Tea Thoughts Gift Guide

November 18, 2021 by Nazanin Yousefnejad in Life

Do you have a tea lover in your life and want to surprise them with something special? I have a ton of products in the shop that fit the interests of a wide variety of tea lovers! Sometimes when there’s so many things to choose from, finding the perfect gift can be difficult!

I’ve created a guide that will help you cut your search in half and find a great gift!

If you want to view the gift guide as a PDF with embedded links, you can find it below:

Gift Guide with Embedded Links

I’ve also shared them below, using categories that might fit your loved one perfectly!

You can find everything and more in the shop! Please note that several items will be in stock starting 11/19.

The Shop

We all have that friend who hoards stationery, for me….it’s me ! Diversify their stationery with these tea themed items! The wax seal kit adds a classic touch to letters and gifts. The kit includes a was seal stamp, handle and 2 wax sticks, there are also 2 other designs in the shop. Washi tape is so fun to use to wrap gifts, hang small prints and to use in planners! This special stamp kit collaboration between Justine Gilbuena and I features two flowers that we felt represented home - The Philippines and Iran. The kit includes 3 stamp colors, a makahiya stamp and a honeysuckle stamp.

Wax Seals

Washi Tape

Stamps

All Stationery

I have a special connection to gaiwans. When I was first given a tea I didn’t know how to brew, the first guides I found suggested getting a gaiwan and I’ve been hooked every since. The simple design of a lidded bowl enhances the tea tasting for me as there are so many aromas that come through due to the wide opening. The gaiwan is also featured in a lot of my products because I wanted to have gaiwan merch and couldn’t find it so I started making my own! Gaiwan studs and socks allow you to flaunt your love of this brewing vessel and also look pretty stylish :D I also have some actual gaiwans in the shop as well like the persimmon design shown. I also have several different designs on this same style gaiwan.

Gaiwan Studs

Moon Gaiwan Socks

Persimmon Gaiwan + Cup

Especially when it gets colder, we all know that one person who loves to be cozy or to have cozy things. These fuzzy socks are a new addition to the shop and something I’ve wanted to do for the longest time! They are soft and have a fin embroidered piece on the side, I highly suggest pairing these with some leggings or your favorite onesie! The sloth magnet is a great gift for someone who likes cozy and chill vibes! He likes to hang around and really space out that gong fu cha session!

All Socks

Sloth Magnet

Pins are great for collectors and people who love to add some flair tot their outfits! I’m featuring the camellia sinensis, pangolin teapot and sakura pins because I am running low on all of them! Make sure to grab some pins soon as I wont have new or restocks until next year! In addition to enamel, I also have a few wood pins.

All Pins

Matcha and green tea are thins I’ve seen be a huge hit for the American tea market recently. They are sold as health hacks but honestly, they are just delicious! While I don’t drink as much green teas as I’d like I do rally enjoy a bowl of hot matcha or a pot of genmaicha or gyokuro! For the matcha lover I have stud earrings of matcha bowls and a wood pin that makes you part of the chasen club! For all other green teas, I have this lovely kyusu!

Matcha Studs

Chasen Club Wood Pin

Kyusu

Some people collect pins and some people collect teaware! This year, I’ve added lots of teaware to the shop that I either sourced like the gaiwan shown or designed like the bamboo mat and highball glass! This landscape gaiwan is one of the other options of the persimmon gaiwan shown earlier. These have a good shape if you have smaller hands like me as the opening isn’t super wide. The bamboo tea mat is perfect for tea times where you don’t need a tray and need a lot of space for your setup. Highball glasses feature a tea leaf design and are great for iced tea or tea cocktails and mocktails!

All Teaware

Gift Guide Series: Cantrip Candles

November 28, 2020 by Nazanin Yousefnejad in Life

This is a special addition to the gift guide. Cantrip Candles is owned by my friend from High School, Christoff. Christoff and I went to High School together and were in an academic program together and we were on the swim team. I’m so proud of my friend for starting a business and making it so successful! I remember when he first started making candles and now he has a retail space!

Christoff doesn’t just make candles, he is in incredible artist and if you like D&D you will want to get your hands on one of these. Cantrip Candles are D7D themed candles with beautiful illustrations and the 16oz candles come with a d20 dice in them!

Please read more about Cantrip Candles below and visit the shop! His candles go fast so if you want to get your hands on them make sure to follow along on his social media or subscribe to know when the next restock or preorder is!

Visit Cantrip Candles

Was there a catalyst that made you start Cantrip Candles?

I wanted to have more control over my own life/time. I was working at a retail store and absolutely hated not being able to schedule more of the things I liked, so I quit the job and decided I would come up with something that would sustain my wallet and healthy mindset.

What is your process for coming up with a new candle/scent?

It's a blend of trial-and-error and sometimes getting lucky! Usually, I have a goal in mind, be it a woodsy smell or maybe more of a rustic interior scent. Then it's off to the collection of oils I've gathered over the years through samples and old oils that didn't quite work for what I was looking for. Once I've gathered some oils that might be a good fit, the fun part of mixing and matching happens! Usually it takes a few rounds of testing before I've got something I really like, but sometimes you get lucky, throw a few oils into a formula and it works out perfectly the first try!

Tell me more about the artwork features on your candles? When did you start designing/creating?

I do all of the lid artwork myself, but all other art featured on Cantrip Candles is usually by commissioned artists outside of our studio. I've always enjoyed doodling, and found that my drawing style meshed well with the "battlemaps" that are featured on each of our lids. I've always dabbled in art and graphic design since middle school, but haven't ever really pursued it as a full time thing. I'm thankful for knowing enough to produce the labels!

What is your favorite candle that you make currently?

My favorite SCENT is Stonemoss Chapel, it's a really lovely blend of rainwater, soil, and moss - and I designed it to evoke a sense of walking around London parks. I'm also really proud of Library Scriptorium because it's a damn accurate match to old books.

What does your perfect game night consist of?

Good friends, good vibes, and a comfortable atmosphere. Game nights are most comfortable when everyone checks their egos at the door, and there is a good leader who can guide newer players through the rules. Setting out a nice candle helps too :)

Do you have any holiday sales, restocks etc that you want to share?

Not at the moment. We're currently blessed with a surplus of demand, so at the moment we're just working on getting the inventory leveled out and opening our storefront in Hollywood! 2020 has been a transformative year for the company and despite all of it's hardships I'm incredibly thankful for a time period to just focus on growing the business.

Gift Guide Series: Sylvan Tea

November 27, 2020 by Nazanin Yousefnejad in Life

I’m sharing Sylvan Tea with you who is a tea friend and incredibly talented artist!

I love the way Amber incorporates animals and tea into her artwork. I recently commissioned a custom piece with a gaiwan and penguins! You can also find a wide range of items in her shop from postcards to tea towels!

Please check out more about Sylvan Tea below and check out her shop!

She will be having some deals on Small Business Saturday on her items and she is open for commissions!

Can you tell us a little bit about you and your passion for art?

I've loved art ever since I was a little kid. Along with writing, art has always been a necessary outlet for my self expression. When I was a child, I drew animals almost exclusively, and in my middle school years I explored drawing humans in a manga style. In my teen years, though, I stopped drawing in favor of photography, and once I was in university getting my English degree, I focused solely on my writing. But I was still interested in art, and always made it a priority to visit art museums and dive into art history, both academically and on my own time. After releasing two books of poetry and starting my career in writing and editorial work, I found myself without much of a creative outlet, since I was putting so much work into writing for my job that I had no energy left to do it for myself at home. At the tail end of 2014 my husband, Arthur, encouraged me to pick up art again. I was both excited and nervous about it because it had been so long since I had drawn anything, but I practiced every day on my ferry rides to and from work. And as I chose different subjects to draw, I found that I was going back to what I was drawn to in my childhood: animals. It seems that's hard-wired into me at this point. The rest is history.

2020 has been a big year of change for my art. After years of developing technique and exploring my style, I wanted to see what would happen if I stripped my style back to its roots. Early on in the pandemic I started drawing some super simple, raw brush pen drawings of what are now known as the Tea Creatures. The tea community loved them, so I kept drawing them to help lift people's spirits. And in doing that, they lifted my spirits too. Those simple drawings helped me break free of some of the constraints I had imposed on my art and myself. And in an odd, beautiful way, the wildness and freedom of those critters bled over into my sumi ink and watercolor paintings too.

Incorporating tea imagery into my animal drawings has given me a whole whimsical world to build upon, and every day I'm excited to see where it takes me. Art has been a guiding light in my life in both good times and bad, and I can't imagine my life without it.

Was there a catalyst that pushed you to open your shop?

I had wanted to open my own shop for a while, originally with a focus on selling tea and teaware. That's still one of the goals I have for Sylvan Tea. When the pandemic hit, I had to put tea sourcing on hold, so I racked my brain wondering what other things of value I could bring to the world. When I saw how positively the tea community reacted to my art, I realized that I had something to offer. So far I've made art prints, hand-pulled linocut prints, postcards, and hand-painted totes. I have more totes on the way, plus some forthcoming tea towels. And as my shop starts to pick up steam, I can create even more items for tea and art enthusiasts. And one day there will be some tea in the shop too.

What is your personal tea ritual like?

I have a few different rituals. I always make tea first thing in the morning after I'm all showered and dressed. I check in with my body and I feel what kind of tea I need for that moment. The tea my body wants is what dictates the ritual. Chinese and Taiwanese teas get gongfu brewed, but there's one Dong Ding in my cabinet right now that I actually prefer bowl-brewed. Japanese loose leaf gets brewed in my trusty kyusu. I try to focus only on the tea when I make my first cup, but after that I find that I can multitask well, and that incorporating tea into my work brings calm and peace to my day.
Matcha plays a strong role in my tea ritual too. But I don't multitask when I have matcha! Because I'm a chanoyu student, even my casual matcha sessions include elements of tea ceremony that I've learned from my sensei, and to make tea in this way requires focus. I find that doing these motions, even in a casual setting, brings me great comfort and reinforces my formal tea practice as well. And because I'm a student of the Omotesenke school, I always whisk my tea in the "pond" style". I love watching the pond form in the froth after I make a big circle with my chasen.

Do you have a favorite animal to illustrate?

It's so hard to choose! Lately I've enjoyed illustrating bears and small birds. In the past I went through a big turkey vulture phase. But if I had to choose one animal, it would have to be the pangolin. I've always been drawn to gentle, endangered animals, and pangolins hold a very special place in my heart. I love painting each scale and drawing their cute little faces and claws.

Gift Guide Series: Pugs & Pigs

November 27, 2020 by Nazanin Yousefnejad in Life

I wanted to share another new shop with you! I communicated with them over instagram and bought a few teas to try! They have a great assortment of pu’er which I love but also An incredible amount of ceramics as well!

Learn a little more about Pugs & PIgs below and be sure to check out their shop!

Can you tell us a little bit about you and your passion for tea?

Pugs and Pigs is a small two people operation entirely dedicated to the amazing work of ceramic artists and tea producers. As such, we set up a little online gallery to showcase some of our favorite artists and also present a highly curated selection of teas. Both Ingrid and I (Laurence) come from different tea backgrounds. We've been living this obsession our own way for many years until we met down this path a year ago. Pugs and Pigs was born from a desire to work with people closer to us, to our values, and offer products that better represent who we are as tea drinkers.

Was there a catalyst that pushed you to open your shop?

Tea is an ever growing obsession. I think many tea drinkers can relate. You take a step forward, then another one, and suddently you realize you're pretty far down the rabbit hole. It is not very difficult to reach that point where tea becomes the central focus of your everyday life. From there, it is only a step more to get involved in the tea business. The real catalyst of our enterprise was ceramics. As much as we wanted to work closer with producers and import teas we feel deserved better attention, the real push forward was when we realized how under represented ceramic artists were in the tea world (and in the ceramic world for that matter). There are so many incredible artists out there and their work truly deserve more attention.

What is your personal tea ritual like?

Every morning starts with tea. Before breakfast, before social medias or any other activity, we sit, boil water and steep tea. Usually japanese green tea. The first tea of the day takes us about an hour. I used to be very disciplined about this, taking a full hour to steep before I do anything else (even if that meant waking up before sunrise when I worked early), but since Ingrid and I are together, I've become a little more flexible about it. Also, two people empty a kettle much faster than one... Then there's a laid back tea after breakfast (which we sometimes drink together, sometimes not), and the rest goes according to the day's tasks: tasting sessions, selections, descriptions, writing tea-featured posts and so on.

What is your favorite tea or other item in your shop right now?

We just launched our second ceramic exhibition: Variations - by french artist Manon Clouzeau. Honestly, her work is incredible. Her cups, gaiwans and verseuses are out of this world. I believe many who will have the chance to use them will never go back to industrial teaware after. As for tea, since we talked about our tea rituals, I would feature RITUAL, a clear and delicate sencha made from Yabukita cultivar and grown in unprunned tea gardens in Kawane. Although senchas are entering their "end of season" period, RITUAL's taste profile is do deep and soothing that it finds its way on our tea table most mornings.

Do you have any holiday specials you’d like to share?

We offer free sustainable gift wrapping during the holiday season! All made by hand with love!

Gift Guide Series: Serene Tea

November 24, 2020 by Nazanin Yousefnejad in Life

In this next installment of the gift guide series, I present Serene Tea! In my search for trying new tea brands I found Serene Tea on instagram. I was delighted to see that they have a whole collection of dancongs which are one of my favorite types of tea!

They also have other teas, teaware and started educational tea videos on youtube! I also had the pleasure of speaking with Rainy and Samah at the IVTF as well which was lovely. I think one of my favorites from their teas that I tried was the cinnamon aroma!

Check out Serene Tea’s Shop!

Gift Guide Series: Teakan

November 15, 2020 by Nazanin Yousefnejad in Life

Today’s feature is Teakan! A two woman shop in Canada bringing you tea exploration kits. I have connected with Claudia, one of the owners over instagram and was so excited when Teakan was finally able to ship to the United States. I purchased their most recent tea exploration kit and it was so lovely! My favorite tea so far was the osmanthus Tie Guan Yin!

Check our Teakan’s Shop!

Colorful Gifts Illustration Holiday Square Pillow (5).png

Learn a little bit about Claudia and Jan below!

Can you tell us a little bit about you and your passion for tea?

Hello, my name is Claudia and together with Janice we are the founder of Teakan Tea Company. For us our professional career has no direct relationship with tea before Teakan. In a way I guess we are lucky to be born in tea drinking families where tea has been around us from the beginning. Our passion for tea slowly developed over the years bit by bit, without much thinking behind it. I guess in a way we were both also lucky to have crossed paths with many knowledgeable tea people who are passionate about tea and were willing to share their experience( and tea) over the years that have cultivated our own passion for it.

Was there a catalyst that pushed you to open your shop?

Simple: so that we can order more tea! All jokes aside, there wasn't really a plan to open up a tea business at the beginning. We started Teakan on IG in June 2019 after a tea session at our favorite tea house Cultivate Tea - we both feel the strong urge to share about the awesome-ness of tea. Not necessarily just the tea but the whole experience. We love how tea connects people in many different ways, how it opens up dialogue and even leads to friendship. We also love the mindfulness that the whole tea brewing process promoted that we simply want to tell more people about it.

Then, Vancouver Tea Festival came along and we saw that as a good opportunity to test our concept: a Tea Exploration Kit. We came up with this concept because we want to make it easy and accessible to "explore" tea. When we talked to many people at many tea gatherings, the number one hurdle about tea is often how overwhelming and / or intimating it is because of the vast selections. Furthermore, many people expressed (including us) the dilemma of wanting to try new tea but not liking the idea of storing bags and bags of tea at home. We also knew that we wanted to focus on single origin teas because we feel it is underrated compared to all the fancy blends in the market. We strongly believe that their stories needed to be told.

Our worst scenario for the launch is to be stuck with a lot of tea for ourselves. Luckily, the tremendous support we've received at the festival was wonderful which led to the launch of our Vol 2 kit.

What is your personal tea ritual like?

It varied depending on the mood and what we were doing. For me, gongfucha is always going to be my number 1 favorite ritual. I love how you can taste the subtle changes in each brew and the whole process just calms me down. Jan is more of a grandpa style drinker which means she is always on the lookout for high quality tea that could withstand the "abuse" from this style of brewing.

What is your favorite tea in the exploration kit?

Is this a trick question? LOL Can I say all of them? For each kit, once we've decided on the theme/season, we would sample as many teas as we could get that we think would work. Then there would be some debates between us because our preferences are not always the same, while taking into account what might be interesting for our customers as well. So the final choices are the ones we absolutely love.

But if we really need to choose, I will choose the Long Jing because I am not usually a huge green tea fan, yet I found myself going back to this time after time. For Jan, it would be the darjeeling because its muscatel feature is just so different from many other black tea.

Gift Guide Series: Little Wild Herbs

November 08, 2020 by Nazanin Yousefnejad in Life

It’s already November and I’m sure you are starting to think about the holidays. In the past month I’ve sought out small shops that I’ve never tried before and I wanted to elevate them and share them with you. As a small business, word of mouth is so important and while my audience isn’t huge, I want to try to share businesses as much as I can.

Another important note about this series. As an Iranian American I’ve faced many struggles growing up in the US. I’ve not spoken about this a lot and on my own I already seek out small shops, women owned shops, BIPOC owned shops for my countdown boxes. I did the same for this series and I hope you’ll discover a new shop!

The first shop I’m sharing with you all is Alecks from Little Wild Herbs. Alecks is a Maryland based business which makes me so happy because I am always looking to support local shops since I am also a Marylander!

Alecks is in her first year of business too! Congrats! I ordered a custom blend and two other blends. The blend I created was good but the soul chai and keep your cool have been so amazing. She has a gift for blending together ingredients. I’ve been enjoying her blends before bedtime almost every night. They have added calm and deliciousness to my bedtime routine! You can also get an intuitive blend which is a custom blend she creates for you!

To learn more about Alecks and place an order check her out HERE

To get the December SolidariTEA Box head over HERE

Can you tell us a little bit about you and your passion for tea?

I have a passion for medicinal herbs and how they impact our body physically and energetically. I find tea to be the most accessible way to use herbs and understand what they do for our bodies. And there’s a special kind of magical about the art of making tea, you know? Everything slows down, and time seems to stop altogether when you take the first sip. It is my intention with this business to help bring people back to what really matters to them, to slow down, and enjoy this sweet, precious life

Was there a catalyst that pushed you to open your shop?

Honestly, quarantine. I realized pretty quickly how important it was to build rituals into my day as a form of self-care. I can’t even remember when I had the idea, “Hey, I’m going to start making custom tea blends based on my intuition.” I just started doing it. you could say that my soul led me here. For the past few years, I’ve been soul searching, wanting to learn what my purpose is, wanting to learn how I can be of service in a way that feels authentically me. And I’ve always had a practice of brewing tea as self-care. I would make blends as holiday gifts for people, or when friends or family came over, I’d brew a pot to share. Keeping a tea practice has been a transformative way to check in with my inner state and bring balance to my body and mind. With so much tension in the air, I felt called to share what I know and create an offering that can guide folks in the direction of transmitting energies, thoughts, and feelings that no longer serve them.

What is your personal tea ritual like?

First thing in the morning before I get to work (and after I walk the dog), I put on a pot of tea and enjoy it in complete silence. This allows my body to wake up naturally and become present. It's also a beautiful way to set an intention for the day, I will often whisper an intention into my tea just before I take the first sip, allowing the intention to infuse into the water and work it's magic throughout the day.

What is your favorite tea or other item in your shop right now?

My favorite tea blend currently is Soul Chai, a beautiful, warming blend of tulsi, oat straw, rose, cardamom, orange peel, and licorice. This tea feels like a warm hug and has the ability to wipe a sour mood right out of existence. The primary ingredient, tulsi, is an adaptogen, meaning it carries the ability to bring the body and mind into balance. Whether you feeling high tension anxiety or are lingering low in depression, Tulsi is a lovely herb that asks you to center your mind into the present moment.

Do you have any holiday specials going on?

Another offering I'm super excited about is my December (and first ever) SolidariTEA box! Truly the gift that keeps giving, this SolidariTEA box contains 12 individually wrapped gifts to be opened every other day until December 24th. In this box, folks will receive 6 tea blends made by me and 6 handmade *secret gifts.* I'm partnering with 3 small businesses to make this offering super special, but the icing on the cake is this: 15% of each sale will be donated to one of my favorite nonprofits, I Believe in Me (a Frederick-based nonprofit striving to provide youth-development and empowerment through mentorship. Over the course of COVID-19, this organization has also been providing free food and resources weekly to the people of Frederick who are most in need).

This is my first year in business and I know how much work it goes into providing a soul-led offering. My goal is to give back to the community in whatever ways I can.

Pictured if the custom blend, I really enjoyed being able to create my own blend to try. Let’s just say It was good but Alecks is much better skilled at blending!