Do you ever find yourself not enjoying tea? (*Gasps* of disbelief echo through the internet)
Lately I have found I have been having a hard time enjoying tea. Don’t get me wrong, I still love tea and will continue to buy it and drink it and buy it. But over the past few weeks I feel like I have been drinking tea just to drink. I have had a few things going on in life to increase stress levels so I know that contributes to not only not enjoying tea but not enjoying life. I think sometimes I drink tea just to get rid of it and although I am taking time to appreciate the flavours and nuances of the tea, I am not really enjoying it. I found today I had several cups of tea that were left unfinished and many times in the past few months pitchers of iced or cold brew tea were left in the fridge way to long to be consumable.
After this weekend life should be significantly slowing down so I am looking forward to drinking for enjoyment again.
Has anyone else ever felt like this?
Yes. I’ve been there where I start my kettle just out of habit and don’t really enjoy the cup – I have a few sips and forget it only to dump it later when it’s cold.
I think that drinking tea to drink it down is a big part of why I get tea blah’s like that. It becomes a job, or a chore and then not as fun. The only way I can snap out of it is to just forget worrying about sipdowns, maybe take a day or two off tea until I’m actually really craving it, and then making teas that I REALLY like.
I hope life stops being so stressful and you can relax with a cuppa again. But don’t worry – the tea blahs WILL pass. I’m fairly certain about that.
Also, worrying about the total # of teas doesn’t always make sense. It’s the total size of your stash that is really more important, and that way, every cup you drink is another cup helping you rotate through it. Worry about drinking older teas on days where you’re more open to trying anything but don’t let it get you down. Save it for a day when you’ll like it, and if that day doesn’t come, just let it go. Swap it or dump it. I had 50g of LIcorice Twist that I finally got rid of because I hated it and felt like I HAD to drink it and it was just such a relief to get it out of the way. :)
Super agree. I thought for a while about worrying about my stash and drinking things in the most logical manner, you know, greens and oolongs immediately, anything open immediately, etc…which would mean any time I get excited about new tea coming my way I wouldn’t be able to drink it while riding that “newness” high. A while back I decided this was folly, for me at least, because it means often drinking a tea I might love if I was in the mood for it but at a time when I’m not (this happens a lot with greens), as a chore, and in a way that’s just as wasteful. So lately I’ve been drinking what I want when I want without worrying about it, and also if I don’t feel like drinking tea for a day or so I just don’t, and don’t worry too much about it. Removing that element of it being a chore and regimented (where you don’t drink what you really want to when you feel like it) helps me keep the tea blahs away.
They can also happen to me if I drink too many teas that are all highly rated/popular but seem kind of the same to me. This happened to me for a while with smooth sweet Chinese black teas. So I took a break from them. Now I can appreciate them again. So curbing the amount of “side by side” comparisons I do and hence the glut of sameness helps too.
After about a year, I discovered that I don’t prefer most green tea’s and can’t even taste some type’s at all. Then I chose to eliminate all artificially flavored tea.(now and then I’ll try a sample I’m sent..but it’s rare) I’m on the hunt for emerging tea’s from Nepal, Kenya and Uganda…as well as favorites from vendors I trust to bring quality tea’s. I hate the word sipdown! Every precious tea has been hand crafted at some point. I’m sad when my tea is gone because I don’t have tea that I don’t like.
Yeah, I love how tea has been a continuing re-evaluation of my preferences, ever-changing…I thought I hated greens growing up so it was a total delight this summer to discover I just hadn’t found the Chinese ones I dearly love…Verdant’s Laoshan Bilochun blew my frickin’ mind all summer long, Tai Ping Hou Kui has been a wonderful discovery…and genmaicha is so much fun! Also, a lot of fruity flavors I dislike in black tea I love with greens. Finding these things out was awesome. And with the cooler weather, I want those less. It’s neat to have one’s desires shift and know there’s a tea out there to accommodate any mood.
Curious to hear about your experience with Ugandan teas!
hey now! in the sipdown thread some time ago, I dared to ask if that whole race to finish off teas didn’t make the tea sipping more of a chore and you alls jumped at me for that one :p LOL it took me all of three months into my tea fetish to decide that if a tea isn’t 85+ for me, I ain’t drinking it. If i need to reduce my stash, I’d sooner give it away than make clearing it out a drinking chore :) Tea time is sacred time and stress-reducing. It doesnt reduce my stress to drink a mediocre tea just to say that i finished it off. bah. life’s too short for that.
Yep…I HATE the term sipdown! Why not send your unwanted tea to a newbie or a student. How about a Canadian to US swap for tea’s that are often too expensive to order because of shipping costs. It’s just irksome for people to constantly brag about how much tea they have and what a chore it is to drink it. Well, stop buying tea and swapping. Buy tea you love and cry when it’s gone!
The term sipdown sounds like someone putting a litter of unwanted kittens in a sack and throwing them in the river. There…rid of them!
I expect I’ve made a lot of people mad. Those who know me are not surprised that I’m outspoken. Tea is not something I want to disrespect.
I think it depends on the context of sipdown. Sure if you use it like well I’m glad that crap is gone, but I like to celebrate finishing teas, even if they’re tea I love. I have a box that I specifically use to put in teas I don’t want to finish because I don’t enjoy them and then i try to find homes for those teas with people who might like them. Teas aren’t going to work for everyone but what doesn’t jive with me, might work for other people.
Only when I’m stubbornly trying to drink through a package of tea I’m not entirely crazy about. Whether it’s ho-hum, or flat out dislike, then it becomes a chore and it feels like I’m doing a job than something to enjoy.
But otherwise, during happy times, or during stressful periods of life I always enjoy a tea, even if I’m not taking the time to think about each flavor or nuance.
Early this year I made a decision to…gulp…stop reviewing 3 tea’s a day on Steepster and begin drinking more tea with people for the enjoyment of it! The burden of a self-imposed deadline was lifted off my shoulders. I live alone…and those 40-50 hours at the computer were not healthy. Besides, to learn about tea, you need to get out and drink with others. No excuses!
Listen, I’m pretty poor, I’m old and I have physical limitations. I always carry tea samples with me and have found a tea lifestyle outside in my community. This is what rejuvinates the blahs!
When you feel bored with tea, take tea to share with someone who has never been exposed to the wonders you know about. In humility serve them and your love for tea will return.
I had a year of tea blahs a while back, for me it stemmed from personal stress and also too much focus on finishing off certain teas which made it feel like a chore rather than a hobby.
Since then I have stopped worrying about sipdowns or totals, and also cut myself slack about reviewing regularly. If I don’t like it I give it to someone who does or I throw it out. I refuse to let myself feel guilty about it and I also curbed my purchases WAY back, buying only teas that really appealed to me or re-stocking favourites. I even stopped accepting free samples from companies because I found the pressure of providing a timely review too much. I also stopped posting tealogs on Steepster except for new teas and ones that changed dramatically over time. Basically I changed my outlook so that I enjoyed tea again for the pleasure that it added to my life rather than the ‘stresses’ of reviews and number counts. Even now I sometimes hold off on drinking a tea because I don’t have the enthusiasm to write a review, and I don’t like that.
Sometimes I think I should abandon Steepster entirely and just enjoy life without checking it multiple times a day, but I’ve been here daily for 3.5 years and it apparently is a habit I can’t break. If I put all my Steepster time into extra reading time, just think how much I’d have read this year! :)
If the people like us who’ve been here a long time left it would be unfortunate for the new people who are just discovering tea. Cutting back is understood, but mentoring is paying back the kind steepsters who helped us when we were newbies.
What a magnanimous way of thinking, Bonnie. I selfishly agree as a newbie—sometimes it bums me out to read 4 year old discussions that are interesting and illuminating only to realize most of those folks, clearly full of knowledge and kindness, have left.
Yeah I go thru it every so often. Like I’m not enjoying much of anything. I just avoid it till I’m craving it.
I assume that blah is either bored or habit, in either case, go beyond your boundaries. Try a tea you never had before, maybe a more expensive one for example, or set yourself a mini-vacation with tea, like spending a day in the park drinking tea. When I got bored with loose green tea, gunpowder, I made a jump to matcha, now I drink tea daily. If that ever slows down, I’ll try the matcha 94, which is more expensive than “pure matcha.” (Note: not promoting products, just being specific about journey).
Usually when schedule or life in general is too hectic or too stressful to sit down and really enjoy a cup.
Firstly I don’t have to finish everything before its best before date, if it expires and I have to throw some away its not the end of the world, especially the stuff I got at a reasonable price to begin with.
I like to keep a variety of tea at home so that I don’t get bored and if I ever do then theres always coffee, hot chocolate, options, horlicks and ovaltine in the cupboards too.
Indeed. When I first found out I was pregnant everyone was telling me what not to eat and do… etc… and It just made my tea drinking go way down. Almost to none for a week. Then I talked to my doctor about it and how I told her I felt better when I was drinking tea and she said as long as you only do one a day and stay away from certain things you are fine.
So now I’m back to my one cup a day and feeling better.
This sometimes but extremely rarely happens to me with both tea and music. I’m pretty much nonstop drinking tea and the same goes with listening to music. Sometimes, I just get blah about tea but then in a day or two I get back right into it. If I feel that way about tea, I won’t allow myself to have my favorite tea until I’ve built such an excitement for it that I must have it. Occasionally, I even try to go without it for a week so that I will appreciate it even more when I can have it again.
Yeah! There was nothing like going out of town for weeks and not drinking any of my favorite teas to make me crazy for ‘em all over again when we came home this fall, ha. I know what you mean about music too—similarly, when my husband has a week off or something and all we listen to is his stuff around the house, suddenly the first day back to work with him gone I find myself going "I’m sorry baby, I don’t know why I didn’t appreciate you!!" to my playlists, ha.
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