Kiaharii said

Accidental Tea-Snobbery

So, I try not to be a tea snob but I think some of this stems from wanting to share really good tea with people. So when someone says they’re a “big tea drinker” or a “huge tea fan” and they just have a collection of assorted Twinings bags I kind of have this urge to say, “Nonononono, here try this and this and this”. I don’t want to be a snob, I just want to share the good tea. (All this said I still do tea bags when I need easy tea.)

Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe I just need to relax and have some tea. ;)

57 Replies
Zoltar said

well big tea drinker just mean drinking lot of tea it could be the worse tea in the world and still be big tea drinker i do ask people if they want to taste my tea but only if they seem interested to begin with and keep in mind that quality and taste is subjective you can’t force someone to like something even if you think it’s the best thing in the world what you consider good tea might not be what they will think of it

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Babble said

I can definitely relate, especially if all they drink is tea bags. When I try to tell them about loose leaf they say, “Oh, that’s so hard. Bags are so much easier.” Loose leaf is definitely not hard, especially with all the new tea gadgets they’ve come out with.

But then again, I’m fine with generic coffee, so I bet some coffee snobs shake their head at me ;)

Kiaharii said

Haha, I’m sure I frustrate some people in the way they frustrate me. :)

Ha, I’m fine with generic coffee too. I use a Keurig, and coffee snobs definitely roll their eyes at me.

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I am horrible for this. I don’t mean to do it, but I do it ALL the time

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Nicole said

I try not to unless they ask me about what I’m drinking first. Then if they seem interested it’s Katy bar the door. :)

Tattooed tea, I love your avatar!

Thanks! :)

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I was talking to one of my advisors the other day, and he knows I like tea… he mentioned that he had a tea party over the summer through Skype with a friend in the UK.
I said “cool, what kind of tea?”
“I dunno, English Breakfast?”
“…was it bagged?”
“Yes well I’m wasn’t going to go to all that trouble!… I did have the teapot, though.”
“Good!”

…now I just have to get him into REAL tea muahahahahaaa
Slowly but surely!

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CupofTree said

My first thought was, how lucky these people are to have you to show them good tea! If anyone calls your kindess snobbery, thats just not right and I dont think they deserve your kindness. Youre just being nice and wanting to share the amazing world of tea with others :)

Zoltar said

the problem is most people will see it as a agression asking is ok if you see people are already interested in tea we have to be cautious with that attitudes what we think is kindness can be persive otherwise on the receiving end ( like someone trying to push is religion on you he probably think he is kind trying to save your soul but if your not interested you will not feel that way i choose that example becausd it as happen to me 2 day ago ) ya tea is less worst we just have to be sure where the line between kindness and agression is for the other person asking is ok insisting is not ( i do not say the op insisted i say that in the general way )

Kiaharii said

I like this view! Most of the people are fine with it and really enjoy learning about tea. If they don’t seem interested I tend to drop it. If it’s people I only know online I can only link to some suppliers (like Adagio, which is how I got into loose) and hope they try it out.

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I accidentally did this with my colleague at work. I felt kinda bad afterwards. He knew I liked tea and popped by my cube to ask if I had time for a bit of a tea break. I was swamped with work at the time but he offered me some bagged tea from the Tea Republic anyways. I was all, “Wow, neat!” And I offered him some of my tea in exchange. I opened up my cabinet to my work stash and he was like, “Oh wow, you have all these real leaves.” haha I put some of 52 Teas Sun and Cloud Mist in a paper filter for him. He seemed to really like it. :) I even gave him all these directions on how to brew it.

Some time afterwards when I had time to think, I realized I may have been a bit too intense. And I didn’t even take one of his tea bags! Did he think I being a bit of a tea snob? :( I guess it’s ok though cause he told me we had to have tea time together soon today. :) I wonder if he likes green or dark oolongs. :D

Dinosara said

This exact thing happened to me. I overwhelm potential tea buddies with the shear size of my stash. :(

Maybe if you just make them tasty tea they’ll come around. :) I prepared some cranberry rooibos for another colleague of mine and left it on her desk so she could just put hot water on it when she was ready. She seemed to really like that. :) Makes it nice and easy and tasty! Of course I just secretly want to decrease my stash so I can get more other teas, but everyone else just thinks I’m being generous. Let’s not disillusion them. :D

Dinosara said

For real! I would love to make people tea and I offer all the time, but no one takes me up on it. Maybe I should be more sneaky! Stealth tea giveaways. :D

Kiaharii said

I’ve done that for a friend. We had a little tea party at her house with some puerh, and then I left about 5 different teas in t-sac type bags with instructions. I just hope she tried them!

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Haha… yeah, I’m a tea snob too… but, more recently, I’ve discovered that I’ve got my oldest daughter trained as a tea snob too!!! She was talking to her biological father’s new wife recently, and looking at photos of their kitchen and she was boasting about her “tea collection,” which was boxes of tea bags. LOL My daughter said “that’s not tea! My mom… now SHE has a tea collection! She drinks real tea.”

It was a very proud moment for me.

One day, I hope my children will have a discerning palate like your daughter. I have little hope for training my dogs’ palates. They eat anything. One of them prefers potting soil to bananas. sigh…

CupofTree said

haha “She drinks real tea” love it! :)

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AJ said

I definitely have this problem, and every time I speak to a friend that I know enjoys tea, every other word I panic and wonder if I’ve offended them by using a term that may possibly imply that my tea is better than their tea.

And then I try to make up for it by rambling about tea harder, trying to share our interest, and then dumping a load of links to tea companies that I like.

But I still walk away (metaphorically) fearing that they think I’m a snob.

Kiaharii said

But we just want to share the tea joy! :)

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My other tea snob moments is that I will not drink bagged tea. If I go somewhere and they offer me tea, if I know its in a bag I will decline.
My friend posted on facebook tue other day about how she wanted a pumpkin latte from starbucks and i was all, noooooo you can’t drink that. And offered up loose leaf pumpkin teas she shpuld drink instead.

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