Wow, I just realized that it's been a month since my massive Chinatown tea splurge, and I am happy to report continuing satisfaction with my new choices and almost zero urge to buy more tea.* My biggest regret at this point is that I am getting so many brewings out of the tea that I have to use boring tea bags (instead of the good stuff) like 2 days out of 3 so I get my caffeine hit!
I think my giant pile o'tea had been bugging me because it was largely "meh" stuff that had piled up + "special" stuff that I didn't drink because I didn't want to run out of. Now I have cleared out the meh stuff and broken the wall that kept me from enjoying the special stuff, and in some strange way it feels like that emotional power it had over me is gone -- even though I never realized it was there in the first place. If that makes any sense at all. It was like I was hemmed in by thinking "I am so wasteful not drinking that meh tea" and "oh, that's good stuff, I can't have that, it's just Tuesday, and there is nothing worthy of it," and I didn't even realize I was thinking all those things until I had to make myself drink the stuff. And once I realized those thoughts, I was able to call bullshit on them and just enjoy my damn tea.
I also think I am truly enjoying my plenty because I had so many months of semi-deprivation -- not that it was actually a hardship or anything :-), just that I could not have whatever I wanted the second I wanted it, so I re-set my hedonic treadmill a bit. So my new plan, as of now, is to basically do what I just did by accident: periodic splurges, followed by periods in which I focus on using up what I splurged on. I feel like that makes me happier.
*I still get a twinge, which feels almost like a reflex; but as soon as I remember my deliciousness at home, I go, "oh, yeah, right," and walk away without a second thought. I have bought more tea bags, because I completely ran out, but those were never the gazingus pin.