89

Sipdown! 817 (finally added in teas from momo… sigh). I thought that I didn’t have any of this left, but apparently I did… and not just the remnants from one package, but two are apparently listed in my tea spreadsheet. Interesting – I’ll have to see if I can find the second one… I swear I finished it, though.

Anyhow! This is still pretty darn delicious, though I definitely prefer the heavier blacks in the winter, it seems. Dark, rich chocolatey flavours. Looking forward to another couple infusions.

ETA: My previous tasting notes indicate that I did in fact sipdown my other sample already, so 816! Hurrah!

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec
Terri HarpLady

I love this one!

NofarS

I admire you for being able to keep track of all this tea in a spreadsheet. After several tries, I’ve mostly given up :)

Kittenna

Haha, it’s definitely not entirely accurate, but I do make the effort to delete things when I drink them, and add them when I get them, so it’s not so bad. I’ve always had a list for swap items (so I can keep track of who gave me what), but it did take some solid effort to write up the list of non-swap teas :) It’s nice to know what I should have – even if I can’t find it!

Kittenna

Also Terri – I quite like this one too. Can’t justify buying any right now, especially since I still have plenty of the Laoshan Black and Premium Taiwanese Assam, but perhaps sometime in the future (if Verdant has it again in like, 3 years when I have less than 200 teas, hahaha.)

TeaLady441

Kittena – what are we going to do with you when Black Friday hits? Are we going to have to lock you away from all computers so you don’t double your collection? :P

Terri HarpLady

I print out my spreadsheet on the first day of each month. As the days pass I manually check off the teas I drink (with cute little symbols), making notes on if it’s a sipdown, or the steeping parameters, etc. At the end of the month I update the list on my computer, then print & do it all again.

TeaLady441

Oh I like that system! That would be a nice way to keep track of the TYPES of tea I have. What else do you guys track on your spreadsheets? (If I’m going to go and make one, I’d better start with all the important fields than have to redo it…)

Terri HarpLady

On mine, I start with whites, then flavored whites (both small catagories), then green, then flavored…etc.
Right now there are 4 columns: Type, Name of Tea, brand, & re? (as in reorder). Each section is alphabetical by brand.

TeaLady441

That sounds like a good start. Do you track ALL teas that you’ve tasted and then hide the ones you’ve finished?

Terri HarpLady

If it’s something I want to restock, I keep it on the list with asterisks around it, to remind me to restock.
If it’s something that didn’t really float my boat, I delete it.
I also have all my trades listed, using the name of the person who sent them as the ‘category’.

OMGsrsly

I stole Kittenna’s spreadsheet (thanks!!). Name, Type, Company, Swap From?, Purchase Date, Original Size, Remaining?(if tried), Rating, Tried?, and a count. If there’s a “1” in the count column it will add, and I put an X if I no longer have it. I also have a notes column that I’m starting to work on. The nice thing about Excel is you can filter and just print the teas you currently have.

Kittenna

Cavocorax – Black Friday might be bad for me…..! We’ll have to see I guess!

And yeah, OMGsrsly pretty much sums up my spreadsheet. For swaps, I replace the 1 with an X when it’s gone; for teas I’ve bought, I used to just delete the entry entirely, but now I just move it to a second page in the workbook. Steepster would have the most accurate list of all the teas I’ve ever tried; I didn’t start tracking things at the very beginning.

TeaLady441

Thanks guys! That gives me lots of ideas!
And it’s too bad we can’t just export our data into a spreadsheet.

OMGsrsly

Cavo, that would be the most awesomest, geekiest tea thing. :D

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Comments

Terri HarpLady

I love this one!

NofarS

I admire you for being able to keep track of all this tea in a spreadsheet. After several tries, I’ve mostly given up :)

Kittenna

Haha, it’s definitely not entirely accurate, but I do make the effort to delete things when I drink them, and add them when I get them, so it’s not so bad. I’ve always had a list for swap items (so I can keep track of who gave me what), but it did take some solid effort to write up the list of non-swap teas :) It’s nice to know what I should have – even if I can’t find it!

Kittenna

Also Terri – I quite like this one too. Can’t justify buying any right now, especially since I still have plenty of the Laoshan Black and Premium Taiwanese Assam, but perhaps sometime in the future (if Verdant has it again in like, 3 years when I have less than 200 teas, hahaha.)

TeaLady441

Kittena – what are we going to do with you when Black Friday hits? Are we going to have to lock you away from all computers so you don’t double your collection? :P

Terri HarpLady

I print out my spreadsheet on the first day of each month. As the days pass I manually check off the teas I drink (with cute little symbols), making notes on if it’s a sipdown, or the steeping parameters, etc. At the end of the month I update the list on my computer, then print & do it all again.

TeaLady441

Oh I like that system! That would be a nice way to keep track of the TYPES of tea I have. What else do you guys track on your spreadsheets? (If I’m going to go and make one, I’d better start with all the important fields than have to redo it…)

Terri HarpLady

On mine, I start with whites, then flavored whites (both small catagories), then green, then flavored…etc.
Right now there are 4 columns: Type, Name of Tea, brand, & re? (as in reorder). Each section is alphabetical by brand.

TeaLady441

That sounds like a good start. Do you track ALL teas that you’ve tasted and then hide the ones you’ve finished?

Terri HarpLady

If it’s something I want to restock, I keep it on the list with asterisks around it, to remind me to restock.
If it’s something that didn’t really float my boat, I delete it.
I also have all my trades listed, using the name of the person who sent them as the ‘category’.

OMGsrsly

I stole Kittenna’s spreadsheet (thanks!!). Name, Type, Company, Swap From?, Purchase Date, Original Size, Remaining?(if tried), Rating, Tried?, and a count. If there’s a “1” in the count column it will add, and I put an X if I no longer have it. I also have a notes column that I’m starting to work on. The nice thing about Excel is you can filter and just print the teas you currently have.

Kittenna

Cavocorax – Black Friday might be bad for me…..! We’ll have to see I guess!

And yeah, OMGsrsly pretty much sums up my spreadsheet. For swaps, I replace the 1 with an X when it’s gone; for teas I’ve bought, I used to just delete the entry entirely, but now I just move it to a second page in the workbook. Steepster would have the most accurate list of all the teas I’ve ever tried; I didn’t start tracking things at the very beginning.

TeaLady441

Thanks guys! That gives me lots of ideas!
And it’s too bad we can’t just export our data into a spreadsheet.

OMGsrsly

Cavo, that would be the most awesomest, geekiest tea thing. :D

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer