Over simplified albeit, I have always referred to my periods of tea discovery ... and finding what tea is me ... as my personal "tea journey".
And one day, perhaps I would arrive at my final tea destination.
I have very recently been giving my own standing a lot of ... consideration. This ignited an interest in where does everyone consider themselves to be in their personal tea journeys.
Please share!
I will share mine in a bit ...
Tea Journey -------> Tea Destination, figuratively speaking
Long time ago I have found that the teas that I enjoy the most are oolong teas, no matter the provenance.
All other teas I have come across, although I did like some of them never caused this kind of craving I feel for certain oolongs.
However what appealed to me more in earlier stages, the fresh green oolongs is giving in to the more oxidised, roasted or aged oolongs.
I enjoy just rotating a few teas and have enough experience to know what I like and what I do not.
I also found that I am slowly perfecting and downsizing my tea ware and tools to further my enjoyment of those teas.
I tend to spent days or even weeks with the same tea and find enjoyment in – let‘s go philosophical – the essence of that tea.
I do care less and less about supposed tea rules – in the end it is personal, whatever works for one is fair game!
All other teas I have come across, although I did like some of them never caused this kind of craving I feel for certain oolongs.
However what appealed to me more in earlier stages, the fresh green oolongs is giving in to the more oxidised, roasted or aged oolongs.
I enjoy just rotating a few teas and have enough experience to know what I like and what I do not.
I also found that I am slowly perfecting and downsizing my tea ware and tools to further my enjoyment of those teas.
I tend to spent days or even weeks with the same tea and find enjoyment in – let‘s go philosophical – the essence of that tea.
I do care less and less about supposed tea rules – in the end it is personal, whatever works for one is fair game!
-
Teachronicles
- Posts: 436
- Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 1:13 am
- Location: SF Bay Area, CA
I'm fairly early on in my tea journey, I started with greens, then oolongs, then puers. I mostly drink oolong and puer nowadays. I still stick to pretty strict time increments when doing gongfu (ie 5, 10, 15 second increments) as I'm still learning the best way to brew certain teas.
I guess I'm in the opposite stage as bok related to teaware where I'm amassing a pretty large collection at this point although I've begun to slow down, choosing only pieces that really stand out to me.
I like to drink different teas daily but if I open a bag of something that will go stale like greener oolongs, I'll do my best to finish that before I open too many other teas.
I've really been liking grandpa style in a bowl lately, I've found you get atleast 2 or 3 really good bowls of tea, the first one being especially delicious.
This will also be first year drinking fresh spring tea. I've ordered a few fresh greens from different sources and am excited to try them. I'm also looking forward to having fresh goashan this year as well.
I guess I'm in the opposite stage as bok related to teaware where I'm amassing a pretty large collection at this point although I've begun to slow down, choosing only pieces that really stand out to me.
I like to drink different teas daily but if I open a bag of something that will go stale like greener oolongs, I'll do my best to finish that before I open too many other teas.
I've really been liking grandpa style in a bowl lately, I've found you get atleast 2 or 3 really good bowls of tea, the first one being especially delicious.
This will also be first year drinking fresh spring tea. I've ordered a few fresh greens from different sources and am excited to try them. I'm also looking forward to having fresh goashan this year as well.