Name: Nicole Martin
Sex: Female
Age: 26
Occupation: I’m the store manager of a pet boutique that also does dog daycare and pet grooming.
Location: Bayonne, NJ.
Do you drink tea at work?: I rarely get to drink tea at work since I’m always on the move. When I do it is normally a green tea or chai latte from the Starbucks down the street.
Interests: Outside of tea I love anything to do with the outdoors, especially camping and hiking. I’m also very active in Girl Scouting and am an advisor for three troops. I also enjoy photography, genealogy and horseback riding.
Favorite Tea Variety: Oolong.
Favorite tea: My absolute favorite tea is the Huang Zhi Xiang (Yellow Sprig) Dan Cong Oolong from Seven Cups . I even have a yixing pot dedicated to it.
How long have you been into tea?: I started to take a real interest in tea about three years ago.
What got you started with tea?: I’ve been drinking bagged tea my whole life. In college I began trying some different kinds of tea at the grocery store. I saw a magazine article about flowering teas and thought they looked really cool. Soon after that I became a staff reviewer for Teaviews.com.
How do you store your tea?: I mostly store them in the containers they come in or in airtight tins.
Flavored Tea?: I tend to prefer unflavored teas. I do have a few select favorites though.
Do you also drink coffee?: Not at all. I can’t stand the taste of it.
What is the perfect setting for drinking tea?: I love drinking tea outdoors. It’s so relaxing and peaceful.
How many cups of tea do you drink a day?: On a good day I’ll drink around 10 cups.
Twitter Name: @teaformeplease
Facebook Page:http://www.facebook.com/nicoleannmartin
Website: http://teaformeplease.blogspot.com
I’m in complete agreement here. First of all, I think the concept of a “best tea” is problematic because our tastes are all different. But I think your points are deeper and really cut to the core of the issue. I especially like your point about how this process ignores the farmers and is giving all the credit in the privileged, wealthy countries and top layers of business. It is, in a sense, a bit consumerist, and it avoids the most important issues and disconnects tea drinkers from the people who actually produced the tea. Thanks for sharing this.
This probably seems ironic coming from me…after all I went to great lengths to create a tea rating site. But the whole idea behind my site is to harness the energy that people are directing into the idea of what is “best” and show them that the true answer is to abandon that way of thinking…and instead to embrace the diversity of tastes and styles and regions that produce tea…and start learning about them. It’s not whether each tea is better, it’s learning how to appreciate each tea for what it is. That’s why the ratings on the site are downplayed. Their purpose is mainly to get people to think about things like aroma and flavor and value, qualities which many people take for granted or even ignore.
I do however believe the competition should remain for Blends and Flavored Teas.. That is up to the individual company and requires skill and artistic vision. But for straight tea – Tony, you are correct. The farmers and families that work so hard to produce these beautiful leaves should be getting the recognition; not the company that packaged the leaves in a pretty tin.
I would never enter our straight tea into a competition – only the blends I created myself. So you can call me old-fashioned too!
I’m in ageement with both of you, there is a place for competition in blends but I don’t see the point of doing so with straight teas. If there was a definite standardization (like some of the literary awards) then I think it could be a positive force in the tea industry. The likelihood of that happening probably isn’t that great though.
I do think its okay for a blend or a flavored tea. Something where the seller actually used a real measurable skill to produce the end product.
I agree with what you said about blends and flavored teas as well. I think it’s particularly good when people blend imported teas with locally-grown herbs or other ingredients!