Tuesday TeaDay 6/8/10 TeaAdventurist

[Chip]

Greetings everyone and welcome to another TeaDay ... that is good news! Please drop in and share with us what is in your cup throughout the day.

Yesterday we discussed yesterday's teas and whether they were combined with food, or not. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic!

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. Would you say you are adventurous in your tea persuits? Please share ...

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

[entropyembrace]

I´d say yes, I´m always excited to try new vendors and types of tea

[iannon]

oh come on now! you Know I am..at least with tea vendors and such. maybe not sooo much with tea types i dont care as much for

[brad4419]

Yes for sure. I will try any tea several times, even teas I know I wont like. If I see someone has teabags even that I haven't tried before I will ask to try it just to see how it is, even though I know I wont like it.

I bought and tried 9yrs aged in tibet dri(female yak) butter pu erh. Thats about as adventurist a tea to try as I could find. It was much different than expected and not bad at all.

[Cael]

I tend to be adventurous in most things I do and tea is no different. Actually I think a little bit the reason I am so excited about the tea blog I am starting is that it gives me an excuse to find new and interesting teas and report back on them.

[chittychat]

I put my vote on the third spot. The location I live, the amount of tea I can really drink as well as some monetary consideration will restrict me to be a true tea adventurist.

[LauraW]

I wish I could, but with the budget being the way that it is, I'm likely to stick to things that either come highly recommended or that I've already tried. That being said, I do enjoy trying new and different things, and should something change, the first jump will be in tea - so I'm starting to build a list of things I want to try, even if I can't right now.

On my way to work, so no tea yet. Yunnan Noir, methinks.

[geeber1]

TCers might say I am not, but those around me would say I am, only because they don't know much about tea, so think I'm a little crazy. "Why do you need so many different teas? They're just tea!"

Right now I only order from a few vendors. Since money is tight, I want to be assured that I'm spending my $$ on something tried-and-true. Maybe in the future, I'll have more resources to explore more. One pretty inexpensive way is to participate in the OTTI offers. I'm looking forward to the Oolong tasting!

No tea yet, but LauraW's post put me in the mood for some Yunnan.

[Victoria]

I'm not sure how much, but somewhat. I was very much so in the beginning, wanting to try everything. Now I've calmed down a bit.
I still like trying new teas, but I'm more focused.

In my cup this morning Yunnan Black Gold from Imperial Teas.
I have been off Yunnan Gold for awhile, but this tea is exceptional.

Have a nice day everyone!

.

[brad4419]

"Why do you need so many different teas? They're just tea!"

geeber, Im glad Im not alone on this one. My family is especially very bad about saying similar things. They wont give tea a try but are quick to criticize it oh well there loss I have other hobbies deemed strange by family and friends and my favorite angering quote is when Im working on my bonsai trees and my dad walks out and says "when are you going to plant those shrubs in the ground, they're just trees." I can only shake my head and ignore it.

Finally busting into my wuyi today with rou gui as I study up for an exam tonight but on the bright side its my last class of the quarter.

[Chip]

"Why do you need so many different teas? They're just tea!"

geeber, Im glad Im not alone on this one. My family is especially very bad about saying similar things. They wont give tea a try but are quick to criticize it oh well there loss I have other hobbies deemed strange by family and friends and my favorite angering quote is when Im working on my bonsai trees and my dad walks out and says "when are you going to plant those shrubs in the ground, they're just trees." I can only shake my head and ignore it.

+1 ...

... family did not get it for years, but they are slowly coming around. I had my legally blind parents hold a Biwa Hagi Wan recently, and they actually seemed to appreciate the experience ... and they are drinking tisanes now after a lifetime of "coffee, black."

My sis wants to try some of good tea ... my brother is now drinking some weird tea from a machine at work.

Progress ... but they still think I am pretty weird.

Tea Adventurist, I would think so though compared to many TCers I am really pretty set in my ways and could be called conservative ... but wait, I ordered over 20 Shincha each of the last few years. If that is not an adventurist, it is plum crazy! +1

So Brad, what types of bonsai do you grow?

[karmaplace]

"Why do you need so many different teas? They're just tea!"

geeber, Im glad Im not alone on this one. My family is especially very bad about saying similar things. They wont give tea a try but are quick to criticize it oh well there loss

+1 ...

... family did not get it for years, but they are slowly coming around. I had my legally blind parents hold a Biwa Hagi Wan recently, and they actually seemed to appreciate the experience ... and they are drinking tisanes now after a lifetime of "coffee, black."

My sis wants to try some of good tea ... my brother is now drinking some weird tea from a machine at work.

Progress ... but they still think I am pretty weird.

+2

I've always drank more tea than my family members, but growing up it was the store-bought teabags in the cupboards. My mother was actually the first person to be introduced to loose leaf tea at an Argo Tea store in Chicago, and loved the taste and bought a few sample sets for herself as well as a single-cup infuser. It was also there that she bought me my first teapot and loose leaf teas.

While my mother does like loose leaf tea, she is not nearly as obsessed as I am, and does not have the time or the tools to make herself tea as often as she'd like (she has two cups of coffee every morning on her commute to work). I got her a hot water dispenser for Mother's Day in an attempt to remedy this, but, so far it hasn't made it out of the box, I hear.

My father and brother don't see the point, and my mother is concerned because of how much I spend on tea, but, it's money well-spent. I used to waste my money on expensive clothes (when really I have too many clothes already) and cute shoes, but now I spend money on teaware that I cherish and teas that I love. I don't know what I'd do without my tea! Loving tea is just one of the many things that make me the black sheep of the family, and I'm proud to be different.

By TC standards, I'm still a newbie when it comes to tea, so I stated "non-adventurous compared to TCers," but I've been reading up on what other people are doing and, when my budget allows it, have been attempting to try new things.

I had my morning White Chai + Banana Hazelnut Muffin so far today (I've been alternating it with Green Chai). I love waking up to chai!

[dooble]

Yeah of course, otherwise I wouldn't have tried shu pu'erh again!

Well, seriously speaking, yes, I am. My adventurism is manifested in the way I like to order small samples, but a lot of different teas, and how I usually like to buy the same tea (from the same vendor/same year etc.) only once.

Just tried Kukicha for the first time! It was very creamy and nice .

[artmom]

"TCers might say I am not, but those around me would say I am adventuresome." Fits me to a "TEA."

i tried a white last night, Organic White Peony from Rishi; I didn't read the suggested amount (two tablespoons per 8 ounces), so it was just heated pale yellow water! I'll try it again today, properly.

This morning, a tea bag sample from Rishi, some kind of Peach (sorry, CRS). Glad there was only one teabag.

Appropo of yesterday's Poll about food w/tea, my dog Barclay has learned to accompany me while I'm making tea; it's not that he likes tea, he just hopes I'm going to have something to eat with it!!!! He checks the foot of my lift recliner for crumbs after tea!

[Skippyandjif]

"Why do you need so many different teas? They're just tea!"

I'm in the same boat! I do most of my tea shopping when I'm visiting my father in NYC, and whenever I return to his apartment bearing tea, he becomes quite perplexed.

I guess I'm fairly adventurous. I'll try anything one or two times, except flavored teas-- I've had enough experiences with those to know that they are not for me, especially after this chocolate-caramel flavored tea I tried a few years ago which literally made me ill because of how chemical-laden it was. (However, I still looooove both chocolate and caramels... Just nowhere near my tea. )

Green tea-oolong-jasmine blend this morning; I'm getting down to the last two or three cups' worth of leaves. This was one of those "tea adventures" which, although it was pretty good, I'm not going to repeat.