Hi Curt,

Excellent, then you know how much fun the journey can be. If you're
thinking of smokey teas (as in literally smokey) then you should look at a
tea called Lapsang Souchong (spelling might be slightly off) which is very
smokey as they smoke the leaves over pine branches. You might want to get a
sample first, it's pretty astonishing and some don't like it much while
others love it. I'm sure someone on here likes it, they can recommend a good
brand or place to get a good type. Some is more smooth than others. Also,
there is a tea called Russian Caravan that can be smokey too (uses some of
the Lapsang in the mix) but some mixes calling themselves Russian Caravan
are not smokey so...again, sampling around is a good idea. And you're right,
tea is (or can be) a reasonably inexpensive and very pleasant hobby.

My husband brews a pretty stout mead when I'm lucky,


Melinda


"CE - Curt E." wrote in message
news:iJm_e.28408$hp.18724@lakeread08...
Hey Melinda thanks. I am not looking for a quick learn. I have been
homebrewing beer for 15 years and know how the knowledge comes with
experience and time. I figure I have another 20 years or so to know what
I
want to know with that hobby of connoisseurship. Tea...A life
time?....Great! I'll savor every moment! I have recently been getting
into
collecting fancy pipes and fancy pipe tobacco and from what I've read on
those newsgroups good homeroast coffee and good "smokey" teas are good
(even
supposedly better than homebrew) to go with a bowl of fine tobacco...so I
tried it with some Bigelow tea and could see that there might be something
to this...so the interest. Also my wife drinks tea every night before bed
and was recently inquiring about the finer aspects of teas and how it may
be
similar in genre to my recent tobacco and long time beer connoisseurship
hobbies.

I work allot and have two lovely little children (4g&9b) and live in a
wonderfully old historic house (to work on). These culinary-ish hobbies
are
relatively cheap, have rich histories and involve somewhat technical (read
here ...nerdy) processes that make them complex...yet...take relatively
little time ...and half the fun is just reading about it all.

FYI: The alt.smokers.pipes newsgroup has recently had it's fair share of
marketeers in "sheep's clothing" here recently too.

I'm sure I'll be posting with further questions as soon as I find some
good
info and some good teas to start to try.

thanks again,
Curt E.