Tuesday TeaDay 5/4/10 THE one Breakthrough TEA?

[aya_s]

Hm, I can't remember a time in which I didn't drink tea. I grew up with a cup of Japanese green tea at the dinner table every day that I always drank without thinking about.

In college I started practicing a lot of martial arts, and since my friends through the club were Chinese American, we drank pu-erh when we went to dim sum, boba milk tea after practice, and a variety of Chinese black tea in large mugs while hanging out talking late into the night.

By the time I took my first trip abroad with one of my best friends, I was *fascinated* by the tea I found in London and Paris, and bought enough to stock a large cupboard of my own at home. I've had a tea cupboard ever since.

[Skippyandjif]

I started drinking tea as a very small child-- mostly either black Salada tea or Earl Grey-- but my breakthrough tea was some matcha that I had while my third-grade class was learning about the Japanese tea ceremony. A bunch of the other kids spat it out, but I was ecstatic. Pretty soon after that, I had looseleaf Earl Grey for the first time, at the Morgan Library cafe in New York City (it used to serve High Tea, I'm not sure if it still does). I think those two experiences pretty much sealed the deal for me and turned me into the tea drinker I am today.

On my second cup of oolong-jasmine-green tea blend right now, then I'm rushing off to my last class of the semester!

[LauraW]

Been a good TeaDay so far.. I did end up starting out with Darjeeling, had some Lychee Red (black tea ) with lunch, and a cup of Caramel Delight to finish off the work day. Now heating up some water for some sencha FukaMidori!!

[Chip]

Only one other tea today, Maestro Da Hong Pao from Adagio. Now I am craving a third tea, but alas, too late.

Tomorrow will be a related topic. Should be fun!

[David Duckler]

For me, the breakthrough tea was a Tieguanyin oolong. I went on a personal field trip to the tea market in Qingdao, China (Shandong Province, site of the 2008 Olympic sailing competition), really wanting to learn more about tea. I actually went to find and drink some green tea. At the time, I was very young, and my knowledge of tea was limited. I didn't know much, but I knew green tea was something China had in spades.
I looked around the two story tea market until someone wonderful invited me into her little shop to try some tea with her. She happened to be from Anxi, the home of Tieguanyin oolong. She made me many different kinds of green tea, and we sat and talked together about the flavors for about five hours. She was so excited for the chance to talk to someone who was actually interested in understanding what they were tasting. Soon, I could see that she had a glint in her eye.
"Do you want to try something truly amazing?" she asked me. She was offering me some of her Tieguanyin oolong, and I of course accepted. I didn't even know what oolong tea was, but I knew that this taste was incredible. It was creamy and sweet with a lingering sweet grass flavor; orchid and lilac in the aroma. It was simply divine in comparison to anything I'd ever had before. When she told me that this oolong was made from the same basic type of leaf as the green teas we had been sampling before, I was hooked. I knew that tea culture was something I had to look into more closely.

[debunix]

Would have loved to be a fly on the wall during that conversation, though I'd have preferred to be sharing the teas with you both. What a lovely experience to treasure.

[Skippyandjif]

Having some longjing right now, to accompany some paper-writing and intermittent doodling. Very lovely and calming... Hopefully I won't fall asleep while typing.

[JBaymore]

I've been drinking tea so long that I cannot remember what got me "hooked". I was a kid.

best,

..............john

[LauraW]

I wish I had time for more tea.... but at this point I'm afraid of caffeine overload, and will stop until morning. But the good news is that I should have much more tea coming in tomorrow!! Some things I've had before, some I haven't, so the rest of the week should be amazing for TEA!!

[debunix]

As I mentioned in the oolong topic, today I opened my next-to-last package of the Diamond grade Tie Guan Yin from Norbu, a tea that was not *the* breakthrough tea, but was a breakthrough in another way: it was the first time I realized how different teas bearing the same name could be. I 'grew up' drinking a traditional dark roast Ti Kuan Yin and when I first opened up a bag of this stuff, it really shocked me: green, floral, sweet, and the liquor is like liquid sunshine. And both this and the Sea Dyke tin are Ti Guan Yins!

Yesterday was a rather abbreviated Tea Day: Sencha Shin-ryoku to start, then a long-lasting thermos full of 2007 Rui Cao Xiang 'Wu Liang Wild Arbor' Sheng puerh from Yunnan Sourcing, warm and smooth.

Today was a little busier: the same sencha start, on to an orchid oolong (green oolong with osmanthus) for the afternoon; then back to green for Dragon Well; and return to the oolong with the Norbu TGY.

[karmaplace]

My breakthrough tea was Argo Tea's Green Chai. It is outstanding. I used to think I was a big tea person, but I used tea bags (I still an enjoy some Celestial Seasonings now and then) and would usually brew a cup, drink half, forget about it, and dump it later. Once I tried looseleaf and, specifically this green chai, I've never dumped a cup since!

Today's tea day consisted of tomo sencha (breakfast), apple lemon pomegranate rooibus + strawberry lemonade herbal (morning classes), apple lemon pomegranate + jasmine pearls (lunch), strawberry lemonade + sow mee white (at work), and, I've just brewed up a gallon of apple lemon pomegranate + strawberry raspberry oolong to take with me to work for the next week or so.

I'm in love with the apple lemon pomegranate, and I love to mix it with other teas and drink it iced. It's so delicious!

[msmeghann82]

Earl Grey creme loose leaf by teavana was my breakthrough tea. I don't know what tempted me to finally purchase something loose leaf, but I ventured into one of their stores, and decided to try something. I have absolutely no idea why I tried Earl Grey, as I thought I hated it having worked with Republic of Tea teas at two different jobs and hating the absolut thought, smell and look of their Earl Greyer. Maybe I wanted myself to hate the tea. Well, I didn't hate it. I was convinced to try the earl grey creme by the sales associate and I fell in love at first sip. This tea lead me to adagio's website, where I placed my first order (granted through Amazon.com). And now here I am, several months later along my journey with a cupboard of tea and too many tasting logs on my steepster account!

Hope I didn't bore anyone

[msmeghann82]

debunix- I was the same way when I drank bagged tea, forgetting the cup somewhere around the house half drunk only to dump it out after I'd made a new cup.

[pimli]

It doesn't sound like much of a story, but as a freshman in college a friend brought me to a small tea place where we decided to get the harmless looking selection called "O-Cha". It was my first encounter with sencha, which at the time, to me, was already... I can't express how much it was just worlds apart from my limited previous encounters with Lipton (black), Twinings (Earl Grey and Darjeeling) and supermarket oolong. It was like someone blew open a hole in the box in my head labeled "Tea = insipid drink that is a supposedly healthy substitute for coffee".

And now in its place grew a monster that growls at least twice a day for TEA, TEA, MOAR TEA!

Partially appeased it by drinking loads and loads of iced TGY today. I don't remember where I picked this trick up, but I've been freezing tea in the morning, then plopping those little tea cubes in my warm cup in the afternoon. Makes the summer a little more bearable.