As I venture further into this passion, I find myself collecting quite
a variety of teas. I am wondering if most people stick to a few on
hand or end up with a collection.

Ed

Although a tea drinker since youth, my serious phrase is only a couple
years long and I'm still learning what I like. I currently have over a
dozen different teas on hand right now from couple dollar a package
greens to $7-$10 an ounce whites and oolongs. However, I have a core
of white, green, and oolongs that I drink regularly. So I would
venture I'll maintain a core of favorites and regularly branch out
looking for more.

cdv

..

On Oct 4, 9:08*pm, Ed > wrote:
> As I venture further into this passion, I find myself collecting quite
> a variety of teas. *I am wondering if most people stick to a few on
> hand or end up with a collection.
>
> Ed

That's part of the journey. It starts off with a few because that's
all you know, then it grows and you have small packets of everything
all over the place, then you'll have large packets of everything all
over the place, then you'll have a few specific teas, then eventually
repeat one or more of those earlier stages. I've hit a point where
I need only about 8 teas in my cupboard to be happy and cover my
bases. I rotate out 2-3 of them depending on season or my mood.
Occasionally I'll get a bug to explore a new type of tea and that
number will double, maybe one of those from the exploration will make
it into the couple that rotate but often not. Once you really nail
down your likes and dislikes and have tried representations from
almost every category the numbers dwindle.

The only advice I could offer is to buy one or two really good teas
(even if they seem expensive and the amounts are less) instead of four
or five cheap but mediocre teas. I wish I had done this myself earlier
on, but just didn't know better.

It's an adventure that encompasses history, art, people, regions,
cultures, and much more than what ends up in your cup, and often that
trumps even the best tea so don't forget to step back a bit and take
it all in.

- Dominic

I keep 17 different types of loose tea in my cabinet. This is a serious emerging food trend. When I attended the Fancy Food Show in New York last year, tea, tea drinks, tea-infused foods, and the like where the most common new product.

Tea has a multitude of health benefits and a wide range of interesting flavors that coffee could never hope to achieve.

I keep a few white and green teas for the evening, black and mate teas for the morning, and some oolong and rubios for spicy dinner meals.

I have an amazing tea maker that is all computerized. It brews each type of tea correctly, with the right water temperature, correct steep times, and makes a perfect few cups each time. It's made by Zarafina.

Tea can be a very delicate thing. The different types of teas are brewed at different water temperatures for different amounts of time. The first time I tried to brew green tea with microwaved water, and let it sit as long as black tea, I got a cup of liquid grass.

Tea can become a hobby, education, and passion with the infinite varieties, kind of like wine.

On the one hand one too many, on the other hand one too less.

Jim

On Oct 4, 7:08 pm, Ed > wrote:
> As I venture further into this passion, I find myself collecting quite
> a variety of teas. I am wondering if most people stick to a few on
> hand or end up with a collection.
>
> Ed

On Oct 4, 11:26*pm, Chris DeVoney > wrote:
> Although a tea drinker since youth, my serious phrase is only a couple
> years long and I'm still learning what I like. I currently have over a
> dozen different teas on hand right now from couple dollar a package
> greens to $7-$10 an ounce whites and oolongs. However, I have a core
> of white, green, and oolongs that I drink regularly. So I would
> venture I'll maintain a core of favorites and regularly branch out
> looking for more.
>
> cdv
>
> .

Blacks- Assam, Nilgiri, Ceylon, Java, and African. Greens-Sencha
and gunpowder. Ti Kwan Yin my only current oolong. Some mixture
types. A couple of puers in the back of the cupboard. Some
tisanes. My teas are together on one shelf in the dining room,
except for the ones in current circulation on two shelves in the
kitchen. I'm currently buying only organic teas. Toci

On Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:08:41 -0400, Ed > wrote:

> As I venture further into this passion, I find myself collecting quite
> a variety of teas. I am wondering if most people stick to a few on
> hand or end up with a collection.

Right now I have two herbal teas that my wife likes, a Gunpowder Green
that I am trying out (first time, going well), a White Silver Needle or
some such for when I want a light, soothing tea, and I just ran out of Pu
Er and Darjeeling.

Aaron W. Hsu

--
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its
victims may be the most oppressive. -- C. S. Lewis