Tea pet peeves
Had a tea pet peeve happen this evening and I wondered if anyone of you have tea pet peeves or stories.
Here is mine:
This evening we had family over to celebrate my daughter’s baptism. My sister-in-law wanted tea. So I let her choose and got her some of my teaware and strainer. She also brewed some for me while I was cooking.She asked how much to use in mine (2 tspish for 2 cups). I figured she’d do the same for her 2 cup pot but she ended up dumping in tea till it reached the top of the strainer, which was around 5 or 6 tbsp…
maybe she only drinks tea bags. thats the only explanation:P
When i was sick and hubby offered to make me a cup of tea i said no, thanks!
Oy. that made me cringe ><
My family kinda does the same thing. They put a lot of tea in the strainer…but then only do one steep and throw the tea away.
As someone that tries to get the most steeps out of her tea as possible, it really bugs me when people do one steep from expensive tea and then just waste it. ><
Brewing extra like that is so wasteful. I’ve accidentally put too much in the strainer before, but not like that. I try to get as many steeps I can as well.
Just go to her house and use all the toilet paper. :D
My pet peeve is a certain someone stealing samples from my holiday packages when I have them shipped to their house.
My biggest tea pet peeve is ignorance when it comes to tea. Not ignorance in a negative condescending way, but I drink mostly chinese tea and most people literally have no concept of this type of tea. If I meet a random person and tell them I like tea I get responses like “Oh, me too! I love that Arizona stuff”, or “I hate tea, I tried some unsweetened tea once at McDonald’s and it was terrible so I don’t like tea”. It’s sad that this is the concept of what tea is to the general population, although occasionally I meet people that have expanded their breadth of what tea is to include those little baggies with strings attached.
This used to bother me quite a bit, but I’ve come to expect that this is the norm so I don’t let it get to me anymore. It’s sad though since I love chinese tea so much and most people have no concept of what it is. It’s like if someone had no idea what steak was, all they had any knowledge or experience with was fast food hamburger patties, you’d tell them you like steak but in their mind they’re thinking quarter pounders when in reality you’re talking about filet mignon and they just have no idea what it is. Anyway, that’s how I feel about the matter. Thanks for listening! :)
That is an interesting analogy with the steak/hamburger. I think I’ll use that from now on! Totally agree on this. Granted it’s hard sometimes to know that more can exist without the help of others or wonderful sites like this
THIS, this is exactly why I dram of opening a proper teahouse. I want to create an environment where people can slow down, relax with good conversation, and turn off their devices and their rush-rush-rushing through life. The other part of my objective is education: to teach people what good tea really is, that there is so much more to tea than Tazo and iced Lipton.
For me it’s people who force their own preferences on other people. Like for example they meet someone who says ‘I don’t like tea’ or someone who just happen to prefer coffee, and then this person must be converted whether they are remotely interested in being converted or not, forcing tea upon them whenever given half the chance, while the involuntary convertee sits there wishing he had a cup of coffee.
It is actually possible to not like tea. And that’s okay. It is not necessary to try every single tea brewed every single way in the whole world to know if one doesn’t like tea. Yes, some people get surprised when they tried it a different way, but this is not universal.
I haven’t tried every single beer in the world, but I still know I don’t like beer. I haven’t watched every single horror film either, but I still know I don’t like horror films.
Everybody has dislikes. For some people, the dislike is tea. They are allowed to not like tea. Deal with it and give them a cup of coffee. Or a glass of water. Or whatever else they would like if they don’t want tea.
Indeed. :) If the other person expresses an interest in being introduced, then by all means convert away. Just don’t insist if they say no thanks.
I’ve tried to get my mom to drink more loose leaf, but that’s not really the same thing. She likes the teas I pick, but uses bagged tea because it’s easier/ quicker.
Mine is the same way. She likes a cup of tea now and then but generally drinks coffee, and tends to go for the more convenient method when having tea. My father doesn’t drink tea at all (this is where my pet peeve stems from. I wouldn’t dream of trying to force him to when I know it would just annoy him. He can’t even stand the smell of it) so she only has it in the evening if he doesn’t want coffee/has fallen asleep. For me, the loose leaf and the strainer is not that much more bother, but for her the same thing would be a hugely involved business. And to be honest, when she only has it once in a blue moon anyway, the leaf would probably just fade anyway. I brought a box of bags up with me so I can have tea when I’m there and she’ll use them for other tea-drinking guests as well. Then it’s just a question of me choosing a better bag. :) It’s a good system for us. Currently I’ve got a box of Clipper’s vanilla assam up there. It’s quite nice.
She doesn’t like coffee (smell or taste), and my step-father gave it up when they got married. So there is a lot bagged teas at home, but the loose leaf is mine. Though we have the bagged tea you get at the natural food stores (well, some).
It annoys me greatly that Harney tins don’t stack better. How hard would that be to make them do that
The tagalong tins stack really nicely. Unfortunately they don’t put the same amount in every tin. Like when I started getting Tower of London there were 5-6 bags in there. But the Vanilla Comoro has I think 2 or 3. Another minus is that the tagalongs are a bit $$.
My girlfriend just sticks her mug in the microwave for everything, hot cocoa, milk, and tea. It really makes me cringe :(
Guilty. I almost always boil in a pot on the stove, but I don’t have an actual tea kettle, so when the pot is dirty, I sometimes just shove a cup of water in the microwave, and nuke it for a minute or two.
I used to microwave my water before I got my kettle. Couldn’t tell you if it’s made a difference or not, my tastes have changed too much. :P
I don’t really notice much of a difference. I found that the water used makes way more of a difference than the heating method used, personally. I still really want a kettle though.
My cousin has a really nice kettle but ever since they got a convection stove they mostly boil water in a pot on it. It is super fast. It only really works well if you want to boil it. It tends to happen too fast to catch it at an earlier stage.
I rest a thermometer in the pot and stand there and watch the numbers climb to the temp that I want.
hides I’m way guilty…. it’s so easy to just stick a cup in the microwave. I do have an electric one but you have to put 4 cups in for the minimum… Maybe I just need to drink more tea… haha Ok you’ve convinced me… I need to drink more tea
I have tried at least different thermometers and none of them seem to work for this purpose because they’re designed for oven temps or meat-cooking temps (ironic for me to use them since I’m a vegetarian). I’ve gotten so tired of it that just yesterday, I finally ordered a variable temp kettle (variable by degrees, not by black/oolong/green). It will take up more room on the kitchen counter, but I think it will be worth it to finally get steeping temps right.
Personal gripe is tea gifting in my family. I’m Chinese and it’s very common to give tea as a gift, usually for health purposes or when someone overhears someone in the family drinks tea. I’m the tea-drinker in my family and I am gifted with a lot of tea straight from China a lot of the time. However, there is a stark difference between “gift” tea and tea of substantial quality. “Gift” tea is mostly a show tea, the cost is not the quality but the packaging… However, it is rude to say so, so I have a lot of “okay” tea laying around my room.
When I gift people tea, I am serious about gifting quality tea, even if it’s in a 2$ canister. However, since gifting is often more about honor/reputation/politeness? than genuineness, it is the packaging that matters moreso to many of my family members…
Aw man, that’s really an unfortunate situation. It’d be absolutely awesome if the whole family was made of serious tea drinkers, quality tea jackpot on your birthday!
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