Calling on all noobs and not so noobs!

[Emily@Adagio]

Hi All,
I'm Mattie from NH, USA. Just discovered this forum while searching the net for tea rooms in
NH. Great to see all the other "teaheads" out there.

Welcome, Mattie!

Don't forget to Introduce Yourself, and tell us What's In Your Cup?

[Distrait]

Hello everyone! Marc here from Ontario, Canada.

How long have you been drinking tea?
I've been drinking "real tea" for about 4 months now.

What was your first Tea?
My first decent loose tea was Sencha from a local-ish tea shop and I am still very much a fan of those Japanese greens even though I have expanded a lot since.

What is your favorite Tea currently?
It's very difficult for me to pick favourites! I think my favourite 'genre' of tea right now is jade oolongs. Either Jian Xuan or Tie Guianyin.

What is your next purchase?
I've got my second order of tea coming very soon. Some tea ware and lots of samples! Mostly of Puerh (both ripe and raw). As well as a sample of their Anxi oolongs.

Where is your favorite spot to brew up?
Always drinking tea at home, no matter what I'm doing there's always an afternoon-long brewing session in progress.

I dove into the world of tea head-first and I'm pretty deep in now. Spent an obscene amount of money on tea and tea ware in the past 4 months. Currently on the search for my top one or two picks from each sort of tea 'genre'.

I am open to suggestions on what kinds of white tea to try as I haven't really dove into those as of yet.

I am also really torn on any kind of tea that has been roasted. I really want to like it, but it seems I cannot. Any roasted tea I have tried so far has had some kind of taste that is a little off putting to me, would I find a difference in a more lightly roasted tea perhaps? What's your fav roasted tea?

[victoria3]

Welcome to the forum Marc. The tea rabbit hole goes deep. Poorly roasted tea highlights the roast over other flavors, it can be like drinking burnt wood. An expertly roasted tea opens up an array of flavors over the course of multiple steeps. If you want to start at the top I can highly recommend a farmer in Taiwan, Hau Ying Chen's Charcoal Light Roasted DaYuLing & Charcoal Medium Roast DongDing. For a lower end, very affordable roasted oolong, Mountain Tea does a pretty good job. Also, JayinHK on this forum sells quit a few roasted teas from China.

[Distrait]

Welcome to the forum Marc. The tea rabbit hole goes deep. Poorly roasted tea highlights the roast over other flavors, it can be like drinking burnt wood. An expertly roasted tea opens up an array of flavors over the course of multiple steeps. If you want to start at the top I can highly recommend a farmer in Taiwan, Hau Ying Chen's Charcoal Light Roasted DaYuLing & Charcoal Medium Roast DongDing. For a lower end, very affordable roasted oolong, Mountain Tea does a pretty good job. Also, JayinHK on this forum sells quit a few roasted teas from China.

Thanks Victoria! Would you recommend that I know the standard version of the tea first or jump straight into the roasted type? I haven't tried any of these types of tea yet. I'm looking up Hau Ying Chen right now, Light roast sounds good to me. Also, is Mountain Tea an online store?
(googling 'mountian tea' didn't do me any good )

[victoria3]

Welcome to the forum Marc. The tea rabbit hole goes deep. Poorly roasted tea highlights the roast over other flavors, it can be like drinking burnt wood. An expertly roasted tea opens up an array of flavors over the course of multiple steeps. If you want to start at the top I can highly recommend a farmer in Taiwan, Hau Ying Chen's Charcoal Light Roasted DaYuLing & Charcoal Medium Roast DongDing. For a lower end, very affordable roasted oolong, Mountain Tea does a pretty good job. Also, JayinHK on this forum sells quit a few roasted teas from China.

Thanks Victoria! Would you recommend that I know the standard version of the tea first or jump straight into the roasted type? I haven't tried any of these types of tea yet. I'm looking up Hau Ying Chen right now, Light roast sounds good to me. Also, is Mountain Tea an online store?
(googling 'mountian tea' didn't do me any good )

I reread your intro and it seems you are horizontally exploring many teas at once, from sencha to pu'erh to oolongs. Yes I agree, I also started with lightly roasted oolongs and only last year got into medium to higher roast via HY Chen introduced to us here on teachat by another member. Sincha season is upon us so you might like to try freshly pick young green sincha, O-Cha in Japan https://www.o-cha.com/en/ is a great source for many teachatters. For green, lightly roasted oolongs or higher roast Mountain Tea is good if you are on a budget; https://www.mountaintea.com In addition to the ones I meantioned before Taiwan Sourcing https://taiwanoolongs.com & TeaFul http://teaful.co/ have good oolongs.

[Distrait]

Welcome to the forum Marc. The tea rabbit hole goes deep. Poorly roasted tea highlights the roast over other flavors, it can be like drinking burnt wood. An expertly roasted tea opens up an array of flavors over the course of multiple steeps. If you want to start at the top I can highly recommend a farmer in Taiwan, Hau Ying Chen's Charcoal Light Roasted DaYuLing & Charcoal Medium Roast DongDing. For a lower end, very affordable roasted oolong, Mountain Tea does a pretty good job. Also, JayinHK on this forum sells quit a few roasted teas from China.

Thanks Victoria! Would you recommend that I know the standard version of the tea first or jump straight into the roasted type? I haven't tried any of these types of tea yet. I'm looking up Hau Ying Chen right now, Light roast sounds good to me. Also, is Mountain Tea an online store?
(googling 'mountian tea' didn't do me any good )

I reread your intro and it seems you are horizontally exploring many teas at once, from sencha to pu'erh to oolongs. Yes I agree, I also started with lightly roasted oolongs and only last year got into medium to higher roast via HY Chen introduced to us here on teachat by another member. Sincha season is upon us so you might like to try freshly pick young green sincha, O-Cha in Japan https://www.o-cha.com/en/ is a great source for many teachatters. For green, lightly roasted oolongs or higher roast Mountain Tea is good if you are on a budget; https://www.mountaintea.com In addition to the ones I meantioned before Taiwan Sourcing https://taiwanoolongs.com & TeaFul http://teaful.co/ have good oolongs.

Thanks again. I will be adding these all to my bookmarks. I've seen O-cha before; I really should order a sample soon as I do love sencha. So many teas to try!

Cheers!

[RookieCookie]

Just my two cents.

How long have you been drinking tea?
For three years
What was your first Tea?
Anxi TGY with a lighter roast. (The greener kind, not the browner kind)
What is your favorite Tea currently?
90s Liubao Tea purchased locally in Singapore, with the occasional kuding.
What is your next purchase?
Saving up for funds for a 2003 Purple Dayi.
Where is your favorite spot to brew up?
At home on the coffee table with a small bamboo tea tray

~rookiecookie

[VoirenTea]

Hello, I've come over from r/tea because you have a lot of Yixing info over here, and I've been looking at getting a pot or two...

How long have you been drinking tea?

I've been drinking loose leaf for a bit over a year now. I had a really bad and lingering sore throat at the start of 2016 and needed non-sugary hot drinks to drink all day (before then I'd have one hot chocolate or Whittard's fruity sugar concoction while at work). I got quite a collection of Twining's infusions, found the fruit ones frequently disappointing, moved to their flavoured green teas which I loved, then I found Reddit and What-Cha's Intro to Tea. I have loose leaf at work and home now, and a new hobby.

What was your first Tea?

The first ever would have been typical British tea with milk, long ago. I never formed a taste for it. I'd have green tea at Chinese restaurants and like it, but it never occurred to me to want some at home. I mostly drink water so didn't really need a hot drink outside of the occasional hot chocolate in winter - I started making ones at work for a distraction during the afternoon.

What is your favorite Tea currently?

Sticky rice oolong is up there, and hojicha, and TeaLifeHK's high fire tieguanyin, and I've been extensively sampling puerh.

I still don't like the typical Indian tea blends that we get in Britain.

What is your next purchase?

Currently en route are a Yixing pot from Wilson at Adventure in Every Cup and two of his sheng puerh. I think I was planning to cover more regions of well-known oolongs next. (I still have other puerh samples to try).

Where is your favorite spot to brew up?

On my sofa.

[Chrysanthemum]

How long have you been drinking tea?

I have been drinking tea for my whole life, but starting gravitating to loose leaf when I was 19 (almost 9 yrs ago)

What was your first tea?

Southern Style Sweet Tea was the first, Lipton most likely. I don't recall having loose leaf until I was 19- it was Genmaicha. I fell in love.

That said, I had a strong interest in tea from childhood. As a kid who read a lot, the subject of tea came up every now and then in my books, such as Cambric Tea in "Little House on the Prairie". I would ask questions, do research and then prepare it myself. Surrounded by my mom's herb books, I would look up the properties of the ingredients for boxed herbal tisanes for fun. So, even though I didn't have the resources for the finer things, my tea love was strong and sincere from the get go.

What is your favorite tea currently?

Difficult to answer. Milk Oolong, Earl Grey, and a Chocolate-Orange Sencha blend are all up there.

What is your next purchase?

Tea wise, I am eyeballing an Earl Grey as I haven't had any in a while. Possibly Blue Chai and a Sencha as well. For tea ware, I am hoping to purchase a Bankoyaki Kyusu and a matcha bowl with accessories on my next payday. I am always open to tea and tea ware suggestions.

Where is your favorite spot to brew up?

I have a tea station, with an electric kettle and a cabinet just for tea set up in my art studio room next to my kitchen. That is my absolute favorite place, hands down.

[Teahorder]

How long have you been drinking tea?
Since I was one. Grandmother owns a tea plantation so I grew up with it.


What was your first Tea?
Ceylon black tea fannings.

What is your favorite Tea currently?
I would have to say there are two that are my favorite one is
Gao Shan High mountain oolong and several roasted oolongs particularly wuyi ones.


What is your next purchase?
a chao zhou tea pot, another yxing pot for roasted oolongs and another for ball rolled oolongs and 2017 Yin Hua Xiang - Honeysuckle Fragrance

Where is your favorite spot to brew up?
my house

[Redswam]

How long have you been drinking tea?

Hmm, I remember the moment when I first tasted tea well. I didn't like it that much. It was too bitter.

What was your first Tea?

Some black tea my mom made me. I don't like coffee, so my mom asked me try tea instead. That tea, as you already read, was too bitter. It wasn't as bad as coffee tho, so whenever everyone else drank coffee I drank tea with lots of milk and sugar. Sometimes I would use even five sugar cubes. Now the thoughts terrifies me

What is your favorite Tea currently?

With the sadly lacking collection of tea that you can find from Finnish store, I would say oolong. What type of oolong? I don't know, they only sell one.

What is your next purchase?

Hard to say, probably some higher quality tea that you can buy from grocery stores in Finland.

Where is your favorite spot to brew up?

My home, I have to say

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[BrewFiend]

Hi!

How long have you been drinking tea?
For as long as I can remember, honestly. Mother is Chinese so we always had a cupboard dedicated to tea, and the kettle was always on. Only recently took tea up as a real hobby.

What was your first Tea?
Most likely a loose green. Had my own small stash of grocery brand teabags as a kid lol.

What is your favorite Tea currently?
Oooh that's hard! I'm most comfortable with Chinese teas, and they will always hold a very special place in my heart (and cupboard! ) Right now though, my loose chamomile has been my savior during midterms.

What is your next purchase?
Hmm, probably some Earl Grey from Upton Tea, and more of Cara McGee's Mean and Green from Adagio! Maybe sneak in a sample of Foxtrot while I'm there haha.

Where is your favorite spot to brew up?
I have a little corner in the kitchen just for brewing, so I'm usually found there.

[utkarsh]

How long have you been drinking tea?
I have been drinking black tea for almost 15 years usually with milk. But in recent years I have developed a taste for black tea without milk. Also got hooked on to matcha lately. But nothing can match the taste of darjeeling's finest.

What was your first Tea?
Tata Tea (Standard CTC)

What is your favorite Tea currently?
Finest Darjeeling Tea from Glenburn tea estate

What is your next purchase?
Ceremonial matcha by Heapwell

Where is your favorite spot to brew up?
On the Patio.

[philiplee]

Hello everyone! Phil from Guangzhou, originally Glasgow.

How long have you been drinking tea?
My whole life, although not seriously until 10 years ago.

What was your first Tea?
First tea was Scottish breakfast with lots of sugar and milk, and lightly brewed generic oolong, pot-brewed for the family.

What is your favorite Tea currently?
Puer, although I still like all teas. The more I experience teas, the more I appreciate layers and complexity. It's what helped us start our shop and our website www.yiwumountaintea.com

Where is your favorite spot to brew up?
Anywhere that has a nice gongfu setup and not too many people or much noise. Our shop in Guangzhou is relatively good for this although there are lots of kids nearby on the weekends!

[Callendross]

New to the forums, so I'll start here.
How long have you been drinking tea?
For about 25 years, but only started into loose leaf tea about 7 years ago after spending time in England studying at Uni.
What was your first Tea?
American Black
What is your favorite Tea currently?
Probably a tie between Black Lychee and "Plantation Peach"
What is your next purchase?
I'm looking for something similar to the Orangery's Signature Tea, an orange flavored black tea (I think).
Where is your favorite spot to brew up?
Any where with a good book.