My Tea Story

Hi friends. Some of you might have figured out by now that I am a tea lover. I am slowly but surely becoming known as “The Tea Lady” (when I turned from a girl into a lady, I’m not sure, but I still feel like a girl!). Many people have asked me about my tea journey so I thought I’d share a little bit about it, right here on my blog! I also have some news to share if you stick with me till the end!

My First Cup of Tea

I don’t even recall when I first tried tea, I just always remember it being a part of my life. But some of my earliest tea memories involved a morning ritual I had with my British host mother. She drank her tea with cream and milk. I liked my green tea with a little bit of lemon (I couldn’t bring myself to add cream to green tea. Not that I was a tea snob; the two just didn’t seem right together). Anyway, we bonded over tea and our love of Celine Dion in the mornings while we waited for the rest of the family to rise from their slumber. I cherished that time of quietude with her, especially since she had three young boys who were quite rowdy once they had had their bowl of Weetabix. What the heck is Weetabix, you ask? I think it is best described as a pellet of wheat that gets mushy when you pour milk over it. But if you’re still intrigued and want more, check out this video. Weetabix! Moving on.

Tea is So Much More Than Lipton

After that, I carried on for quite some time with bagged tea (yes, even Lipton!). I liked black and green. While I was in college, my tea pallet broadened when I traveled to the Middle East and discovered that you could put pretty much anything in hot water to create a nice brew: sage leaves, mint leaves, thyme. It was my Jordanian host mother who brewed me piping hot sage tea when I had bad cramps. And it worked! Read more about how I use sage tea for womanly woes.

After my discovery of literal herbal tea, I started getting more adventurous with my tea – powdered herbs, fennel stalks, and culinary herbs like cloves – all went in. I loved experimenting (and made some really nasty concoctions)! Loose leaf tea became my jam and I invested in lots of tea gadgets, pots, cups, and strainers (many of which are more for décor than actual tea consumption, but don’t tell!).

My Tea Education

I’m no herbalist, and I don’t claim to be. While I’ve always wanted to have a proper herbal education, I haven’t had the right opportunity. I did complete an internship at the Herb Shoppe in Portland. Going into it, I thought I knew my herbs. But the first time I walked into that shop and saw the walls lined with herbs that had names like Horehound and Devil’s Claw, I realized I didn’t know jack sh*t. I also did not realize that there were different ways to prepare herbs – that you could powder them, decoct them, encapsulate them, make tea lattes, herb cookies, herb chocolates, and so much more (I’ll let your imagination run wild)!

I kept an herb notebook, asked lots of questions, meditated over the most obscure herbs I could find, and read a lot about all of the different kinds of herbs and their healing properties. Suffice it to say, I had my work cut out for me and after three months, felt I had barely skimmed the surface of herbs. I have much to learn.

Tea and Clients

Fast forward several years later, I started my own business in nutrition consulting (which you also probably know since you’re on my site) and decided to find a way to incorporate tea. Everyone always asked me why I had “tea” in my business name and it was mainly because I just loved tea! Yes, I discuss tea as part of the healing process for those of my clients that also like to drink tea (and many don’t, and that’s okay), but I just envisioned myself having tea with my clients while we discussed their bowel movements.

I made a habit of making a pot of tea before each session with my clients. I felt it helped calm me and made the vibe of our sessions feel more jazzy and relaxed.

Tea Had its Own Plan For Me

Tea has the potential to increase our energy, to calm us down, to lift our moods, to help us feel relaxed, to promote hormonal balance, to soothe an upset stomach, or even a broken heart. It gives us moments of peace and clarity. Tea has sort of found its way into my life and decided it was going to lead me down a path I didn’t quite expect or plan to go down. I found that the more I brought up tea, shared a cup, or discussed how tea can support health, the more “oohhs” and “aahhs” I got from the peanut gallery. It wasn’t until my colleague stared me down at a networking meeting and said “tea is what you need to do” that I realized I could start making my own blends to sell.

Since then, I’ve jumped head first into the world of product. Packaging, labeling, branding, wholesale, retail, ah! It has taken on a life of its own. But, I’ve decided that tea’s where it’s at and I am excited to announce that I am in the process of creating my own tea line! I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing when it comes to the business side of selling product (or what the heck to do with all of the herbs I seem to keep ordering!), but I have faith that tea with figure things out for me as long as I am open to the possibilities. The important thing is that tea makes me happy and I want to share my cup of happy tea with others.

Stay tuned as I begin this journey, from the woes of having way too much tea to store in my tiny apartment to the joys of selling my first bag, I am going to start living (and drinking, and then hopefully selling), more tea!