Like wine geeks, there are tea geeks

If you read this article and substitute “wine” for “tea,” this article is going to seem very familiar to many of you…

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chinese-tea-20120112,0,3525217,full.story

Bruce

I love the line “drinkable antique.”

There is such a cool old-world-style ritual and layered appreciation of all the parts involved in the process. It reminds me of decanting wine, brewing coffee, or mixing classic cocktails.

Tea and coffee geeks are just as obsessive and snobby if not more so. They act like the forgotten middle child.

Mark Estrin, now deceased, of Wine House and Red Car fame, got me very interested in tea long ago. He was a real aficionado.
alan

I have a tea geek friend. His habit is easily as expensive as mine. He obsesses about serving temperature and steeping times. We went to Bordeaux for a week and visited Paris for a day before going home. His high moment on the trip? Mariage Freres Tea Salon in St. Germain. I had a blast learning about tea with him - and the aromatics are fantastic.

Got to visit a tea emporium in Beijing and spent an hour getting to taste the different styles and learn some of the customs. Got to see some of the $1500+ aged bricks. Don’t have time for all the ceremony at home so didn’t buy much, but in the right environment it’s feels very significant culturally. One of the highlights of the trip.

There are some tea geeks/threads here as well.

www.uptontea.com


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Wicked Cool!

Did you know coffee judges are called “cuppers?” The stuff you can learn while on vacation on the Big Island.

‘Cupping’ is the standard lingo for tasting/evaluating coffee.


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Wicked Cool!

No cork soaking or polishing?

Goodness me.

“It’s kind of got that dirty bandage taste,” Louise Yang says.

Brett. Gotta be Brett.

Die-hard collectors buy young pu’er teas and wait for them to age. “With a cake of pu’er, you are buying it believing that it’s going to become something,” Fasi said. “It’s almost like the aspirations you would have for a child.”

The 2009 version runs about US$21 on Taobao before proxy fees and shipping, $53.99 with shipping from Dragon Tea House (ebay seller based in China).

They’re into vintages?

The scent of this shu pu’er’s wet leaves was pleasant, certainly. Mulchy and wet without smelling dirty, that “forest floor after the rain” euphemism that changes “smells like dirt” into a fond recollection of sierran enjoyment.

Closet Burgundy fan. MUST be a closet Burgundy fan.

Yeah but Tea geeks don’t really have a valid excuse for wild, crazy, out of control behavior like we do, unless it’s something like:

“Oh, I had 200 cups of tea today and am just so buzzed from all the caffeine…”

One of the greatest wine geeks I know – an Italian – became a tea geek, too. You have varietal dimensions, blends and terroir! What more could a wine geek want?

I’m a green tea geek.

I go Green during the day … Red at night.

I don’t know if I’m a full fledged tea geek, but I’m well on my way. I have a serious oolong habit. I like black, pu’er and green tea too, but once you’ve had
great oolong it’s tough to drink anything else.

If I had to make a comparison of oolong tea geeks to wine geeks, they correspond most closely to the Burgundy folks. They drink other teas, and they’ll discuss other teas, but in their eyes nothing compares to the complexities and subtle variations of oolong. You want to discuss the subtleties of each successive steeping? Oolong tea geeks are the folks to find. (Generally number three for me, but sometimes the second steeping is best)

I’m a tea geek! Loud and Proud… stirthepot.gif

I’m a British Tea Council Accredited Tea Master.

Anyone for mini-2010 Pu-ehr??

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I am here: Google Maps

alcohol.

I have become a tea geek in the past couple of years. When I was in Red Blossom Tea in SF in the late summer, Alice, one of the family of owners, referred to me to one of the other customers as a “heavy user”. I felt Like I was in an opium den.
But seriously, appreciating good tea is similar to wine- there are a LOT of very complex and nuanced teas, and discovering their flavors is similar to appreciating wine.

Beat me to it!

I like a nice boost of caffeine, but more for productivity than contemplation. Caffeine is the opposite of mellow, though tea is not as hyperactive as coffee. I do appreciate that it’s generally not a diuretic.

Wine is the ticket for relaxation that won’t keep you up, provided you don’t drink an hour or two before bed. Caffeine sticks with me all night.