Tea alone or with buddies/family? Which do you enjoy more?

Both. When I drink tea with friends and family it is more about the experience with them and the discussion and not the tea. Tea alone, I focus on the enjoyment of the tea and can spend more time enjoying the subtleties that I would miss when drinking tea with others. If I had friends or family that really enjoyed tea then it might be different.

I mostly drink tea by myself because I’m the only one who drinks tea. I’m starting to get my husband into it, little by little. Mostly, I think he’s curious because I’ve spent a lot of money on it lately. Otherwise, though, it’s mostly an alone thing. I drink a lot of tea at work.

Essentially, I like both. I only have one friend to drink tea with these days – she loves/needs tea as much as I do but isn’t Steepster-level passionate – so I mostly drink alone. I love spending time with just the tea, enjoying everything about it and enjoying the enjoyment (basically). Taking tea with friends is always a great way spend time in one anothers’ company. In my senior year of college, a whole group of us formed the Tea Time club. We met every Sunday afternoon, shared our teas, chatted, played Scrabble, role-played, etc. Super fun!

Oh I never drink tea alone….I’m always on Steepster!

I don’t have any tea hobby buddies though. But my SO and a few coworkers are usually willing to try anything I offer. I hope to convert them all one sip at a time.

I have no one nearby who loves tea as much as I do, even the self called “tea lovers” I know just drink Tetley bags with milk and sugar/Splenda

And my hubby refuses to try any tea.
So I’d rather drink it alone than waste the “good stuff” on people who wouldn’t appreciate it anyway
:/

I like both. Also, my friends and co-workers are starting to refer to me as The Corrupter. My assistant is a tea drinker. I’ve shared Golden Fleece, Golden Orchid, Rose Congou, Laoshan Black and Special Dark with her. We have an afternoon tea break. She came in day before yesterday and told me she both loved and hated me. She LOVES the teas I’ve tasted with her (she placed a Verdant order :D) but she is sad that her bagged grocery store tea doesn’t make her happy now. The friend who went to NY with me has been a casual tea drinker. She spent an assload of $ at Harney and Kusmi.

But I LOVE to savor tea by myself, especially when it’s really really good. If I’m alone I can make all the little yummy noises I want.

Now that the weather is much warmer, I’m downing more iced tea, which gives me a different experience altogether. I don’t get the same feeling drinking iced tea vs. hot tea. With hot tea, I really enjoy savoring it and am perfectly fine drinking alone. With the same exact tea over ice, I’m not savoring it as much, I’m downing it to quench my thirst.

Not only does ice change the profile of my tea, it takes the experience from an introspective one to a more social one.

I love drinking tea with hubby, though it’s not necessarily as social as it sounds. We each drink tea throughout the day at work and often have a pot on the go at home. One of us will ask the other to make some, squabble a bit about what we want to drink, prepare it and then sit on the couch with our tea. Then we diverge – typically he is playing video games and I am reading my book or doing crosswords and watching. We are still together, and there is still the sense of company, but we never sit and talk about the tea.

We have a friend that we used to go have tea with at a tea shop on occasion but I’m not the type to spend much time at a shop or restaurant so we left as soon as we were finished. I also notice that the difference in consumption speed can sometimes be an issue. My husband doesn’t even sip his for nearly a half an hour for fear of burning his tongue while I am usually done my cup at that point – except the last sip with the ‘dregs’ that I never finish. Which drives him crazy. :)

We’re also quite lazy and have three teapots with infusers and they are often all dirty because rather than clean one we just start another. It can be annoying.

Well, I’m really the only tea-drinker in the house, so I drink it alone by default. Occasionally, my husband will sniff a tea that sounds interesting, and very occasionally he will drink it if he’s sick, but otherwise, no dice. My mother is very similar. None of this fancy flavoured stuff for her – just Orange Pekoe.

Does anyone else continue to drink hot tea in the summer?