My Experience As A Tea Connoisseur

A tea connoisseur is someone who has a hobby of drinking tea and curiosity of learning more about tea. They love to try different flavours and blends of tea, know their growing regions, and experiment different optimal brewing methods.

I am a tea connoisseur, with a deep appreciation for the art and science of tea. I am always eager to learn more about its history, cultivation, and preparation and I enjoy exploring the wide variety of teas available.

Along with tasting different flavours of tea, I also collect the colourful wrappers of teabags, and their labels. I use them to keep a track of which flavours I already tried. Besides, they look so colourful together. 

How I Started This Hobby:

I have a hobby of Penpaling or writing letters to my penfriends. My penfriends from different countries always add some extra goodies, such as coins or teabags from their countries along with the letter. And I really enjoyed tasting the teabags they sent to me. So within a short time, I found that I have a huge pile of teabags from different countries sent by my penpals.

In 2021, one of my penfriends, Stephanie MacKay from Canada, introduced me about the hobby of tea drinking. I was a tea lover from my childhood and I thought why not give it a try as a hobby? So I started to swap teabags with tea lovers of different countries of the world.

In Bangladesh, there are only a few blends available in the market, and mostly from the Kazi & Kazi, Finlay, and Tetley brand. I bought 13 flavours of teabags and started to swap those with other tea lovers. So far, I've tasted 150+ different tea blends from 71 countries. This number is growing every month!

My Experiences Of Visiting Tea Factories and Tea Shops:

My maternal uncle, Dr. Mahfuz Khan, was the Estate Medical Officer at Finlay Tea Garden, Sreemangal, Sylhet, from 2017 to 2022. He made an opportunity for us to visit the tea plantation facilities and tea factory of Finlay in 2021. It was an amazing and lifetime experience! I witnessed how tea is processed starting from picking up the tea buds to processing them and lastly packaging them. I also tasted freshly prepared tea there.

As my Mother is from Sylhet, the tea capital of Bangladesh, so from my childhood, I got the scope to try tea from different tea shops of Sylhet. I personally loved the "Malai Chai" of "Dala's Tea Shop" in Raynagar, Sylhet.

I also tried the 7-coloured tea from "Nilkantha Tea Cabin" in Sreemangal. It was so good looking, but not at all good tasting!

Different Types and Blends Of Tea I Have Tried:

I have tried almost all the types of teabags, such as, white tea, oolong tea, matcha tea, black tea, green tea, bubble tea, rooibos tea, pu-erh tea, etc. Personally, I love to taste different blends of green tea and matcha tea. These two are my favourite types of tea.

About the tea blend, I prefer fruity and herbal flavours. Some of my favourite tea blends are:

▪︎ Nordqvist Lady Green (Finland)

▪︎ Nordqvist Strawberry Rooibos (Finland)

▪︎ Pukka Matcha-Kurkuma (UK)

▪︎ Lord Nelson Cranberry-Pomegranate (Germany) 

▪︎ Tetley Zesty Lemon & Honey (Bangladesh) 

▪︎ Supřemo Almond Honey (Chile)

▪︎ Bercoff Zázvor (Slovakia) 

▪︎ Greenfield Rich Camomile (UK)

▪︎ Twinings Earl Grey (UK)

and the list is to be continued ...

My Favourite Tea Brewing Methods:

I usually drink 2-3 cups of tea a day, and sometimes even more. But, just like most of the Bangladeshi people, I'm not a milk tea lover. Rather, I always prefer raw tea with little or no sugar. I like strong aroma and flavour in tea, so I steep the teabags for 6-8 minutes. Sometimes I add honey or sugar, but mostly I drink the tea just after brewing. This is known as the Western method of brewing tea and it's my most favourite brewing method.

Besides this, I sometimes try the Gong Fu method, where I use a small teapot and gaiwan (lidded cup) to brew tea in multiple short infusions. 

For some fruity tea blends, I use Cold Brew method, where I steep teabags in cold water for the whole night and then drink it in the morning. Sometimes I add ice cubes and honey in the brewed tea.

The Challenges And Rewards Of Being A Tea Connoisseur:

This hobby is little bit expensive and from the Bangladesh perspective, it is tough to find a varieties of tea blends. Besides, storing the teabags properly is a big challenge cause teabags and loose tea leaves can easily get ruined because of increased temperature, humidity, and the transmission of insects.

On the other hand, this is an extremely rewarding hobby. This hobby can teach us -

• Different cultures: Each culture has its own unique way of preparing and enjoying tea. For example, if we try a matcha teabag from Japan, we can learn about the Japanese tea ceremony.

• Different types of tea: By trying different types of teabags, we can learn about the different types of tea, such as, black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong tea, and pu-erh tea, etc.

• Innovativeness: By experimenting with different tea flavors and ingredients, we can be inspired to create our own unique tea-based drinks and recipes. For example, I used black tea to make a chai latte, and green tea to make a matcha smoothie.

How This Hobby Has Benefitted Me:

• Improved my focus and concentration.

• A great way of self-care.

• Reduces my stress and anxiety.

• Boosts up my mood. 

• Improved my sleep quality. 

• Created an opportunity for me to connect with other people around the world who also share love for tea.

So in my opinion, it is one of the best hobbies which not only benefits us by improving our metabolism system, but also expands our knowledge and innovativeness, and connects us with the global community of tea connoisseurs. 

Clustering: 

Cluster 1: Introduction 

• Tea Connoisseur 

• Hobby of drinking tea 

• Related hobbies 

Cluster 2: How I started this hobby 

• Gifts from penfriends 

• Inspiration from a Canadian friend 

• Curiosity of trying different flavors of tea 

• Teabag swapping with other tea lovers 

Cluster 3: Experiences 

• Finlay tea factory 

• Malai Chai

• 7-coloured tea

Cluster 4: Types and blends of tea 

• Different types of tea 

• Favourite tea blends 

Cluster 5: Brewing methods 

• Western method 

• Gong Fu method 

• Cold brew method 

Cluster 6: Challenges and rewards 

• Expensive 

• Lack of varieties in Bangladesh 

• Storing difficulties 

• Knowledge 

• Health Benefits 

• Connectivity