The Good Stuff

41 Replies
Dr Jim said

I used to save the good stuff until I had the last 2 grams of a special tea I’d been saving and realized it had gone stale. I immediately added a “Date purchased” column to my tea spreadsheet and set it to automatically go to a red highlight after one year. That can still be too long for some teas, but it has helped me to prioritize drinking schedules. It also is an argument against buying new teas, though in practice it just steered me toward puerh.

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MzPriss said

I drink the good stuff all the time. I have been in the process of giving away tea that is just OK to ME. Other people really appreciate things I have moved on from – our tastes evolve over time and I’m focusing on what I think is awesome.

ETA – I echo Dr Jim you can wait too long and then be very sad you didn’t drink something you love.

Nicole said

^This. So much this.

mugger said

I don’t have any teas that I think are “just OK,” and that’s part of the problem. I have teas that I think are good, and teas that I think are exceptionally good. Like, an-experience-unto-themselves good. Drinking good tea is a part of every day of my life. But some of my teas, I’m almost afraid to drink because they created such a pleasant sensation when I first had them that I don’t want that feeling to become mundane or waste the tea by not being able to fully enjoy it.

But I do need to indulge at least occasionally, even if it’s not a very special occasion, I suppose.

Psyck said

Drink a special tea every weekend/holiday, in the afternoon, when you are not working and are relaxed :)

MzPriss said

@mugger – the tea that is just OK to me now started as tea that I LOVED previously. The tea didn’t change (unless I let it get too old to enjoy) my tastes changed. Some of the teas that are “good” to me are some of the most beloved teas on Steepster. It’s a journey.

mugger said

That’s rather ominous. It sounds like maybe I’m better off staying the way I am and not letting my fondness for “just OK” teas die by drinking only my finest teas. You present a new perspective for me, and I find it quite validating. Thanks for your comment.

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LuckyMe said

I’ve mostly upgraded to better quality teas but I face the same conundrum sometimes too, especially when I’m down to my last few ounces of a tea I really love. Ordering just one or two teas can be expensive so I try to run through several teas in my stash to make my tea purchases a little more economical.

When I’m running out of a favorite tea, I try to stretch my supply as much as I can. I’ll use less leaf by steeping western style and squeeze every last infusion out of them.

An exception to this is green tea. Buy in small quantities and finish off soon because it doesn’t get better with age.

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Excelsior said

I drink the fancy good tasting tea at home. I relegate the not so expensive, not so fancy tea for what I drink at work. Why? Sometimes my colleagues will ask me to make them some tea. I cringe when some of them load that tea up with tons of sugar. I cringe when they drink half or ¾ of the cup and throw out the rest because it has gotten cold. I cringe when they ask me to make the tea really dark because I know that they intend to drink the tea with either cream or milk.

So I drink the sometimes expensive, sometimes fancy, all the time at home with my wife. Yet I will drink the not so fancy, good but not great, and inexpensive tea at work.

mugger said

If I were you, I might just keep a bunch of bagged Twinings around and not let on that’s what I was giving them. :)

Dr Jim said

I never bring the expensive stuff to work but that’s because I get focused on something and realize my cup is empty and I don’t even remember drinking it. Or else I go to drink it and it’s stone cold.

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Excelsior said

Just out of curiosity,

when I say good stuff or fancy teas, I’m usually referencing teas that are:

$15 per ounce and above which is roughly $53 per 100g and above.

And I can only get 1 really good steep from the tea I am referencing.

Price is not everything and sometimes it does not correlate with taste but at what price point would you consider as the fancy/good stuff?

I drink the “good” stuff at home every day and since my wife will want whatever I am making, it becomes a fairly expensive proposition. Yet it is a price I am willing to pay.

If by fancy you mean the highest stuff one drinks… I would say that my teas that cost over $1 per gram would fit that category for me.

I generally only have one or two teas that fit the $30+ per ounce bill, but I find $10 per ounce to be a fair price with everything between those two needed to have evaluation from my end on preference to figure out its worth to me.

mugger said

Even though price is the reason I don’t buy or drink as much tea as I might otherwise, I never really think much about the price of a tea when buying except when deciding how much to buy, and then I forget what I paid soon after. I only make the distinction between my “best” teas (the teas that I find truly wonderful to drink) and my “other” teas, which are always satisfying when I want tea, but dont stand out as being exceptional. I’m sure many of the nicer ones are also the more expensive ones, as I usually have less of them, but to me it’s a lot more about the experience than the price.

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i love to drinking black tea ..its good for health.Friends now a days i also make tea …every body says that its good.

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Bitterleaf said

For me it’s gotta be good tea or nothing at all. I got to a point where I just couldn’t drink bad tea anymore, or at least there was 0 enjoyment in it. This doesn’t mean every tea I have has to be >$1 gram range, but it has to have something special about it, and more often than not, you’re going to pay for that. With that said, I still work within a range that doesn’t see me blow $20/day on a few sessions, but I never hesitate if I want to put $5-10 in a pot because that’s what I feel like. A coffee from Starbucks or a pint at a bar will be in that range, and honestly not as enjoyable (well, the pint would be pretty good, I suppose).

I worried at one point that it might be a bit psychological and tried to test the effects of price with blind tastings. Conclusion: It’s not in my head (well, it is technically in my head, but mostly the mouth part).

Chasing famous names will drive the price up too. If you want Bing Dao or Lao Ban Zhang, better have $200 or more to drop on a full cake. Will it taste great? Probably, but it’s not always a guarantee.

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pixel said

This is a very interesting thread. Mugger, I did save my more exceptional teas for more special occasions for 15 or more years. However 20 years ago I had an epiphany. Budget aside (& that had gotten better over the years), I do my best to drink at least one exceptional tea every day. We also eat on our fine China, buy free-range organic when we can, enjoy our fine linens and try our best to enjoy God’s gifts as we are able. I realized one day, as I was denying myself the tea I really wanted, that I was doing myself, the tea producer, the vendor, and the earth a real disfavor by not thoroughly enjoying & appreciating the gifts offered. So my philosophy is to keep a number of exceptional teas of very different characters in my cupboard, and enjoy them as frequently as my budget permits me to.

Can we be best friends?

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gschuschke said

Marzipan you make me laugh!!

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pixel said

Yes Marzipan! Let’s be besties. Are you of a like mind?

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