People new to tea, can at times go wild buying a little bit of everything, and while I encourage this, I at times have to remind myself if I have only tried a small number of teas in a certain category, that I should not overly boast, or quickly dismiss that entire group. It could easily be that the vendors tastes in terms of that type of tea differ from what you would normally seek. For instance roasted teas have this happen a lot, everyone seems to have their favorite preference for the amount of roasting they want in a certain style of tea. More so one vendor may label a tea as High/ Heavy roast, that another vendor would label as Medium.
The real question is do we ever reach a certain point of comfort in the teas that we have tried that makes us complacent and unwilling to thoroughly explore any gaps that might remain, or any categories written off after trying a few teas not to our liking? I for one will say that so far this year I have not explored beyond my somewhat large comfort zone. and I seem to be in a bit of a process of revisiting old favorites. Part of me says that I have enough tea on hand that I am not that fond of, do I really need to explore and end up with more tea I will almost have to force myself to drink? The other part though is reminded of certain categories of tea that I decided to order almost on a whim, that caught my attention, and are now some of the ones I turn to most often?
Its an interesting puzzle, do you explore just to explore, or do you drink tea because you love it, and you want to drink the teas you love?
2 comments:
Well, both, actually. Right now it is so hot that the thought of trying something new and having to think about it is beyond my abilities. I am drinking old favorites, both hot and iced. If I have time and enough thoughtfulness, I will drink new ones, but I am careful about how many flavored teas i will try, as they are NOT favorites.
This post of yours is interesting because I can relate to both phenomena that you talk about. As examples, I wasn't a huge fan of Assam teas, but I hadn't ever tried many high-quality single-estate Assams, and I wanted to give them more of a chance. So, a while back I ordered a bunch from Upton Tea Imports, and I must say, I am very pleased with the results.
On the other hand, I also am not a huge fan of Bai Hao oolong, and I really have no desire to sample large quantities of this style of tea.
I think a reason for the distinction is that I have tried several bai hao oolongs that I believe are very good, high-quality teas, but I still do not find them particularly enjoyable. With the Assams, I was not sure whether or not my issue was that I hadn't tried enough good Assam (which I am now convinced is the case, and I have now warmed up to this style a bit, although I still think that in general, I prefer other types of black teas).
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