After living in Asia for almost 30 years, we recently moved to Sydney, where my two older daughters live (although we are continuing to supply our customers with teas and tea products directly from China and Taiwan). They knew I was in the tea business and enjoyed drinking tea, but I had never had the opportunity to talk with them much about it or enjoy some tea together with them. Neither knew much about tea, although one of them mentioned she had gone inside a nearby tea shop a couple of times, enjoyed the atmosphere there and all the teas on display, and thought she might enjoy drinking some tea there sometime. But that was about the extent of their combined tea experiences.
Not long after we moved to Sydney, that started to change. My daughters began asking more about tea, and sometimes, when they visited, I would describe different teas, show them how they are made, and give them a taste of some nice teas I thought would appeal to them. One of them in particular was quite fascinated and enjoyed the interesting new tea tastes. She wanted to learn how to make them. One day when she was not feeling well, she visited, drank some tea, and felt much better.
While on a recent trip to Taiwan, my wife warned me to be prepared to find some of my teas gone. Now it seems that every time our daughter visits, she goes straight to my tea cabinet, selects a tea, and makes herself a pot or two.
Since being back this time, I have enjoyed tea together with my daughter several times. Now she always wants to drink tea when she visits. It’s great to see others enjoying it as much as I do.
I find having a good variety of teas available, and sometimes drinking very different teas, one after each other, makes for some fascinating taste, smell, and color discoveries – especially for young people. For example, last time my daughter visited, we started with a delicious Bi Lo Chun, followed by an Oriental Beauty, and finished the tea session with a rich Sheng Pu-erh.
Variety is indeed the spice of life. This is certainly true with tea. Although my basic nature with food is one of consistency and repetition, I too enjoy variety with the teas I drink, rarely repeating a type of tea two days in a row.
Great to hear your daughters are interested and enjoying it now. For new tea drinkers, what would you recommend trying first?
Liz-CoolProducts
GABA and Oriental Beauty were the first two I introduced to them – two Asian teas that are too distant from a regular black tea in flavor. And they both often have a nice honey taste & aroma that makes drinking tea (without considering adding milk or sugar), a particularly pleasant and enjoyable experience for new drinkers
I love to enjoy new varieties and flavors among tea; this is one of the most demandable stuff among working hours by most people and really refreshed you in an effective way.