Tea Buying Hiatus Support Group

1303 Replies
TheKesser said

I was so proud of myself there at one point. I got down to 120 and I thought, this is it! I’m going to get under 100 in no time and then I’ll allow myself to buy more tea!
Well… I realized that I hadn’t counted my sample sizes that I got from Davidstea in different packs and in my orders… plus I ended up ordering 19teas from Adagio! OOPS! haha And now my wishlist is pretty much that high again from Adagio.

So, that all being said, I am back up to 156 teas. (Somehow my steepster cupboard and my tea spreadsheet don’t match up, but I’m not sure what I’m missing… Meh…) No more buying tea. NO MORE! I must get down to 100 by… fall? Because then I will allow myself to buy more for the Davidstea fall collection. haha Plus, I’m more likely to enjoy all the plain black teas I want to try from Adagio.

NO more buying!!!

TheKesser said

I’ve been telling myself no more tea, but I haven’t been telling myself no more tea accessories… uh oh… I want to get a Gaiwan for my pu’erh cake.
How do people like them compared to a more traditional method?

I like the gaiwan but find that it’s hard to find time to sit down and go through the experience vs. the ease of having a mug I can carry around.

Uniquity said

I’m with Marzipan. I only drink pu-erh steeped from a gaiwan, but I rarely allot the time to doing it. It is heating the water repeatedly that frazzles me. I’m lazy!

That aside, I do recommend a gaiwan for pu-erh unless you have a yixing or other small teapot. It can be steeped western style but I feel you get more out of it with multiple small steeps.

A gaiwan can be a pain to use – and result in burned fingers – so another thought would be a small glass or porcelain pot that could be used for puerh or other teas. Multi-functional! :)

TheKesser said

Good to know! Knowing me, I would have a hard time finding the time also.
I think I have a small teapot at home… like a 1cup teapot that I could try for now and see how it works! Great idea!

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SarsyPie said

My boyfriend just advised me that I need a tea intervention! And he likes tea!

He’s probably right. I just have a hard time saying “no” to a sale or promo code!

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I bought some teas when I was in SF this weekend. Then I got some free samples, so that doesn’t count. (Might not buy in June.)

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Sil select said

Update on my two goals:

-get to 100 teas for July 1
-have my oldest tea be within 6 months of purchase(ie July 1 my oldest teas will be from January)

I’m still buying teas, so it’s slow going but i’m hovering around 130 “ish” given swaps/purchases and i’ve managed to get down so that as of may, i only have 2 ocotober teas and the rest are december teas…so i’m a bit ahead of the game in that department (i’m ignoring the fact that i have a MASSIVE list of black friday/december teas lol)

Dinosara said

I envy your young cupboard. I have all kinds of ancient teas! Trying to work through them now, but a lot of them are substantial amounts so it is slow going. I don’t think I could get down to 100 teas by July 1!

TheKesser said

Dinosara I totally understand! I’m in the same boat. I have lots of older teas and ones that I bought a lot of too that I’m very slowly going through. I’ve been taking time to drink up some of my teas that are almost done so that I can enjoy the feeling of a sipdown to keep me motivated. haha

Dinosara said

Haha yeah, I did a massive sipdown operation last year (down from ~260 teas) but then I hit 120 and stalled out. I am left with mostly larger amounts now.

TheKesser said

That is a HUGE sipdown amount! Well done! Gotta say, that’s actually kind of inspiring.

Dr Jim said

Congratulations on your progress. I only wish my oldest teas were within 18 months! I may start to prioritize age over number.

Sil select said

I’m with you dinosara….I was up at that level last year but have been working on getting things under control this year!

Uniquity said

The age rule is impressive. My issue is that my oldest teas tend to be in the largest quantities because they are from when I started drinking tea and didn’t realize I could buy less than 50 or 100 g at a time. They mostly get ignored, but are helpful for the beau’s iced tea. Excellent job!

Sil select said

I apparently drink a lot of tea…so it seems to be working (and of course doesn’t apply to my puerh). Teas that i hate – they get swapped/given away to friends who i think will like them…if they’re really gross, i send them to terri so she can try too giggling

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Lee select said

I love reading these lol!! It gets so hot in the desert summer that anything perishable you buy,,, in the mail will cook all day on the mail truck or UPS truck and then cook in the box if you don’t get to it,,, so summer controls me lol but I want to buy :(

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Sooooo as soon as I got graduation money from family and friends I bought 5 yixing pots and a gaiwan gongfu set O.O in other words I spent more than I should have and here I am in this group. Instead of saying I’m just never going to buy tea again, I’m telling myself not to place any tea or tea-related orders until the week before my birthday, June 9th (not too far away. ha!) And what every frequent cup points I have then is what I’ll use to make the purchase. Maaaybe someone will get me some tea presents but I doubt it. lol

Cwyn said

My son graduated from college last week and I gave him a Jian Shui white clay teapot by Yang Chun Li, a black puerh cake and a couple of oolongs, I am still waiting for the black clay modernist style tasting cups to arrive. Did a Sencha tea ceremony for son and his major professor at our party. My son has some interest in tea, I don’t know if he really liked the tea gifts but maybe down the road he will.

This is so amusing. Your “goal” is to not buy tea or tea-related stuff for … two weeks???? How adorable! You truly belong in this group, madametj! xxxooo

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apt said

I should wait until after exams to order more…maybe I’ll cheat when I go to Tea Drunk next week. Probably not though.

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Izzie said

I actually did pretty well. I bought tea for the Holidays in Nov and put myself on a no-buy, but I also got a ton as gifts. Last month I bought 2 – a tin of Hi-Caf (for work) and some Shincha from O-Cha because I really wanted to try it.

But I have a ton of samples to review incoming. I’m gonna need to do another give-away at my blog. ;~;

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Frolic select said

I want to order tea. My justification is the majority of my stash is in storage so I need to order more to have proper variety and a tea for every mood. This is a very very weak excuse because the amount of tea I kept out of storage+the large butiki order I made is actually rather large, maybe even larger than some peoples whole stash and though the variety isn’t as wide as I’m used to it’s still pretty huge.

All the new spring teas want to hop into my shopping cart. Please talk me down.

Frolic, where is your storage, and why? Pray tell! I ask because I recently moved, but I put books and perfume in storage—not tea!!!! ;-)

Hang in there! You’ve got so much already, no need for any more right? You don’t want your precious teas going stale and unloved on you.

Frolic select said

Storage is a Pod, and quite simply there was no room for the 3 large drawer cabinet of teas that I possess in the car when we moved to stay with family temporarily. Plus they’d think I’m even crazier.

My breville is also in storage :( that I regret. I did break down and buy a very cheap variable temp electric kettle cause I was sick of staring at a pot of water when I wanted less than boiling water.

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I started a new challenge today, which I am calling:

Blazing New Ratings

I am going to try to review every unlogged tea in my house before doing any repeats or returning to my cupboard standbys. Today I sipped my way through seven new teas. How long will I last? How long will it take???

I am posting this announcement in the “buying hiatus” and “tea addicts” threads because I am going to see whether I can finish this challenge … ever! My concern? If I continue to order more tea, I may never, ever finish the Blazing New Rating Challenge!!! Help! I need an intervention—two orders are en route, and I only just received two others!

Aidez-moi! SVP!!!!

TheKesser said

This is a GREAT idea! I think I might join you in your challenge. I have many teas that I haven’t logged also and I really need get on it. haha

Update Looking at my Steepster cupboard, I have 48 teas on there that I haven’t logged yet! That’s scary. I might not be able to do just new teas until I get through them all. I might have to throw the odd favourite in there to break it up, but I’m going to try and log all of them soon, while still enjoying my sipdown craze. I might be getting a bit too ambitious here but I’ve got to try! :)

My hope, TheKesser, is that going through this process will make me realize how much goodness is already here and ready to brew in my very own cupboard! I have a somewhat daunting number of brand new, never-logged teas!

Dr Jim said

Good idea. I was updating my steepster cupboard last week and realized I’ve posted reviews for less than half of my teas. Last year I made a project of tasting all of my teas at least once, and it was a lot of fun. I wasn’t good about writing reviews, though.

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