Happy New Years! 2017! I have completed another year of tracking all my teas, how much I drank and received. I track my entire tea stash and consumption on Google Sheets, which I find handy as I can access it on my phone and computer.
If you want to learn more about my spreadsheets – Tea Stash Spreadsheet | Tea Consumption Spreadsheet.
Due to popular demand – here is a template of my Tea Stash Spreadsheet! Save a copy to make it yours.
2016 was a crazy year for me. I moved from Los Angeles to Seattle. I finally got a full pumidor set up as crock storage was getting out of control with my stash.
Oolong Owl’s 2016 Tea Stash Data
First off, here’s a link to last years, Jan 2016, tea stash data.
I am starting 2017 with a terrible tea count. I started 2016 with 596 teas, so much for reducing my stash. April 2016 I had my stash to 517 (a purge happened before my move), then it jumped to 689 in August, crawling to 717 in November. I busted my butt drinking down samples every weekend in December, juggling teas I bought from Black Friday, getting my total to 709. Sigh. I even bought less tea this year too – a lot of this inflation was from too many samples from group buys and travelling tea boxes.
Here is the chart from the beginning of 2016 to compare:
I got more white teas in 2016 as I discovered how I like to steep them – boiling! The white tea number doubled, but what isn’t reflected is most of my white tea purchases were at least 3oz each. I got more sheng puer and managed to trim down my green tea stash.
If you were curious what 709 teas looks like, here is my stash today, Jan 1 2017… in its cluttered glory:
Yeah, I didn’t want to clean it for photos as I was going to go through everything soon. That space between bookshelves was where the pumidor was. I had to move it to another room as it was getting too cold.
(photos does not include my Tea Blog queue basket. Those are spoilers!)
Oolong Owl’s 2016 Tea Consumption
I track how much tea, by weight, I drink every day. I also track how much tea comes in and leaves my stash. Besides tea weight being most optimal to figuring out serving vs a teaspoon, I find weight adds the best information on how much tea you really drink to compare to how much you buy.
- Average tea drank per day = 17.6 grams
- Average tea drank per month – 518.5 grams
- Most drank tea in a month = January at 814 grams, 26.3 grams a day. December 2015 I also drank a lot of tea, this was likely the continuation of panic to drink more.
- Least Tea Drinking Month = April at 306 grams total, 11.3 a day average. I moved to Seattle in April, and I have a number of days with no tea consumed. I recall I bought those big jugs of ItoEn tea to drink during the 3 days the movers were there and I was flying with a pissed off rabbit. April, May, and June were low tea drinking months in general with less than 400 grams each month, thus why my totals are a little less this year. Those 3 months I was stuck only using a 75ml gaiwan too. July, once I moved into permanent housing and had all my tea things unpacked I jumped to 538 grams.
- Total Tea Consumed for 2016 – 6222 grams / 13.7 pounds!
2017 Tea Goals and Predictions
Continue with tea data collection – Like previous years, I will continue with my data collection. I highly recommend a tea stash spreadsheet once you hit around 100 teas – if you wait too long it just gets worse to make.
Add a Teaware tab in Tea Spreadsheet – I already keep track of my clay pots so I remember their size and seasoning, which I find very handy. I would like to expand that to document all my teaware and cost, for reference and insurance purposes.
The Great Purge and Reorganize – I am planning a big sort and purge this month to make my stash trim. There is likely some fruity teas in there that are in bad shape from age that need to be pitched. From there, I will regroup similar and tin to hopefully free up space.
2017 tea stash predictions – Admittedly, I accepted much less vendor samples in 2016. I obviously have too much tea… as of 2 years ago. I bought 30% less tea this year too. I purchased better tea in 2016 and will continue in 2017. I predict in 2017 my white and green tea numbers may reverse. I have been steadily not buying as much greens and rehoming them before they get too old. 2017 is also Year of the Rooster, which is my year. I’ve been looking forward to this year and plan to buy quite a bit of puer for future aging. Fingers crossed 2017 is a good year!
