Are you a tea snob?
Read this comprehensive list of signs and score yourself. I know a few total snobs about wine, coffee, and tea. This post discusses tea snobs. If you're a tea snob and I hurt your feelings, I apologize in advance.
You look down on tea bags - Perhaps there was a time in your life that you used tea bags, but now you can’t understand the folly of tea bags.
You keep your tea in your purse because restaurant tea bags. You’re polite about this, as you pull out your own prepacked DIY tea bag with your own real tea. Get your DIY empty tea bags here.
You judge people who use a microwave to make tea. Yes, it might be simple but you like to use your trusty electric tea kettle since water temperature is sooo crucial. And besides microwaves are strange contraptions with weird science. Here is a blog article about Microwaving tea.
You never get tea from a coffee shop - Can Baristas be trusted to make a cup of tea correctly? Can you really trust someone who lives and breathes coffee?
>>>>> Teas for Snobby English Aristocrats <<<<<
You only offer tea after meals to company - It’s the only right thing to do, RIGHT?
You believe that tea cures most things - You’re cold, have a cup of tea. You’re sad? I’ll put on the kettle. I’m stressed out, I better have a cuppa now. I need sleep, I better have a cup. I need to wake up, I need another cup. You know what I’m talking about.
You don’t let others prepare your tea - Why take a chance? You have your strict standards and besides a bad cup will spoil the rest of my day. Learn how to steep teas, read this.
Every tea you own has a backstory - “Let me tell about this fantastic, cute tea shop in Canandaigua and the owner, recommended this tea…..”
>>>> Teas Our Picky Customers Adore <<<<
Every tea has its own cup - You bought 2 Yixing cups one for Oolong and the other Sencha, and now every tea has a proper cup. See our Yixing and other Asian tea cups
You think iced tea is for heathens - My Japanese mother cringes when I mention iced green tea. Being Japanese, she only drinks Japanese teas. The funny thing is she doesn’t think it’s snobby. Check out our Iced teas, you heathens.
You correct people to use the word TISANE - Since you know tea comes from a specific plant, you correct others to use the French word Tisane to mean herbal and fruit infusions. You understand why the French get upset when the word Champagne is used to describe other bubbly wines.
You’re okay with milk and sugar but never for green tea - You know that really good tea doesn’t need sugar or milk but you’re okay since those snobby English do it. But milk and sugar in green tea is just not acceptable.
You gift tea because everyone should be drinking it - You adore tea and everybody must drink it too.
>>>> Click here for Green teas everyone should try. <<<<
Everywhere you travel you look for tea shops - Ahead of your departure, you Google search specialty tea shops and browse them online instead of researching tourist attractions. (I love these tourists.) Find our store here.
You inventory and categorize your teas - Yes, your tea stash is well organized perhaps a lot better than your kitchen.
You know and use a tea cozy - Your generous grandmother handed this heirloom down and now you use it with reverence and rejoice that you descended from a long line of tea lovers.
You have a annual subscription at Harrods for their newest Darjeeling release - Oh, you don’t have one? Why not?
When you invite friends for tea, you expect them to be dressed, preferably with white gloves and a hat - Okay, perhaps this is a stretch, but they did when Grandma had her friends over, Now a days, decorum asks to please just put your phone aside and enjoy the camaraderie of tea with friends.
You know what TGFOPS stands for - For you uninitiated heathens, TGFOPS is shorthand for a very premium grade of tea - Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. Learn about Tea Grading here.
You’re versed in the Gong Fu tea preparation methods - You once traveled to China to learn the Chinese way of tea, now this is the only way to prepare Chinese teas.
You subscribe to Reddit/com/r/tea - You take refuge with fellow tea snobs by reading and actively commenting on the Reddit Tea forum. You especially like schooling the Tea Newbies.
You have strong opinions about Teavana - You might have shopped there once, but have since moved beyond. Looking back you have strong feelings about your tea experiences there.
You have a few too many Puerh cakes that you’re aging and fretting over - You read about Puerh on Reddit and got some Puerh tea cakes online. You take pride that you’re in the rarified world of Puerh tea collectors, and now lose sleep worrying that your cakes will get moldy instead of aging gracefully like a fine wine.
You respect coffee aficionados but just don’t understand "why coffee?" - It might be part pity and part disdain, but you just don’t understand how they could have chosen the dark side.
You blog about tea twice a week - Oh, can this be me? Of course not. I don’t do half these things and I’m not a tea snob, either. But if you blog about tea, you got to wonder about yourself.
Grade yourself or a friend. How many of these traits apply? Do you count yourself a tea snob? If you know someone, forward this post to them.
Did I miss an important trait, please comment below. Thanks