Tasting Tea As A Picky Eater

Warning: I’ll be blathering about my personal life ahead.

This post has been on my mind for a while and it felt like a good time to write it. When I was a kid, I was an extremely picky eater. Like, extreme. I think there were literally about 5 foods that I ate, and all of them were junk food. My parents took me to doctors, nutritionists, psychologists, yet nothing seemed to work. I still wouldn’t eat any real food. Once, they decided not to let me eat anything until I just took one bite of something new, and I refused for a day until they gave in. What did finally work was the healing power of Jesus (DM me if you want to hear more about that story.) I was never diagnosed, but I’m pretty sure I had an eating disorder.

So, fast forward and I got better, but marginally. I still ate mostly bad-for-me food all the way through high school and college. It wasn’t until I was a full grown adult and 50 pounds overweight that I decided it was time to start eating like an adult. It was slow, but I can now say I am 50 pounds lighter and I eat foods that most adults think are gross everyday (hooray for kale!) Yes, kale. Brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, leafy greens, cauliflower. I like it all now. I find that I am more willing to try new foods now, but I still default to familiar when it comes to eating somewhere new.

So, how does this relate to tea? In tea, and especially in tea blogging, we are supposed to taste a tea and then say what all flavors we are tasting in said tea. There are still so many foods that I have never had, that it’s kind of ridiculous. A lot of my flavor descriptions are broad categories like fruity and nutty, as opposed to naming a specific fruit or nut. That’s because I have probably not tasted that particular food and can’t pin it down, so I go with the broad descriptor.

I had this white tea just before writing this. I thought it was a good example because one of the common tasting notes in white teas is nuttiness. Nuts were one of the foods I never wanted to eat, but I did eventually start eating them. But shortly after that, my body decided to do this thing where it gets violent reflux when I eat a tree nut (yay adulthood). I see chestnuts as a common tasting note with white teas, and I have to admit I have never had a chestnut and may not ever get to taste one.

Fruit is another one for me. I never liked fruit and I still don’t eat much of it. I see some fruits listed as tasting notes, like lychee, longan, durian, and there are quite a few fruits that I’ve never tried. I am willing to try them, but I don’t go out of my way to try new foods, but I feel like I should.

So, where do I go from here? I really don’t know. I struggle with this a lot, and it sometimes leads to impostor syndrome. My blogging has slowed down a bit lately and I often wonder if I really have anything of value to add to the tea world. But I have to push all of that aside and just do what I love to do. You lovely folks can read it if you want to, or don’t if you don’t want to, I’m okay with either. I just hope you can get something out of this tiny piece of the internet. If nothing else, I really do hope I can get you to consider to cost of your tea more than you previously did. That would really make my accountant heart happy.

Special shout out to my good buddy Mike (@bittersheng on IG) for the Jianshui pot. The clay really does change the flavor of tea, and that’s another rabbit hole that I have yet to really venture down into.

And speaking of tea friends, I just have to say yet again how awesome the people in the tea community have been and continue to be. I have always felt very welcomed and encouraged and never once felt like I didn’t belong or wasn’t wanted. I sincerely hope you all feel that same way.

For now, I’m going to keep going and experimenting and learning about tea and sharing what I learn along the way. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you soon. Cheers!