Tea Talking & Win $20 Gift Card

Today’s Question: WHY Do You Love Teas?

I love tea because it brings people together. I certainly love the taste and “the feels” I get from drinking different teas, but I like being in a community of people that are passionate about drinking tea, sharing information about tea, and generally like helping other people have a better day.

The Second Question is: Do you still remember your very first tea? How did that happen?

We’re so appreciated for your guys to be so active to participate in our # Tea Talking #. It’s really very hard for us to choose only “ONE Winner” each day, because all the replies are quite impressive and adorable.

However, let’s follow the rule and congratulations to JakeB.

Please don’t be discouraged! It still has 4 chances to win the $20 Gift Card.

My first tea was probably your standard black tea in a bag. But my first REAL tea that made me fall in love with tea was jasmine dragon pearls. I remember thinking it was so cool watching the leaves unfurl. I think it’s a great starter tea for people who are hesitant to try.

I don’t specifically remember my first tea, it was definitely some sort of commercial, flavoured tea or just some kind of fruit tisane from my parents’ cupboard only a few years ago, but I don’t feel like I had a real experience with tea until I went gongfu, and I think I had a laoshan green as my first gongfu tea, and I think I’d consider that tea my first real tea love. But it’s kind of fuzzy for me, there were a lot of stages I went through when beginning my tea journey

Ok, the more the merrier so I’ll participate again ^^

The biggest problem in the question is maybe the word “tea” itself ( I do feel ashamed to write such a thing though). I don’t really want to call a low-quality tea bag : “Tea”, so I’ll just talk about my earliest good tea-memory.

When I was a child I used to live near the ocean, and we often went on a walk by the seashore with my parents. There is always a strong wind, especially during winter, and one hour of this chilly wind is more than enough to feel a bit dizzy. Your face becomes all red because of the cold, and your over oxygenated brain makes your mind going blank. You don’t feel like focusing on anything special anymore. And once back home, we always share one of these Christmas black tea blends. It was a very warming (in every way) moment, being at peace and sharing love with my family. Simple yet beautiful thing do exist in our world, we just need to find a good way to see them.
This could be a “Madeleine de Proust” (Not totally sure if I can say it in English…) but it’s highly ironic for a tea we drink with (madeleine) cakes ^^

The very first tea must be the pot of oolong from a family dim sum restaurant outing. It is the first tea for my daughter and she’s only two.

My first experience with tea was when I discovered I liked drinking Twining’s bagged chamomile and green tea. I shudder thinking about that…

But my true first experience was when a mock Japanese tea ceremony was held at my college one day. I was already interested in Japanese culture, but I didn’t know anything about the Japanese tea ceremony. I was incredibly taken with it: the set-up, the atmosphere, the etiquette, and – oh wow! – the matcha.

Not counting supermarket tea bags my first experience with real tea has two chapters. First one was when I was vacationing in Williamsburg Virginia and came across a small tea store selling high quality loose tea, Discover Teas. I remember buying a bunch of their teas but in particular a black/green blend called Chocolate Covered Strawberry is the one I remembered. This store launched me on the path to real tea you might call it. After I got home from Vacation I discovered my local mall had a Teavana in it and they sold real tea too. The second part of my discovery of tea was my discovery of puerh. I had found a local tea shop called Clipper Ship Tea Company. On day while I was in the shop the salesperson showed me their last ripe puerh cake they had in stock. I bought it. And from their discovered the various tea shops on the internet that sold puerh tea. Once I had discovered Puerh there was no turning back.

My first experience with tea was at a very young age. My grandmother is an avid tea drinker, and she had traveled all over the world visiting various tea estates. However, her one true love was that of the “Earl Grey” variety. One day when I was a child I was visiting her with my parents, and it was late at night. I can remember everyone talking around the fireplace, and she had handed me a small ceramic mug with steam billowing from the top. She told me to blow and sip softly. I remember putting my nose up to the brew and taking in that sweet clean anise scent. I instantly fell in love. The brew was nice and dark with warm woodiness and an almost citrus bite. I remember asking her mountains of questions and looking up at her with my cutest puppy dog eyes for another cuppa. From that moment forward, I had explored many different teas, and we bonded over our shared love interest of the plant. Presently, I tend to distance myself from flavored teas; however, I will always have a place in my heart for a well done Earl Grey.