A Tea Addict's Journal

Narratives and taste

July 6, 2010 · 2 Comments

I just read a post by Felix Salmon, and I must say the same phenomenon happens a lot in tea as well.  It’s probably also happening with increased frequency.  When you get a story with a tea, the tea somehow, sometimes, anyway, becomes better, or more interesting.  When I talk to friends who are not particularly interested in tea, telling a story has a way of drawing them into a particular drink than if it were simply just some generic “aged oolong”, which does not sound too glamourous.  “Stored for ten years on an organic Taiwanese tea farm”, then you’re getting somewhere.

Most of this, of course, is just some marketing claptrap.  They exist because they sell the teas in question. But then, sometimes there are stories like the old jian of Liu’an that they supposedly found in some medicine shop.  Hard to beat those.

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2 responses so far ↓

  • lewperin // July 6, 2010 at 1:24 pm | Reply

    I’m a sucker for tea narratives, which is why I have to keep reminding myself to try to ignore them and just concentrate on what’s in that cup in front of me.

  • Anonymous // July 6, 2010 at 2:31 pm | Reply

    yeah sure. but all narratives are not from the same batch, nor the same mountain. Some are full of flavors, others just stink.
    Thing is, not everyone agrees on which are the good, which the bad. you cannot even rely on the wrapping. omg. 😀

    Now, w/o joke: that’s a very interesting field, really -storytelling, “information”, belief.

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