TeaForum.org

I recently discovered a quirk about the terms "daily drinkers" and "tea empties" -- These both mean the same thing, the teas one has been drinking the most lately, but are not normally used interchangeably. A person usually uses one or the other exclusively, so you can often spot which online tea sub-culture they interact with the most based on their choice of words. An older version of this might be the people who call the lidded bowl a "guywan" compared to a "gaiwan".

Sometimes it seems like this can also suggest whether a person learned about tea primarily offline or not. For instance, if someone calls the brewing method "laorencha" instead of "gongfu".

Maybe this is too far afield, but has anyone spotted any other quirks like this? Do you know of any language-lovers digging into this subject more deeply?

I have observed that a few times. One can often tell from which “authorities” someone relies on their understanding of tea. Early examples where people blindly repeating things of teamasters blog. The easiest to spot are the mad hutters. Sharing bowls, tea practice and nonsensical words are dead giveaways.

There are more but it’s more subtle.

In Taiwan locally, one can often guess which teacher people follow.

Personally I find any example of this a bit sad, as it seems people are switching their brains and critical thinking off...

Tea heads= Mei leaf follower

Overuse of "body" and "aroma" when describing clay = hojo disciple

"Grandpa brewing" = marshaln?

These are simply casual observations.

Bing/beeng, seems to be generational and regional thing. Some older, mostly US based drinkers use beeng, while most others seem to follow standard pinyin. Pu-erh vs. puer seems to be somewhat similar.
Shu/shou is interesting. Shou is at least the preferred in GTH circles, but not exclusively. This seems to be regional thing in mandarin chinese, so westerners preference to either could hint at their sources.

To drink some "hong", to refer to Chinese red (black) tea was interesting slang thing in the discord group. I might be wrong, but "hongcha" would feel more natural in Chinese, so to just refer to "hong" was interesting slang thing.

"Ceremony" vs "sessions" can be used to describe basically identical tea moment. I don't think they mean the same, but for tea context, their meanings overlap, and the choice of word can be a hint.

Keemun vs Qimen is the best example which I can think of where both the older, western trade name is still in use, but so is the standard pinyin version. Choice of word would definately indicate whether they come from western tea world (Keemun vs. Assam vs. Ceylon etc) or Chinese tea context.

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:36 pm

Tea heads= Mei leaf follower

Overuse of "body" and "aroma" when describing clay = hojo disciple

"Grandpa brewing" = marshaln?

QuirkyBlends = OCTO... hahahaha...

oeroe wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:42 am

Bing/beeng, seems to be generational and regional thing. Some older, mostly US based drinkers use beeng, while most others seem to follow standard pinyin. Pu-erh vs. puer seems to be somewhat similar.

I've wondered about "beeng" too... Puer/erh is probably due to usage of Wade-Giles in the latter case (which squares with the "older drinker" hypothesis).

oeroe wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:42 am

Shu/shou is interesting. Shou is at least the preferred in GTH circles, but not exclusively. This seems to be regional thing in mandarin chinese, so westerners preference to either could hint at their sources.

Shou is commonly used in Taiwan, so not surprising to hear that people associated with GTH favor it. Also commonly used on the mainland in oral speech for certain topics (e.g. in daily speech I almost always hear the character pronounced as "shou" when relating to something being undercooked (e.g. "还没熟"))

Bok wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 10:34 pm

In Taiwan locally, one can often guess which teacher people follow.

I'm guessing you are referring mainly to one particular group/teacher here and it tends to involve westerners wearing stylized tai chi outfits... I am curious though what other particular teachers/schools of thought there might be and if they have any English or translated writing - particularly those teaching technique and history as a thing unto itself and a bit more outside of the scope of a spiritual or ritualistic practice. Or is it more that there are a couple schools of thought all coming from a kind of cha dao stance? I know Kyarazen has posted some pretty useful information over the years on pots, brewing styles, so on online that are super interesting and useful and I'm always keen for more information in that vein. Makes me very much look forward to seeing you get that pamphlet out.

I've watched the talks that are online and read a bit about Lin Ping Xiang, who from what I can gather many people consider the authority on liu bao, so I try to absorb what I can particularly in terms of history, but in part I imagine that this is just that he is much more public and there is more by/about him available in English due to his connections with GTH/cha dao circles, so I try and take everything as that he also has a very particular perspective and others might think/know very differently. Unfortunately those people are just less accessible to those of us in Europe.

@wave_code there are literally dozens in Taipei alone and many more spread all over the place.

Some more made a killing going to China and become big there, re-inserting “traditions” into China that never were... many returned as once the Chinese learned the essentials, they became their own “masters.” Well.

The teachers associated with Wistaria are possibly the most accessible for Westerners. Like Mr Shen.

Or that Teaparker guy from Mr Erler, but to be honest he’s not really as famous or know as one might think only reading Western sources.

Most of the others don’t really have anything accessible in English, some publish books in Chinese. Many have regular classes and events. Usually it’s a playground for the rich and bored. I don’t frequent these places, too much stiff rituals, unwritten rules and mindless following.

Best places for me to learn is groups of passionate tea drinkers, teashop owners and tea makers. No authorities required.

Bok wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:35 am

Best places for me to learn is groups of passionate tea drinkers, teashop owners and tea makers. No authorities required.

As is usually the case. Yeah just to clarify I meant I was more interested in writing/teachers for just historical/technical information. I like to keep myself as dogma free as possible

There is also the famous Teaforum school. The faculty can't be beat.

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:45 am

There is also the famous Teaforum school. The faculty can't be beat.

There is only the Rabbit Hole 🕳 .... where all one knows will be put to challenge and sanity pushed to insanely limits.... One cup at a time....

mbanu wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 7:22 pm

I recently discovered a quirk about the terms "daily drinkers" and "tea empties" -- These both mean the same thing, the teas one has been drinking the most lately, but are not normally used interchangeably.

I don't think they are the same at all. Daily drinkers are, as the name implies, teas you drink every day. Tea empties are usually a collection of packets and wrappers from the tea you've finished in a given month. These are more likely to be samples or odd bits and ends rather than the tea you are drinking daily (that you would presumably have a large stock of).

teaformeplease wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 11:34 am

Daily drinkers are, as the name implies, teas you drink every day.

My exposure to this expression is mostly limited to this forum, and while I agree that it can be used that way, there is another competing meaning which, maybe is also prevalent.

When people give an opinion on a tea saying it is a "daily drinker", they often do not mean it is a tea they, themselves, drink everyday. I think it is more often meant as meaning "a tea affordable enough, and of quality sufficient, to be enjoyed every day". Going on a limb, I would add that there might sometimes also a be a slight undertone that comes with use of this expression in this way, as if the person using it is saying "I will not hold it against you if you drink this tea often, but it is not really good enough for me". My feeling is if someone knows of an affordable tea they find really great for the price, they will use less generic wording... or maybe refrain from sharing their thoughts on that tea?

I claim no deep knowledge on this, just sharing my impressions.

I dislike "daily drinker" to describe tea. I assume it means the user does not look for that tea to be wonderful but to satisfy a desire for a decent drink as one functions in the course of an ordinary day. On other days, I presume that person wants an extraordinary tea that offers more.

A complete lifestyle is part of that term that is different than mine. In the course of my ordinary days, I like to drink exceptionally good teas. The stress of ordinary living in the Boston area is high; so, great tea means the most to me on ordinary days.

Obviously, what one thinks he is saying is not what others are hearing.

As a vendor I use the term "value for money" to my detriment. I heard the term being used by ordinary British blokes & liked it. I use it to convey a tea is good & better than the price would lead one to think it is. I think people think the term means the tea is fair at best but inexpensive. (Don't people get it? I won't sell a tea that is only fair.

Good teas, better teas, & best teas = practical classification, that might make our writing seem drab but perhaps more useful.

That's very interesting! I suppose maybe that is another subculture split that is not always obvious: "What do you do with good tea?"

If the answer is "Good tea is for drinking", then the tea you find yourself drinking the most is clearly your best. If the answer is "Good tea is for saving", then the tea you find yourself drinking the least is clearly your best (at least of the teas you are intentionally keeping). Maybe this is a pu'er vs. non-pu'er teaculture thing? I guess I will need to go back to see if I can understand what is meant by a person's "tea empties" using this context...

*Edit: That might be the case here. At least a cursory browse suggests that online pu'er drinkers are far more likely to use the term "daily drinkers".