Tea Blogs

[xine]

I know many of you have tea blogs- is there a tea blog community out there? Just wondering, as I keep on stumbling upon a new one each day it seems. Wondering what everyone's- tea blogger or not-thoughts about blogging about tea. Also has anybody's tea blog won any blogging awards or distinction among the wider blogger universe?

[ABx]

I'm not aware of any particular community, other than us being here, but there could be. I mainly blog just for the challenge of describing the tastes in detail and to raise awareness out there. My main hope is that non-tea people will stumble on it and give tea a try, as well as to give heads up to the tea drinkers about stuff they may have been considering or weren't aware of.

[scruffmcgruff]

There's a sense of community I think, but there's not really a designated group. I write because I enjoy it (sometimes), and it gives me a creative outlet. While it would be nice for new tea people to find my blog and have it be useful, I don't get my hopes up too high-- most of my readers are other tea bloggers.

You might like to read MarshalN's article about tea blogging-- it's a good one.

http://www.xanga.com/MarshalN/607195458 ... blogs.html

[Mary R]

There's a sense of community I think, but there's not really a designated group.

Yeah...there is that feeling of community, but it just sort of organically developed. I would argue, though, that there are distinct enclaves. For instance, the group of us who are also TeaChat regulars are especially close. I'd argue that Phyll has a loose ring of his own, perhaps sort of merged with the T Ching community. Hobbes and VL seem to head a strong British faction...and don't even get me started on that impenetrable French ring! I don't know if it's my babel translator or what, but I get the distinct impression that they all have become very close friends...and they all leave a TON of comments on each other's sites!

I can't say that I started blogging out of any creative longing. I think I really started it because I was worried my writing skillz would get rusty over my gap years...and I *did* want to write about something other than, oh, arguments of how the novels of Don DeLillo romanticize classically postmodern themes. As much as I can go on about lit junk, I'm rational enough to realize the audience is limited. I've continued it, however, because of 'the community.' We've struck up odd little friendships, us teabloggers, and I really appreciate it.

And that's as mushy as I'll get. Y'all are saved.

[Space Samurai]

Mary said the word that was on my mind, "Ring." I think their are tea blog circles, we Teachatters largely comprise one, but I can go to someone else's blog and see a list of links for blogs I am unfamiliar with.

I don't remember why I started a tea blog, I guess because I saw other people's blogs. I never thought it would be what it is. Not that I am saying I have an amazing blog, just that I think it is much better than I thought I could do.

Why I do I keep doing it? There are so many reasons. Its very rewarding. For one, free stuff. It makes me feel good when a company contacts me and says, here's some of our product, try it out for us. Two, it is a learning experience. Writing a review on tea forces me focus on aspects of a certain tea beyond if I like it or not. I also like taking pictures. My father was a photographer, and it was a hobby of mine before tea. Every now and then I get a picture I realy like and that's fun.

I also enjoy when I write about something semi-obscure, something that I tried to google and couldn't get an answer, but then I get hits from people who googled that very thing. Seriously, google "shimizu genji" and see. It makes me feel like I'm providing something useful.

And yes, there is the community. I'm frequently surprise to see what kind of posts evoke responses from people. I'll sweat over a post, do my research, really work on it, and nothing. Then I half-ass something one day, and get ten comments. And sometimes people leave reccomendations and suggestions, and that's nice, too.

And I guess the last thing is, I have a pretty quiet life. No family except my wife, moved to a big city, don't know anybody that I don't work with, so I get a certain pleasure in seeing people from all over the world read my blog. I feel more connected.