A Tea Addict's Journal

Are you cutting back?

October 8, 2008 · 15 Comments

I’m just curious about this. Everybody knows that we’re in the middle of a financial meltdown, with the credit markets in chaos and LIBOR rates that are through the roof, banks (or in the case of Iceland, countries) that are nearly insolvent and fear gripping everybody from Asia to South America.

Now, tea was an essential in a Chinese household, but much less so for an American or a European one. So my question to you is — are you cutting back on tea consumption/purchases? How about teaware, which is, obviously, much less of an essential good. Or is it more or less the same as before?

Just wondering as a former student of economics if this sort of thing trickles down to tea consumption at all.

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15 responses so far ↓

  • Anonymous // October 8, 2008 at 2:44 am | Reply

    For me, it’s worse than before, though I don’t think the slowdown in the economy has much affect.

    Even if I stopped buying tea, I think I’d have enough to last me for several years of daily tea drinking.

  • Anonymous // October 8, 2008 at 4:34 am | Reply

    Same is true for me, I buy less tea, but that is because I already hoarded lots of good tea, so I can now buy at much lower pace.

  • MANDARINstea // October 8, 2008 at 10:06 am | Reply

    of course my family is cutting back…. or just me : P
    My wife with Toki pulled the plug on my spending this week. So I will have to live with what’s in the storage (Tea). Which I think is a wonderful thing : )

  • Anonymous // October 8, 2008 at 12:02 pm | Reply

    I’ve slowed tea purchases and stopped buying teaware. As it is, I have enough to last awhile should even more dire times arrive.   

  • Anonymous // October 8, 2008 at 1:05 pm | Reply

    I’m not cutting back at all in my buying but then again I have always been fairly frugal in my quest to find cheaper teas that taste good. If anything I might have been buying more as I’m starting to get into oolongs, but not expensive ones as my current favorite oolong is a min-pei from an Asian Grocery store which sells for $3.39 per half pound box. My shu puerh collection is still slowly growing as I continue to buy it at a rate that is slightly faster than I drink it.

  • lewperin // October 8, 2008 at 1:30 pm | Reply

    I don’t think I’ll stop buying tea as long as there’s interesting stuff out there and I still have a roof over my head.

  • eanglin // October 8, 2008 at 4:04 pm | Reply

    I haven’t purchased any tea since I found the Mystery Xiaguan Tuocha’s at the beach this summer- I’ve been drinking up what I have and trying to get rid of the oldest stuff first.

    I have purchased a few pieces of inexpensive teaware, but have no plans to purchase any more unless some of what I have breaks and must be replaced.

    Money continues to be extremely tight for me, so I continue to look for bargains in odd places, and good values in what tea I do buy.
    (Its still cheaper than drinking soda!)

  • osososososos // October 8, 2008 at 5:00 pm | Reply

    I have enough teaware to last my lifetime, and enough tea stockpiled to last several lifetimes. I haven’t been buying much, but this predates the financial crisis. I’m finishing off the many, many samples I ordered earlier in the year. I will be purchasing soon enough. Fall makes me crave roasty oolongs, and the many big jars I’ve thrown are craving filling and sealing. I wouldn’t plan to buy anything if my GMAT score were higher. But as it is, I get to put off application fees until after I retake the test in December.

  • Anonymous // October 8, 2008 at 6:43 pm | Reply

    Drink more .. buy more .. put your money back into the “pot” .. john

  • Anonymous // October 8, 2008 at 11:21 pm | Reply

    btw, In case I wasn’t clear, I meant “worse than before” in the sense that I’m buying *more* tea and teaware than I was before.

  • Phyllo // October 9, 2008 at 5:28 pm | Reply

    Phyll <– has stopped buying tea and wine (including wares). Been drinking stored tea and wine these days. How about you, Marshaln?

  • mulcahyfeldman // October 9, 2008 at 5:47 pm | Reply

    Perhaps more people will be giving thought to Toki’s 11-day Wuyi SX session…making great tea last even longer. He was thinking about trying the same thing with puerh. Perhaps the markets will spur him on.
    As for myself, I’ve cut out most extraneous purchases but so far, I have no plans to cut back on tea (not that I consider it extraneous), tea ware perhaps but never tea.
    I am reminded of Alice in Wonderland, “jam tomorrow and jam yesterday but never jam today.”
    ‘The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day.’ ‘It must come sometimes to “jam to-day”,’ Alice objected. ‘No, it can’t,’ said the Queen.
    [1871 ‘L. Carroll’ Through Looking-Glass v.]
    But it’s always tea today.
    C’est La Vie, Eileen

  • Anonymous // October 10, 2008 at 7:42 pm | Reply

    Thus far I have neither increased or decreased my tea buying behavior. There are many other things I can cut back on before I decide to cut back on tea.

  • Anonymous // October 10, 2008 at 9:50 pm | Reply

    I’ve cut back and decided I need to drink much of the mediocre tea that is not looking good for aging.

    I’m quite pleased. You really get more out of a good tea if you are used to mediocre tea, which is perfectly pleasant to drink. It also helps brewing technique no end. I become lazy if I know the tea can take it, brewing a great cup from tea that ain’t so good is very rewarding.

  • Anonymous // October 12, 2008 at 8:52 am | Reply

    I have cut back in my tea purchases, but not teaware, due to the economic downturn, along with the need to deal with storage space limitations. I am focusing on drinking much of the tea I have in storage before purchasing more.

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