Say it as you sip it!

Well, Pete and I are both busy in our office, he’s playing music and I can hear him tapping away energetically at the keyboard. All I know is he’s “working on a blog post.” Interesting, wonder what he’ll come up with. Anyway, I’ve just completed my usual social rounds, first here, then twitter, then G+ and am done with updates. There’s only so much one can say when the tea cup’s empty. And mine is. It’s pretty terrible, not a situation I’d wish on anyone. Why on earth I’d try and write a blog post in such a fragile state of mind I don’t know. But here it is, I’m typing away.

A couple of days ago, I chatted with someone I really enjoy interacting with on twitter. It’s a she. I won’t mention her by name, but some of you will realize who I’m talking about. I was trying to get her to come over to Tea Trade to blog here, in part because she’s so wonderfully outspoken. She doesn’t mince words. I love it. She throws around all sorts of rants and complaints, but is also very funny as she snarks. Plus she’s got a sweet side too. Shhh…we’ll keep that just between you and me. Anyway, I’ve asked her to come over and write about tea. I would love her to write it, as she sees it. Or as my post title says; say it as she sips it. Now I know we have a male raver on here already, a force to be reckoned with, but what about a female too?

The thing is, when I read tea reviews, while they have much value in their descriptive details, there comes a point where a conflict of interest might arise. Nobody writes: “I drank Company X’s tea, and let me tell you, it tasted like watered down mud. With hints of stale, moldy grass.”

Nobody does. No review I’ve seen. Now some may argue that if the tea tastes like mud, they simply won’t review it. Fair enough. But now I’ll never know that X’s tea tastes like dirt, because nobody’s putting that in their post. They’re simply not talking.

Sometimes that leaves me craving for the dirty truth. Not the beautiful tea reviews, not the artful detections of hints of fruit. There’s a place for them, and we need those, but I also look for tea talk straight up.

Some time ago, one review came close. Real close! I found it on the net as I was browsing tea blogs, my daily task. There it was; a review where I was certain, the reviewer didn’t like the tea. I knew what he was tasting, I knew the tea was poor. “Come on,” I felt myself whispering – “say it. Just say it. Tell ’em it tastes like crap.” But he didn’t. He came close just because it was too hard to say anything good. But no, there was beauty to be found, a positive aspect that I had overlooked. I forget what it was, but it was probably something like; the containers are wonderfully functional, the delivery service timely, the prices good. Something like that. I don’t remember. I let out a heavy sigh.  When I read “Despite what we all think the tea had nuances of freshness that made for a surprisingly tasty cup,“- I know what it really means. I’m not fooled. It means: the best thing one can say about those leaves is that they didn’t taste stale. Amazing it tasted of anything at all. There, that’s the truth.

So, I’m wondering..do you read between the tea lines? What if you know a tea is really not very good? Do you understand tea review code? Do you use it yourself?

Like I said; we need traditional tea reviews. Quite often they make me want to order the tea. I am happy they are out there. But that doesn’t mean I’ll give up looking for a no tea leaves barred, naked post.

Yours,

J.