Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
How did everyone get interested in tea? Many of you have lived
in Asia, but are not from Asia. Did your interest develop
after you went to Asia?

Actually, my first visit to Japan in my college years got me
sucked into the cult of coffee. This was well before the current
Starbucks phenomenon, a time when privately run coffee shops
could be found a few steps from any locale. It was only
afterward, when I returned to Japan as a resident and not a
student/tourist that my appreciation of food and tea really started
to develop. Now, like most Japanese themselves, I rarely bother
with teas from outside Japan.

--crymad

(Rufus T. Firefly) writes:

How did everyone get interested in tea?

Now in my 50's, I was in my teens when I came upon loose tea. In those days,
the mid-1960s, in my American town, loose tea was a "gourmet" item, found at
the "gourmet" shop. "Gourmet" shops featured such weird stuff as marzipan and
chocolate-covered beetles. Some loose teas could also be found at the
department store -- mine carried the Wagner brand.

Anyway, I took a liking to the only available oolong, the rather heavily
oxidized "Formosa Oolong" -- I drank Twinings back in the day; I wonder if
their FO is the same now?

I stayed with tea for all these many years with a brief departure into the
world of good coffee -- had a piano student who owned a coffee roasting company
-- and that was on the West Coast. Now that I'm in New York, the coffee hasn't
seemed as good, though the occasional good cup is always tempting. The heavy
caffeine rush is often unpleasant though.

The world of teas available has expanded multifold since those early days and I
am grateful for it. I'm always learning and enjoying. Onward and upward!

Joe Kubera

I have to express to you my excitement at the responses my simple
posting received! I was expecting one somebody to write "because it
tastes good" and that be about it, but instead I received an amazing
array of interesting stories about how love of the most simply
brilliant invention in the history of humanity (at least in my book -
which has yet to be written)springs forth from the dullness of the
well-branded consumer world showing us that there is beauty in the
most basic of things. A leaf in some hot water is about as basic as it
seemingly gets. Sincerely, thank you.

By the way, I also grew up drinking my grandfather's lemonade, which
is what many people in the deep, hot south refer to as "tea". I can
still taste it now. In the north there a less prominent tea culture to
me, because almost no one drank what we called "tea". Surprise. When I
moved to Japan I drank some other "tea" and it was also quite
different. After some time, like everything else, it was part of
everyday life. Then it somehow became something to look forward to
during the day. Then it became something to learn about and shop for
and find google groups about and etc., etc.

Thank you again.

Rufus T. Firefly
Tokyo

Twinnings pulled their FO years ago. I'm not aware of any other
commercial brand selling FO. However just recently some Formosa
brands have appeared on the shelves. You'll have to find a 'private'
stock. Luckily my local tea shoppe carries several types of FO. My
favorite is the jade pouchong.

Jim

(Joseph Kubera) wrote in message ...
....pedicure...
Anyway, I took a liking to the only available oolong, the rather heavily
oxidized "Formosa Oolong" -- I drank Twinings back in the day; I wonder if
their FO is the same now?

Jim,

If I am not mistaken, "Formosa Oolong" refers to that specific honey sweet
style enjoyed by man and leaf hopper alike, and is rather heavily oxidized.
Jade Pouchong would be another type of Taiwanese Oolong entirely. It's all a
matter of obfuscating language, that confuses more than it clarifies.

Michael



Space 11/29/04


Twinnings pulled their FO years ago. I'm not aware of any other
commercial brand selling FO. However just recently some Formosa
brands have appeared on the shelves. You'll have to find a 'private'
stock. Luckily my local tea shoppe carries several types of FO. My
favorite is the jade pouchong.

Jim

(Joseph Kubera) wrote in message
...
...pedicure...
Anyway, I took a liking to the only available oolong, the rather heavily
oxidized "Formosa Oolong" -- I drank Twinings back in the day; I wonder if
their FO is the same now?

My local tea shoppe also carries fancy,choice,champagne,imperial,high
mountain and standard with the classic peach blossom taste. If it's
an oolong from Taiwan that's all I need to know. We just went through
a thread where the 'muscat' taste might even be missing from a
darjeeling depending on flush.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote in message ...
Jim,

If I am not mistaken, "Formosa Oolong" refers to that specific honey sweet
style enjoyed by man and leaf hopper alike, and is rather heavily oxidized.
Jade Pouchong would be another type of Taiwanese Oolong entirely. It's all a
matter of obfuscating language, that confuses more than it clarifies.

Michael

Space 11/29/04


Twinnings pulled their FO years ago. I'm not aware of any other
commercial brand selling FO. However just recently some Formosa
brands have appeared on the shelves. You'll have to find a 'private'
stock. Luckily my local tea shoppe carries several types of FO. My
favorite is the jade pouchong.

Jim

"Rufus T. Firefly" wrote in message
m...
How did everyone get interested in tea? Many of you have lived in
Asia, but are not from Asia. Did your interest develop after you went
to Asia? Why tea when the world is interested in coffee? (I,
personally, have never liked coffee, but I envy those who do.) How do
those around you view your fascination with tea (for those fascinated
with tea)? Do they see it as eccentric? It is obviously not very
eccentric when you're caught up in it, but I fear most people cannot
understand this interest, regardless of where in the world one might
be.

Excitedly awaiting your stories,

Rufus T. Firefly
Tokyo

Funny you asked. I was thinking about just that a few days ago.

My mom was a coffee drinker and I never acquired the taste. Dad was the
Lipton-in-restaurants tea drinker. Both drank green tea in the
Chinese/Japanese/Korean restaurants that we frequented in Honolulu. I tried
the Lipton thing plain and with various combinations of milk, sugar, and
lemon. Bleah. A girl in my second grade class shared my birthday so I was
invited to her house for a party. They served Lipton iced tea - bleah. The
only tea I managed to enjoy while underage were the green teas served in the
various Asian restaurants.

When I was 19, an older female friend said that regular tea was too harsh
and recommended herbal teas, specifically catnip tea. That was fun. Later, I
got into chamomile but a co-worker said she hated looking at my cup because
she thought it looked like pee. A buddy's mom suggested Constant Comment and
that convinced me that black teas are drinkable. Although I don't
particularly favor it, CC prompted me to discover what's out there and I
have found that I enjoy Darjeeling, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Prince of
Wales, and Russian Caravan among the black teas as well as various green
teas.

Do others view my fascination with tea as eccentric? Considering that I
write with fountain pens, my drinking tea is simply par for the course.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"Rufus T. Firefly" wrote in message
m...
How did everyone get interested in tea? Many of you have lived in
Asia, but are not from Asia. Did your interest develop after you went
to Asia? Why tea when the world is interested in coffee? (I,
personally, have never liked coffee, but I envy those who do.) How do
those around you view your fascination with tea (for those fascinated
with tea)? Do they see it as eccentric? It is obviously not very
eccentric when you're caught up in it, but I fear most people cannot
understand this interest, regardless of where in the world one might
be.

Excitedly awaiting your stories,

Rufus T. Firefly
Tokyo

Funny you asked. I was thinking about just that a few days ago.

My mom was a coffee drinker and I never acquired the taste. Dad was the
Lipton-in-restaurants tea drinker. Both drank green tea in the
Chinese/Japanese/Korean restaurants that we frequented in Honolulu. I tried
the Lipton thing plain and with various combinations of milk, sugar, and
lemon. Bleah. A girl in my second grade class shared my birthday so I was
invited to her house for a party. They served Lipton iced tea - bleah. The
only tea I managed to enjoy while underage were the green teas served in the
various Asian restaurants.

When I was 19, an older female friend said that regular tea was too harsh
and recommended herbal teas, specifically catnip tea. That was fun. Later, I
got into chamomile but a co-worker said she hated looking at my cup because
she thought it looked like pee. A buddy's mom suggested Constant Comment and
that convinced me that black teas are drinkable. Although I don't
particularly favor it, CC prompted me to discover what's out there and I
have found that I enjoy Darjeeling, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Prince of
Wales, and Russian Caravan among the black teas as well as various green
teas.

Do others view my fascination with tea as eccentric? Considering that I
write with fountain pens, my drinking tea is simply par for the course.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

(Rufus T. Firefly) wrote in
m:

How did everyone get interested in tea?

Aside from a brief fiddling with Earl Grey from the supermarket years ago
(probably Twinings), I've been a coffee drinker. Then one day I got
curious about yerba mate. I'd seen it on a PBS show (the one where they
ride trains all over; this one was in Argentina). Something else must have
reminded me, but I don't remember what. I tried it and liked it, and
searched Google Groups about it. Someone, as it turned out, was discussing
it in rfdt. This caused me to subscribe and (mostly) lurk, and before you
know it, I was all curious about tea.

Now some months down the road, I haven't had any yerba mate in a while, but
tea is a happy part of my daily life, as well as a deep and intriguing
journey I know I'll never "complete".

--
fD
"God's not on our side 'cause he hates idiots also."
-- Clint Eastwood as Blondie (_The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly_)

(Rufus T. Firefly) wrote in
m:

How did everyone get interested in tea?

Aside from a brief fiddling with Earl Grey from the supermarket years ago
(probably Twinings), I've been a coffee drinker. Then one day I got
curious about yerba mate. I'd seen it on a PBS show (the one where they
ride trains all over; this one was in Argentina). Something else must have
reminded me, but I don't remember what. I tried it and liked it, and
searched Google Groups about it. Someone, as it turned out, was discussing
it in rfdt. This caused me to subscribe and (mostly) lurk, and before you
know it, I was all curious about tea.

Now some months down the road, I haven't had any yerba mate in a while, but
tea is a happy part of my daily life, as well as a deep and intriguing
journey I know I'll never "complete".

--
fD
"God's not on our side 'cause he hates idiots also."
-- Clint Eastwood as Blondie (_The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly_)

Dear Groucho ;-),

It's kind of embarassing--I started driking tea because I didn't care
for coffee, and restaurants don't generally give seconds on hot cocoa
(ironically, I won't touch the tea in most restaurants now).

That was on a Boy Scout trip about four years ago--that'll give you
some idea of my age, still in my late teens. When I got home, I
started thinking that there had to be more to this stuff than Lipton,
and, having nothing better to do over the summer, I checked one of
James Norwood Pratt's books from the local library. By this time I'd
advanced only so far as to be drinking Twining's and Taylor's of
Harrogate. After a time, I got my nerve up to try ordering from Upton,
one of the retailers listed in the book.

I was thinking that I would like black tea, since that's what I'd been
drinking.
But on a whim, I went out for the oolong sampler as well, and a
quarter-pound of their basic pu-erh. It was the best move I've ever
made--I drink mostly pu-erh now, with some oolong and green.

I'm at a boarding school now, and have found a friend as crazy about
tea as I--and also into pu-erh. I've lent him a copy of "All the Tea
in China", and am helping him with tea and tea stuff--he just got his
first Yixing!

Right now, I'm trying to stock up on green pu-erh--figuring that I can
have a cellar full of really well-aged stuff by the time I'm
middle-aged.

Oh well. What's the "T" stand for? Tobias? [No, Edgar, but you were
close.] ;-)

Many happy infusions,

ZBL

(Rufus T. Firefly) wrote in message om...
How did everyone get interested in tea? Many of you have lived in
Asia, but are not from Asia. Did your interest develop after you went
to Asia? Why tea when the world is interested in coffee? (I,
personally, have never liked coffee, but I envy those who do.) How do
those around you view your fascination with tea (for those fascinated
with tea)? Do they see it as eccentric? It is obviously not very
eccentric when you're caught up in it, but I fear most people cannot
understand this interest, regardless of where in the world one might
be.

Excitedly awaiting your stories,

Rufus T. Firefly
Tokyo

That was on a Boy Scout trip about four years ago--that'll give you
some idea of my age, still in my late teens.

I'm 25 myself. Still young enough for it to be considered strange
among my peers and eccentric among those older than myself. Don't
give it up!


Mydnight

--------------------
thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
How did everyone get interested in tea?

I'm not from the south, but my parents loved suntea/iced tea, and made
it all summer every year. I never did learn to like it. They used
Lipton and sweetened the entire container.

I tried teas on and off over the years - I did like lemon and orange
teas.

But I didn't really get interested in it, until about a year ago, I saw
a display of Republic of Tea White Tea at my local grocery store (For
anyone in the northeast US, it was a Wegmans - WONDERFUL grocery
store). I bought some, cringing at the price. But I really liked it. I
also liked several of their other teas - Orange Spice green tea, and a
Rooiboos are two standouts.

Then I moved to Minnesota, and somewhere along the way, my favorite
green tea disappeared, and I didn't have a local source of Republic of
tea. So I went to their website to order some, and went a little crazy,
ordering a teapot, and a bunch of their sample packs of loose teas. So
I'm a newbie in the tea world. So far, I like the Ti Kuan Yin Oolong
the best.

I do like coffee, but since I avoid caffeine (or at least the higher
caffeine drinks), I tend towards decaf, which isn't as good. And most
of the time, I can't get the kind of coffee I like (a smoother, less
bitter brew) - it seems as if the starbuck's overly bitter style has
taken over.

Cathy Weeks

Here is my story:
I grew up in Havana, Cuba, where it is coffee and coffee, and tea
drinking is reserved for people with stomach and other digestive
ailments. But there was always the chance going against the mainstream
and therefore I was all for tea. At the beginning it was sporadic
drinking. Then I started working in a research center where there were
some Russian coworkers, and they introduced me to wonderfully fresh
Indian and Sri-Lankan tea. I got hooked-up forever.
After the collapse of the Soviet empire, things got tough in Havana,
and among other things tea became a rarity. I remember paying
exorbitant prices for a small packed of tea from India or from
Azerbaijan. I came to the US as an immigrant ten years ago and I have
been very disappointed because it is so extremely difficult to find any
kind of decent black tea around here. I have traveled quite a bit in
Europe and Asia. So far, the best tea I had over there been in Madrid,
Spain. But still I have not been able to find again the kind of strong
brew that my Russian friends shared with me back then. I keep trying,
though.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
How did everyone get interested in tea? Many of you have lived in
Asia, but are not from Asia. Did your interest develop after you went
to Asia? Why tea when the world is interested in coffee? (I,
personally, have never liked coffee, but I envy those who do.) How do
those around you view your fascination with tea (for those fascinated
with tea)? Do they see it as eccentric? It is obviously not very
eccentric when you're caught up in it, but I fear most people cannot
understand this interest, regardless of where in the world one might
be.

Excitedly awaiting your stories,

Rufus T. Firefly
Tokyo