Daily Tea Routines

Noonie
Posts: 360
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 12:30 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:18 am

I'm interested to hear about your daily tea routines - when you have your first session, what teas you drink when and why, whether one day varies to the next, do you treat weekdays different from weekends, how many different types (e.g., ripe vs. raw, sencha vs. gyokuro, wuyi vs. dancong) you have on the go or consume throughout a week. I'm just curious is all.

I'll start...

I'm usually in a bit of a rush in the morning so instead of a tea I can gongfu over the course of an 1+ hours, I opt for Sencha. I still enjoy it immensely, but I'll brew 100ml 3-4 times and it's a nice albeit shorter session than with other teas. I like Sencha a lot and may be it again at end of day. I was drinking ripe in the mornings and saving some in the pot for later, but recently switched it up (back) to Sencha.

I usually have a ripe or raw pu'erh per day, usually mid-day. I have time now (WFH) so I can enjoy it while working, listening to music, or having a break outside in my backyard. When I was in the office my routine was different. I usually have 2-3 pu'erhs opened at once (2 ripe, 1 raw). I sometimes have to pu'erhs in a day...but I'm moving away from that (see guest tea, next).

So for me, Sencha and pu'erh are staples that I have nearly every day. I usually have 1, sometimes 2, other teas opened that I drink 3-5x a week. Right now it's long jing, before it was a high mountain oolong. Next will be a gyokuro, then maybe a wuyi or dancong. Depends on what I'm in the mood for.

I usually finish my last tea before 7pm, though usually closer to 6pm to ensure the caffeine doesn't affect my sleep.
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klepto
Posts: 488
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Location: Floridaman, USA
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Thu Jul 09, 2020 12:03 pm

My tea routines these days are too rigid and scientific :mrgreen: I should be wearing a lab coat and using more precise utensils. My raw puerh sessions are either early morning or late at night. I'm trying to pay attention to all the subtle nuances in the tea as well as affects on mind/body. I hand write notes at times and make notes for cake purchases. I slow down my tea drinking a lot and I get very relaxed in the process. I don't know how to drink tea without specific times and specific measurements :(
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Dresden
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2019 11:31 pm
Location: Bayou Self, Louisiana

Sat Jul 11, 2020 4:32 am

I'm a bit all over the place these days to be honest.

The one thing that I still keep consistent is that if I am trying a tea for the first time, or trying to go really in depth with a tea, I always do it in the morning as that is when our palette is the most sensitive. A little trick I picked up from single malt aficionados.

Of course, it could be just an excuse for day drinking. :lol:
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Webley
Posts: 48
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2020 7:37 pm
Location: Baltimore, USA

Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:03 pm

As I have a caffeine sensitivity I must limit it during the course of my day.
In the morning. Anything green with caffeine. Chinese or Japanese.
With lunch. Green Rooibos.
Late afternoon. Puerhs, oolongs or white teas
Evening. Maybe a tisane.
None of the above mentioned are written in stone. I vary the kind and time I drink them. That’s the fun of it. I strive for the calm alertness we all want to achieve.
polezaivsani
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:43 pm
Location: Kaliningrad, RU

Sun Aug 02, 2020 1:17 pm

I've been drinking pu'er on most days during last couple years. For not much reason other than getting hold of better sheng cakes prior to trying good specimens of other kinds. Fortunately i got tasty greens this spring and for a good couple months i started my day with a short session of green tea. That worked really great through hotter days, and as mentioned above - cherishing delicate greens seem more rewarding early in the day.

Unfortunately the pandemic with a clogged postal service put an abrupt end on that part of my routine. At least until resupply arrives. I'm also looking forward to vary morning sessions with Japanese greens, but that's a concept only so far for the same reason.

Pu'ers now got moved to later in the evening, around 7 or 8pm. That's when i can commit to an hour-ish long session with some raw cakes. One cake worked magic during that time, giving a nice boost to pursue more free form activities. While others less so, hence i'm thinking on experimenting with the late sessions more.

And generally i tend to follow that drill through out the week more strictly (in not such a strict sense) compared to weekends, where most bets are off and i can do 0 to 3 sessions of anything, depending on how i feel that day.
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debunix
Posts: 1812
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2017 1:27 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Sun Aug 02, 2020 2:56 pm

I drink more tea than other liquids, for thirst as well as enjoyment. I usually start the day with sencha, gyokuro, or matcha, starting my tea even as I am preparing breakfast. Often at least one infusion is taken with a morning walk in the garden.

After that relatively predictable start, it all depends on work.

If I am set for a day at the satellite office, where I do not have a setup for preparing tea, I prepare a large thermos of tea with a small quantity of leaf for the whole day. It might be a deep roast oolong, shou puerh, prepared with water just off the boil; on a hot day, it might be a light-roast oolong or even a green tea, started with a bit of hot water and then finished with a lot of cool water. Because these teas sit in water for 10-12 hours by the end of the day, they can't turn bitter, so that limits options a lot.

At work in the primary office, I have a tea prep setup and a variety of teas, and I often need a thermos for an half-day away from my office, so a similar selection to those all-days away; other times it might be a fairly mindful session with a sheng puerh or chinese green while doing paperwork. I often share these teas, preparing a larger quantity by blending several infusions in a large pitcher that I take up and down the hall; other times it's just me.

If I'm home, and it's hot like it is this weekend, I might pull a prepared chilled bottle of tea from the fridge to carbonate for sparkling tea. Other times, it might be straight on to a hot brewed puerh or oolong or a chinese green. If at work or doing errands or working outside, it might be cool-brewed oolong. Today my lunch-time brew was grandpa style Alishan. And so it goes.

If it's evening and I'm more worried about sleep than about alertness as I finish a task, I often enjoy herbal teas or houjicha.

I may have 3-4 teas in a day, but since I like my teas more dilute than many, and when drinking for thirst I may continue to some barely-tea final infusions, especially with a meal, and my total grams/day is probably 10-12 at most.
Noonie
Posts: 360
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 12:30 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Sun Aug 02, 2020 6:57 pm

polezaivsani wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 1:17 pm
I've been drinking pu'er on most days during last couple years. For not much reason other than getting hold of better sheng cakes prior to trying good specimens of other kinds. Fortunately i got tasty greens this spring and for a good couple months i started my day with a short session of green tea. That worked really great through hotter days, and as mentioned above - cherishing delicate greens seem more rewarding early in the day.

Unfortunately the pandemic with a clogged postal service put an abrupt end on that part of my routine. At least until resupply arrives. I'm also looking forward to vary morning sessions with Japanese greens, but that's a concept only so far for the same reason.

Pu'ers now got moved to later in the evening, around 7 or 8pm. That's when i can commit to an hour-ish long session with some raw cakes. One cake worked magic during that time, giving a nice boost to pursue more free form activities. While others less so, hence i'm thinking on experimenting with the late sessions more.

And generally i tend to follow that drill through out the week more strictly (in not such a strict sense) compared to weekends, where most bets are off and i can do 0 to 3 sessions of anything, depending on how i feel that day.
@polezaivsani have you noticed drinking tea around 7-8pm affecting sleep due to caffeine? Do you usually drink that late? When do you go to bed? I ask because when I drink tea after 6pm it seems to affect sleep (hard to know for certain as I don’t necessarily sleep so well each night without having tea)
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Bok
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Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Sun Aug 02, 2020 9:51 pm

Noonie wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 6:57 pm
polezaivsani have you noticed drinking tea around 7-8pm affecting sleep due to caffeine? Do you usually drink that late? When do you go to bed? I ask because when I drink tea after 6pm it seems to affect sleep (hard to know for certain as I don’t necessarily sleep so well each night without having tea)
I found that one gets used to it. The more I drink tea late, the less it affects me, so I could push that limit until where it doesn't affect my sleep at all. Frequently have extended tea sessions with friends until midnight with dozens of teas across the bank, not trouble at all to sleep afterwards.

But - there the odd tea out which still doesn't let you sleep. Usually a new or unknown tea :mrgreen:
polezaivsani
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:43 pm
Location: Kaliningrad, RU

Mon Aug 03, 2020 2:35 am

Noonie wrote:
Sun Aug 02, 2020 6:57 pm
polezaivsani have you noticed drinking tea around 7-8pm affecting sleep due to caffeine? Do you usually drink that late? When do you go to bed? I ask because when I drink tea after 6pm it seems to affect sleep (hard to know for certain as I don’t necessarily sleep so well each night without having tea)
As @Bok said, getting used to it plays significant role here. I rarely go to bed before 1am and usually try to finish the teas 3-4 hours before that, so that on a usual day i don't get any noticeable impact on sleep.

Occasionally it does get botched a bit. Sensitivity curve i guess is more of a personal trait, which is pretty abrupt for me (and guess non linear in general). Last month i had a week of intermittent evening sessions (maybe one in two days) and that increased sensitivity a lot. Which i enjoyed and would love to experiment more with, would i find a way to rein the addiction in :).
Noonie
Posts: 360
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 12:30 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:23 am

Thank you both!
TastyOregano
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2020 8:25 pm
Location: Netherlands

Mon Sep 07, 2020 8:58 pm

Routine for me depends on how my work is, but I hardly ever miss my early morning lemon juice followed by fukamushi sencha steeped 4 times, it’s bliss.

Usually I’ll have one or two more sessions though. Kukicha is an evening favourite.
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StoneLadle
Posts: 347
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2020 12:19 am
Location: Malaysia

Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:11 am

In the morning it's either English Breakfast (EBT) or Liu Bao. The former with a teaspoon of sugar, super black, the latter would be drunk till it goes pale in the cup, about 7-8g of tea to start with.

If I can get my ass into a teashop during the day then it's a bonus. Drinking whatever is on the table, usually LB or PE or an Oolong. In my bag are several baggies also, just in case...

The thermos in my bag is either LB or Oolong...

And when I get home it's 2-3 teas into the wee hours, usually a PE...

Weekends are horrendous by most standards. Total tea gluttony...
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StoneLadle
Posts: 347
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2020 12:19 am
Location: Malaysia

Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:12 am

@Bok unknown teas are scary in that way right... One just doesn't know till one tries to go to bed...
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OCTO
Posts: 1120
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:25 pm
Location: Penang, Malaysia

Tue Sep 08, 2020 9:29 am

StoneLadle wrote:
Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:11 am

Weekends are horrendous by most standards. Total tea gluttony...
Another weekend coming soon...... 🤣🤣🤣
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hopeofdawn
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:56 pm

Thu Sep 10, 2020 7:56 am

I've been working from home since March, which has changed up my tea routine, as I now have all my tea and teaware at my disposal instead of just what I've stashed away at the office. (and in fact had to go in and retrieve my stash after it became clear after a couple months we weren't going back anytime soon).

At least once a day I pick out what tea I'm in the mood to drink, and then pick the teapot and cup I want to brew it in. I try to justify my ginormous teaware collection by picking a different pot every day. :) It helps that I rarely drink the same tea two days in a row--I find I like to change out different tea types so that I'm not taking the same tea for granted day after day. When it's hot I'll drink more greens and greener oolongs, when it's cold more black and roasted oolongs.

Sadly, I rarely take time to just drink tea and do nothing else. It would probably help if I had someone to drink with. Mostly I'm reading, or drawing, or working. I really need to work on taking time for regular meditative gongfu sessions again ...
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