Tuesday TeaDay 5/18/10 Chachacha changes?

[Seeker]

Nope.
I remain a matcha whore, as well as apt to sell my soul for some good Japanese green.

[iannon]

I ahve come to like the Taiwnese High Mountains much more due to just plain more exposure and exploration since last spring. Japanese greens are still my fav though.

[Chip]

Most of my "try anything" days are over, however I am always trying new teas within my specialTea areas. But from year to year, not much change. Hmmm, some would say I am in a rut? Yet tea is always changing for me ... as it remains the same as well.

Began the TD with Yuuki Yutaka from Yuuki-Cha ... this one is giving me some difficulty in brewing. I can only rate my brewing of this teas a a C- ... faulting my brewing, not the tea at this point. SweeTea seemed to find this brewing acceptable while Lili and Shincha were TeaTable visitors.

[Geekgirl]

Not much change in the last year, I tend to drift between Matcha and Taiwanese oolongs as my "staple" teas, with occasional forays into puerh, and others filling the spaces in between.

I've been missing teachat, have been busy traveling (California, Seattle, Coast,) as well as have done a couple of shoots in the last week for friends (art show and website images,) and have been up to my eyeballs in post-processing. Too bad I don't get paid for this!

I've also been enjoying my lovely wares from the TC-TA- SO Chris Chaney. Love these cups especially, they are just the right size and weight for my morning teapot.

[Janine]

My tastes changed. For the past couple of years I have really focused my energies on black (hongcha) teas. All of a sudden, when spring came this year, my old love of oolongs resurfaced (especially floral and buttery types of light roasts - but also included my old fave high roasts). Don't know why. I seriously believe it has something to do with my metabolism.


Today I am trying my first sample of Adagio's Formosa Ali Shan in their Master's series. I am quite enjoying it. So far, first two steeps, I'm getting a fairly bold full taste, slightly on the "green" side for me, but with some buttery feel and fullness... and smooth drinkability. Second steep still has a nice full quality to it so I'm going to keep pushing and see how far this goes Really, for the price (compared to what I usually pay) this is an excellent tea and quite drinkable. But I have to keep going to know for sure. Also I haven't had the tea in my home very long: after a couple of weeks I usually have a different experience, so I am looking forward to that.

[entropyembrace]

My tastes have changed slightly since last spring...I brew most of my teas stronger xD

the types of teas I´m drinking have changed a little bit but that´s just because of what I happened to order recently more than anything....Last spring I had a bunch of Anxi oolong and this year it´s Taiwan oolong...but I still enjoy both.

My tastes have changed somewhat in that they've expanded hugely without my forsaking any old favorites (except for yerba mate, to which I seem to have developed some sort of allergy and can no longer stand the taste).

I doubt it´s an allergy, most people with food allergies including myself find the allergens absolutely delicious and extremely tempting....it´s the after effects that can make the food uncomfortable or even dangerous to eat. (for example I LOVE corn...but eating it causes my airways to constrict making it difficult to breathe)

[LauraW]

Changed somewhat, but not extremely. I've been enjoying tea much more (and more frequently) and with better teas (I think there's a couple bags still lurking somewhere in the desk drawer at work). Since last spring, I've been experimenting a lot more with types of brewing, temperature, different types of tea, and I've learned so much! And like artmom, I've been mildly gravitating away from black - but it's definitely still a staple! I knew I liked oolong before, but now I see that there's so much more to tea. And I'm still trying greens to see what's out there and figure out what I like.

Snowbud this morning/afternoon, and a new blend that just came in today (Peach Flambee so I had some of that with dinner! (Very nice flavor, but seriously watch the time on it if you ever try it, I think I steeped it for about 2 mins and it was nearly perfect.)

[Skippyandjif]

My tastes have changed somewhat in that they've expanded hugely without my forsaking any old favorites (except for yerba mate, to which I seem to have developed some sort of allergy and can no longer stand the taste).

I doubt it´s an allergy, most people with food allergies including myself find the allergens absolutely delicious and extremely tempting....it´s the after effects that can make the food uncomfortable or even dangerous to eat. (for example I LOVE corn...but eating it causes my airways to constrict making it difficult to breathe)

I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the yerba mate, then... All of a sudden I stopped being able to drink it without feeling really nauseous afterwards, so I started hating the taste. Oddest thing.

Finished up the night with some genmaicha at a local sushi restaurant, some iced matcha, and some longjing.

...Wow, I guess I really craved green tea tonight in a big way.

[debunix]

In the past year, I have discovered: greener oolongs; ways to prepare green teas so that they are delicious rather than bitter; discovered Dan Cong oolongs; and tried my first hydrangea and lemon myrtle tisanes. I haven't stopped liking any of my older tea loves (dark roast oolongs, white teas, & puerhs) but I have almost quit drinking jasmines entirely in favor of unblended senchas, long jings, and mao fengs.

This tea day started with Silver Needle, moved on to mellow Menghai golden needle shu puerh, and is going to end with something needle-ish but sort of green--deciding between long jing and anji white tea now.

[entropyembrace]

My tastes have changed somewhat in that they've expanded hugely without my forsaking any old favorites (except for yerba mate, to which I seem to have developed some sort of allergy and can no longer stand the taste).

I doubt it´s an allergy, most people with food allergies including myself find the allergens absolutely delicious and extremely tempting....it´s the after effects that can make the food uncomfortable or even dangerous to eat. (for example I LOVE corn...but eating it causes my airways to constrict making it difficult to breathe)

I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the yerba mate, then... All of a sudden I stopped being able to drink it without feeling really nauseous afterwards, so I started hating the taste. Oddest thing.

Finished up the night with some genmaicha at a local sushi restaurant, some iced matcha, and some longjing.

...Wow, I guess I really craved green tea tonight in a big way.

oh you didnt mention the nausious feeling...food allergies that cause nausia can change the associations you have with the food...but not always. My mom used to make gluten free lava cakes (she´s celiac not me) fairly often and once she experimented with using teff flour which made me very very sick to my stomach. Now I can´t eat lava cakes without feeling nauseous even if it´s made from flours I´m fine with. On the other hand ginger makes me nauseous but I´m still attracted to it´s aroma and flavour.

the other possibility is you´re developing a sensitivity to some of the chemicals in yerba maté because you overwhelmed your body´s ability to deal with them...it´s part of the holly family, of which most members are toxic to humans...it probably...though I´m not sure has low levels of ilicin that can cause vomiting in humans...trace toxins like that can cause problems for people that are sensitive to them. Also there is the extremely high caffiene content that could be causing problems...tea is quite a bit lower than yerba maté in caffiene content.

[Rithmomachy]

I voted "In a state of flux right now," as anyone who's read my current thread on the Den's Tea sampler (in the green tea forum) would expect. I was drinking gunpowder, but I see a lot of Japanese greens in my future!

I also discovered sheng pu erh since last spring, which is what brought me to TC in the first place. I'm currently waiting on a shipment from Yunnan Sourcing and some samples from finepuerh.com.