October 11, 2010

Tea Strength Preferrence vs Sipper's Personality

tropical orchard in vibrant colors


a calm dove visitor


A recent tea making episode triggered me to ponder the possible pattern of tea drinkers' preference for tea strength in relation to their personalities.  I was helping the hostess to prepare oolong tea for a dinner gathering.  Since I was not sure about each guest's experience with Chinese tea, I decided to make the tea a bit weaker than to my own liking.  It turns out that one guest who has a very expressive personality considered the tea way too weak ( it was quite obvious after she took one sip), whereas the genteel hostess praised that the tea was just right for her! 

Looking back to my previous tea party experiences, the association of sippers' personality (vibrant or genteel) seems to correlate with their likings in the degree of tea strength.  My selection of the pictures above  might help to illustrate the point.