Sunday 10/21/12 TeaStart influence?

[Chip]

Welcome TeaFriends to TeaDay. Be sure to share what is in your cup today, all day.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. What precipitated your official start of tea drinking. Was it the influence of someone? Simply seeing boxes of tea in the supermarket and an urge to try it? Was it an event in your life? Maybe an urgent need to stay awake? The health craze surrounding tea? Well, you get the idea. Please share.

I am looking forward to another great TeaDay, bottoms up!

[debunix]

Free tea in Chinese restaurants. I'm pretty sure I had sipped some of it before I tried Dad's SeaDyke TKY. My first exposure to tea was the Liptons that Mom turned into iced tea, and that made me very skeptical. Then I sipped some tea in a restaurant-- probably a cheap mild green jasmine--and it was nothing like Lipton, so I accepted the next time Dad offered me some of his favorite tea.

Today, was a mixed teaDay, including some green Nanto spring tips from Norbu, tea I wouldn't have tried but for the positive reports I kept reading about green tea that kept me working on it until I discovered that it did bit have to be bitter. Hawaiian oolong and 'Imperial' TGY completed the tea day.

[tinols]

I was mostly a coffee guy for a while. Then health issues arose and coffee might've been the culprit. Doctors told me to stop drinking coffee. So I made the switch to tea. I'm glad I did though!

[Stentor]

Somehow that's a really difficult question for me to answer. I don't feel like I really know. I just think it was plain curiosity. I liked it. I stuck with it. I found TeaChat. Things got out of hand.

Having some Organic Kirishima Sencha Gold (2011 harvest) from O-Cha.com, fresh out of cold storage. I still love this tea.

[Missdekitty]

I always remember my father ordering the hot tea at chinese restaurants and I would take small sips from it after it cooled some when I was little. I tried various supermarket teas here and there through the years, but nothing "serious." It wasn't until I was on vacation 3 yrs ago and stumbled on a Teavana store and saw a kitty teapot (crazed cat lover here) and was taken by the various teawave they had and that started an online search later that evening into the world of loose teas and teaware. I never did buy any tea from Teavana, but sure am glad that they had that kitty teapot to kindle my tea fire.

[Evan Draper]

After college I got a draining job in a nursing home and I realized it was time to start a caffeinated beverage habit like all the other adults. Tea was much more interesting than coffee, and easier on my stomach.

[Marco]

A friend at work told me about tea - about matcha and gyokuro. Till this point I just knew some supermarket bagged teas - more herbals than real teas. So after about a month later I just walked into a local teashop and bought a whisk, a chawan some matcha and even some gyokuro.
I did some internet research and found teachat with a lot of knowledgeable great teachums and OTTI and teaware SO. Tried some puerh and there was no escape from tea fever

In my cup today is some Nannuo Mountain from The Mandarins Tearoom. The tea that took me on the puerh side - thanks Tim

[teanovice78]

I think my love of tea probably started with my curiousity of chinese culture and it was also at a chinese restaurant where I'd get some nice tea before the meal everytime we'd eat there. There was something calming about it and exciting at the same time. I felt a connection with eastern faiths from about the age of 19; reading the Tao Te Ching, buddhist books, meditating, and it almost felt like a natural extension of all of that. Then several years passed and about 4 years ago I felt like trying some real tea {loose leaf} so I went to a local store and bought some. I really enjoyed it and felt that there was more to it than just drinking tea. I think my return to studying asiatic faiths brought me back this last time. I watched a lot of videos; bought various tea items; and bought several samples. When I tried puerh I knew I was hooked.