Let’s say I’m a tea drinker who is currently happy with ‘bad’ tea. How confident are you that going down the tea-nerd path will cause me to enjoy my tea more, as opposed to simply losing the ability to enjoy bad tea and acquiring a need for good tea in order to hit the same enjoyment level?
(This reminds me a bit of when I used to play fast-paced games and was convinced to upgrade from a 60hz monitor to a 120hz monitor. The higher refresh rate was undeniably better, and I could certainly distinguish between the two, to the point that 60hz now felt unplayably choppy… but I’d been perfectly happy with it before.)
I would be moderately surprised if you went down the path and then experienced total hedonic adaptation, such that you enjoyed the new teas no more than you enjoy your current tea. I would not be surprised if going down this path substantially reduced your ability to enjoy “bad” tea, if in fact you perceive a noticeable difference in quality and then pick up the new tea habit. I think the worst realistic world is something like one where you try “good” tea for long enough to realize that it’s better but that the hassle isn’t worth it, but you still end up with permanently degraded enjoyment of the tea you were previously drinking. That doesn’t seem super likely to me since the additional hassle is IMO pretty small if you find a daily drinker you’re happy with and stick to it (weighing out tea doesn’t add more than 30 seconds unless you’re dealing with really compressed cakes), and the cost won’t exceed $0.50 - $1.50/day unless you get pretty fancy with it, but I haven’t actively gone looking for people who’ve had this or similar experiences.
Let’s say I’m a tea drinker who is currently happy with ‘bad’ tea. How confident are you that going down the tea-nerd path will cause me to enjoy my tea more, as opposed to simply losing the ability to enjoy bad tea and acquiring a need for good tea in order to hit the same enjoyment level?
(This reminds me a bit of when I used to play fast-paced games and was convinced to upgrade from a 60hz monitor to a 120hz monitor. The higher refresh rate was undeniably better, and I could certainly distinguish between the two, to the point that 60hz now felt unplayably choppy… but I’d been perfectly happy with it before.)
I would be moderately surprised if you went down the path and then experienced total hedonic adaptation, such that you enjoyed the new teas no more than you enjoy your current tea. I would not be surprised if going down this path substantially reduced your ability to enjoy “bad” tea, if in fact you perceive a noticeable difference in quality and then pick up the new tea habit. I think the worst realistic world is something like one where you try “good” tea for long enough to realize that it’s better but that the hassle isn’t worth it, but you still end up with permanently degraded enjoyment of the tea you were previously drinking. That doesn’t seem super likely to me since the additional hassle is IMO pretty small if you find a daily drinker you’re happy with and stick to it (weighing out tea doesn’t add more than 30 seconds unless you’re dealing with really compressed cakes), and the cost won’t exceed $0.50 - $1.50/day unless you get pretty fancy with it, but I haven’t actively gone looking for people who’ve had this or similar experiences.