Specialist or Generalist (Tea Enjoyment)

[Noonie]

I’m curious to know whether you like to dabble in many types of tea, or whether you prefer only a few teas. How this has changed over the years, and what drives your decisions.

I’m thinking along the lines of Chinese green, Japanese green, Chinese oolong, Taiwanese oolong, Pu-erh raw/ripe, black, etc. Of course you can further specialize in one type of Japanese greeen for example (Matcha), or drink a variety of Japanese greens (Sencha, Gyokuro, Matcha, Genmaicha, Kamaricha, Hojicha)

I’m just curious to hear your journey and preferences! Thanks for sharing

[Bok]

Ooooolong all the way!

Used to drink a lot of greener processed high mountain oolong and Taiwanese black tea (which some call black oolong)

Not so interested in those anymore, kind of feel they do not have enough complexity after a few years of drinking them. Still buy a few jin each year for the occasional brew, but nothing that gets me excited any longer.

More oxidised, roasted or aged oolongs are my to go teas now. Taiwanese or Chinese, still Oolong all the way!
So I guess call me an Oolong specialist

[Noonie]

Thanks for sharing @Bok.

I’m more of a green tea enthusiast, though I do like Taiwanese oolong. But I’m continually experimenting.

[There is no self]

I started with Japanese greens, Hojicha and Sencha in particular, and I drank nothing else for a year. I then moved to Chinese greens and from there to wulongs and then BAM! the whole tea world exploded in front of me! Greener wulongs for a while, then shu pu'erh, then sheng, and then everything in between and on the sides.
I'm definitely a generalist, mainly because I still have a lot to learn and to discover. I always have a Taiwanese wulong and a shu in storage, because for the past two years I've been enjoying those the most, but apart from that I pick whatever I feel like exploring that day. Case in point: two Chinese red teas, two Senchas, and a couple of shengs are on their way home as I write.

[Dresden]

I would have to say generalist. That being said, I tend to go through waves of being a specialist. I get really focused on one type then end up transitioning to another, then another, and so on .

So I guess you could really say I'm either a General Specialist or a Special Generalist. Of course, that wouldn't be the first time someone considered me "special".

[John_B]

It's funny how answering a discussion thread from 5 months back is essentially "necro-ing" it.

I'm as much of a generalist as one could be, although I have been focusing mostly on sheng pu'er for the past year and a half.

It makes for an interesting case, since that was about learning more about the type, more than about natural preference for that type as a cause. I explored shu quite a bit too but that came up organically, in an atypical sense; a few vendors sent a good number of samples of it.

Related to this theme it has been interesting to consider to what extent being very familiar with one type of tea informs exploration and judgment of others. Put another way, are tea quality issues consistent across tea types, or at least partially consistent? With character and profile varying as much for different types as comes up maybe only partially consistent, in my opinion.

It's interesting experiencing being "dialed in" for baseline for some tea versions, and the opposite effect, re-trying general types I've not experienced for a long time. For just enjoying teas variation seems fine; for describing and to some extent judging them things shift a bit.

I write a blog about tea but I don't necessarily see myself as doing that anyway, although it would certainly read as if I did. I pass on impressions, because that's what tea review is, but it's not supposed to mean anything in particular, to me, to either be objectively accurate or only a reflection of personal preference (so subjective instead).

[leafmajor]

I stick to a small cadre of tea genres for day-to-day consumption but I'll try any tea twice. Perhaps that make me neither?