Anyone else have a significant other who just doesn't "get" the tea thing?

67 Replies

My boyfriend has been super supportive although he doesn’t really care for tea. But surprisingly, he has learned a lot through the way. He did say he wanted to get into tea but he just can’t seem to enjoy what I give him. One time we were eating at a Chinese restaurant and I couldn’t see my tea being prepared but he did and goes “I saw the lady preheat your tea cup. That’s good.” I giggled.

Dinosara said

This is totally like my boyfriend! He doesn’t like tea at all (and no interest of getting into it) but he is supportive and learns about it anyway, like all the different types of teas. I can see him making a comment like that.

I am lucky he is very supportive of whatever I’m buying that I don’t seem to need more of (tea, and more recently, also yarn). I think he knows that I police myself far more than he would even care to do (read: I get guilty about buying too much). He doesn’t say anything about my “collections” because he doesn’t want me to say anything about his record-buying habit. :D

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Jen M said

My BF (I guess now my ex…) didn’t “get” tea until he started drinking it with me in the mornings. I guess I turned him into a bit of a maniac. He still to this day likes having a lot of different types of tea around to drink, but never more than 50g of one single type. I’m a “tea tin” kind of girl (unless I’m trying something for the first time, then only 25-50g), so I have fewer teas but more of each. We used to “get” each other in different ways.

He also is a DVD-hoarder (but never used to watch them, because he had a netflix account and streamed others from the internet…), so he used to tolerate my yarn “collection”. I have knitting project plans for everything, it’s not like I collect it for fun. It’s also all hidden away in about 1/4 of a closet, so it’s not an unmanageable amount. I do the same with tea: if it will fit in my drawer, it’s a manageable amount (I can fit about 60 of David’s Tea tins in my drawer…). I get easily overwhelmed by too much of something. Unless: shoes. And then never too much.

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moraiwe said

My SO is surprisingly supportive and does a bit of tea drinking now, too. He thought it was silly at first, and still doesn’t really understand it, but now every time I try a new tea he asks for a cup.

Lucky! I wish my husband was interested in trying tea with me!

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I’m lucky in that my husband approaches my burgeoning tea collection with bemusement and only slight exasperation. Then there are the times like yesterday when exchanges like this happen:

Him, surveying the kitchen table covered in mail: “Lots of mail today.”
Me, pointing at a swap package: “Tea.”
Me, pointing at my free review samples: “Tea.”
Me, looking at him: “All for me.”
Him: Hah!

Now he won’t stop saying “Tea, tea, all for me” in a little sing-song voice. It could be worse, right?

lol. Tea, tea, all for me. That’s a good one!

The funny thing is that I’ve got a tiny little teapot in one cupboard (one of those ones that nestles into a matching teacup) that says “Tea, tea, just for me” on one side.

Also, it’s not that my husband hates tea so much as he wants something that tastes less “watery”. He will drink tea when he’s sick, although he tends to go for stuff with lots of sweetener.

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Excelsior said

I can’t complain since I am in the opposite situation. My wife is in to teas as much as I am. She grew up with teas in Japan. She is trained and certified in Japanese tea ceremony. We went to the Mariage Freres Tea Salon in Ginza/Tokyo on one of our first dates and stop by the Salon every time when we are in Tokyo.

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K S said

My wife is amused, except when another package arrives. “Do you really need more tea?” She mostly drinks herbal and a scant few def teas. She had a health issue years ago that the doctor blamed on caffeine. Once she quit she discovered it also cured her dizziness. So it is not so much she won’t as she can’t enjoy tea with me. She has her own decaf stash with 10 or so different ones.

Mostly my wife is just glad it isn’t more guitars. Yeah, they are a bit more expensive and you really can’t have too many. I have learned many guitars and one woman works best if you compromise many into a few. Tea is small, it hides well, and shows up in smallish boxes.

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lolainred said

I think I have the opposite problem. My fiance and I are such enablers sometimes. And we both are into tea, problem being that we like opposite teas, so when our tea collection is finally combined in one place we might realize we really do have a tea problem! haha.

We both have our own other collecting habits too though, mine Disney pins and vinylmations, him computers… so many computers.

Not to mention the amount of money he blew through at the Renaissance fair this weekend! Pretty sure he can’t complain if I put in the second Butiki order……

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Lynxiebrat said

My sweetie is mostly amused about my tea habit, though every now and again when I bring it up he rolls his eyes. We don’t live together so that probably helps alot.

He drinks some tea, loves green and black teas and herbals.

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So nice to see I’m not alone in my frustration! For the most part he just silently judges me with amusement, haha. But I think he would be more vocal if he saw tea packages arriving constantly. Not that they are, at this point, but last year I was buying and swapping a ton.

We both have our vices though. We have a huge movie collection and he has tons of video game stuff and wrestling tshirts (don’t get me started on his obsession with wrestling)…. Though to be fair I do tend to have lots of lots of different things. Clothes/shoes/purses… Then there was the jewelry making which I haven’t done in awhile but still have all my supplies. Then there’s my makeup, but at this point I only buy what I love. Then there’s my scarves, I have lots of scarves. But that kind of goes with the clothes/shoes/purses.

I figure it could be a lot worse!

The thing that sucks the most is he won’t touch a cup of tea, he claims to hate tea. He only started drinking coffee when he got the job he’s at now…but he absolutely refuses to drink tea. He won’t even taste it if I tell him I have a particularly delicious cup. Makes me sad. I’d love to be able to share tea drinking with him! Even if he didn’t love it the same but was willing to try some!

Those of you married to tea drinkers, tea appreciaters, or even just mildly interested tea supporters are all very lucky :)

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Uniquity said

Luckily, no. Neither of us have ever liked coffee and we got into loose leaf tea together. Actually, we get into everything together. One may be more interested than the other, but we are often involved in each other’s passions. We have very different tastes for tea but there’s enough common ground that it’s not a problem. I am the more involved tea drinker/purchaser of us so I just make sure we’ve got some of his stuff at any given time and all is good. We have been together since we were 15 though and I often think that growing up and ‘finding ourselves’ with each other has allowed us to share more interests than if we had met an older age with our preferences already in place.

Uniquity said

I should mention that my entire family thinks I’m nuts though. My grandmother likes to tell people how many kinds of tea I have, while my coffee-slugging mother wrinkles her nose. My father drinks tea, but only from a bag with lots of milk and sugar. He has yet to like a single tea I’ve offered him. They make me feel like a circus attraction sometimes.

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