New TeaDay 7/26/12 How long to choose?

[Chip]

Good TeaDay everyone, and welcome! Shall we brew and share what is in our cups today, all day? Show us some pictures of your brewing vessels or cups while you are at it! Or better yet, your TeaStash!

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic, while deciding on the first tea of the day, I started to wonder, how long does it take to choose your next tea to drink on average? Although not part of the poll, just so we can get an idea if it is affected by how many teas you have open, also please share about how many teas you have open.

I am looking forward to sharing TeaDay with everyone (I better start deciding what to drink). Bottoms up!

[debunix]

Sometimes I've been craving a particular tea, sometimes nothing sounds quite right and it takes a while of staring at the teas--probably a minute or less.

Today, no tea yet. Yesterday started with some Tsou Ma Fei Alishan Oolong from Norbu, an easy choice because it was the only green oolong open--that was a few seconds' decision. I'm trying to be very sparing with the vacuum-packed greener oolongs so that I finish each pouch off before the tea loses much freshness. That one got the bulk treatment in preparation for a long meeting--prepped in the plastic Kamjove for the thermos, and even though the meeting went a little short, the tea was so nice I finished most of the quart by the end of it.

In the evening, I wanted something different, and that took longer. I'd had greens and puerh the day before, so I wanted something in a darker oolong, and there were already probably 5 of those open, but I opened a new-to-me Dan Cong (2007 Zei Shi from Tea Habitat). Brewed that up in the tiny cheap yixing (which seems to be seasoning nicely).

[teaisme]

Pretty much know what I want to drink by the time I walk over to the teas.
every once in a while, it takes me forever to choose though, kinda just stare at my tea, opening stuff and looking/smelling, 10 mins later still no clue

today some dyl at work, two brews in very nice, a little more mellowing then my sleep deprived self had hoped zzzzz

[Tobias]

A couple of minutes, it depends if I already decided what kind of tea I would like to drink or if I have no clue.

TeaShelf.jpg (28.23 KiB) Viewed 4098 times

[sriracha]

Only very rarely do I need more than 5-10s to decide, most often it just pops up. I don't have any great difficulties with any kind of decision, something I've realized is a very good thing. =)

[FlyedPiper]

I tend to think about tea during the day- what I'm going to have the next day... what I'm going to order next. It's kind of like a little mental vacation during the hectic or unpleasant times of the day .

So... usually I have what I'm going to have the next morning planned out before I go to bed. Not sure if I'm weird that way or not.

Working my way through the last of my currently opened bag of daily sencha today and tomorrow. Then I finally get to open the first matcha of the year . Running a little behind on the tea cycle this year.

[AdamMY]

I think Chip has a quote from me from one of the last times he asked a similar question.

I just stare at my boxes of tea, and first decide which box I want, then stare at its contents, and wait for one to jump out at me. Its a long process, but I always like whats at the end.

[MIKE_B]

Lately my first tea of the day has been easy. I am working my way through a never ending tin of shincha. I'm trying to drink more seasonally. So my next tea of the day has usually been whatever bag of spring gaoshan I have open.
But, sometimes I want something different or sometimes some late night tea drinking. Then I am usually staring at my bags of tea, shuffling them around...

[Xell]

Few seconds usually, when i want to drink tea i already think about something particular. It's more about how i want it right now and how much.

[JRS22]

This is a seasonal issue. When I come down to my non-air conditioned kitchen in the morning it's too hot for anything but a tea that can steep well at 150°. Now that the back door has been open for a while I can contemplate hotter water and move on to my project of trying all my wuyi and Puerh samples. The only way I can keep the selection time down to a reasonable number of minutes is by reaching into the box of samples with my eyes shut. When climate's not an issue then I use Adam's method!

[Geekgirl]

Tobias - I love your display of tea caddies.

It doesn't usually take me long to decide on a tea, unless I decide, then discover I'm out of that particular tea.

Also, confession time: After a couple of years (when I was around this forum a LOT,) of drinking mostly tea all the time, I've reverted to old habits of good strong independently roasted coffee for first thing in the morning, then tea (or tea-like iced "tea,") for the rest of the day.

I got to meet Saladin yesterday for a little TeaSwap transaction. Nice guy, very nice warez.

Good morning, morning world!

[Chip]

Thank you for your photo Tobias, great set-up! Nice and open for easy viewing and selection.

I usually know before I get up to go brew. But I may ponder this for a while before I get up. If it is going to be Japanese, I realistically only have a few choices open at a time and I let the crave factor make the decision.

I run into problems when I am determined to not go Japanese, then I have a harder time deciding.

[Stentor]

Most of the time choosing the tea takes only a few seconds, as I usually don't have many opened teas around at the same time.

What sometimes takes a little longer is deciding which teaware to use...

[sriracha]

What sometimes takes a little longer is deciding which teaware to use...

There's another TeaDay poll for us..

[Poohblah]

I go with whatever I'm feeling... gut instinct, you know.

The worst is when I really feel like drinking a tea that I don't have, followed closely by when I feel like drinking something that I don't have the time or energy to prepare.