Steepster Select #010 Giveaway

1 Sip to know if I absolutely hate it.
2 Sips to become intrigued.
1 Cup to know if it is going to be a favorite.
1 Pot to know if it will be a stash permanent.
I will always give any tea a second chance even if I had to dump it after one sip as I will then play with steep times and temps to see if it can be improved.

Sometimes its love at first sip. I quickly follow this with as many steeps as it will go.
Sometimes one sip is all it takes to know I don’t care if changing parameters could improve it. I may not even finish the cup. Rarely does this happen.
Often I play with leaf, temp, and time looking for the best combination. I may learn to love it with work.

None. I can tell by scent. OK…I am really sensitive to smell and taste. I’ve heard that part of the reason is a side effect of the illness I have. Could be true. So I’m not trying to brag…I’m just saying that if a tea is bad I can smell it. That was the question really. Not if it is the best tea ever.

It definitely takes a few tries. I give chances. If the first cup I’d terrible, I’ll try to adjust my parameters. If a second ir third cup doesnt taste good then i let it go. If the first cup is fabulous then that’s all I need to know. :)

It depends on the tea. Sometimes I have to drink it at afferent times in order to really see if I want more of it.

It depends on the tea, but typically 1-2 cups. It may take a while for a tea to grow on me, but otherwise I quickly know whether or not I will enjoy a tea after a few cups!

I have learned to never give up on a tea. Once upon a time I would have adamantly swear I hate dessert flavours and now I have several vanilla teas that are my favourite. I just had to find the right time. But I might choose one tea over another for the taste/value ratio. To answer the question more directly, I would try two times at any one time to decide if I like a tea. That doesn’t preclude trying it again at a later date though.

It depends… sometimes I can drink a cup and know I never want to drink that one again. Sometimes I drink a cup, and I’m not impressed enough to try again because I have so much tea to drink already. Most of the time I have enough of a tea that I end up drinking multiple cups of it anyway, so I try to vary steeping parameters if I don’t like a tea the first time I give it a few shots.

I usually decide after going through my first cup. If I have enough of the dry leaf, I’ll try different brewing temperatures and times to see if I can find something that works for me.

1 cup … although it may take a few to tell how much i like one that passes the one cup test