I'm not sure how to classify myself with regard to "tea newness", I mean, I'd say I'm a noob, although I've dipped in and out of tea addiction over the years. I drink a lot of tea, I love tea, tea makes me giddy on occasion, but I don't actually know very much about it and I don't think my palette is what you'd call sophisticated. (As evidenced by the vast quantities of sweet dessert teas in my profile!)
Back in January a friend came over and was raving about Adagio. She gave me several different flavors, including the most amazing Jasmine I'd ever experienced in my life. Seriously, it was a totally new experience for me, like drinking a cup full of honeysuckle blossoms -- I'd never had tea so incredibly delicious before in my life, and I've had some tasty teas. She told me about signature blends, and I was hooked before I knew it.
Now my poor little kitchen is overrun by sample tins, and if I go for a couple of days without trying a new flavor combination, I feel a little jilted. One of the things I am is a freelance designer, so I'm at home with the sample tins and teakettle several days a week, and it's a nice, brain-brightening treat to bounce from whatever project I'm working on to creating a new blend or two, and then going back to work while part of the test batch cools (I try everything hot and cold -- and I'm always amazed at how drastically the tastes can differ).
There was a little hiccup when one of my first blends ever got picked up and got a horrible review (Voluptuary's Vice has been reblended, and it now tastes *and* smells fabulous, thankyouverymuch) but I decided that blending was *way* too much fun, and I'd simply have to make sure I made other people taste my blends before I put them up, so at least I'd have something to comfort my ego if I ever get another rough review. Thankfully, that hasn't happened -- yay! In some ways I can be such a delicate flower.
I really do love the thought that I'm creating something that's making people happy. That somewhere, at any given time, someone has brewed a cup of one of my blends and it's adding something pleasant to their day. Sappy as it may be, it tickles me no end. I can tell I've made a particularly good blend when I hand a sample to my partner and get an empty cup in return, or when I get a request to make another batch of something before we've had a chance to order it.
And nope, full disclosure, I do not (yet!) own a full tin of every blend in my profile. I've tasted them, because that's how I make them, and I have big tins of many of my blends, but there's almost a thousand bucks worth of tea up there, and I try to keep myself within a certain dollar range over whatever points I earn when folks buy my blends (more sample tins usually wins out over full batches of signature blends, although it's often a drawn-out internal battle to decide. When I hit 100 blends, I'll let my signature blends take priority.)
So anyhoo-- to everyone who's purchased one of my blends -- thank you! I hope it's brought you a little joy, and I'd love to hear from you!
Thanks to everybody for listening to me ramble, and I hope you're all having a splendid day
