what made you fall in love with tea?

[doyoulovedee]

for me, i used to hate tea. it always brought up thoughts of horrid bitterness. until one day my coworker brings me some berry black (numi) with two sugars, and says "try it." i like it. so i buy some tea at lupicia and this place i know in china town. then some teaware, then i went big and my first online purchase was here at adagio. then four other online tea shops, and now i'm in love, pretty much, i'm still trying, but i try and drink at least two cups a day, prefferable four to five. and everytime nadia (my coworker) tell me i spend too much money on tea stuff, i tell her it's all her fault.

i'm curious to know, if anyone would like to share, if they can recall what did it in for them. so, please, what made you fall in love with tea?

[olivierco]

The taste

[Space Samurai]

For me it was this, http://www.rishi-tea.com/travelogue/Fai ... _China.php, and discovering Fair Trade. Up till then I was only dabbling in tea. Since then, though the taste is grand, tea has been my window into culture, history, art, lanugage, and religion/spirituality/mythology.

[Carnelian]

I dabbled in icky tea bags for a while as an alternative to pop and coffee (can't handle the caffeine in either), then I discovered Adagio through the magic that is televison. After my first sip of tea made from loose leaf I never went back.

[Victoria]

I drank mostly blacks, usually Ceylon, and a few whites - I fell in love when I tasted my first oolong.

[Pentox]

I've been drinking tea most of my life, but I didn't really get started into it hardcore until I tried some tea at a tea bar at Wegman's in Rochester NY. Then a friend of mine took me to Lupicia and i've been hooked ever since.

[chamekke]

When this question comes up, I always think of Mrs Doyle on Channel 4's Father Ted series. The housekeeper to three disreputable priests, Mrs Doyle is always urging more tea on everyone.

I LOVE the whole tea-making thing! You know, the playful "splash!" of the tea as it hits the bottom of the cup; the thrill of adding the milk, and watching it settle for a moment, before it filters slowly down through the cup, changing the colour from dark brown to...a lighter brown. Perching an optional Jaffa cake on the saucer, like a proud soldier standing to attention beside a giant...cup of tea!

I even feel that way about cleaning the used leaves out of my teapot.

Yup, I fell in love with the whole tea-making thing

[joelbct]

i'm curious to know, if anyone would like to share, if they can recall what did it in for them. so, please, what made you fall in love with tea?

I copied and pasted part of this from my first "Intro to Teachat" post last year-

I am 25, started drinking tea daily about 5 years ago, strangely enough, when I had broken my foot and read in my grandfather's retirement magazine that tea could help heal broken bones!

Progressed from supermarket bagged tea to loose leaf... Eventually, found a high-end shop in New Haven, CT, and started drinking actual quality India and China black tea (no milk or sugar, of course), and being precise about brewing times and temperature...

Then discovered Japanese Green tea through Ito En in New York, and I fell for that from my first taste of Kagoshima Sencha. So I suppose my "falling for tea" was a gradual process.


Thanks to Teachat, I've learned a ton, discovered a few more excellent suppliers, amassed the above Japanese Teaware collection, and made a few tea-friends!

Good luck with your own journey

[edit- fixed photo res to 600w. ah my precious teaware]

[Wesli]

Isn't it obvious? It was GRAVITY.

[elchai]

Mine started when I decided to give up coffee. I went to green teabags and loved it, then I started trying the flavored black teas, and when I found chai tea, that did it. I then decided I wanted to try loose tea, and found Adagios website... Im still partial to green and black, but trying others.

[Beanbean]

I can't remember a time when I didn't love tea. My mother started giving it to me when I was about three years old. I have refined my tastes but I've always been a tea drinker.

[joelbct]

Isn't it obvious? It was GRAVITY.

[throws a tomato at the stage]

[geeber1]

When I was little my dad drank hot tea and used to let me sneak sips of it. I guess that little secret thing between us really stuck with me because I've always loved tea. Coffee never had a chance!

[doyoulovedee]

Mine started when I decided to give up coffee. I went to green teabags and loved it, then I started trying the flavored black teas, and when I found chai tea, that did it. I then decided I wanted to try loose tea, and found Adagios website... Im still partial to green and black, but trying others.

and..

When I was little my dad drank hot tea and used to let me sneak sips of it. I guess that little secret thing between us really stuck with me because I've always loved tea. Coffee never had a chance!

i guess one of the reasons for me late coming to tea was due to my family being major soda drinkers. as i recall, no one i knew in my family ever drank tea. my mum does now, but that's because she lives in scotland and i think she'd be exiled from the UK if she didn't (might be an exaggeration, but i'm sure my step dad would leave her).

although, i'm really enjoying these stories.
please keep them coming.

[Beidao]

I've been drinking tea for a long time and seen it as something cosy, but never been really fanatical about it until maybe half a year ago. It was due to a process - I had been trying my first whites, and my first pu, but mostly drank flavoured bag tea. Then I got an anonymus comment on my blog saying I drank crap Maybe I week later, I happened to go to a really classy tea store. If it hadn't been due to that comment, I think I had been bying only flavoured stuff. Now, I bought some loose leaf unflavoured. When I look back, it was not very yummy stuff, but it was sort of a revalation anyway. Then I got very fanatic I drink pu at my work all days and then oolong at him. Still feels like I'm only pretending to be one of the cool kids though