Tuesday TeaDay 5/4/10 THE one Breakthrough TEA?

[Chip]

Howdy TeaWorld and welcome to another TeaDay.

Visit all day long and share what is in your cup, see what others are drinking and of course...talk tea!!!

Remember, all are welcome, so whether you are new to TEA or TeaChat, you are welcome here. This is a great place to get to know other TeaChatters, and we can also get to know you as well!

Today's TeaPoll topic is a trip down everyone's memory lane! Your break through TEA, the one that made you realize you were a TeaDrinker. You may have had TEA before that, but you were not hooked til you tried this one.

So, answer the Poll, and share details about your break through TEA. What was it, does it have a special name, where did you get it, when? Anything else you can think of.

This sounds like a fun topic and I hope everyone shares their memories with everyone else!

[Poohblah]

Mate provided my entry point... not tea, I know... previous to that, I drank lots of tea, but I never really paid attention to it. I consumed tea the way one would consume soda or juice. Then after buying a bunch of loose mate, I became curious: what's mate, how is it different from tea, what's tea anyhow, etc. So I can't really say that mate opened the door to the tea world as much as it led me to become informed about what I drink.

[omegapd]

A basic China Black tea that I bought in loose form...that opened up my eyes to things away from the grocery store aisle.

[LauraW]

I think it was my senior year of high school, one of my good friends changed everything - she took me to this little tea shop and said that we had to split a pot of this amazing tea: White Tip Silver Needle, I believe. Well, that may have been the experience that got me hooked, but it wasn't 100% the tea; it was the experience, the culture, the new-found ability to explore (good) tea and be with friends. And then after that, I was too interested in trying everything else they had to offer to go back to the same tea, until one fateful day when I tried their Cardamom Ginger black tea - and I was hooked. Since then it's been a world of exploration, finding the good, the bad, the new and hanging on to a bit of the old (i.e. the Cardamom Ginger, not the teabags, if I can help it!). The interest has been slowly growing over the past... 6 years, and it's been a wonderful journey, I'm glad I can now share it with all of you!!

Nothing yet, on the way out the door for work. Methinks I need a break from MF Marco Polo this morning before I get too addicted... Darjeeling this morning, then.

[Victoria]

It was an oolong - I believe it was Adagio TKY.

In my cup this morning 2010 Sungma Estate FF Darjeeling
From Special Teas.

[artmom]

No surprise -- I checked "black."

When I began drinking tea in Scotland as a child, it was wartime and tea was rationed. Two ounces a week per person. In other words, the amount of tea as in Adagio's little tins! Tea leaves were re-used ad infinitum. People traded amongst themselves the foods that were rationed -- meat was two ounces a week, etc.

Actually, I'm really surprised that I was allowed tea at all; of course, I began drinking it as a splash of tea in a cup of milk -- I guess because I was an only child and mama and I lived alone while my dad was serving in the British Army. I suppose I was a little spoiled and probably wanted "tea like mommy!"

So, basically, I never had an "AH HA" moment over tea.

More Vanilla Oolong this a.m.

[rabbitsib]

The Genmicha was my break through. When I was a child I tried this tea but years later I didn't know what it was only about year ago I found what this was. I drink Iced black tea all the time but green tea is my take a minute, sit and enjoy the taste slowly but I love only the Japanese teas not so much the Chinese.

[Chip]

My breakthrough tea ... well ... I have always tinkered with drinking tea, but in 1999 I got serious when I had loose leaf All Day Breakfast from Repubic of Tea. They used to have good stuff back then. But I was completely sold on tea after trying this blend of Keemun and tippy Oolong. I still remember that tea. I went from there to teasanity...my first green was their Sky Between the Branches days later...I all of a sudden wanted to try every tea on the planet...sound familiar.

I have had tea virtually every day since. And Keemun remains my fave black tea.

So, although I do NOT like RoT, they did get me started.

Began the TD with the under the car seat sencha ... even this is all but gone now. SweeTea savored some while Pyrit and Shincha visited the TeaTable.

[laura99]

I know it sounds crazy, but the tea that got me started last year was Teavanna’s English Breakfast! Teavanna was mentioned on another board I frequent and a few hours later I had made my first order. Previous to that I did drink tea a few times a week – mostly Tazo or Republic of tea (in bags).

I just thought that tea was sooo good! Within a month I had completely converted from coffee. Now I don’t drink the stuff (prefer black from Yunnan region).

But I would have to say my passion for tea was after having my first real sencha. I had some sencha’s earlier (from vendor mentioned above) and was not thrilled, but something told me it would be something I would really like and I persisted. Enter the Den’s sample package and that was it! Now I am waiting on my first O-Cha order and cannot wait!

Started today with Organic Sencha, then some dragon pearls. I think this afternoon will be Fukamushi-Sencha.

[brad4419]

My breakthrough tea was a loose leaf republic of tea(ROT) lapsang souchong and I loved it. My brother had a roommate in college who drank some tea and so my brother got into drinking a bit of tea. He brought some lapsang home for a holiday and brewed some up for me and as we sat on the back porch talking and drinking tea I was hooked forever. Soon after I began drinking grocery store teabags but none compared to the lapsang so I went online looking for lapsang and bought a few other teas to try and it has spiraled out of control since.

It makes me think, If My brother wouldn't have exposed me to that lapsang I know for sure I wouldn't be sitting here drinking Da hong pao talking to you folks on teachat because other than you I don't know anyone else who drinks loose leaf tea

[geeber1]

Mine was black of course! I had moved from Lipton to Tazo and Twining's, but I knew there was better tea to be had out there and made my first order from Adagio. I don't remember exactly which tea it was, but it was one of the teas I got in their black sampler.

Like Chip and probably lots of other people here, that started the Teasanity (or TeaINsanity!). And speaking of Keemun, that's what I had in my cup this morning.

artmom, I bet you have some good stories about growing up during WWII. Do you have a Scottish accent? I could listen to Scots and Irish tell stories all day long!

[AdamMY]

The tea that opened my eyes, was an Assam from Teavana, oh how tastes have changed. Even with that same tea from teavana I still find it incredibly potent, yet when I first started I could drink it all day and love it just the same.

[debunix]

Not a breakthrough tea, but a breakthrough state of mind: I drank and enjoyed many herbal teas from Celestial Seasonings, and always had a tin of the yellow label green jasmine and the red label (Sea Dyke brand) Ti Kuan Yin on hand. The breakthrough started when I went through a long drought in my ability to find the particular Ti Kuan Yin and gradually tried a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and realized it was not the one and only tea for me. I can still drink it and enjoy it--it is not a bad tea--but there are plenty of others that I now like as much or better.

[artmom]

artmom, I bet you have some good stories about growing up during WWII. Do you have a Scottish accent? I could listen to Scots and Irish tell stories all day long!

geeber1, I don't have a Scottish accent left. I have learned that if you leave a country before puberty, you tend to lose the accent; afterward, not so. My parents retained theirs, as does Dr. Kissinger (German). However, I do have a very heavy (so I've been told) Southern accent--lived in South Carolina and Florida before moving to Tennessee at 30. I laugh and say "I'm from Southern Scotland!"

Packages that came today had cheeses in them ; but no tea.

[geeber1]

Well, I bet you still have some great stories! I really enjoy your posts.

My daughter has been living in North Carolina for six years now and has started saying y'all. (After having spent her first 22 years in Oregon!)