Wednesday TeaDay 11/19/08 TeaStart influence?

[Chip]

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

Remember to VOTE in the English TeaWare contest. Voting is closed at 11 eastern time, 8 pacific.

Yesterday, responders were split pretty evenly over whether or not TeaChat influenced a change in vendor choices. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

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 certainly looking forward to sharing our TeaRoots today ... and tea of course. Bottoms up.

[Pentox]

My tea drinking has always been part of my life. Although only recently starting to take more interest. But tea has always been on my table since growing up.

[Vulture]

My coworker introduced me to loose leaf teas. My local friend had been drinking teas (Rakuras) around me before but I never really considered it for myself. After tasting some made by my coworker and how inexpensive tea is per cup. I went after it and now here I am.

Nothing in my cup yet but later going to play with chocolate milk + Chai tea and chocolate milk + cinnamon tea

[omegapd]

Sweet tea was always a staple in my house growing up. With hot tea, I was about 15 and on vacation with my parents in London. In the hotel room were a couple of bags of tea for the "coffee pot" instead of coffee. Tried it and loved it. I then forgot about it until I went to college a few years later and was given a big sampler box of tea bags and an electric kettle. It just progressed from there...

English Breakfast this morning from The English Tea Store.

EW

[TaiPing Hou Kui]

Might as well go through the story......several years ago upon beginning my geologic research in Williamsburg I heard an add at the gas station while filling up my car saying "green tea can help your memory...." I thought to myself..."hmmm...Im going to need to remember a lot of stuff....I have liked iced green tea all my life...." Later on that week I stopped at a local store called Big Lots and picked up a 100 pack of green tea bags by some offbrand company along with a 1/2 gallon of honey and a portable travel mug. For about 3 weeks I drank the stuff religiously and one day at one of my research session someone asked me what I was drinking...I told them....and they then told me of a tea store in Colonial Williamsburg......The next day I found the store and was greeted by tons of sealed jars filled with looseleaf tea. I was amazed...I had no idea that you could actualy purchase tea that was not in a bag.....I then purchased a mug-mesh infuser, an ounce of gunpowder green, an ounce of sencha, and an ounce of jasmine dragon pearls....from the first brew I was amazed.....threw the tea bags in the trash and the rest is history.....then came all the research about pottery, tea types, etc....this went on for a few years and then I found tea chat and found out I was not the only "special" one who drinks that "odd looking tea" as some people call it! I say to that "your tea in the bag looks odd!" Anway, thats my story and I'm stickin to it!
*On a side note...I am currently drinking Rishi Dragonwell!

-Nick (TaiPing)

[Rakuras]

Fortune by my family tends to be health-oriented so tea has been either a sleep aid (via Chamomile blends) or an alternative to water, milk, or like common, non-carbonated beverage hence my exposure. Unfortunately that was mostly bagged until around five years ago in a little teashop around a college where I was introduced to loose and more interesting, enriching, and-dare I say- liberating flavors. Being young and in college I savored my first loose leaf bags and only recently finished off the meager 2-3 oz of tea within, living off decent green and a fine Earl Grey in the common medium. From there it's all been downhill and muddled with my inner scientist.

In my cup: nothing! It's my tea day off as with the next day as too much tea can sometimes be a bad thing and I felt the effects of such yesterday with dizziness and rabid need for food even when full. Diabetes does odd things to metabolizing agents.

[Trey Winston]

It was the health craze. I gave up sodas once and for all, and had to drink something else: supermarket green tea in bags seemed a suitably exotic, high-brow brew at the time.

How far I have come since then is illustrated by the fact that I am right now thoroughly enjoying Rishis's Ancient Moonlight, courtesy of Victoria (thanks!). Aside from its wonderfully evocative name, it is an elegant and fresh white, and I seem to detect hints of jasmine and even some citrus-y notes. Yum. Must order in bulk.

[Trioxin]

One day long ago I had a craving for blackberry tea. Couldn't find any at the local stores, so I ventured online and discovered loose leaf blackberry. Tea turned into an obsession after that. My tastes may have expanded over the years, but I still keep a couple of pounds of it on hand for iced tea. I seem to buy in excess.

Currently drinking 2008 Xiaguan FT Imperial Tribute

[Drax]

Later on that week I stopped at a local store called Big Lots and picked up a 100 pack of green tea bags by some offbrand company along with a 1/2 gallon of honey and a portable travel mug.

Best story ever!! Who would have thought Big Lots could serve as a gateway for tea drinking?

I picked "an event in my life" -- and that event was going to a Japanese restaurant with a friend and having some fantastic green tea. The rest is history.

Of course, that's probably not what people would normally interpret "an event in my life" to mean, but it's technically correct

Adagio's pouchong this morning with breakfast.

[treazure]

I grew up drinking tea so I marked other on the poll. At first my mother would give "nursery tea" to me, which is mostly warmed milk, a bit of sugar and couple spoons of prepared tea. In my cup right now is Irish Breakfast Blend from Twinings. I buy it loose and can make it strong for me and weaker for my husband. In a small pot on the stove is a mix of whole cloves, whole cinnamon stick, a half of a vanilla bean, a bit of ground nutmeg, ground allspice and minced candied ginger, covered with water. It will simmer and will reduce quite a bit after an hour or so on low temperature. After it reduces, I make a pot of Irish Breakfast blend and add the reduced spice mixture which has been strained and add milk and sugar to taste. It is also good in my morning oatmeal and makes the house smell wonderful. If I add a little bit more of the spices and more water, I can usually get another tea pot's worth of spiced tea out of the reduced spice mixture.

[Salsero]

Just kind of curious to try something different ... and a big box of five-yr-old Lipton tea bags.

Lu An Gua Pian is made only using the tea leaves and no buds.

[Herb_Master]

Ordinary black tea on the family table every breakfast and tea-time. Sweet tea immediately after every rugby match. Then finally

this year whilst in Malaysia wandering in and out of tea stores becoming hooked on Gong Fu and Oolong!

[Sydney]

other: grew up drinking tea

[brandon]

Always drank tea, from bags. Finding a Darjeeling bag was a special treat.

[Bob M.]

I'd already been drinking some loose tea, Twining, using either a tea ball or ceramic mug/infuser combo. But it was a thread on the Cooking Light message boards, where I've been an active member for five years now, which also sent me to Adagio, that really stirred my interest. So I chose "other," because I'd say that the internet was my jump into "serious" tea drinking.

This morning's cup was Upton's China Keemum TP12, their basic China black, good, but a wee bit smokey for my morning brew. It's only a sample quantity from their "Fine Teas" sampler, so I should be through it quickly enough.

Bob