Mornings: Tea and Routines/Activities

[Noonie]

I wanted to ask people some questions about their morning tea consumption. I've been following the same routine for a few years and I was thinking about changing the tea I drink first thing in the morning.

I'll use some questions and if you don't mind answering them the way I have below (I'm giving some additional detail for context...you're welcome to do the same if you don't mind).

Feel free to comment on my answers if you notice something that may impact the quality of my tea session. I can't do much about time, but the type of tea, food and other drinks may play a role.

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
3) How long does this first session last?
4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?

My answers:
1. Sencha. But I'm considering changing it to Wuyi (favourite oolong) or other oolongs (going to try different ones to see what I like, and this may mean not always having the same tea every morning).

2. 5-10 minutes after waking up.

3. 15-30 minutes. 15 minutes if I'm going cycling or something right after tea and breakfast. Up to 30 minutes if I have time.

4. During. I usually eat granola or muesli, with fruit and either yogurt or milk. Not sure how well this is complementing the tea, but I need the calories for when I'm cycling in the morning.

5. A glass of water before, if I remember.

6. Fitness then work. So I'm not re-steeping aged wuyi tea 20 times

7. 2-3 hours later. Sencha, again. I'll have some wuyi or another oolong in the afternoon and that's all the tea for the day.

[Rui]

Here are my answers for my working week:

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
Raw pu'er

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
3 1/2 hours

3) How long does this first session last?
1 hour or so depending how busy I am with work

4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
Start drinking tea when I start breakfast

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
Water

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
All is done at my work desk. A couple of hours after I finish the session I have another session

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
Usually I drink 2 to 3 tea sessions a day of around 600ml each. They are mostly raw pu'er. My last session is during and after I eat my lunch.

[kuánglóng]

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
Usually some Keemun, but for the last couple of weeks I tended more towards FF Darjeelings.

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
~30 mins.

3) How long does this first session last?
Hours. I do my job, drink tea and vape.

4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
I grab my first bite about an hour or two after I had my first tea, most of the time a plain, fresh butter croissant.

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
A glass of cold water.

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
Work on.

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
I drink tea all day long, even just before I go to sleep; mostly Darjeelings, Oolongs, white teas and some red tea, whatever I feel like in the moment.

[debunix]

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
On mornings when I have time for tea before work, or free days, most often something green—sencha, gyokuro, Tai Ping Hou Kui, Long Jing; sometimes I start with leftover leaves of oolong or puerh; and on overcast chilly mornings, a toasty oolong is often just the ticket; I am more likely to skip first hot tea entirely on days when the house did not cool off enough overnight.

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
If I have tea before work, usually within 30 minutes

3) How long does this first session last?
Up to 90 minutes, depending on what else I am doing/need to do in that area in the morning

4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
During, nearly always

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
First morning tea is nearly always combined with a small cup of hot chocolate—sometimes one first, sometimes the other

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
Work, housework, cook, read….

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
Next time I have a chance or am thirsty, and it could be anything—something I haven’t had for a while, something preferred by a tea companion, something inspired by the weather.

[miig]

Hi.. what an interesting inquiry! Lets see.. In my case, it depends whether it is a weekday or not.

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
Weekday: Sencha, or Darjeeling 1st / 2nd. Matcha if it needs to go quickly Weekend: Aged Pu, Oolong

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
Weekday: About 45mins (eat, take the dog out, drink tea, leave the house) Weekend: About 30 mins after waking. Thats how long the kettle needs to heat up


3) How long does this first session last?
Weekday: 30mins, Weekend: 1-2 hours.

4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
Weekday: Usually before... no Sencha on an empty stomach. Weekend: usually not: I have the impression that I'm more sensitive to tea when I haven't eaten before. But with young raw pu and other, very green teas, I usually eat before.
I don't eat during a tea session, I think that I can't enjoy the tea then. I even try to have a little time in between the two, to reset the tastebuds and give the body some time to 'switch mode'.

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
If I have real tea, I don't. With Matcha, yes, to hydrate

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
Weekday: go to work, university, etc.

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
If I had rather quick tea and am home around noon, then I will have something that doesn't take a lot of effort to make, like Shupu or Kyobancha, or a simple green tea.
But if I had a really powerful tea session in the morning, I don't have tea a second time.

[Zacherywolf7]

Fun Questions!
1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
I usually only drink a tea a day. I cold brew cheap shu and use it as caffeine in the morning.

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
It is usually 2-3 hours after. I drink a lot of puerh and I don't eat breakfast. I wake up either at 9 or 10 and wait until a little before 12.

3) How long does this first session last?
Can be a couple hours. Depends on the tea, what I have to do.

4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
Lunch then tea then Dinner. I typically don't drink after dinner for caffeine reasons so 12-5 is when I am drinking tea.

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
Usually water or the cold brew.

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
I go to college. So during my session I am doing homework or reading. After I eat dinner and then do about the same or see friends.

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
Sometimes I'll throw in something after dinner if I feel in the mood or even if my first session goes by really quickly I will have another before dinner. It is a pretty rigid system, I usually drink based on weather and have my teas planned out for the week based on looking at the weather app. 12-5 and then I am done.

[Noonie]

Quite the range of responses. Keep'em coming.

After consistently having Sencha first thing in the morning with breakfast, today I decided to brew some Dan Cong.

I find my morning palette to affect the first cup of tea. Even though I have a drink of water, and I'm eating, the tea doesn't taste as strong or flavourful. Then when that first cup lines my mouth and taste buds, it seems to change for the second and beyond. Was like that with Sencha, and is the same with Dan Cong.

[wyardley]

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
Same teas I drink in general, typically oolong or pu'er

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
2-3h. If it's a day when I'm really in a rush, I'll usually have coffee instead. If you didn't see, there's some new research suggesting that caffeine too early in the day is not ideal.

3) How long does this first session last?
Hard to say, 20-30 min maybe, if I'm at work, I'll usually just kind of brew lazily as I work.

4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
I try never to drink tea or coffee on an empty stomach.

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
I'll sometimes have water or soy milk in the morning.

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
Usually keep working.

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
Many days, that will be my only one. If I have any more tea or coffee, it is usually before 3 PM or so.

[JAndrews2]

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
A strong black tea, straight, usually something Indian/African or Lapsang. I don't usually have the time/energy/patience for a long tea session in the morning.

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
15 minutes or so- as long as it takes me to fix breakfast. I tend to like my tea on the strong/bitter side and I don't eat much at night, so if I don't eat first I risk an upset stomach or vomiting.

3) How long does this first session last?
15 minutes or so. I just have a cup with breakfast.

4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
See above. On a good day breakfast is eggs, english muffins, some fruit, and milk and/or some kind of juice. If I get up late or don't feel like cooking I might just have fruit or cereal.

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
Water; whatever else I have with breakfast.

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
While eating breakfast I usually do some reading in Latin. Right now I'm going through Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae. After that I pray, spend some time with family/dogs, then dress/wash and go to work/school.

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
Before I leave I usually throw some leaves of something durable in a thermos and take that to work. It's usually grocery store gunpowder or jasmine green tea, sometimes puer or a yunnan black tea. If I have time for a long tea session with lots of leaf that day it'll usually be in the early evening. All bets are off on the weekend, though.

[Stephane]

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
Depends on the season and weather. Now it's mostly Hung Shui Oolong, or something more oxidized like a Concubine Oolong.
This is what it looked like yesterday (it changes every day):

DSC_0582t2.JPG (17.71 KiB) Viewed 2607 times

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
1 hour (around 6:30).

3) How long does this first session last?
30 minutes or more.

4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
I eat breakfast right after my first tea.

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
No.

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
I eat breakfast.

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
The next tea doesn't have a fixed routine like the first.

[bryan_drinks_tea]

1) What tea do you most often drink first thing in the morning?
I do not drink tea in the morning.

2) How long after waking do you have your first tea?
12 hours.

3) How long does this first session last?
45 minutes to an hour.


4) Do you eat before, during or after this first tea session?
I have breakfast, lunch and dinner beforehand.

5) Do you drink anything else before this tea session?
Water! It's the only other beverage that I drink.

6) What do you do after this tea session (e.g., work, fitness)?
I study, read, compose, whatevs.

7) When do you drink your next tea, and what type do you drink?
I drink my next tea 24 hours later. I usually have Yancha or sencha.

[Faye Astrid]

Here are my answers
1. I prefer to drink fit detox tea, as it is organic tea, which helps in making me fresh and energetic.

2. Like after 20-30 minutes

3. 15-20 minutes

4. No, I drink it empty stomach, then I go to cycling, then after coming back I eat breakfast.

5. May be water.

6. I go for cycling, as this herbal tea give me boost, so I've noticed that I can go for cycling for more duration then I used to go without this tea. It actually gives me boost, If you don't believe me than you can also read reviews about this tea from internet.

7. I drink this tea again but in the afternoon at my workplace. Because if hectic routine, I think this tea makes me fresh and recharge my energy.

[Rainyday-tea]

Cool question!

1. o-cha yutaka or sae midori Sencha (easy - that's all i drink though i have some other teas on the way)
2. wake up, shower 5 mins, drink sencha.
3. around 5 minutes to brew (i prefer one steep long brew), and 5 mins to drink, since it's just one cup.
4. To me, sencha tastes much better on an empty stomack so i have it before breakfast. I never have sencha while eating because it has a subtle taste that I would miss if i was eating anything at the same time.
5. A few gulps of mineral water sometimes, or nothing.
6. Breakfast then work or something.
7. An hour or two later, another sencha. I usually have in the range of 3-5 sencha pots a day. Some days I have an espresso and then i would only have a single sencha, because of too much caffeine.

Curiously, just like another commenter, I also read some latin right now when i drink / right after Sencha (usually Caesar's Gallic wars or Cicero's letters to friends). I'm learning latin.