My "name" is HotLeafJuice
, and this is my tea story:I'm Romanian, so I grew up surrounded by herbal/medicinal teas, but my first cup of real tea was probably a cup of gunpowder green. After that, I slowly started learning how to properly brew tea (in a general sense), and started learning about different types of tea, but wasn't really into tea yet, since the highest grade of tea I could get my hands on was a simple Tie Guan Yin.
My tipping point into actually loving tea was when I watched "Avatar: the last airbender" (where my username is from
) in which a character (uncle Iroh 
) is passionate about tea, and I understood that tea can be more than a beverage; it can be a hobby/pastime.After that I found out there is a great teashop in a bigger city nerby, and after I had a whiff of my first Dong Ding; something just clicked, and I was sold
.As expected, I started tasting Pu erhs, Daejelings, Senchas, etc, but my favorite tea for a long time was Kukicha, due to it's freshness and vigor.
At one point, I got hired by the same teashop where I got my teas, and that gave me the chance to get acquainted with even more teas and types of teaware. Also, I turned into quite the tea snob too for a while
...Right now I'm not working at the teashop anymore, and am now discovering an even bigger, vast world of tea, online vendors, and tea knowledge.
I have already ordered tea from Sazen tea and Yunnan Sourcing, and have not been disappointed by what I revieved
.BTW, if anyone has a favorite, less known vendor that they can recommend, especially for good japanese greens, I'd be grateful
.Anyway, this is me, and I'm glad I can join this community of tea lovers.
) at Teavana. Now I like White Peach, Earl Gray, Lapsing Souchong, and various Chai Mixes. One of my favorite chai's is the Pumpkin Spice Chai and the Masala Chai. Recently I've been experimenting with Chai Toddys so any tips on those I would greatly appreciate.