The Sunday after Super Sunday, designation: TeaDay

[skywarrior]

I strongly object to this poll. It makes me feel darn old.

20 years? Is that all you young whippersnappers can come up with?


(Hides in a cup of Golden Monkey)

[Chip]

I move we make Sky our forum Matron.

I am finishing my 5th steep of Yutaka Midori sencha from Kagoshima prefecture. This is one of my fav sencha, but it is a challenging one for some reason. I think I nailed it pretty good today.

I always had tea periodically, because I never could stand coffee. I love the smell of coffee beans, just don't add water. So, for all nighters, I would drink tea out of necessity. I never really thought to much about it. I never had to start my day with a shot of caffeine.

But I was always very interested in Asia, and eventually it all came together in 1999. It is strange that I would remember that, except around you guys. 1999 was I guess a year of change for me, and one change was tea. I started with flavored teas in bags because that was all that was around here. I stumbled onto some RoT's flavors...and more importantly for me, some unflavored blacks, oolongs, and greens...I found my thrill. I was instantly hooked and have been since...probably missing only one day since when I was violently ill...but come to think about it, I simply do not get sick anymore.

[Photiou]

If I think when this tea madness got worse, my answer to todays question is about 2-4 years.

Todays list: yunnan gold for breakfast and then some unidentified black tea afternoon.

[Sam.]

...because I never could stand coffee. I love the smell of coffee beans, just don't add water.

I agree! I don't mind coffee but the smell of coffee beans is so much nicer than coffee actually tastes itself once brewed. My family never drank tea while I grew up though - just coffee in the mornings. I only started drinking tea about a year and a half ago when I started university as one of my good friends here drank it all the time. I started drinking teabags of mostly green teas every night. I also researched a lot to learn about types of tea and tea's health benefits - because learning about nutrition and health is one of my other hobbies, it was that much easier to love tea!

[TimeforTea]

Saccrell wrote:

I agree! I don't mind coffee but the smell of coffee beans is so much nicer than coffee actually tastes itself once brewed. My family never drank tea while I grew up though - just coffee in the mornings. I only started drinking tea about a year and a half ago when I started university as one of my good friends here drank it all the time. I started drinking teabags of mostly green teas every night. I also researched a lot to learn about types of tea and tea's health benefits - because learning about nutrition and health is one of my other hobbies, it was that much easier to love tea!

Yay, someone else interested in the health benefits of tea! (Nutrition and health is my favorite hobby).

[daughteroftheKing]

Milk-scented Kinsen Oolong from Stash is today's tea. After 3 very lovely cups of this smooth tea, I added rosebuds and lavender and mint to the 4th & 5th steepings to put it on ice. Mmmm. A relaxing Sunday afternoon. While it's a nice tea, I probably won't buy it again -- there are so many other Oolongs I want to try!

I grew up liking tea because I hated the taste of coffee (oh but I love that smell). Until going to college, I don't remember making much of anything other than "instant" iced tea. Then I discovered the difference between that awful powdered stuff and tea in bags. But it wasn't until my first roommate out of college, a grad student from Japan, introduced me to REAL tea.

So for the next 20+ years, I played around with a few bag and loose teas, had a teapot collection, but never got "serious" about tea until about 3 years ago. Of all things, a trip to Hawaii where I was served a delicious mango tea. After that trip, I went online and discovered an entire world of tea I'd never imagined. Adagio's mango tea was my first venture into online tea. And while mango isn't even in my top 10 anymore, I am grateful that it lead me to this beautiful obsession.

[skywarrior]

I move we make Sky our forum Matron.

{snip}

I always had tea periodically, because I never could stand coffee. I love the smell of coffee beans, just don't add water. So, for all nighters, I would drink tea out of necessity. I never really thought to much about it. I never had to start my day with a shot of caffeine.

{more snippage }

Bad idea on the matron thing, Chippers. I'll have to call out my ninja friends, if you do, and you DON'T want that.

You can send me lots of very good black tea (no puerh) to make up for it.

Coffee, ugh. I can drink frappucinos with enough cream, but I'll go for the non-coffee versions every time.

As for caffeine, I'm so used to it in tea, that it really doesn't matter how much if it's in tea. There's only been two times I've been tea-less for a week since I can remember. Once was on a dare with a roommate back in college that I couldn't live without tea or anything hot for a week. (Got through that just fine). The second time was when I was sick and I stopped drinking tea for a week. I don't know why, but I just did. When I told my husband about the second episode, he was horrified. He was sure I would explode or something.

[henley]

My answer is 1-2 years. I kind of discovered tea backwards. Hubby has dealt in fine antiques for over 10 years so we were constantly going to estate sales & auctions. During that time, I became intriqued w/antique Victorian teaware. I bought various pieces & collected vintage teacups & saucers. My favorite find is a 3 pc set of antique silver sugar tongs, sugar spoon & lemon fork. I never liked the hot tea from the Chinese restaurants so I was content w/my teaware just being used for decoration. Until...

Couple of years ago, my daughter asked to have a real tea party. So I pulled out the demitasse c&s, made some hot tea out of grocery store tea bags & discovered I like black tea. Last fall, with the help of the internet & this site, I ventured out into the world of loose tea & am hooked (thank you, I think ). As a result of my obsession, not only has my tea collection grown but so has my teaware. It's nice to use all these pretty pieces as they were intended.

BTW, thanx for opening up this forum. I've only been here a few months but for a while it felt like if you didn't drink green tea asian style, there was no place for you at TeaChat. I've even seen some people leave just because they didn't drink tea like everybody else (MW) & it was a real shame to see that. Have a great day. Off to make a cup of tea. Will let you know which kind as soon as I figure it out myself.

[Scarlet Glow]

I would like to raise my teacup (which is currently filled with sencha) to all of the tea veterians that have shared their knowledge with newbies like me.

I started my hardcore tea-madness in August of 2007 in which a trip to Wild Oats food market sparked my interest. Before this trip, the only 'tea' I had ever seen was the ground powder of instant Lipton tea.

Like I said... I'm a total newb! About 90% of my tea-IQ has come from the Adagio website and TeaChat. Not only has talking to experienced tea-lovers helped me, but the questions that other newbies post are normally questions that I have as well (they just beat me to the post). So even newbs have helped me out.

This is a hobby that I don't plan on stopping any time soon. I have so much more to learn and so many more teas to taste!

[daughteroftheKing]

Henley - I agree with you. I, too, was feeling pretty much on the outs here, but these threads are re-opening and expanding the community. Now I check in TC more than I ever did.
Thank you, mods, for starting the "What's In Your Cup" daily threads. Good idea, Victoria!

[Chip]

Wu Ling oolong in my cup right now from Taiwan, pretty good.

Thanx for your comments!!! I am equally excited! The daily interest is astounding, the traffic is incredible and the diverse TeaFellowship is of course the best part.

I particularly enjoy learning more and more about members I have known here, yet knew nothing about.

There were numerous goals of TeaDay, but one was clearly to get everyone more involved on a more daily basis...where all are welcome, and to increase the interaction between members.

Doing this over a cup of our passion in the TeaDay theme brings it all together and makes it rather compelling. I know I am not alone just based on the number and variety of Posts as well as the Views. It is an exciting time for TeaChat and her members.

[Chip]

Anyone else drinking tea today, or just me?

Just finished my oolong and thinking about a Japanese tea again.

[scruffmcgruff]

Wow, Chip is drinking oolong! This is a breakthrough!

I'm drinking some aged baozhong from the 1980's at the moment. Good stuff, but I probably only have 1-2 more session's worth of leaf.

[caradrake]

I am finishing my TeaDay off with some oolong. It's relatively mild, and has a nice combination of flavors.

[Pentox]

I've been playing with a sampler pack I got today, so far:

Darjeeling first flush
Strawberry and vanilla green
Kanaya Kanayamidori
Nara Tsukigase