Semi-New With Stupid Questions

[TeaSnobInTraining]

I've always liked teas my whole life and in recent years I've been expanding my horizons more and more. I'm usually considered the "tea guy" because I drink from pewter, stock different oolongs, pu erh and green teas at home and spent an "insane" amount of money on a Zojirushi water boiler (which is one of the best investments I ever made BTW). That said, I've recently started looking at different teas and am slowly learning there is a whoooole new world out there, and the Foojoy teabags I used to be quite happy with now seem rather pathetic. I know, I know, but it's still a lot less bad than Lipton or Arizona.

So really, I'm here to learn what I'm talking about when it comes to real quality teas. I looked over the net and only found a few blogs before this place so I'm grateful for the learning opportunity. I'm certainly going to need help in learning what to buy based on an online description, because I've already seen thousands of dollars of tea I'd like to try from different online tea stores.

[Chip]

Greetings and welcome to TeaChat! I am sure that we are all looking forward to seeing you around the forum.

Please share what is in your cup on TeaDay!

[bearsbearsbears]

Why do you drink from pewter?

{edit} and welcome, btw!

[TeaSnobInTraining]

I like the slightly metallic taste that everything in it takes on, no special reason other than that I like drinking out of silver and silver plated items too, but I've found that pewter is better for teas from my experience. I just like the taste it adds. I have some small jade cups which are nice too. I've tried most of teas side by side in pewter, silver, jade and Kafuh porcelain and ended up liking pewter best. Just a personal preference from a little experimentation, nothing special beyond that.

I have been wondering if there is a large different in quality/enhancing taste of tea from some of the more expensive Japanese porcelain cups I've seen (usually made by a famous artisan in the US$70-120 range) but haven't been curious enough to drop that kind of money on one to find out. I can buy a lot of a really good tea for that.

[rabbit]

1st- welcome to TeaChat!

2nd- as for there being thousands of dollars of tea you want to try, join the club! I'd just experiment with the more popular teas until you find the category you're interested in focusing on and narrowing it down from there. But think of it this way, endless amounts of new teas mean endless discovering of new joys

3rd- *some* teaware (pots/cups) can inhance the taste of the tea, but oftentimes you will find that it can be tea-specific, i.e.: yixing teapots aren't good for green teas but oolongs and pu-erhs can be quite tasty if you pair them with the right yixing. ALSO, some people have certain features (be it aesthetic, texture, etc) that personally inhance the tea drinking experience, I love the feel of glazed porcelain on my lips while I breath in the scent of a great tea for example!

Hope this helps

[debunix]

Asking a *stupid* question about tea is not so easy, here. All of us were beginners once.

Welcome, and ask away!