I have a confession.
I don’t think every tea lover needs to love every tea.
That sounds obvious when written down, but spend enough time around tea enthusiasts and you may start to think otherwise.
Someone discovers that you enjoy tea.
The questions begin.
Do you drink green tea?
What about pu-erh?
Have you tried aged white tea?
Sometimes it feels as though tea appreciation comes with an invisible checklist. The more teas you enjoy, the more qualified you become to call yourself a tea lover.
But I’ve never been convinced that’s how it works.
After all, we don’t apply this logic to most other things. Nobody expects a music lover to enjoy every genre of music. Nobody questions whether someone loves books because they dislike a particular author.
Yet tea seems different.
For some reason, people feel strangely guilty admitting they dislike certain teas.
Matcha might be the best example.
Its popularity has exploded in recent years. Walk into almost any café and you’ll find matcha somewhere on the menu. Social media treats it as the unofficial symbol of modern tea culture.
And yet plenty of tea drinkers simply don’t enjoy it.
The earthy flavour can be intense. The texture can feel unusual. Some people never develop a taste for it no matter how many times they try.
And that’s perfectly reasonable.
The same is true for pu-erh. Or heavily roasted oolongs. Or delicate white teas.
Liking tea and liking every tea are not the same thing.
In fact, personal preference is probably what makes tea culture interesting in the first place.
Ask ten tea drinkers about their favourite tea and you’ll likely receive ten different answers. Those differences are not evidence that someone understands tea less than another person.
They are evidence that taste is personal.
Perhaps tea culture would feel more welcoming if we talked about preferences more openly.
Not every tea needs to become your favourite.
Not every famous tea needs to impress you.
And not every tea trend needs to win you over.
Sometimes being a tea lover simply means continuing to search for the teas that feel right to you.
Even if everyone else seems to prefer something different.
— Maria Tan
On tea, culture, and everyday rituals.
A Golden Sip of Serenity chrysanthemum tea
There is a pot on many kitchen tables in Singapore that no one talks about much. Pale yellow gold in the glass, with a few small chrysanthemum flowers or flower buds drifting at the bottom. It appears after a heavy meal, at a grandmother’s house, or in a hawker centre when the weather turns unbearable….
-
Tea in a Scrollable World
I often think about how tea fits into a world that moves as fast as ours does. Every day, there are notifications, updates, trends, and posts competing for attention. Memes, videos, tweets, they all demand a response, a like, a share. It is a constant motion that leaves very little space for pause. And then…
-
Marriott High Tea 1 for 1: Indulge in Luxury at Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel
I almost didn’t go. Hotel afternoon tea always felt like something you did for a birthday or a special occasion with loved ones, or when a relative flew in and you wanted to seem like you had your life together. Expensive. A little performative. The kind of thing you photograph more than you eat. But…
-
Why Some Teas Feel Like Company
I’ve always thought of tea as a companion of sorts. Not a person, not a friend, but something that sits quietly beside you while the day moves forward. A cup of tea doesn’t interrupt your thoughts. It doesn’t demand attention. It simply exists, warm and steady, while you figure out what comes next. Some teas…
-
A Refined Afternoon Tea Experience at the Pan Pacific Atrium High Tea
Pan Pacific Atrium High Tea is the afternoon tea experience at the Atrium Lounge in Pan Pacific Singapore: a refined, unhurried sitting with TWG tea or Lavazza coffee, elegant seating pods above the reflection pool, and a menu that pairs classic English tea traditions with Peranakan flavours. For couples, friends, families, and tea lovers looking…
-
The Tea We Drink for No Reason
Tea is often praised for its ritual, its mindfulness, its ability to transform ordinary moments into quiet ceremonies. And I appreciate all of that. I really do. But there is another kind of tea, one that rarely gets mentioned in articles or recommended in guides. The tea we drink for no reason at all. I…
-
A Tea Lover’s Map to Elegant Finds in the City Teaware Shop
There is a particular quiet that settles when you pour hot water over tea leaves in a pot you chose with care. The weight of the clay in your hand. The porcelain capacity that holds just the right amount of warmth. A small ritual, repeated, until it becomes yours. Singapore knows tea in many languages….
-
Why We Pretend Every Tea Moment Should Be Peaceful
There is a quiet expectation we place on tea that I’m not sure we talk about enough. We expect it to calm us. To slow us down. To make everything feel a little more intentional, a little more put together, a little more peaceful than whatever came before it. But I’ve started to wonder if…
-
The Discipline of Grace in Every Bowl: Tea Ceremony in Japan
Water begins to move in a small iron kettle. The sound is faint, almost like wind through pines, and in a quiet room lined with tatami mats, it is enough to fill the silence. A host kneels in the tea room. A guest waits. Nothing is said, yet something has already begun. This is where…
-
The Tea I Keep Drinking When I Don’t Feel Like Myself
There are days when tea feels unnecessary. Not because I stop liking it, but because I don’t feel like the version of myself who usually drinks it slowly, thoughtfully, and with attention. On those days, I still make tea anyway. Not out of ritual, but out of habit. It is never the elaborate kind of…
