Steepster makes me think
I have been recently frequenting a site called Steepster, a forum-like haven for tea lovers on the internet. I have been a member for several months now (since August). I mostly like to use it to read reviews of teas that I'm interested in buying and to record my thoughts on the teas that I have now. I also like to read people's posts on the forums about how they prefer to make their teas, because some of it is drastically different from me. (For instance, how some people drink tea, and I mean ALL tea, without any sugar or cream. That, to me, doesn't make a lick of sense, but at the same time, I'd bet those people are skinny.)
While Steepster is a very relaxing site for me to be on most of the time, I have noticed that some of the users can get... well, nasty. There have been a couple of threads that I've read recently that have contained some very heated arguments. Now, one of those arguments actually happened over a year ago, but it's fresh to me because I only read it last week. My policy, when I read things like that, is to stay out of it. It doesn't involve me, and I don't see any reason why I should take sides and get my head bitten off. It's not that I feel I'm not free to speak my mind. It's that I feel that I'm free to keep my opinions to myself whenever I want. It's a liberating thing, really. In school, you're always asked to give your opinions of things. Your professors want to know what you think of them, what you think of the school, what you think of the class, what you think about this author or that newspaper article or that book or that scientific journal. On the internet, particularly on Steepster, my policy is simple and refreshing: if someone didn't ask me or if I don't feel like I can make a difference by stating my opinion, I keep it to myself.
Anyway, that wasn't the point of this post. The point was that there was a thread that came up a couple of days ago that has stimulated a very lengthy and possibly ridicule-able response from me. I'm not afraid of ridicule--I'm just afraid that this post is too long and in-depth for the type of thread it is. Most people's responses have been one, maybe two paragraphs, and mine has strayed into five. Also, many people's responses have been more, well, light-hearted, and since I suspect that that was what the original poster was after, I fear that mine may be viewed with skepticism and no little suspicion that I've lost my marbles.
So here is my post, with the original poster's question preceding it:
How do you stop the compulsion to buy buy BUY more tea?!
So… I have so much tea that I will never be able to drink it all. Every so often I calc out my average consumption vs how much I have and it usually averages around 2yrs worth- and that is only because I occasionally purge my cupboard of samples and teas I’ve stopped loving with donations to friends and family… and despite that I cannot stop myself from buying more. I want to try them ALL!
This has never happened to me before, I’m usually a pro at managing my cash flow/hoarding habits.
So I’m looking for tips. Anyone care to share? or have any stories to tell? :)
I feel the compulsive need for more tea on a daily basis. I think the biggest reason I don't act on it as often as I feel it is because I simply don't have ROOM for more tea. I think my collection of permanent tea containers (not including boxes and bags) has exceeded 40. When I empty a permanent container, I try to transfer a tea that's in a box or a bag into it, but it doesn't always happen. I admit, I'm not the best at making sure I store my teas correctly. Sue me. xD
It doesn't help that people who know me know I like tea and keep GIVING IT TO ME. I'm not complaining, but come on! I'm trying to drink the stuff I have so I can buy more of the stuff I want! I have boxes and boxes of tea that I can't even identify... from all sources, all vendors, all corners of the US and beyond. I'll give you an example.
I was talking with my mom's aunt a while back, and she said her son had gone to China and brought her back a couple of tins of unknown tea (the packaging is, duh, written in Chinese or Taiwanese or some other undecipherable language). She doesn't drink it, so she gave it to me, since everyone in my family knows I like tea. Y'all, I see this woman maybe twice a year, but even SHE knows I like tea. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. RANDOM people give me tea. I suppose I'm grateful, because it gives me a lot of tea perspective at the cost of free, but... I'm serious when I tell you that I'm not actually 100% certain how much tea I have.
And it only seems to fuel the fire! When I'm in a store, or online, or at a friend's house, and I see tea that piques my interest, or I see a cute teacup or teapot, or I see a fancy doo-dad that could possibly be used to store/make/drink tea, I'm all over it. It's a disease. It's a syndrome. Call it what you will, I've got it. Bad.
I need a support group, I tell ya.
So how do you stop yourself from buying more tea? Like I said before, what usually stops me is the storage problem, but my best friend also helps, the way a therapist stops a repeat offender. We actually have a mantra. It doesn't get any easier with time, though. It's like being an alcoholic, except much less damaging all-around (unless you think having enough tea to almost merit being on the show "Hoarders" is as damaging as alcoholism). As you can see, I don't take myself too seriously. xP
That's all I've got written. I feel as though it has a little more to go, but I just can't squeeze out any more. The word diarrhea has been stemmed, and that niggling feeling that it's missing something is just not enough to make it start again. Oh well. I posted a shortened version (mostly just the first paragraph, rewritten slightly) on the actual thread. I just needed somewhere to allow this to come out.
While Steepster is a very relaxing site for me to be on most of the time, I have noticed that some of the users can get... well, nasty. There have been a couple of threads that I've read recently that have contained some very heated arguments. Now, one of those arguments actually happened over a year ago, but it's fresh to me because I only read it last week. My policy, when I read things like that, is to stay out of it. It doesn't involve me, and I don't see any reason why I should take sides and get my head bitten off. It's not that I feel I'm not free to speak my mind. It's that I feel that I'm free to keep my opinions to myself whenever I want. It's a liberating thing, really. In school, you're always asked to give your opinions of things. Your professors want to know what you think of them, what you think of the school, what you think of the class, what you think about this author or that newspaper article or that book or that scientific journal. On the internet, particularly on Steepster, my policy is simple and refreshing: if someone didn't ask me or if I don't feel like I can make a difference by stating my opinion, I keep it to myself.
Anyway, that wasn't the point of this post. The point was that there was a thread that came up a couple of days ago that has stimulated a very lengthy and possibly ridicule-able response from me. I'm not afraid of ridicule--I'm just afraid that this post is too long and in-depth for the type of thread it is. Most people's responses have been one, maybe two paragraphs, and mine has strayed into five. Also, many people's responses have been more, well, light-hearted, and since I suspect that that was what the original poster was after, I fear that mine may be viewed with skepticism and no little suspicion that I've lost my marbles.
So here is my post, with the original poster's question preceding it:
How do you stop the compulsion to buy buy BUY more tea?!
So… I have so much tea that I will never be able to drink it all. Every so often I calc out my average consumption vs how much I have and it usually averages around 2yrs worth- and that is only because I occasionally purge my cupboard of samples and teas I’ve stopped loving with donations to friends and family… and despite that I cannot stop myself from buying more. I want to try them ALL!
This has never happened to me before, I’m usually a pro at managing my cash flow/hoarding habits.
So I’m looking for tips. Anyone care to share? or have any stories to tell? :)
I feel the compulsive need for more tea on a daily basis. I think the biggest reason I don't act on it as often as I feel it is because I simply don't have ROOM for more tea. I think my collection of permanent tea containers (not including boxes and bags) has exceeded 40. When I empty a permanent container, I try to transfer a tea that's in a box or a bag into it, but it doesn't always happen. I admit, I'm not the best at making sure I store my teas correctly. Sue me. xD
It doesn't help that people who know me know I like tea and keep GIVING IT TO ME. I'm not complaining, but come on! I'm trying to drink the stuff I have so I can buy more of the stuff I want! I have boxes and boxes of tea that I can't even identify... from all sources, all vendors, all corners of the US and beyond. I'll give you an example.
I was talking with my mom's aunt a while back, and she said her son had gone to China and brought her back a couple of tins of unknown tea (the packaging is, duh, written in Chinese or Taiwanese or some other undecipherable language). She doesn't drink it, so she gave it to me, since everyone in my family knows I like tea. Y'all, I see this woman maybe twice a year, but even SHE knows I like tea. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. RANDOM people give me tea. I suppose I'm grateful, because it gives me a lot of tea perspective at the cost of free, but... I'm serious when I tell you that I'm not actually 100% certain how much tea I have.
And it only seems to fuel the fire! When I'm in a store, or online, or at a friend's house, and I see tea that piques my interest, or I see a cute teacup or teapot, or I see a fancy doo-dad that could possibly be used to store/make/drink tea, I'm all over it. It's a disease. It's a syndrome. Call it what you will, I've got it. Bad.
I need a support group, I tell ya.
So how do you stop yourself from buying more tea? Like I said before, what usually stops me is the storage problem, but my best friend also helps, the way a therapist stops a repeat offender. We actually have a mantra. It doesn't get any easier with time, though. It's like being an alcoholic, except much less damaging all-around (unless you think having enough tea to almost merit being on the show "Hoarders" is as damaging as alcoholism). As you can see, I don't take myself too seriously. xP
That's all I've got written. I feel as though it has a little more to go, but I just can't squeeze out any more. The word diarrhea has been stemmed, and that niggling feeling that it's missing something is just not enough to make it start again. Oh well. I posted a shortened version (mostly just the first paragraph, rewritten slightly) on the actual thread. I just needed somewhere to allow this to come out.