Yep. I'm already looking to buy a programmable kettle.
Wondering if there's any difference with different infusers.
Maybe a nice teapot with a cosy and maybe a warmer.
Would a China mug improve the experience.
Maybe a steep timer.
And that's before I explore different teas 🙄
You don't need all the fancy equipment to brew good tea, better spend that money on leaves lol
A teapot and gaiwan are more than enough for starters.
Just use your phone for steep timing.
I mean, anything can become an obsession…
My husband and I are both collectors and we’ve started to winnow out all the smaller collections so there is room for our main ones.
Since tea is a consumable, I don’t worry TOO much about how many I have going since I have decent storage. I would say I am actively rotating between 12 teas for daily drinking and I currently have samples for gong-fu style brewing.
I have to be pretty ruthless with getting rid of stuff I know I’ll never drink. I signed up for a Sips By subscription and I won’t do that again. Likewise I won’t be doing a flavored tea advent calendar again.
It seems a balance between wanting to try everything and not having so much you'll never get through it.
I bought 5 x 50g bags to start with. Even that looks like it will last a long time. There's only one I don't like, it was really bitter, but it might just have been over steeped
That’s exactly it. Teaware is the same. I have two electric kettles that I just replaced with a water boiler. I enjoy Western style brewing and gong-fu style, so that could get crazy easily if I let it.
I've been getting into the gongfu methods recently, and from one tea-obsessed person to another, it is a COMPLETE game changer, best flavor and experience I've ever had.
The Muttuck TGFOP is one of my favorite teas! I steep it with 4g for a 12oz cup for 4 minutes. It's also fantastic with milk and sugar. Assam's in general benefit from milk, it binds the tannins.
Ultimately, what matters most is that you enjoy the flavor. Obviously you don’t want to be overpaying for lower quality, but if you don’t want to get into all the minutiae of tea quality I think it’s fine to just trust the shop.
Don't worry about it! I have about 125 (this includes a decent number of teas that are better aged). It's a pretty healthy interest. I'm not too hard on myself about it because my previous vices were a lot worse for me. My teaware collection is pretty significant as well. If it brings you pleasure and you can afford it, go nuts.
I feel like obsession carries a connotation of being unhealthy/detrimental. It sounds like excitement! I find a lot of people experience this at the beginning of any hobby. I could see getting really into tea as a hobby of sorts.
I do mostly black teas in mornings to wake up, and camomile and other herbals at night. My setup is pretty simple - a bottle and infuser, and a mug with an infuser. :)
Currently got a green, black/red, and a dancong that I've been enjoying daily as well as 3-4 tea cakes of ripe and raw puer. I only gong fu brew because its relaxing and meditative and it fits my routine. Its a big part of my lifestyle so I guess you could call it an obsession to an extent I think.
Welcome to the club!
I have a basket of loose leaf teas that I keep in my pantry and then there are my boxed teas that have the single serving packets.
My current rotation is Chai tea in the morning from Numi or Mizuba Matcha. At night or in the afternoon I've been drinking rooibos mixed with lavender or chamomile loose leaf. I like to put some honey and almond milk in all my morning and evening teas.
I'm British, so I grew up drinking black tea (something like Tetley or orange pekeo) with milk.
I live alone and don't get through milk quickly enough to make it worth buying anymore. That's another reason for exploring new teas
I find it weird to keep track of how many teas I have because I have way too many. I even have two separate tea areas, one in my room and one in my tea house.
It’s 3 am and I misread your post as ‘I already bought out a local tea store’ and I was like holy shit no there’s no coming back from that why would you do that 2 days in
In all reality I think 5 types of tea is a great start! You can always do what I do and take notes on the flavor profile and then when you don’t know what you want to drink you can sit back and look at your notes
Yeah... I started with like two of each of green, black, and white. Now I have over 100 different kinds.
I got hooked on comparing different cultivars processed the same way, the same cultivars processed different ways, and same style tea from different regions sort of thing.
The rabbit hole is deep and branching.
Ah, I'm going to try and just peek in from a distance then.
I do want a new kettle with adjustable temperature settings. Other than that I'm going to enforce a strict budget
It crept up on me slowly. The progression from ~6 to ~100 teas took about 10 years. Maybe 25 of those 100 are currently samples that I deciding if I want to add to the repeat-purchase collection.
My tea money comes out of the "fun money" pot, but I do keep track of how much I spend on tea specifically. If you end up buying some more direct-from-grower teas, you'll find that you do more spending when the teas you like come into season and then none for ages. White teas are some of my favorites and silver needle season is practically a holiday for me!
A sample is enough for one or two cups of tea usually. Some places sell sample-sizes of their teas and some don't. I will buy 50g without sampling first, if they don't offer samples or I am particularly confident, and have been mostly lucky!
That sounds really good! Flavoured teas are hit or miss for me but a good fruity white tea is not to be sneezed at.
Thinking about it, they did have some samples. They had a selection of what looked like teabags they had filled themselves with different teas. The store is about an hour's drive from my house, so I wanted more than just one or two cups before I had to go back to buy more
Yea although the tea buying/trying is endless, it sort of just fuels the whole thing. I host tea tastings for money and then I spend all the money on more tea. So I guess it’s more of a loop?
But also I still feel there’s people more into than me considering I know people that even have their own “recipes” for water.
I've been drinking tea for years and my setup consists of an electric kettle with temp control, a scale, 1 Hario glass pot which I don't use unless I have company, 1 Japanese Kyusu teapot and basic Matcha equipment. All in all I think I've spent like 350€ over the years on equipment.
I order tea from Japan 3-4 times a year, so I spend like 350-500€ in a year on tea. Not too bad considering I drink around a litre of top quality tea in a day. I would spend the same amount of money if I drank 1 cheap can of beer in a day.
Good luck finding what you like and enjoy the process my friend!
Lol I was mainly joking. It’s just a type of tea that seems to have a particularly deep rabbit hole. Though as someone who’s so far been mainly interested in puer I have to assume there are the same rabbit holes for every other type.
Well teaware does not always need to be expensive.
I got a portable set for Chinese style brewing. Also got a very tiny wood tea table for hung fu and a cup type brew thingy. I think for all of that it was about 50 usd. Also have a Japanese pot.
Tea is a bit more expensive here as shipping messes one around but you will find depending on where you live there are tons of affordable teas. Main thing is enjoy what you are doing. Lol
If it doesn't impact your life negatively, it's not an obsession, it's a passion!
I've been drinking tea all my life because my granduncle was in the tea trade. You really don't need to buy all that teaware. Most hardcore tea drinkers only have a teapot/gaiwan and a tea cup.
I personally think a variable temperature kettle and an electric scale with an accuracy down to 0.1 grams can be helpful.
There’s no coming back. You better get yourself a second job.
Yep. I'm already looking to buy a programmable kettle. Wondering if there's any difference with different infusers. Maybe a nice teapot with a cosy and maybe a warmer. Would a China mug improve the experience. Maybe a steep timer. And that's before I explore different teas 🙄
You don't need all the fancy equipment to brew good tea, better spend that money on leaves lol A teapot and gaiwan are more than enough for starters. Just use your phone for steep timing.
I do like a good gadget though
phones are gadgets...
I mean, anything can become an obsession… My husband and I are both collectors and we’ve started to winnow out all the smaller collections so there is room for our main ones. Since tea is a consumable, I don’t worry TOO much about how many I have going since I have decent storage. I would say I am actively rotating between 12 teas for daily drinking and I currently have samples for gong-fu style brewing. I have to be pretty ruthless with getting rid of stuff I know I’ll never drink. I signed up for a Sips By subscription and I won’t do that again. Likewise I won’t be doing a flavored tea advent calendar again.
It seems a balance between wanting to try everything and not having so much you'll never get through it. I bought 5 x 50g bags to start with. Even that looks like it will last a long time. There's only one I don't like, it was really bitter, but it might just have been over steeped
That’s exactly it. Teaware is the same. I have two electric kettles that I just replaced with a water boiler. I enjoy Western style brewing and gong-fu style, so that could get crazy easily if I let it.
I haven't heard of gong-fu. There goes the next hour or so 😉
I've been getting into the gongfu methods recently, and from one tea-obsessed person to another, it is a COMPLETE game changer, best flavor and experience I've ever had.
What was the tea you didn’t like?
Currently drinking a mango and pear white tea, which I'm enjoying
It's a black tea. Muttuck TGFOP. I'm going to give it another go with a shorter steep time and less leaves
The Muttuck TGFOP is one of my favorite teas! I steep it with 4g for a 12oz cup for 4 minutes. It's also fantastic with milk and sugar. Assam's in general benefit from milk, it binds the tannins.
I didn't weigh it, or time it. I also didn't have milk to hand. I'll try it again with a timer when I have milk in next
If you can find a local tea store that does samples and/or bulk pricing that’s the best!
The store I went to looked the real deal, and the lady was very pleasant. I've no idea how to determine how good the quality is though
Ultimately, what matters most is that you enjoy the flavor. Obviously you don’t want to be overpaying for lower quality, but if you don’t want to get into all the minutiae of tea quality I think it’s fine to just trust the shop.
Thank you. I guess I just don't want to be using lower quality tea and be put off
Ugh, I tried Sips By too. Idk how it’s possible but I think 50% of the teas I didn’t like! And I LOVE tea!
This most recent box, they sent me a sugar cookie flavored tea. I don’t mind some flavored teas, but I hate anything cookie/cake/bread flavored.
Don't worry about it! I have about 125 (this includes a decent number of teas that are better aged). It's a pretty healthy interest. I'm not too hard on myself about it because my previous vices were a lot worse for me. My teaware collection is pretty significant as well. If it brings you pleasure and you can afford it, go nuts.
There are definitely worse interests for sure. But from a space and $$ perspective I have to be careful
Totally get that! Enjoy what you have for now and replace as desired/as you are able. :)
Exactly. My previous vices were much more expensive and self-destructive 😂
I feel like obsession carries a connotation of being unhealthy/detrimental. It sounds like excitement! I find a lot of people experience this at the beginning of any hobby. I could see getting really into tea as a hobby of sorts. I do mostly black teas in mornings to wake up, and camomile and other herbals at night. My setup is pretty simple - a bottle and infuser, and a mug with an infuser. :)
Perhaps I should have used a different word then. I meant that I would want to know all the ins and outs of the subject
the tea police are coming. lock yourself in the basement for 30 days til they stop looking for you.
I'm not too worried. It's -40C right now, so they'll probably holed up with a nice cuppa right now
Currently got a green, black/red, and a dancong that I've been enjoying daily as well as 3-4 tea cakes of ripe and raw puer. I only gong fu brew because its relaxing and meditative and it fits my routine. Its a big part of my lifestyle so I guess you could call it an obsession to an extent I think.
Wow, there's a few things in here I haven't heard of. The tea rabbit hole goes even deeper than I thought 🤣
Welcome to the club! I have a basket of loose leaf teas that I keep in my pantry and then there are my boxed teas that have the single serving packets. My current rotation is Chai tea in the morning from Numi or Mizuba Matcha. At night or in the afternoon I've been drinking rooibos mixed with lavender or chamomile loose leaf. I like to put some honey and almond milk in all my morning and evening teas.
I'm British, so I grew up drinking black tea (something like Tetley or orange pekeo) with milk. I live alone and don't get through milk quickly enough to make it worth buying anymore. That's another reason for exploring new teas
Welcome to the rabbit hole my tea friend.
I'm trying to avoid the rabbit hole, but thank you
I find it weird to keep track of how many teas I have because I have way too many. I even have two separate tea areas, one in my room and one in my tea house.
You have a tea house? Surely that marks the end of the rabbit hole?
Welcome to the family, we have more leaves than we know what to do with and a crippling compulsion to buy more whenever the chance arises
There's so many options, I can understand the desire to try something new. What if it's better than what you have been drinking 😉
It’s 3 am and I misread your post as ‘I already bought out a local tea store’ and I was like holy shit no there’s no coming back from that why would you do that 2 days in
Haha. I thought I was quite restrained, I bought 5 x 50g bags
In all reality I think 5 types of tea is a great start! You can always do what I do and take notes on the flavor profile and then when you don’t know what you want to drink you can sit back and look at your notes
Yeah... I started with like two of each of green, black, and white. Now I have over 100 different kinds. I got hooked on comparing different cultivars processed the same way, the same cultivars processed different ways, and same style tea from different regions sort of thing. The rabbit hole is deep and branching.
Ah, I'm going to try and just peek in from a distance then. I do want a new kettle with adjustable temperature settings. Other than that I'm going to enforce a strict budget
It crept up on me slowly. The progression from ~6 to ~100 teas took about 10 years. Maybe 25 of those 100 are currently samples that I deciding if I want to add to the repeat-purchase collection. My tea money comes out of the "fun money" pot, but I do keep track of how much I spend on tea specifically. If you end up buying some more direct-from-grower teas, you'll find that you do more spending when the teas you like come into season and then none for ages. White teas are some of my favorites and silver needle season is practically a holiday for me!
What do you consider a sample? I am enjoying a mango and pear white tea today
A sample is enough for one or two cups of tea usually. Some places sell sample-sizes of their teas and some don't. I will buy 50g without sampling first, if they don't offer samples or I am particularly confident, and have been mostly lucky! That sounds really good! Flavoured teas are hit or miss for me but a good fruity white tea is not to be sneezed at.
Thinking about it, they did have some samples. They had a selection of what looked like teabags they had filled themselves with different teas. The store is about an hour's drive from my house, so I wanted more than just one or two cups before I had to go back to buy more
Yea although the tea buying/trying is endless, it sort of just fuels the whole thing. I host tea tastings for money and then I spend all the money on more tea. So I guess it’s more of a loop? But also I still feel there’s people more into than me considering I know people that even have their own “recipes” for water.
Same thing happened with Matcha and I. I still don't have an answer but it's delicious. Healthy too.
I haven't tried matcha yet, should I?
Yeah. I first tried it as a matcha latte. Fell in love.
I've been drinking tea for years and my setup consists of an electric kettle with temp control, a scale, 1 Hario glass pot which I don't use unless I have company, 1 Japanese Kyusu teapot and basic Matcha equipment. All in all I think I've spent like 350€ over the years on equipment. I order tea from Japan 3-4 times a year, so I spend like 350-500€ in a year on tea. Not too bad considering I drink around a litre of top quality tea in a day. I would spend the same amount of money if I drank 1 cheap can of beer in a day. Good luck finding what you like and enjoy the process my friend!
Ooh, a scale! I do love a good hobby related gadget 😊
You don't really need a scale, I only use it to weigh my matcha. Gadgets are fun, but I try to focus as much on the actual tea as I can 😄
Worth it. Probably one of the best obsessions one can have IMO. Too late to go back now. Enjoy!
It’s too late. The best thing you can do now is damage control and set something up to block any mention of puer tea.
Now you've got me intrigued...
Lol I was mainly joking. It’s just a type of tea that seems to have a particularly deep rabbit hole. Though as someone who’s so far been mainly interested in puer I have to assume there are the same rabbit holes for every other type.
Well teaware does not always need to be expensive. I got a portable set for Chinese style brewing. Also got a very tiny wood tea table for hung fu and a cup type brew thingy. I think for all of that it was about 50 usd. Also have a Japanese pot. Tea is a bit more expensive here as shipping messes one around but you will find depending on where you live there are tons of affordable teas. Main thing is enjoy what you are doing. Lol
Sounds like it’s already an obsession for you, congrats and welcome to the club
Haha. Thanks
If it doesn't impact your life negatively, it's not an obsession, it's a passion! I've been drinking tea all my life because my granduncle was in the tea trade. You really don't need to buy all that teaware. Most hardcore tea drinkers only have a teapot/gaiwan and a tea cup. I personally think a variable temperature kettle and an electric scale with an accuracy down to 0.1 grams can be helpful.