My Tea Journey: Five Years Of Discovery, Change And Experimenting

  

(The now defunct Mulled Spice by Twinings. A near constant companion in the early days).

It's hard to believe that it's almost five years since I started to drink tea. What is more extraordinary is how I drink my tea. Long gone are the days of sweetners (or sugar sometimes!) and milk (except when drinking chai!). Now, I take it black and unsweetened. 

Reflecting on the last five years, I am quite astounded at not only the sheer volume of tea I've been able to put away but the large variety, too! Just this year alone I have enjoyed Lapsang Souchong  and have been converted to peppermint tea, courtesy of Northern Tea Merchants fantastic Fine Cut Cuban Peppermint blend.

The world, for a tea lover, is your oyster. And I suspect it's the same thing for coffee lovers, too. The huge amount of tea available is astounding, with it varying in price, quality and taste. The internet has been a marvelous invention for tea lovers as it has opened up the door to such an amazing variety of choice.

And, to be fair, supermarkets are also doing their best to make sure customers have a good selection of tea too, eagerly inviting names such as Teapigs, Dragonfly and Dorset Tea to appear on their shelves. They seem to want to take risks in the tea's they stock, willing to give the established brands a run for their money. And that can only be a good thing.

In five short years I've seen such a big change in the tea world. From the quick rise in popularity of tea temples (or pyramids as they can sometimes be known) to the resurgence of loose tea and the subsequent popularity of one cup pots and quirky infusers. It's staggering to sit down and think of how much the tea world has changed. 

Perhaps one of the biggest changes I've seen is the quality of green tea. No longer, (thanks to high quality suppliers and the use of good tea in tea temples) do you have to put up with bitter, astringent, grassy tasting tea. Green tea comes in all manner of flavours, some flavour combinations stun you into silence! 

When I was little green tea would be the reserve of health shops and chemists. No longer. It was extremely trendy a few years back to drink green tea but that fad seems to have passed, but it's left consumers with knowledge and appreciation that green tea can not only good for you, but good to taste too, and now green tea is mentioned almost as regularly as black tea. 

I can honestly say I've loved every single minute of my tea journey. It's been utterly fun and I have had some truly wonderful experiences through tea, also. My recent tea tasting with Northern Tea being a highlight.

What I find most endearing, and possibly so exciting, is that every single tea lover I've encountered has a equal amount of excitement and, dear I say, obsession. Nothing is as nice as talking tea with a fellow enthusiast. 

As I've written on the blog before I also gain a lot of emotional and physical comfort from tea. It's warming, thirst quenching and healthy. And, on another level, it's a comfort blanket to fall back on, especially when things can get a bit rocky in life, as it does for everyone at some point. 

Years ago, before I started drinking tea, which I did to help me on my WeightWatchers diet, I would drink cordial's and fizzy drinks. Now, I barely touch them. Occasionally I may have a Coke or Pepsi with a meal, but that is increasingly rare. If I can't have tea then I'll opt for a fizzy water with lemon or lime. 

No longer do I consider tea that fuddy duddy drink that my parents would drink, and I'm encouraged to see younger people purchasing tea, especially loose tea. 

I could not envisage my life without tea anymore, it's my constant friend. It's certainly made a huge impact on my life. And if you're reading this the chances are it's done the same for you. 

I've gained so much the day I decided that tea was the only way to go in relation to what I drunk. And for me there is no looking back as there are still tea's to be discovered, tea's to be tasted and tea's to be reviewed here on this blog. 

I cannot wait to see what I'll try next, for there is one thing I can be sure of. No two tea's taste the same. And that, for a tea blogger, is perhaps as exciting as it can possibly be!