TeaKlutz said

Beginner-friendly tea communities

I’m writing a blog aimed at beginning loose-leaf tea drinkers, and I want to write a post about finding online tea communities. What are your recommendations for online tea communities that are beginner-friendly?

My interest is specifically in loose-leaf tea (if bagged tea is present in the community, that’s ok), but I’m looking for places where someone with less experience can discuss, learn, and enjoy.

I’ve had that experience with Steepster; although I’ve been a bumbling klutz with teas at times, the people who comment on my posts are friendly and accepting, and when they offer suggestions it’s in a supportive manner. Meanwhile, when I’ve dabbled around the tea subreddit on Reddit, I’ve found a mix of genuinely decent people and a handful who are are snide, disdainful, and condescending to anyone with less experience than themselves.

Your comments are greatly appreciated!

13 Replies

Earlier this calendar year I was an absolute beginner. I checked out this forum, Teachat and Rddit and I think this one is by far the most welcoming to new people.

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Reddit and TeaChat are not really supportive communities even for tea lovers that are not beginners…

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Ashley78 said

I agree with Marzipan. Maybe you can try egullet. It’s not only for tea, but it’s friendly enough)

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I run a group on facebook that is beginner friendly, A lot of the members are new to tea and I do my best to see that their questions are answered https://www.facebook.com/groups/415399551889457/ I also tend to get snappish at tea snobs that are down on beginners, it is bad for the tea community!

Ratetea is not so much a community (like steepster is) but it is a huge source of info that is super valuable to new and old sippers, and if you ask questions on your reviews you usually get friendly answers.

But yeah, Steepster is the best tea community that I have found…the others can be a bit…well, Tea Pet put it best.

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I moderate a Google+ community. No advertising or snobbishness is allowed. Most of our members are beginners but we have some knowledgeable tea vendor members who help out a lot with answering questions.

https://plus.google.com/communities/101699360293722804353

I just joined—thanks! ;-)

Me too! I keep forgetting Google+ is a thing that exists, which is pretty bad because there is cool stuff there!

Cwyn said

I’m confused about Google+, also I’ve tried to figure out how to comment on your blog and couldn’t figure that out either. My online social media skills are a bit lacking, I’m afraid.

I wrote a guide to G+ for tea lovers that might help:

http://www.teaformeplease.com/2013/02/the-tea-lovers-guide-to-google.html

Definitely let me know if you have any questions about it. I can send you a copy of a guidebook via Google Drive.

My blog comments are integrated with Google+ so you’ll need to be logged into a Google account. A handful of people have told me that they don’t want a Google account but it has had its advantages. I get zero spam and comments can be shared to G+, increasing the amount of interaction and reach.

Cwyn said

I was logged in at the time, dunno why I couldn’t get it to work. I use an IPad a lot, maybe the mobile platform is an issue.

That definitely could be. I know the browser on my phone has issues sometimes.

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Teatra.de has a friendly group of people, although it’s not quite as active as it once was.

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TeaKlutz said

Thank you for your input, everyone! I much appreciate it! And thank you to Amanda ‘SoggyEnderman’ Wilson and Nicole Martin for letting me know about the tea communities you moderate. I promise I will give you a shout-out when I write the post!

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