Tea Themed New Year's Resolutions

First published in TChing here.

My own goals related to tea tend to stay the same year to year, if a bit general:  to experience something new.  Not so much related to new types, since I've mostly set aside broad exploration, and try whatever I happen to try, or pushing on to higher quality or more distinct examples of already familiar types, but just new to me in some sense.

sheng "pu'er" from India (from Ketlee), a novel tea I tried last year

For the past two years that has related to a long exploration of online video meeting contact, originating with a few random sessions in early 2020.  That was based around a core group of friends meeting, moving on to more involved sessions with subject experts in 2021.  It wasn't so far off a podcast theme, just not recorded or broadcast.  Prior to that, in 2019, I was messing around with tasting themes instead, and sometime around then I put focus on starting a Quora Space (Specialty Tea).  It's a decent reference now, and I keep writing there.  

This will be about how other types of resolutions might work out, based mostly on talking to a lot of people newer to the subject in lots of online groups, returning back to what I might do that's different.

Drink better tea:  the obvious direction, which could be taken lots of ways.  Anyone drinking tea bag tea might move on to loose leaf, and people still on Harney and Sons blends range--which is fine--could explore better single input teas.  It's easy to sort out how to try better versions of what you already like, but it can take time and effort to get input for leads on better sources.  One approach towards that is to explore social media outlets related to tea, to hear about what's out there, and sourcing suggestions and so on.  This general intro post might help.

Connect with others with a similar interest:  to many this would seem a stretch; why go there?  Some reasons:  to experience in-person tasting sessions, to learn about types and teaware, or to exchange teas.  Or it could just be that identifying with a subject seems odd when you don't know anyone else who does, and it sounds interesting to resolve that through online contact.  

The starting point for this is level of tea interest.  It is actually possible to discuss tea themes with people who are still on flavored tea bag or grocery store tin versions, which to many tea enthusiasts is only an early starting point, naturally leading to more in-depth exploration.  The Facebook Tea Drinkers group or main Reddit r/tea sub-forum focus on that level.  The Gong Fu Cha group is an example at the other extreme.  Discord servers are interesting for using a form similar to old chat boards, and for being populated by really young people, for the most part, and they tend to fall in the middle related to prior exposure.

Drink more diverse tea, at limited cost (improve value):  it's funny how tea enthusiasts tend to split into two sets, with one seemingly not concerned with cost much at all, seeing spending $20 on 50 grams of tea as no big deal, since that would brew quite a bit of tea (a couple of dozen cups, maybe).  For the other set and perspective parting with $20 seems like a significant expense, regardless of volume being considered, so moving beyond what is in grocery store shelves is problematic.  

I can relate to wanting to find a balance in the middle, for working with a very limited tea budget, but still wanting to try a range of teas.  That tends to involve ordering some tea in batches, with expense between $50 and 100 per set kind of normal, or more later, as quality expectations change.

In the past ordering through a general vendor that sells medium quality tea would be a good intro point, one like Adagio.  Unfortunately their marketing theme has shifted, enabling them to move on to selling a broader range of blends and to ramp up pricing, so that for the same cost you could actually buy better tea from other types of vendors.  Chinatown shops are a good way to get to a middle ground, providing access to tins or loose versions of modest quality teas at low cost, examples that are still much more diverse and better than specialty grocery stores would tend to carry.  

Now ordering through a foreign based vendor works best for this general goal, one like Hatvala (for Vietnamese teas), or Chawang Shop (for Yunnan origin Chinese versions).  Yunnan Sourcing is not so far off that theme, a kind of broad outlet selling a large range, but any vendor carrying 1000 versions of tea puts workload on a customer to try and sort it all out.  You don't need to understand what those 1000 teas are but you do need to somehow put a dozen or less in an online cart.

Improve brewing skill and range:  this one is easy, since buying a gaiwan is half the resolution, and practicing to use it most of the other half.  Gongfu brewing, the related approach of using a higher proportion of tea to water and many short infusions, really only works better for some tea types:  sheng pu'er, high quality whole leaf black tea, twisted style oolongs, and to a lesser extent rolled oolongs.  For broken leaf black tea or green tea a Western approach is more or less the same, and shu pu'er gives pretty good results made in lots of ways.  Results related to white tea vary by type and preference.  

It's too much to go into what Gongfu brewing is but a recent Quora answer about how to brew oolongs covers the basics, with lots of guides out there covering a more step by step explanation (just search Gong Fu tea in Youtube to watch a few).

Get family and friends into tea:  good luck!  Don't expect this to work in most cases, but it is cool when it clicks a little for the right person trying the right tea.  There really is something special about a tea party, regardless of what you choose to do with form, or how much the guests love the drink.  

There's no need to cut that off related to what you like most, or tend to drink.  If you can't give children "real tea" due to a concern over caffeine the same theme can work using chrysanthemum, and the kids will love the form.  If you don't have children, or nieces and nephews, that's probably a stretch, but hopefully there are people in your life who can still tap into that exploration range to get the most out of a related form.  A lot of people's moms would love it.  

Try including different snacks, or set it up outdoors, or maybe just do it all on your own, and treat yourself to the same theme without needing others to share it.  If you think that you really should have a ceramic teapot or some range of interesting cups that's a great prompt to check out a local thrift shop, and give new life to tea equipment that someone else needed to pass on.  The "matching set" theme isn't a necessary part of it, as I see it, but individual judgment and style would factor in related to that.

More formal types tasting is something else; for someone on that page the options really span a lot of range.  I've held tastings in a park and a zoo before and the results were pretty nice.  In one other context tasting a guest tried a Chinese black tea and commented that they never knew that they liked black tea until that moment; that can be really special for a guest and the host.

My 2022 new direction:  not identified yet.  If anyone has ideas or leads on directions to chase feel free to comment wherever you see this, or look me up to talk, maybe easiest through my blog's Facebook page.  I've long since thought that broad tea awareness and culture development won't take a next step until it finds its way into mainstream media communication, but I explored that direction and didn't get far years ago.  

A podcast theme would probably work but I don't feel motivated to do that; it's already being done.  Last year that meetup discussion theme included 20 or so interesting and influential tea producers and vendors, from a dozen or so different countries; it might work to extend those introductions and background theme coverage to a networking scope.  The last talk we held covered tea processing details based on input from producers who are exploring new directions from the US, India, Laos, Georgia (the country), and Nepal.  It frees up potential direction in that I don't really need to focus on my own personal gain; that discussion was about them sharing ideas for their own interest and benefit.

A simple resolution might be better than all that:  to relax and enjoy the quiet once more frequently while having tea, just putting the phone down and being in that moment.  I'll try that.

The middle of the tea experience curve

 First published in TChing here and here.

One year ago I wrote about intermediate level themes in tea, about people exploring brewing options and diverse types, or higher quality versions of one category.

Lately something related keeps coming up, about the experience curve itself, the order in which people explore tea, once they move past tea-bag and flavored blends introductions.  Of course everyone has their own path.  One new online contact / friend is completely jumping in, moving past initial Constant Comment / English Breakfast tea by exploring basic green, black, white, shu, hei cha, and even sheng, in one large Yunnan Sourcing sample order.  That's a great way to do it.  Ordinarily I wouldn't recommend even trying sheng pu'er before sorting out some other range but in her case I did suggest trying an inexpensive tuocha, to see what it's about. 

a smaller-scale venture into trying some hei cha and shu

Eight years or so ago, before I started a blog, I tried a set of 20 or so types from a Chinese vendor, an individual selling tea.  I don't remember much about those, but it was definitely a launching point for diverse exploration.  By chance a vendor sent a first sample set of Darjeeling versions around then, when I first started a blog (thanks much to the Lochans, who produce and sell novel versions of Doke teas).  You next learn that one step in any given direction isn't really the generality you might've imagined, that one sample never captures a type character, but still your tea journey is off and running.

Groups tend to see people bunching up according to preference, where they are on an exposure curve, or even by pattern.  Gong Fu Cha and Puerh Tea Club are at one end, Tea Drinkers at the other (where Harney and Sons is a main staple), with the one I moderate, International Tea Talk, settling on an outlier diverse member location theme.

It's interesting seeing people make their journey / exploration public, as bloggers do.  It's a funny thing, how there is no real threshold to arrive at before starting to write and share ideas and experiences.  Even now, some years later, I tend to point out that I'm nothing like a tea expert.

Liquid Proust comes to mind as an interesting case.  That vendor, Andrew, explored novel forms of blends, then jumped straight into aged sheng, one of the main natural end points (maybe only drifting through aged oolong along the way).  He was selling both of those; exploration rarely works out like that.  For being different than what most experienced tea enthusiasts drink the blends sounded good, teas like rum infused pu'er, and "French toast" Dian Hong.  His sheng pu'er taster sets help people take a similar step as he did, onto some complicated and diverse range.

To me exploring horizontally, across a diverse range, makes sense, minding per-gram tea price to enable covering a lot of ground and seeing what you like.  It's interesting how some people start with a flavor or character profile and go from there instead.  In discussion one guy just mentioned liking earthy tea range, shu pu'er (of course), and heavy black teas, exploring via flavor aspect range.  Hei cha would work along with those.  Another mentioned liking cigars and Scotch, and some types of roasted Wuyi Yancha and sheng pu'er mirrored that interest, related to profile.  Hei cha might not, so much, at least related to funky and earthy brick teas, but a mineral-intensive Liu Bao might resonate.

comparing compressed white teas of different ages, a good exploration tool

Pace is an odd component, not just related to making a broad start, or exploring a range quickly, or working towards the highest possible quality level versions.  On the positive side exploring moderate cost but diverse teas can add a dimension of change to a daily routine.  It's potentially negative that one could instead experience a constant state of lack, related to not getting to most of what is out there, or competing with countless others to experience what seems like a typical range or amount of exposure.  For me personally it's helpful to limit scope.  For example, I don't explore teaware or Japanese teas, just to keep the range more manageable.  Budget constrains that, mainly, but even aside from that exploring all there is for tea is problematic.

What about reducing scope to what is found in a grocery store?  What I say tends to discount that is valid, defining it here as just prior to a middle-level range starting point, but to an extent it's not.  It was disappointing for me to learn that grocery stores never stock teas that matched my type and quality-level interest at one point, a step that led to that vendor sample set evaluation.  That's not as true in China, and Russians seem to have access to better Ceylon in grocery stores, but in general grocery store tea isn't "good."  Not everyone needs to ever get to the middle of an experience / exploration curve though, just as for many sticking with box wine or Budweiser suits them.  Those are fine for what they are, with some thoughts here on where Lipton stands in relation to the rest, with input on some better black tea starting points.

Some intermediate level ideas about tea

First published in Tching here


Related to the social media theme, I tend to like to talk in places where people are newer to tea, because I can help people more there.  The “expert” groups are nice for a different kind of reference and discussion.  Even in those places it often works out that a newcomer who really isn’t very far along the experience curve can help prompt really good discussion with questions.

Here I’d like to explore some ideas from a middle-ground, the kinds of things people pretty far through a learning curve probably took years to become clear on.  Of course in some cases even “the basics” relate to potential differences of opinion, so to be clear this is all just my take.  This moderate length writing format doesn’t allow enough room for full context discussion and treating exceptional cases or opposing views.

Brewing temperature:  

Really a 1000 word post couldn’t do this subject justice, but I want to quickly map out a few ideas.  Those brewing temperature tables aren’t wrong, as a starting point guide, even though their suggestions vary quite a bit.  It’s also not wrong that essentially all teas should be brewed Gong Fu style using boiling point water (or just below it), and short infusions, even for green teas, for some.  But the two contradict.  Preference variation is part of that, but some people claim that using anything but boiling point water for good oolongs is doing it wrong. 

There seems to be a natural progression towards using Gong Fu brewing more once you get familiar with it, and it works a lot better with higher quality teas to use very hot water than it does with lower quality versions.  That sketch doesn’t resolve all the contradictions but it maps out some main themes that lead to some of them.  Really for people who feel they represent a more authentic Chinese tea preparation tradition what “Gong Fu” brewing really is wouldn’t be a simple subject, but a lot of people just use that as a reference to using a different proportion of tea to water, more infusions, and a different teaware device (gaiwan or clay pot, typically).

A recent Liu Bao tasting; Gongfu style brewing can be nice for comparison tasting

Tea exploration, vertical versus horizontal:  

Of course this one really is a matter of preference.  I just talked to a vendor who prefers to stick mostly within the scope of Taiwanese teas even for personal consumption, and that’s fine, very reasonable.  For me it works well to adopt an organic approach, to get to whatever comes next naturally, whether that relates to exploring better quality teas within a limited range or being all over the map.  Or not exploring much at all is still a valid judgement call.  Advocating exploration of what else is out there as an option might bring up an implied “tea snob” context, since there’s really nothing wrong with someone mostly drinking blends, or Harney and Sons-level “pretty good” teas.  Sticking to tea bag teas is pushing it; that’s like someone with a coffee interest only drinking instant.  Up to them, but why?

Trà chít, a Vietnamese example of a rare Chinese version of sheng pu’er 

Appreciating flavor versus mouthfeel, aftertaste, and “cha qi,” drug-like effect:  

Rhat’s already most of what I want to express, that over time people tend to expand what they like about teas.  To me it’s not that I want a tea to have a certain mouth-feel, for example, more that the way varying types of aspects balance can be nice, or not work well.

Varying exposure; South East Asian teas:  

Off the broad themes here, it’s worth considering exploring tea types and sources outside China, Taiwan, Japan, and India.  Not that anyone could ever really “get to” all the tea types in China, or even do justice to just sheng pu’er or wuyi yancha.  The “generalist” approach is kind of assumed then. 

To me it’s interesting trying something new, versus only enjoying ever-improving close variations of past experiences.  Trying teas from less traditional source regions gets you that, even though they are harder to turn up.  There are significant other challenges, like most of the mass-produced oolong coming out of Thailand not being very good (relatively).  And the rarer teas out of Vietnam are all but impossible to even hear about, never mind buy.  Teas from Indonesia, Laos, and Myanmar just aren’t widely available either.  Exploring versions from Nepal might be easier, but then finding others that are hard to find could make for an interesting endeavor.  One good lead for hearing about what’s out there, in detail, is my own blog, Tea in the Ancient World [here].  It’s crazy what has turned up in the past year.

Forest-sourced tea, an NGO project in Laos (photo credit and details, CCL web page)

Tea group themes:  

I touched on this specifically not so long ago so I’ll keep this short. No matter what page you are on there’s a tea group out there that will be a close enough match.  There’s no need to lose hope because some seem too snobby and others aren’t into even hearing about single type loose tea.  Put another way, tea perspective and culture seems to bunch up at those two extremes.

Keeping pace with others in tea exploration:  don’t even try.  The interest is yours, and trying to achieve some benchmark for getting through a certain range of knowledge or experience, or owning a “normal” amount of gear, might only ruin it.  If leaning into those or other pursuits is a good match for you then go for it, or even if making it a competition is.  To me the core of experiencing tea is liking what’s in your cup at the present moment, and all the rest of the context and framing is secondary.  Then again I never really was into “finding my tribe,” related to anything I did.

Functional tea preparation doesn’t require a lot of equipment

Over and over I hear humble-bragging about how “I’m not really a tea snob, but I do own or have tried (whatever it is, often a list).”  A photo alone can imply all that, or a statement like “it’s crazy how many types I’ve tried.”  There are groups for that, circles in which owning tea gear, or tea collections, or rare teas (or all of that) is the norm.  Or I suppose also places where knowing a lot about processing, local Asian cultures, history, or tea genetics is valued, but at some point the themes do run out of enough shared interest level to collect members into a group.

The nice part about a tea interest is that people can make of it what they want.