Monday TeaDay 5/23/11 TeaDrifters?

[Chip]

Greetings TeaFriends and welcome to TeaDay. Please stop in throughout the day, share what is in your cup, and discuss the topic of the day.

Yesterday we discussed the rapture ... well and the tea of the day. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. Churng recently posted, "Some things [teas] I have waned away from though ..." So, are there teas that were faves or near faves that you have drifted away from? Please share of course.

We are looking forward to sharing this TeaDay with everyone. Bottoms up.

[Nenugal]

I don't drink much black (red) or white anymore. Morning teas are Kinari shincha from Maiko and aged Wuyi Yancha from TeaSpring.

[Drax]

Hm, same here, I think -- I've drifted away from black teas.

I still have a good number of them, and I still enjoy them, but they just don't trickle to the top of my list of things to brew... although they had better do so soon before they get too old...!

I will be spending the morning with oolong before moving on to greens this afternoon...

Have a great TeaDay everybody!

[JRS22]

My first favorite tea was Jasmine. The canister of Jasmine Pearls is still at the front of the cabinet, but I think it's months since I opened it.

So my plan for today is a pot of Jasmine Pearls, followed by more sessions with the puerh I began yesterday.

[debunix]

I used to drink a lot of jasmine green tea, one of two teas I drank fairly regularly for years before I started exploring tea more serious a few years ago, and now I hardly touch the stuff. I've just found so many other fantastic teas, and even reasonably high quality jasmine started to seem more like drinking perfume than drinking tea. It was a gradual drift, from that inexpensive version to fancy jasmine pearls to cutting the pearls with another tea to watching the last bit of jasmine tea already mixed with silver needles left sit in the cabinet for many weeks before I could bring myself to brew it up.

Going to start today with some Hon Yama Zairai sencha from Norbu.

[Chip]

The first teas I drifted from where flavored teas, of course this was after I was very well stocked in flavored tea. The I discovered very good teas can have great flavor w/o anything added!

Then I drifted from black teas to a lesser degree, I still like blacks!

Next were white teas. I really like whites, but they just are not compelling at this time.

The common denominator in all this was increasing interests in green teas.

Began the TD with Yama no Ocha organic sencha from Umami-Chaya with the Mrs. Pretty decent organic.

[AdamMY]

While I still try and keep in touch with oolongs, I have actually drifted away from them ever so slowly, and I have been becoming more and more Green!

[AdamMY]

Getting ready to finish up my 7132 Asamushi from O-cha I took advantage of the good light and some tricks I have been meaning to try, and got the truest color photos of my Karatsu piece yet.



And look at those crackles:

[jaderabbit]

Since I'm just beginning my tea explorations, I haven't yet strayed so far!
Today Sakura Sencha from O-Cha.

[teaisme]

whites for me too
Im pretty burnt out on assams as well. After 75g of #8, and 100g of a broken version of same thing past couple months, I can feel my stomach telling me to take a break from this tea
About the right time for the darjeelings to get here...

Never really drifted from oolongs, I still have my staples, more just expanding my horizons so naturally less time spent on them.

ruby #18 at work , 1999/3 Xia Guan Jia-Ji Toucha this morning
The puerh was really good this time around. 4.5g of mostly small particles from bottom of bag (plus one decent thin chunk) in 100ml pot. The dirt taste that was so evident when I brewed in a big porcelain pot is almost entirely gone. Got 8 nice infusions. Surprised at the outcome, I expected less from so much small leaf particle.
After brewing this one in the same pot I brewed the dry malay brick from otti, they taste pretty simular. I went ahead and ordered the 8582 as well so I could compare dry from wet from roughly same year.

So this leads me to a question, is there usually a certain uniformity in taste for things like 8582 if close to same year? Or can just one year difference mean a totally different range of raw materials? I am guessing the later...

[Drax]

No love (or loss of love, I suppose) for yellows so far...! I guess yellow teas tend to be a bit of a special case for most people to even have tried, let alone something to drift away from...?

[debunix]

A bit like a varnished desert rock...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/4062215010/

[Chip]

whites for me too
Im pretty burnt out on assams as well. After 75g of #8, and 100g of a broken version of same thing past couple months, I can feel my stomach telling me to take a break from this tea

Exactly, Assam is the only tea to make me feel sick.

I would have to add Jasmine to the list too. I used to have Jasmine pearls at least several times a week, I cannot remember the last time I brewed any Jasmine tea.

Yutaka Midori LE a short time ago. This specific selection as well as YM "classic" will fade away unfortunately, replaced by another YM. Well, hopefully this will end happily!

[entropyembrace]

I used to drink a lot of earl grey and jasmine greens but I´ve drifted away from them.

I still drink a fair bit of flavoured/scented tea though....it´s just different.

[Chip]

Thanks for coloring our TeaDay, Adam! Is the staining still only from Japanese greens?