Tea can be consumed as a way to get regular routine caffeine, like a morning coffee. Or a tea enthusiast could drink tea as a weekend only/celebratory brew to really slow down and appreciate. The tea hobbyist community has room for both of these types of drinkers and they often occupy more or less the same spaces in terms of tea discussion.
Tea is also a caffeinated beverage and everyone’s body and tolerance for tea varies. We also all have different life circumstances. Both of these dictate someone’s actual tea diet. There’s sometimes huge disparities in the amount of tea fanatics can drink. Some go through only a single kilo per year while others go through 25-30kg. People like Scott or LP can tank through 30-40 grams a day no problem. Others don’t have time to drink until the weekends and can only do a few grams before 10AM. My life is fortunately set up to be closer to the former category (I go through probably 20ish grams daily), but I will confess to having a small amount of envy towards the lighter drinkers even if I would not willingly trade places with them.
Sparse Consumers aka The 3 Gram Gang
How this group of sparse tea drinkers actually consumes is undoubtedly varied, nonetheless I decided to dub them the 3 gram gang largely because I’ve ran into a handful of tea enthusiasts who openly talk about drinking a scant 3 grams a day.
357 Grams is NOT a Sample. Quantity is the Enemy
In the past I’ve bought ripe blindly and very aggressively. Why? Because I drink 10 grams every morning with my wife. I am experienced enough to avoid total duds and if something is mediocre or I can usually power through a few more weeks. Or dump it if it’s bad enough ($20 ripe doesn’t hurt much). Due to my consumption habits, 357 grams of blind buying ripe is a very low risk endeavor. That sort of buying is not recommended for the 3 gram drinker.
Quantity is a 3 gram ganger’s enemy. 357 grams was not a number designed for you. With constant temptations being leaked out, it is very easy to accumulate tea by simply occupying space in the tea community. If you are not actively drinking it in higher quantities, which if you are a 3 grammer, it’s too easy to amass a collection of middling tea. Discipline is essential.
One thing I’ve seen suggested to newer drinkers is to buy a well-regarded cake and use it as currency to trade for other things. I think this tactic is particularly well-suited for 3 grammers that are willing to jump through the logistical hassle of reselling and coordinating tea packages (discord is your friend). It allows you to micro-manage quantity and sample a lot more things than the alternatives (accumulation, drinking monotony).
When Are You Actually Going to Drink That Tea? & Serious/Casual Split
Everyone should aim to buy tea that can be consumed in a clear, practical context. For myself, I usually try to clearly define this when I’m buying a tea. If I’m not really sure, I’d probably be better off with a sample. Even if a specific tea is cheap, it’s annoying to have it around if you’re not going to drink it and getting rid of it takes time and can be a hassle. It’s also not always about quality as there’s plenty of teas that are technically high quality, that I’d have a hard time fitting into how I drink tea.
There’s a number of drinkers that can only have more dedicated sessions on the weekend and while they can still drink teas on other days they have a relatively low OQS (Opportunities for Quality Sessions). Their most routine teas by the nature of their workday or schedule largely have to be more casual teas. In this case, there’s a clear split on serious tea vs. casual tea. One might consume ripe and hongcha during the workday and have time for the teas they enjoy the most on the weekend, perhaps Yancha. Clearly looking at purchases with this framing is helpful. It probably doesn’t make sense for the regular Ripe/Hongcha drinker to buy cheap TW oolongs unless you think it’d replace Ripe/Hongcha during the work week or the fancier stuff consumed on the weekend.
$1k-2k Cakes Aren’t Crazy
Now for the fun part.. While I have spent quite a bit on tea over the last decade I have never bought a thousand dollar cake. If I were in the 3 gram gang, and had a stable, reasonably high income I would be looking hard at this pricepoint.
Sure the pricepoint for a $1000 tea looks crazy. You can’t necessarily enjoy tea prolifically like others can, but you can and should make it count when you do. If you are drinking 3 grams per day, that amounts to about 3 cakes per year. Why not make one of them a chonky $1k? Or buy some excellent $6/g Yancha? Or some truly old Liubao? While the rest of us live in the $0.20-$0.35/g range, you can use your sparse consumption to your benefit and hop straight over that mid range. The trick is to not overbuy mid or lower end tea. Unless you are young you almost certainly do not need a tong. So buy and drink your measly 3 grams, but buy and consume in such a way that you’re going to enjoy the hell out of each g.
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