Sunday TeaDay 7/26/09 Bad tea habits?

[Chip]

Welcome one and all to TeaDay. Please come in and share your cup of tea with us.

Yesterday we discussed whether we had a new fave teapot in 2009. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. Do you have any "bad tea habits" concerning brewing or drinking? Please share with us.

I am looking forward to sharing this TeaDay with everyone. Bottoms up.

[Maitre_Tea]

BTW, I love living on the west coast because I get to post early on the TeaDay poll, although it's technically still 7/25 here in Southern California. I'm drinking tea right now, and I would think that's late, since I'm probably going to sleep in the next hour or so.

I think this "bad" habit of mind arises out of the busy day, and also it's really really hot during the day here. When it's night, and after I've taken a shower...that's when I'm in the mood to really enjoy tea.

Taking a break from Sencha, and re-visiting some Dong Ding my grandmother brought over. I like its subtle caramel sweetness.

[Salsero]

Drink too little tea is my worst habit. Too much time wasted with other aspects of life!

New Chao Zhou pot at work brewing Dan Cong as was its destiny.

[Jack_teachat]

Probably too much time with tea when I should be doing other things, like my dissertation! Although saying that, I never consider myself wasting time when drinking tea.

This morning Mrs Liu's Hong Yun, a hand-made Yunnan black tea which I got from East Teas on London's Borough Market yesterday. As described by them...

'This robust yet sweet and fruity black tea named Red Cloud is hand-made by Mrs Liu of the famous pu-erh making family from "wild" trees up to 800 years old on Mount Meng Song in Xishhuangbanna, Yunnan. Shade withered, hand-rolled and sun-dried...'





The first couple of steeps were dominated by honey and malty chocolate, with the maltiness becoming more apparent by steep around steep number 4... Really enjoying this one!

Have a great tea day everyone!

Jack

[Drax]

Hrm, too little time with tea for me. I should be having a cup right now, but my schedule has gotten a little tight this weekend. Ah well, at least I've been able to enjoy some kombucha the past few days! The next batch will soon be ready... I'm going to have to be careful, or I will end up with way too much.

[Pouvla]

As many others, I could use a few more hours during the day drinking tea, 24hours just isnt enough for all the good teas.

I also have a bad habbit of forgetting the tea leaves in my pot, letting it stay in the pot for the next day, luckily no mold yet

First tea today is either gonna be a sencha from Oji (so my local seller tells me) or a TGY from funalliance

[Riene]

Bad habits, let's see:

--I sometimes oversteep my black teas, and that will really give you an astringent brew

--Frequently drink tea too late at night. The older I get, the more sensitive I am to late-night caffeine

--If I do not have my morning tea, I am cranky...

[sriracha]

I won't vote today since I don't feel I have any of the above bad habits, and no, I don't mean I'm perfect in any way-just that I don't regularly do anything to ruin my tea and I think I spend a 'lagom' amount of time with it. I never have difficulty sleeping no matter how late I have tea either. If anything, perhaps buying too much tea would be my bad habit..?

3rd steep of the lapsang I just received in my cup atm. A good tea day to you all. =)

[kymidwife]

I have a variety of bad habits, take your pick.

My vote was for drinking tea too late. Fortunately, I seem to be unaffected most of the time, but occasionally I have one of those nights where I wake up repeatedly. This seems to happen most often after I've had a significant decrease in tea consumption for a few days. For example, I drank much less tea than usual while on vacation in Orlando. Upon returning to my usual habits, I had a couple of nights of poor sleep and frequent awakening. But I seemed to quickly readjust, and am now sleeping like a baby again.

I could easily have voted for mistakes in brewing... not using a scale or timer... forgetting leaves in a pot... spending too much time on tea and not enough on other things... etc.

I think the worst tea habit I have developed is not on the list: overspending on tea and wares.

Yutaka Midori in my cup, mmmm.

Sarah

[Victoria]

I think I can relate to everything on the list, but nothing seems habitual.
The two things I most often do are drink too late and drink instead of eat.

Revisiting an old friend this week; Tao of Tea Neela Nilgiri.
I am enjoying it so much I think I have had it at least 3 days straight
as my morning cup.

[geeber1]

My vote was for too little time with tea. It seems that life just keeps getting in the way of my tea enjoyment!
Iced Ceylon/Assam mix with breakfast, with plans for some Oolong from the box later on.
Latel we've had temperatures in the high-90s-100s. Today is overcast but I'm not sure yet how hot it will be. I'm hoping for some cooler temps so I can get some yard work done.

[leiche2]

I sometimes forget I'm making tea and let it oversteep. I usually remember in time to get a drinkable-but-icky cup of tea in the end. Oh, and I definitely buy too much tea!

I think it's about time to go brew up a cup of houji genmaicha.

[Cinnamon Kitty]

I don't drink enough tea. Most of my tea drinking is done at work, where I prefer to bring a travel mug and a thermos of whatever is easy to brew first thing in the morning and doesn't get bitter as the day wears on. I don't have a desk of my own to set up tea brewing equipment so I make due with what I take with me, which generally is something black that at least makes a decent second steep. At home, my brewing habits are decent enough, except for my refusal to use a scale.

Currently, I have a nice, cold glass of iced Darjeeling with Orange Blossom Oolong to combat the sudden hot weather.

[Artemis]

I do the whole "drinking instead of eating" thing, but I'm working on it.

[Chester Copperpot]

I'm a lot better about it, but I used to be a huge oversteeper. I'd pour in the hot water, leave it to steep, head off to do whatever and then get all caught up in it and come back to oversteeped and lukewarm tea 15-45 minutes later.

I've taken to using my digital watch to time my steeping and I've only had the occasional lapse.