tea obsessives handling the leaves

arriving in Weimar

Things are afoot hereabouts.  I mentioned that I was talking to a tea review website a few weeks ago and considering writing for them.  After telling you about it, I really should've mentioned that I decided to do it.  I'll link to them when I write proper reviews there, and give you more stories and whimsy here.  It's certainly what you've come to expect, isn't it?

Here's a link to The Tea Review Blog.  You'll be seeing plenty from me over there soon enough.

Another thing I've decided to start doing here is something a bit like the interviews I read on other blogs.  Rather than it always being in a question and answer format, I might ask someone to write a guest blogpost or even print out a conversation I have with a tea seller or fellow tea obsessive.

Got to thinking about it after a very interesting chat I had with a guy who happened to be both.  We were  in his tea shop in Weimar this week, and afterwards I began to marvel at how many incredibly passionate people there are in tea.

When I travel to places both here in Germany and farther afield, I make a point of searching out both tea shops and nice places to actually have a cup of tea.  More often than not, I find myself deep in conversation with astoundingly passionate tea people.

Think about it.   You have a shop where you greet people throughout the day with wildly different levels of experience regarding tea.  Many have stumbled in off the street curious how a whole shop could be dedicated to something they associate with a simple bag of leaves.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have tea snobs who saunter into your store and assume that they know more about tea than you ever will. Then there's an entire range of people between those two poles.

Peter (at Tea Trade) and I have talked about the incredible novelty of this whole loose-leaf tea endeavour several times.  The fact that the customer is not only able to interact manually with the product, but that it's actually an integral part of the whole process.  Handling the leaves, I mean.

So that's what I've been thinking about recently.  The remarkable nature of what we're doing here.  I'm sure model railroad enthusiasts and stamp collectors and Magic: The Gathering World Champions are all very passionate, as far as it goes.  But I'm not into those things, so I don't get remotely interested in their passion.

Oh, one last thing.  Alex Zorach wrote something funny (and mentioned this blog in the process), so I thought I'd send you all over there.  Tea, Like a G6.

Enjoy!