At some point or another, many of us have had or still have the lofty ambition of trying every single type of tea in the world. A beautiful dream, largely unattainable and I would argue quite pointless actually. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely value in broadening our horizons. However this often comes at a cost, in fact for many chronic tea tasters who purchase nothing but sample size teas, quite a great one at that.
The point of this post is not to convince you not to sample- in fact you ought to- rather it is to caution against the perils of ‘over-sampling’.
Here are some reasons why you should drink more of each type of tea as opposed to more types of tea.
Depth- Knowing that Tea
For many people, most of the teas that hoard their cupboard probably gets one or two pots worth. In some extreme cases, some teas just get one miserable lonesome infusion and it’s thrown into the bin! Some drinkers seem in a hurry to hit their ‘tea quota’, blitzing through 5 or 6 types of teas in a day.
That is all fine and well for bragging rights with casual tea drinkers but it doesn’t help you cultivate a deeper understanding of tea. I find that I don’t usually uncover the true nature of tea until I have brewed it on a few occasions.
It could be a case of adjusting the proportions or adjusting the methods. Such as using a more aggressive ‘gao chong’ (pouring the water from higher levels) to elicit the ‘tea nature’ from more docile teas or pouring along the walls to prevent the ‘throat locking’ feel from welling up. These are only possible with repeat experimentation.
Preserving the Optimum State of Tea
Tea is perishable, particularly green tea. My observation is that for most good green teas, degradation in taste and that refreshing mouth feel sets in noticeably after the seal of the packet is broken and stored at room temperature for more than 2 months.
*More on this subject in a separate post*
Green tea that has been deliberately left outside for a week
Apart from that, when tea is stored in small packets- circa 10-20g- it tends to lose some of its aroma rather quickly.
That is why if you bought 10-20 samples at a go, by the time you get round to some forgotten samples, you might find it in a sub-optimal state.
Value for Money
Running a small business means I am literally involved in every aspect of the business, including packing tea. The effort involved in packing a 50g bag of tea is only marginally more than packing a 10g bag of tea. As for the packaging material, it is only slightly (if at all, sometimes we use the same packet) cheaper than the larger packet.
Hence if the tea cost $10 per 50g, you can’t expect a 10g bag to cost $2 ($10/2) since the cost is not directly proportional.
There is also a matter of incremental carbon imprint per gram of tea due to the packaging material.
Tea Valuation
A common path of progression- although this does not strictly apply to all- among tea drinkers is that overtime, you find yourself being increasingly particular with the quality of tea. More often than not, there is a correlation with the price.
Unfortunately there is no guarantee that a vendor would give you a higher grade tea for that premium you are willing to pay. In many cases all you pay for is a nicer story and a fanciful name. Naturally at the lower end of the price range, it’s still possible to be scammed and paying ludicrously high markups for fake tea even.
Where one’s experience with each variety of tea is merely touch and go and part of quota fulfillment, the understanding and comprehension of that type of tea may not be sufficient not to render you an ideal victim of dishonest merchants.
For example, without spending enough time with each variety of Longjing, you might not be able to discern the difference between Xihu, Hangzhou and Zhejiang Longjing. Yet the prices can be as many as a 10 time differential.
Don’t get me started on Pu-er where the wrapper can easily be faked and without an intimate knowledge of each type of tea, you wouldn’t be able to discern the age or origin of the Pu-er which can make the difference between a $10 cake and a $10,000 cake.
*That is why I don’t sell Pu-er cakes, my level of understanding of Pu-er is not sufficient for me to dispel the fear of being the biggest (or second biggest) sucker in the Pu-er bubble*
Conclusion
This does not discount the value of sampling though you ought to try before making a bulk purchase. Being stuck with 10g of tea you have never touched is preferable to being stuck with 500g of tea you don’t like.
Rather, this post discourages a touch-and-go mentality to drinking tea, the type that many tea hoarders with varieties of teas in excess of hundreds have.
See here for more articles related to tea appreciation.
