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I'm very curious how you all choose what tea to drink. Do you decide in advance or more spontaneously? Especially wondering how you approach setting up a progression of teas to have with friends.
I wrote a post on my approach (https://teasecrets.home.blog/2018/12/29 ... -to-drink/), but wondering about others.

teasecret wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 29, 2018 11:47 am

Do you decide in advance or more spontaneously?

A bit of both. Oolong and black tea are my staple teas, and I always have at least four of each for variety. After that, I usually have at least one of each other varietyof tea. So I always decide in advance that I have at least a certain amount of each tea by type (one of which is always Li Shan), but as to the specific tea that’s always based on whatever looks good at the time. And whenever I restock one of my staples I always end up adding on a few extras spontaneously.

swordofmytriumph wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:05 pm

teasecret wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 29, 2018 11:47 am

Do you decide in advance or more spontaneously?

A bit of both. Oolong and black tea are my staple teas, and I always have at least four of each for variety. After that, I usually have at least one of each other varietyof tea. So I always decide in advance that I have at least a certain amount of each tea by type (one of which is always Li Shan), but as to the specific tea that’s always based on whatever looks good at the time. And whenever I restock one of my staples I always end up adding on a few extras spontaneously.

Are you talking about what you buy, or what you drink in a given day/session?

Oh, lol to buy.
If we’re talking what to drink on a given day, well that depends first whether it’s a weekday or not. Weekdays I leave the house with a thermos of black tea in the morning. Or, if not black, then roasted oolong. A daily drinker type tea. Nothing pricey unless I’m having a terrible week. The main qualification is that the body has to be strong enough to kick me in the teeth. Weekends now, anything goes. Whatever I feel like at the time.

what to drink?

haven't had yancha or dancong today

pangs of guilt from opened green teas wasting away

i reach for the sencha knowing it won't last

old faithful puerh's not going anywhere fast

I drink based on whim, what I'm eating, time of day, weather, whether I am able to sit by tea table and do gongfu or need to fill a thermos for 4-8 hours away from the tea table, and by how likely a tea is to go 'off'.

I like to start the day with Sencha on most days, or gyokuro, or sometimes (as now) or a different green that I want to use up quickly--that bag stays by the tea tray until it is gone.

I like chilled sparkling sencha and chilled green oolongs in hot weather, and am more likely to pick dark oolongs or puerh in cold weather.

I tend to drink the same 1-2 light roast/green oolongs very frequently to make sure they don't deteriorate too much before I finish them, but don't worry about the dark roasts or the puerhs or those of the green teas that can handle a little age gracefully (gyokuro, An Ji Bai Cha, a few others).

Korean hwang cha, shou puerh, traditional roast TGY or TKY and some Wuyi oolongs, and cool brewed milk oolong do wonderfully in the thermos; Tea Habitat's fine Dan Congs and my best sheng peurhs are only for extended gongfu sessions.

debunix wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 29, 2018 9:28 pm

...my best sheng peurhs are only for extended gongfu sessions.

I used to drink pu erh at work. I had to give it up, it always tastes off after 15 minutes or so, way too astringent. Also, there's the added bit about going into the breakroom and chiping off pieces unidentifiable green matter and then drinking the results. After doing that for a while I found out that all my coworkers thought I was doing weed at work. I had to "educate" them. I'm pretty sure their eyes started glazing over after like two minutes after I started talking about how they were processed and so on... Oh well. Now I work on graveyard shift where weirdness is part of the job description.

I quite enjoy hemming and hawing and trying to figure out what I'm going to drink every day. I do try to focus on finishing perishable greens first, though, and I have a bag of sencha near my tea tray that I'm working my way through! Sometimes my choices are based on whether or not I've worked out. Oolong, green and hongcha are very good for muscle recovery. I had iced hongcha with cream cheese last night and it was great!

I share my tea widely at work, so my coworkers have experience with it and the only complaints I get are when I am out and they miss the afternoon tea rounds.

I also break up beengs at
Home and bring bags of ready-for-the-pot chunks.

debunix wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 30, 2018 2:58 am

I share my tea widely at work, so my coworkers have experience with it and the only complaints I get are when I am out and they miss the afternoon tea rounds.

Lucky! All my coworkers are coffee/monster drinking heathens.

swordofmytriumph wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 30, 2018 2:06 am

Also, there's the added bit about going into the breakroom and chiping off pieces unidentifiable green matter and then drinking the results. After doing that for a while I found out that all my coworkers thought I was doing weed at work.

Even better if it was a brick!

As for me, sometimes I'm influenced by the season: sheng/green wulongs during spring, greens (especially Japanese greens) during summer, dark wulongs/shu during autumn/winter. I have a soft spot for green wulongs, though, so those are a staple all year round.

There is no self wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 30, 2018 5:27 am

As for me, sometimes I'm influenced by the season: sheng/green wulongs during spring, greens (especially Japanese greens) during summer, dark wulongs/shu during autumn/winter.

Is that because of something you read about health, or just your gut feeling during each season? For me I have definitely been craving young sheng less often, but maybe that's just the direction I'm going with my tea drinking in general.
Today I don't know what I'm going to drink but I feel like I'll just know in an hour or so.

teasecret wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:21 am

There is no self wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 30, 2018 5:27 am

As for me, sometimes I'm influenced by the season: sheng/green wulongs during spring, greens (especially Japanese greens) during summer, dark wulongs/shu during autumn/winter.

Is that because of something you read about health, or just your gut feeling during each season? For me I have definitely been craving young sheng less often, but maybe that's just the direction I'm going with my tea drinking in general.
Today I don't know what I'm going to drink but I feel like I'll just know in an hour or so.

Gut feeling, definitely. It just feels right to drink a rich cup of shu in winter.

"It is entirely seemly for a good shu to be drank in winter. In its liquor all things appear fair." (Homer on his 27th cup of pu'erh)

Anyway, that's the general idea. On a micro level the mood usually wins over the season.

On the other hand, where those teas usually come from, seasons vary little in temperature. Those three weeks of winter in Taiwan hardly call for a change in tea. People here tend do drink one kind of tea their whole life and barely change their habit.

The reason i switch from one tea to another is sometimes mostly due to what i ate or did not, how late it is, or who is drinking with me.

Lately I always do the same routine. Greenish High mountain first and then something more roasted or aged.

Mostly sticking to one or two teas for a few days. On bag of green open at any one time, finished in two weeks max.

Many years ago, I refused coffee and instead began to drink green tea. And in general, all drinks are replaced by tea. I know that any kind of tea has many beneficial properties for our health. And recently, from this article, I learned one good news, as for a girl, that they lose weight from green tea.