Baraka_Guru

As I drink my cup of economy-quality green tea, I decided to share some thoughts, and I ended up unearthing this thread. Why not?

I enjoy tea. I don't drink nearly as much as I want to. I drink more coffee than I should, and maybe will drink more tea in its place. Mind you, I do enjoy coffee. Not the kind you get everyday without thinking about it (e.g. Tim Horton's). The kind you choose, grind, and brew yourself. Pick-your-region, choose-your-roast kind of coffee. I brew the best coffee I drink by using a French press. To me there is no alternative. But enough about coffee.

In North America, I think tea is grossly underrated and, consequently, undervalued. It isn't as bad as it has been--we've seen many articles published in the past few years discussing the health benefits of tea. This is typical in North America, where we make many of our food choices based on health-related findings. Scientific choices. I wish to discuss other reasons for choosing something like tea: aesthetic, experiential choices.

Green tea is downright delicious. Even the cheap stuff I'm drinking isn't bad, though you could choose a slightly better grade and taste a world of difference...that is, if you have experienced enough green tea. Tea, like other things, even coffee and scotch, etc., is somewhat of an acquired taste. To properly taste these things, you should not load them with "foreign substances" such as sugar, cream, and the like. This masks the experience of what is by nature a bitter or "harsh" experience. Sure you can take the edge off, or balance the experience using sweetness and fat, but we should learn to acquire a taste for various things such as tea as they are.

Green tea is certainly no exception. I refuse to put anything in green tea besides maybe jasmine, or other such traditional flavours. The reason being that green tea, despite its relative bitterness, is actually quite delicate and should be enjoyed alone....

I will leave this here for now. I put this out to you who are interested: What are your experiences with green tea? Do you choose certain brands/regions due to their quality and flavour? Are you new or inexperienced with green tea? Do you want to know why we green tea drinkers enjoy it?

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot