New Year's Tea Resolutions
1: Tea cupboard
2: Sipdowns and replace with the tea that I know I really like
3: Drink more puerh
4: Continue my fenghuang journey to experience more of my favourite Oolong
Get the stash under 300 Teas (maybe 400 is more realistic, I’m at 580s right now)
Finish the pumidor
Continue with
Spreadsheeting the collection (Steepster cupboard is terrible at finding things)
Tracking the amount of tea I drink.
I had tracked both all my collection and consumption and found it was really useful data to have to keep tabs on whether I’m buying more tea than I can drink.
edit: A visual of all the 2015 tea crazyness I’ve gotten into http://oolongowl.com/2015-oolong-owl-tea-stash-and-consumption-data/
I plan on organizing again and cleaning out some of my tea for the new year. I am also planning on no purchases (except for the Pu-erh group buy I am already in or restocking a few of my favourite herbal teas when I run out) until the spring. There’s been some major changes in my life lately and it’s making me rethink a lot of things in my life (including hoarding tea).
- Not buy anything until next Black Friday…
- UNLESS it’s first flush green tea from China and Japan
- …so that I can go through the teas I already have. Especially the few pu cakes I have.
- Also show some restraint on myself for teaware. This year, I was able to stock on most necessities: tea tray, cha hai, easy gaiwan for work, thermos for work, a pot for sheng, gongfu glass pot (a larger alternative to my gaiwan). I just need to buy a scale to measure leaf.
- Not be so lazy about posting reviews and taking forever.
- Take Instagram pics!!
1. Three group buys on Steepsters @ $1000 each with a 100% satisfaction rating.
2. Begin my beginners puer education classes here locally; I’ve held off a lot because of the volume of information and crazy organizing of the Prezis.
3. Drink a legitimate dry stored sheng that is at least as old as I am.
4. Become confident enough in my house roasting via practice to provide unique roasted teas; I’m also learning to roast coffee because friends like that junk.
5. Stop financing Liquid Proust Teas (hoping I will break even in 2016)
6. Establish a way to send free tea to those who are new to loose leaf tea with some odd community storage of loose leaf tea… there just has to be a way to do so without getting taken advantage of. I believe there were about three to four people here who sent me stuff without seeing my face or knowing if I was a robot or not, since then I have had a great experience.
I’m totally on board with #6. Swapping/sharing more than anything has opened up my tea experience.
1. Stop being an all or nothing tea drinker. I.e., make tea a part of my life rather than a serial obsession. I’m not sure this is realistic because I tend to throw myself into things 100 percent, burn out, and need to take a break. So this would mean changing something that may be a fundamental aspect of my personality.
2. Give shape and thought to my tea collection by sipping down things I don’t love, finishing samples, and standardizing on a reasonable number of favorites (how many, I have no idea, I would hope that it would at most be less than 100 and at least be less than 50) being mindful of the things I tend to consume more and the things I tend to consume less. For example, I see no good reason to have more than one of most flavored black flavors that I like, though I could see having 2-3 Yunnans, 2-3 Chinese green teas, etc. But also leaving room to explore new things, within reason.
3. As others have said, get to know pu-erh better. Since I tend to overbuy and keep tea for longer than most tea is meant to be kept, the solution seems to be a tea that you are SUPPOSED to keep longer. ;-)
1. Ooh, I’m this way too. Because of this, and because I’m also a coffee drinker, I decided only to educate myself about tea (and not coffee). Instead, I have a Keurig, and I use K-cups, which are roundly frowned upon by people who actually know about coffee. No one in my immediate family ever wants coffee when they come to see me because they’re coffee snobs. And I don’t drink as much, to make up for what I spend on tea.
Heh, that’s a good strategy.
I am a big coffee drinker under ordinary circumstances, but lately after my coffee ran out I just drank tea instead because I had a lot of it. I just bought more coffee, but haven’t cracked it open yet. I am wondering how long it will take me….
I’m totally with you on the obsession. I make a joke out of it saying “anything worth doing is worth overdoing” but anyone who knows me well knows that’s pretty much how I live.
“standardizing on a reasonable number of favorites (how many, I have no idea, I would hope that it would at most be less than 100 and at least be less than 50)”
I would love to be able to do this too – my profile says “Ultimately I would love to find approximately 50 teas that I just “can’t live without” and always have them in my cupboard.”
I wrote that almost two years ago and well – no idea how to get my cupboard anywhere near 50 nor do I have any idea what 50 would be the ones I HAVE TO HAVE…. I need to work on that. Hope you find your perfect teas and gain some control….
(I should also update my profile – I just read some of it looking for that quote and wow – some of it is so not my taste or where I am right now…. add that to the “thinks to do list”)
I just went through and revised my profile the other day. I’m still thinking about whether my ratings ranges make any sense. Most things seem to clump up in the 70s or 80s for me, and I think perhaps my ratings ranges are too granular.
I will only get about 3 orders next year so…they will be big ones and I have to really pick as I won’t be allowed another pumidor.
I’m planning on doing this as well, though I’m not nearly as experienced as you, so I may do… A couple of big orders from places I know I trust, plus 3 or 4 smaller orders.
Continue to drink my way through the samples I have on hand. Stick to a realistic budget (AHAHAHA but I need to at least try). Figure out how many grams of tea I drink a month, so I don’t crazy overbuy and have stuff go bad. Participate in group buys I’m interested in to expand my tea horizons. Find a 700ml/16oz smallish teapot for faux gongfu, I’ll burn my fingers off on a gaiwan.
Drink the tea that I have. ;)
A pottery class would be amazing, if there was one local to me. But that will depend on what happens with work.
I was thinking about the same thing! Check out Groupon to see if they have some deals for your local ceramic classes. I found a 50% off deal for a class near LA
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