Creator Spotlight: The Oolong Drunk
I’m really excited to be doing a new kind of spotlight! While in the past I’ve done spotlights on small businesses and retailers, I want to now share a creator spotlight in honor of Pride month on Cody AKA The Oolong Drunk AKA our favorite tea show host!
Learn more about Cody below and please check these links to his website and some of the pieces he’s written!
Recent Posts:
Can you introduce yourself and The Oolong Drunk?
My name is Cody and I’m known as The Oolong Drunk!! At the time of this interview, I’ve been blogging about tea for almost 7 years. I started out writing out reviews, but now I’m a regular contributor to World Tea News, as well as hosting my own tea-talk show called Blissfully Tea Drunk With…!
Recent World Tea News Articles:
Pride Month: Exploring LGBTQ Sustainability in the Tea Industry
6 Tea Businesses to watch in 2022
When did your tea journey begin?
It began in 2015, when I was first recommended to buy tea at a store in Texas called Central Market… It was a recommended to me as an alternative to quitting sodas. That day toward, i’ve fallen into the rabbit hole of the world of tea!!
What does your daily tea ritual look like?
I usually just drink tea while watching HBO while in my pajamas, or underwear, on the couch. I usually cuddle one (or both) of my cats. If I see the lighting hit the kitchen just right, then I’ll move my tea session by the kitchen window to snap a photo of what i was drinking to post on Instagram.
Is there a specific tea(s) that you're loving right now?
Right now, it’s white tea! Specially, Chinese white tea!! However, I’ve also been obsessing over black tea or puerh tea. Gah. There’s no such thing as too much!
What sparked the idea for the Blissfully Tea Drunk With series?
The day that Instagram launched an update to their ‘LIVE’ function to add more than one person to a LIVE, I knew I had to try it out! So I messaged my friend Nicole Wilson (Tea For Me Please) and Jenn (Barefoot Tea Lady) to test it out with me! Usually, when watching Instagram-LIVES, I thought the discussions can usually get boring. So while doing these LIVES, I wanted to make it fun and interesting for the audience so the audience would be engaged.
I think some of it also came from the idea that everyone was isolated from Covid… The 2020 Election has made everyone in society hateful, and the sense of community was practically gone. At the time, Black Lives Matters marches were flooding the media, and everything was horribly depressing. Making the talk-show was my way to connect the tea community while having as much fun as possible. To entertain, and to be a distraction form the world around us. I’ve tried to make it fun. I don’t know. I sometimes get the random message from a viewer that it helps them and helps them feel connected and it’s fun… Those people, that’s who I keep doing it for.
What are your future plans for the series?
Right now, Instragram’s last few updates have made their LIVE platform unstable. It’s ruined two of my episodes. I’m moving forward, the next season will be recorded on zoom and uploaded the same-week. It’ll be LIVE in the sense that it’ll all be one-take and won’t be rehearsed. No retakes. But it’ll be uploaded later, so it’ll be syndicated in a sense. This will also allow for larger reach of guests and panelists as well… Fingers crossed it goes well!
What does Pride mean to you?
I came out as gay at 19, and have had a wave of struggles since then. I wrote a book about an experience I faced when being discriminated against after coming out. That experience led to my suicide attempt…. Pride is a reminder that some people are supportive, and some people actually care. It’s a reminder that the gay struggle isn’t for nothing. And pride is a motivator for me to keep working on getting my book published!!
How can the tea community celebrate pride with you and support the LGBTQIA+ community all year round?
I think the tea community is very much supportive all year around. The tea community is very open and accepting of all people of all backgrounds — including queer backgrounds (in my experience at least). I think if people in tea stay compassionate through-out the year, and not just in June, then it would show a much stronger message. I’m very lucky to be apart of this community. I wouldn’t trade it for anything…