Introduce Yourself

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Victoria
Admin
Posts: 3043
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:33 pm
Location: Santa Monica, CA
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Sun Feb 28, 2021 2:51 pm

Welcome to TeaForum @flo62134, @GushuDino69 and @JuliaJoJo.
olivierd
Posts: 98
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:20 am
Location: Paris, France

Mon Mar 01, 2021 9:47 am

Victoria wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 2:45 pm
Yes, welcome to TeaForum olivierd. Where do you hail from? We have members from all over the world 🌞🍃
I am in France-Paris. Nice place to live in, but quite a desert when it comes to get some kind of teas, teaware and information.
I have been able to develop a reasonable knowledge of Japanese teas and teawares (so says my teamaster) but very thin on Chinese ones.
I am eagerly following those talks about Yixing teapots and Pu-erh, as I'm still struggling with educational teapots (though I am thankful to the vendors for their cooperation), and various cakes I'm trying to get from reliable sources... it's hard to be French ! And it's hard to be ignorant ! Both at once... imagine !
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Yoroko
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 4:52 am
Location: Lipizzaner Capital (VIE), EU

Tue Mar 02, 2021 6:18 am

How long have you been drinking tea?
Decades, the "real good stuff" for a while

What kind of tea do you drink?
Now, most of the time green tea from Japan: sencha, kabusecha, gyokuro or karigane.

How do you prepare your tea?
急須 / (yokode) kyūsu/ Japanese teapot (with side handle), porcelain and clay cups, samashi, steel kettle (no tetsubin yet), ...

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?
Japanese green tea

What factors lead you to delve into the world of tea, and what is keeping you there?
Some: the fabulous teas from Nippon | exploring the influence of different tea sets: oxidation burned kyūsus vs. reduction fired ones vs. carbon reduction fired ones | water from the tap vs. water from some sources nearby | different filtering solutions to reduce carbon | buying directly from Japan sometimes | experimenting with temperature and time inspired by the "old school" at Japan and the new way at Nippon (hotter and shorter) | resetting real good kyūsus made of excellent natural and iron rich clays: I tend more to the supporters group and so my opinion is at the moment: yeap | the feeling of calm, when drinking a tiny cup of kabusecha | the good aftertaste in the mouth after a few sips of gyokuro | sharing a high quality sencha with others and much more.


What is your location?
Around the "Lipizzaner Capital", Europe
k9kyle
New user
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 12:21 pm
Location: Western US

Tue Mar 02, 2021 12:22 pm

Hello friends! My name is Kyle, i live in the Western US. I have been diving into the world of Puerh over the last half year or so and am very excited to learn more. Nice to meet you all.
Repulsive_Stomach
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2021 3:00 am
Location: Austria

Wed Mar 03, 2021 3:05 am

Hey im RP,

How long have you been drinking tea?
well about 5 years now!

What kind of tea do you drink?
Mostly Black Teas

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?
I am interested in collecting Teaware

What is your location?
I'm from Austria, Europe

Glad to get to know you all!
Pan
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:09 am
Location: Los Angeles

Fri Mar 05, 2021 3:11 am

How long have you been drinking tea?

Practically since I was born, my family has been immersed in British tea culture (milk, sugar and tea) for many years and back in Sri-Lanka many of my family members from my mothers side have tea plantations, that produce mostly black teas, many here such as Victoria know me as Pan.

What kind of tea do you drink?
I drink all of the varieties however only single origin, or pure teas as I like to call them. Those I enjoy the most, I do drink tisanes, but not often. I do indulge in bubble tea/boba tea as well, I cannot deny it, I love Thai ice tea.

How do you prepare your tea?

most of my oolongs, and pu-erhs I prepare in traditional gong fu style with Factory 1 tea pots, chao-zhou pots and hand made ceramics, particularly qing dynasty ceramics. In a pinch I do use a gaiwan.

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?

where to get the best gyokuro and sencha in the Los Angeles area(basically where I can go to a store and get it, vs having it shipped) and how to brew Gyokuro and sencha to get their legendary flavors.

I am also interested in the mysteries of Pu-erh and ball rolled oolongs.

What factors lead you to delve into the world of tea, and what is keeping you there?

I have found that tea is often misunderstood many times and also pushed by the clique and trendy bunch as being “exclusive” or “rare” I.e. like Tie Guan yin or as it is called by main stream places, monkey picked oolong. I began a journey when I was 18 to go beyond this and learn how to properly brew teas to get flavors that many would not think twice about and to treat it like fine wine tasting. What’s keeping me there is the friendships I have made along the way and the life long learning.

What is your location?
Southern California, specifically Los Angeles.
greengaiwan
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 8:43 pm
Location: USA

Fri Mar 05, 2021 10:03 pm

Greetings all,

I'm from the USA. I've been drinking tea a long time but got into whole leaf teas in the past couple years. I'm developing a taste for young sheng puer and find it pretty enchanting. I love teas from most categories, and especially enjoy floral and fruity notes. I drink tea every day and started brewing gong fu style a little over a year ago. I'm interested in learning more about tea processing at the moment, and enjoy looking up the region of a tea I'm drinking on a map. I'm also interested in potentially tea trading since I'm pretty sure many people have good surplus tea like I do. Looking forward to learning more, and enjoying tea together!

Cheers,
Abby
User avatar
Tertti
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:32 am
Location: Finland

Sun Mar 07, 2021 3:17 am

Hi there,

In the tea sphere I'm mostly interested in meditating with tea. In practice that means that I'm drinking tea in the mornings where the point is to put attention on the things happening during that time (brewing, tea, my mind and body sensations etc.) and e.g. not checking my phone or planning something.

Tea's purpose for me nowadays is mostly strengthening the feeling of safety, calmness and mindfulness in my everyday life. During the last year I've had a very intense mental process so I started to emphasize routines, calmness, easiness etc. much more than earlier. Of course Tea is also a channel to express my creativity.

Nowadays I get together with other teaple too rarely. Most of the time with friends I brew the tea mostly gong-fu (Malaysian origin) and alone and in public ceremonies in a side handle+bowl.

I started to meditate with tea daily around 2016. Before that I already had tasted shou pu'er and really fell in love. During the first few years I was drinking all genres but nowadays my taste is 90% shou and liubao. Other kinds of tea I drink pretty rarely.

Since getting into tea and meditation I've been traveling in Yunnan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Laos for tea related activities. I've had nice adventures and brutal teachings :)

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to store the teas I have so they would be in the best shape. I've had a lot of trouble with that. In Finland the indoor air is super dry (~25%RH) in the winter. So during the years I've had a lot of tea turned very plain which makes me sad. I know about pumidors and ways people store their puer usually but I still have my challenges.
Another topic i'm exploring is getting rid of the teas which I'm not planning to store or drink. At the moment this means mostly young sheng pu'er.
Bigger projects which I'm interested now are making blog posts, Youtube videos, online course etc. about this sort of approach to tea.

I also have a small side-hustle tea business.

Based in Finland.
Finisterre
New user
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2021 1:30 am
Location: UK

Tue Mar 09, 2021 7:30 am

Hello everyone, lovely to join the forum, I've used to visit teachat for information but have been away from the online tea world for a bit and have now found TeaForum so thought I would join to get involved.

How long have you been drinking tea?
Getting on 20 years now, around 10 of those years after a switch to gongfu preparation.

What kind of tea do you drink?
A bit of everything really, recently a fair few Japanese black teas, raw pu erh and the odd oolong.

How do you prepare your tea?
Mostly gongfu using a gaiwan. I've toyed with moving to clay but can't quite find the budget yet.

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?
At the moment I want to find out more about other heicha and where to get hold of it from while UK based. I also have an urge to get back into oolongs from Taiwan but should probably stick with one thing at a time.

What factors lead you to delve into the world of tea, and what is keeping you there?
I've always been a bit obsessive about one thing or another and tea has been something that's stuck. In terms of what's keeping me it would have to be that there is always more to learn and experience.

What is your location?
UK
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pedant
Admin
Posts: 1516
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 4:35 am
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Tue Mar 09, 2021 8:28 am

welcome!
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bliss
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 5:31 pm
Location: Brighton, UK

Wed Mar 10, 2021 5:49 pm

Hey everyone,
Long time no see. I don't know if any of you remember me from TeaChat back in 2013-2015. Many things have happened since, aside from leaving Sweden. I moved to Vancouver, Canada, for a few years and now I'm in Brighton, UK.

How long have you been drinking tea?
Aside from badly brewed cheap tea growing up, Sencha since 2008, and Chinese teas since ~2012 or so.

What kind of tea do you drink?
Young and old Sheng, Yancha, and Taiwanese Oolongs primarily. Add to that a smattering of Liu Bao, Shou, Hongcha, and the occasional Sencha.

How do you prepare your tea?
Gongfu, granpa, thermos, or big pot.

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?
Sheng, Yancha, and Yixing pots.

What factors lead you to delve into the world of tea, and what is keeping you there?
The feels.

What is your location?
Brighton, UK.
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Victoria
Admin
Posts: 3043
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:33 pm
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Contact:

Wed Mar 10, 2021 7:54 pm

Welcome to TeaTeaForum @Finisterre and @bliss nice to have a few more UK members join us here, and @Tertti from Finland. @bliss glad you managed to find us here, welcome back - to the new place!
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tea.avatar
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2021 2:19 pm
Location: USA

Thu Mar 11, 2021 2:49 pm

How long have you been drinking tea?

Since I was young, just casually drinking teabags and flavored tea. Just recently learned about 'gongfu' brewing and am trying it out!

What kind of tea do you drink?

I like almost everything I've tried so far (which admittedly isn't much) but I especially like white teas and sheng puerh


How do you prepare your tea?

Gongfu recently


What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?

Everything! I'm brand new at this (I thought there was only black and green tea a year ago!)


What factors lead you to delve into the world of tea, and what is keeping you there?

I wanted to find some serenity in 2020. My username is tea.avatar because of Uncle Iroh from Avatar the Last Airbender, who is both a fond memory and a tea-drinking goal. Right now my life feels more like Zuko's but hopefully, as I practice I find that same serenity and safety I felt as a kid watching atla.


What is your location?

I'm in the USA
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Balthazar
Posts: 706
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:04 am
Location: Oslo, Norway

Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:52 pm

Welcome to all the new members!
Tertti wrote:
Sun Mar 07, 2021 3:17 am
Right now I'm trying to figure out how to store the teas I have so they would be in the best shape. I've had a lot of trouble with that. In Finland the indoor air is super dry (~25%RH) in the winter. So during the years I've had a lot of tea turned very plain which makes me sad. I know about pumidors and ways people store their puer usually but I still have my challenges.
Depends on the size of your collection, but mylar bags + boveda packs are likely to be a successful combination. Good luck in figuring out something that works for you.
shawnda h
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 21, 2021 9:41 pm

Tue Mar 23, 2021 12:04 am

Hi new tea friends. :)

I have loved botanicals the whole of my life. While I've been consuming herbal "teas" for decades, I'm looking to explore Camellia sinensis beyond my limited and mostly commercial exposure. I have much to learn from this forum and hope to impart my experience and knowledge of tisanes.

So, mostly I'm here to drink it up, so to speak.

Thanks for being here.

Warm Regards,

Shawnda
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