I'd actually say that the beginner is going to be a lot more biased. There are a lot of tremendous characteristics in good tea, but you have to learn to improve your palate and to get keyed into those characteristics.Tead Off wrote:Try not to forget the agenda that the beginner brings with them! No mind has a clean slate except perhaps that of a newborn.kyarazen wrote: a beginner's mind towards tea is important and essential in the "way" of tea. but the purity of a beginner's mind is always taken advantage of by the vested interests and exploitative intents of others with "agendas".But, your points are well taken.
The real issue is ego, but turning tea into pseudo-spirituality is not the cure (and leaves the door open for all manner of worse things, if not itself part and parcel to ego and worse). Mostly I see the ego with people that don't *really* know tea (but generally want to be seen as an expert).