After growing up on iced sweet Lipton’s tea (in bags - the standard drink in the southern USA), I started drinking loose tea in the early 1970s after writing a term paper on tea for a botany class. My teas of choice then were Twinings English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and Formosa Oolong, all loose leaf teas. In 1979 I moved to California where I discovered Ten Ren Tea Company. I bought a lot of Ten Ren tea, greens and oolongs, but my flirtation with those teas ended in bitterness, if you will.
Then I discovered Peet’s teas and started drinking those brewing them Western style (3 to 5 minute infusions) in a 16 oz mug with infuser. By that time, I had also learned that different teas take different temperatures of water, and that helped my preparation. I settled on their Snow Leopard (white), Dragon Well, Golden Dragon Oolong and their genmaicha. I also sometimes buy genmaicha from the local Japanese supermarket.
Then a “tea lounge” called Samovar opened and it got me interested in gongfu preparation again which led me to TeaChat. I’ve already done a lot of reading on here and have had some of my questions answered, and sometimes the answers were surprising. But more than that, I am always left with new questions.
And now I have discovered Red Blossom Tea, thanks to this site. I guess my biggest challenge is moving from Western style brewing to gongfu because a cup of tea that has had a 30 second infusion tastes primarily of hot water to me - except the cups I had at Red Blossom did taste like tea! Right now I am trying Red Blossom’s silver needle (very nice – one of my successful exceptions in gongfu brewing), aged Tung Ting (interesting cup of tea but I’m not sure what it’s “supposed” to taste like and am still experimenting), “longevity eyebrows” – a white tea (it’s OK, not great), Pi Lo Chun – green (a little disappointing, but I am still working on brewing), and Dragon Well (also disappointing – I prefer Peet’s so far).
Anyway, this is all too long, so I’ll close. I’ll be visiting other topics with specific questions. But first thanks for being here with a wealth of information as well as some amazing pictures of teaware! And now back to my Red Blossom Tea Aged Tung Ting, 1980.
Mar 2nd, '10, 14:05
Posts: 54
Joined: Feb 16th, '10, 22:36
Location: San Francisco, CA
Mar 2nd, '10, 14:07
Posts: 20891
Joined: Apr 22nd, '06, 20:52
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Back in the TeaCave atop Mt. Fuji
Re: Hello all - new to Teachat
Thanks for sharing, tea_rex! Great name! Funny, I just saw a crane (the metal kind) called TeRex yesterday. 
I am looking forward to seeing you around the forum, and welcome!
I am looking forward to seeing you around the forum, and welcome!
Re: Hello all - new to Teachat
Welcome to the forum, and I hope you stick around, and grace us with many good posts.
Mar 2nd, '10, 16:27
Posts: 495
Joined: Jan 31st, '09, 12:41
Location: midwest, Sanibel wannabe
Contact:
Dreamer
Mar 2nd, '10, 17:03
Posts: 511
Joined: Dec 26th, '08, 18:21
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Atlanta, GA
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bsteele
Mar 3rd, '10, 12:49
Posts: 54
Joined: Feb 16th, '10, 22:36
Location: San Francisco, CA
Re: Hello all - new to Teachat
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I look forward to participating in the other sections - though right now pesky work is in my way. I barely have time to make tea this morning, though I will find a way.
As for the name tea_rex, I could hardly resist, though it is a bit swaggering maybe considering my relative newcomer status.
As for the name tea_rex, I could hardly resist, though it is a bit swaggering maybe considering my relative newcomer status.
May 6th, '10, 13:19
Posts: 393
Joined: Apr 18th, '09, 22:56
Location: Louisiana Gulf Coast
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Dresden