam that I bought a pound of over a year ago at a local Indian grocery store ... for peanuts compared to most of my tea. I only brewed it because I wanted to photograph it and my best Assam wasn't looking the way I wanted it to.

Dang if it wasn't good! I have come close to throwing it away maybe 15 times, but I just couldn't. And now I am being rewarded for my loyalty. I think it may have improved during it's time of neglect.

...and of course that's the whole point of puerh: if you don't like it, put it away in hopes that it will turn into something wonderful in 5 or 10 or 30 years. A lot of the roasted oolongs also improve with age.

Another story of a tea I didn't like at all, came back to and enjoyed can be found in my comment (if he ever approves it) on Wesli's most recent post: http://thegreenteareview.blogspot.com/2 ... -7542.html

[tenuki]

Deja Vuon the question. Did no-one else notice the repeat?


My bad tea goes on my garden, not in the trash. Plants need tea too.

[LavenderPekoe]

Generally I don't throw out tea because I know someone else may like it. I did, however, throw out something recently (I can't remember what now) but it was only a little bit. I did have to throw out a sample of a fruit tea that had fruits that went rancid once. That was bad.

[Chip]

Deja Vuon the question. Did no-one else notice the repeat?


My bad tea goes on my garden, not in the trash. Plants need tea too.

Yes, the question is similar to a previous one, with a subtle difference...this is focused on the "throw away" aspect. Over time this will certainly happen as we get a lot of newbies, or the question may bare repeating due to the passage of time. There will certainly be similar questions also.

Having been seriously drinking tea for 8 years, I have had my share of bad tea, but not lately. However I have teas from literall when I started drinking tea that I just recently found. They were kept because they were sitting in a nice tin or something.

I opten come back to a tea that I did not like at first, sometimes the passage of time is just what the tea needed. For this reason, I virtually never throw tea away. I should though. But first it goes into the TeaBath reserve.

Sencha Kirameki is in my cup so far today. A stellar shincha from Tsuen Tea House, in operation for 700 year and 29 generations by the same family. This is history in my cup.

[auggy]

I haven't thrown any tea away... yet. Most of the time when there is a tea I don't enjoy, I use it as part of a blend for hubby's gallon-a-week iced tea habit. Our tastes differ greatly (I like much more delicate flavors - he'll get bored and eat steak seasoning straight from the bottle) so usually if it is blended in with a Lipton base and had 1.5 cups of sugar, he's happy.

There is one so far that has been even too bad to pawn off on poor hubby. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Part of me thinks I should try it again - I mean, it can't be that bad, can it? Another part of me just wants to toss it. But then, someone out there has to like it, right? Maybe I just need to wait until I find them....

[Salsero]

... if it is blended in with a Lipton base and had 1.5 cups of sugar, he's happy...

Men are easier to care for than the average houseplant. And some of them even show more affection. I guess that's why they call it husbandry.