choices to make..

by type generally, although I guess i do categorise things like the aged oolong group buy separately

I choose by flavor. Do I want something malty, vegetal, floral, fruity, herbal, etc. Once I decide on the flavor/type it is usually easy to choose the tea.

I’m still in the experimental/drink all the things phase, so if I have a sample that I really like, say a Fujian black tea, I want to try something similar.
Some people here have spreadsheets of their collection and I can see that being really helpful.

I love Hope & Glory’s red velvet Tisane, its beautiful in the summer or winter. Over ice with a slice of lemon or as a hot drink. Also great as a cocktail.xx

This is seriously the biggest issue in my entire life. I sometimes spend 3 to 4 hours deciding which tea I’m going to have. Recently I kinda went insane and I had to just make it routine to start my day with shou puerh and then hopefully I crave a specific tea later on and it makes the choice easier. Haha

Somewhere on Steepster is the tea randomizer which will choose a tea for you but I don’t know the thread. I just usually decide on something I have recently bought.

I always want Chinese black tea, which is convenient as I own lots of it. Then it’s sort of random. Occasionally a specific tea will appeal, but more often I pick up a couple and think about it. I tend not to drink the same tea regularly, so it is more a case of “not that, not this, I had that yesterday”.

Sadly, most of my tea drinking is at work and my boss likes ceylon and assam so I make a pot of that and add a drop of honey and milk to make it palatable for myself.

It’s called the paralysis of choice. I have hundreds of teas here, and here’s what I do when that happens to me.

I allow myself to choose any tea that I want, anytime that I want. But, if I get stuck being indecisive, I must choose from the basket. The basket is a small selection of things that need to be gone – maybe it’s an older sample, maybe it’s the last bit of tea and then that one will be gone, etc. There are 10-15 teas in that basket. It makes the decision much easier.

I break it down into quality and type. “Daily Drinkers” when I’m doing something that will distract me from the tea (work, TV, etc.); quality tea at other times. Generally I drink Black tea in the morning, oolong int he afternoon, and puerh after about 3 PM. For the specific tea, I look in the box for that type and fit my mood. I have way too many puerh samples, so I lined them up in two shoe-boxes, and just take the first package, then replace it at the back of the box.

I have developed a sort of routine: in the morning most of the time it’s yerba mate, unless I’m in the mood for coffee (rare). I have about two dozen teas in my desk that I classify as “work teas” that are mostly flavored/sweet blends to satisfy my post-lunch sweet tooth, and decent oolongs and shou pu’erhs that I drink while working that do not require much focus on the tea. My higher quality teas, eg: shengs, aged oolongs, greens like gyokuro, are strictly for after work or weekends. That said, I do have decision paralysis between oolong and pu’erh quite a lot. I also factor in whether or not I feel like reviewing the tea…. do I wanna just relax and drink, or focus and try to pick out flavors? Am I going to take pictures and post them to IG? Am I going to just make a big mug of oolong western style and be done, or am I going to sit and have a gong fu session with some sheng that might take two hours? Do I even have two hours to sit and drink tea? Also, if I have a new tea I haven’t tried yet, it usually goes to the front of the line. I do need to be better about drinking up samples though, particularly of the non-pu’erhs that are going to be stale after awhile.