Small Business Spotlight: Us Two Tea

I am finally back with another small business spotlight that I’ve had done for a while but things just got away from me. It can sometimes be difficult when I’m focusing so much on the shop (yay, growth!) to keep up with the blog but I’m trying!

Today’s spotlight is Us Two Tea, who specializes in taiwanese tea! I connected with Us Two Tea back in the fall of 2020 and I wanted to feature them in my holiday guide but had reached my budget for that specific project. I was excited that this time, when I made a purchase that a portion of the proceeds went towards a donation to a family who had been affected by the increase in hate crimes towards Asian Americans!

Us Two Tea has oolong, black, jasmine and baozhong tea in their shop. Most of their teas are loose leaf in a sachet but they also have a gift set that has 50g of both osmanthus oolong and jasmine tea which is what I purchased. I really enjoyed the box and presentation, truly a perfect gift set. The quality of tea is good and while I enjoyed both, I preferred the osmanthus oolong.

Above, you can see the beautiful packaging which would be great to gift to someone! Below, a close up of the teas. The rolled tea is the osmanthus oolong and you can see the osmanthus mixed in. The tea on the right is the jasmine.

I also wanted to give you an opportunity to get to know the founder of this business too so I asked Maggie some questions. Get to know her !

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself! Maybe a couple of fun facts?

I went to an art school in San Francisco to study graphic design. I was previously working as the lead designer at Meural, a digital canvas that allows people to hang thousands of paintings on their walls. My design and rebranding work there was a major factor in the company’s acquisition by Netgear for $22,000,000. After the acquisition, I started Us Two Tea.

Fun facts: I do tarot reading for fun on the side!

2) When did you start drinking tea or when did your passion for tea start?

I’ve been drinking tea my whole life. Tea is a way of life in China, and we consume it every day. It was a ritual for my grandpa and I to drink tea together every weekend after our family dinner. I remember he would always ask me the same question, “How’s school?”, and I would always answer, “Good!”. That was our conversation. But I looked forward to it every weekend because I knew that was his way of saying “I love you”. People say food can transport you back to your childhood. For me, tea is more than a drink, it is also a loving memory.

3) What inspired you to start Us Two Tea?

Tea is at the heart of Asian culture and it has always been a part of my life. Yet the tea brands we know and love are not Asian. I couldn’t help but wonder why. I have lived in the US for 10 years now and I have realized that we cannot just wonder. It is our generation’s responsibility to claim our culture and create a brand that represents us.

I hope this brand encourages our next generation to be more confident about our culture and stay true and authentic to who they are - to be proud of being Asian American. I hope it inspires them to pursue their dreams and gives them the confidence to do what they love. We can dare to defy expectations and stand out, not just fit in.

4) What does your personal tea ritual look like?

I usually drink Baozhong(my favorite) tea in the afternoon especially when I am feeling tired or restless. It really has a magical power to help me unwind. Lately, I’ve been having mood swings and my body has been feeling more tired than ever. I am not sure if it’s due to the seasonal change in New York or the collective energy of what’s happening in the U.S, but I just want to shut down, especially on the weekend, and have some alone time to read, cook, do a face mask, and watch some Netflix.

5) What is your current favorite tea?

Baozhong & Osmanthus Oolong tea

6) What do you see in the future for Us Two Tea?

We are building the "Blue Bottle" of tea brand. A one-stop-shop for all Asian tea in the future!

Intuitive Brewing

Let’s talk about brewing tea. More specifically, intuitive brewing. What do I mean by intuitive brewing?

When I use this term I’m referring to the brewing the tea with experimentation and feeling. This isn’t to say that I never follow brewing instructions but mostly when I brew tea, I keep it pretty relaxed and don’t keep to a strict brewing method.

I wanted to share this post with you all because I get a lot of questions about tea and while I do know the answers most of the time and can talk about brewing, I also recognize that there are tons of bloggers and educators out there who can do a better job than I. One site you should definitely check out to learn lots of things about tea from basics to brewing is Nicole from Tea For Me Please! I really like the mix of tea related content on her blog!

There are so many great bloggers our there but a couple others that I really enjoy reading their posts are":

Marco- Steapd Tea

Jenn- Tea Leaves and Tweed

Let’s go over a few things before I get into some of my processes. The majority of the teas I drink (90%) are oolongs, white tea and ripe and raw pu’er. These are all teas that are perfect for gongfu cha style brewing and higher temperatures. Theses are the types of teas I am referring to when I discuss brewing methods.

Before I do anything, I will inspect the dry leaf of a tea. Is it loose? Compact? Dark? Light? Rolled? Green?

These don’t have too much of an impact on how I brew temperature wise but they give me a hint about how long I’ll need to keep each infusion. I also like to guess the brewed tea color or taste based off the look of the leaf and see if I’m right or not!

Boiling water: I know I’m not the only one who does this but this may be frowned upon by some people. For the teas I mentioned above, I always boil the water. Even if a tea specifically says that it should be lower temp I will try it at a lower temp and also try at boiling for comparison.

I find that the majority of these teas, can take the heat. I personally do like stronger tastes so this might be different for you if you don’t feel the same. I find that boiling water can help me see what the tea is made of and can extract some delightful flavors. So in terms of water, this is generally what I use.

Infusion Times: Here is where I get very experimental. Instead of throwing in the leaves and water and setting a timer, I like to get into the moment with my tea. To start, I may measure the tea or eyeball it. When using a gaiwan (my go-to), if I make sure the bottom is covered well in leaves it’s usually a good amount. If I am in for a strong brew I will fill the gaiwan up more.

I will usually try a very short infusion at first to see what the tea is like. like 10 seconds. If you’re new to gonfucha, this isn’t strange but it may feel strange if you’re new. The amount of tea used in such a small vessel allows for a wonderful flavor in multiple, shorter infusions.

After a couple short infusions, I start adding a little time. Sometimes I will count, sometimes I like to just open up the lid of the gaiwan and look at the leaves and the liquor color. Are the leaves expanded? Does the liquor look the color I want it to be? The nice thing about a tea that you can infuse multiple times is that if you don’t get a brew that you like, you can always adjust and try again!

Other aspects: Other things I make sure to do throughout this process is make sure to check on the leaves. Not only is this beautiful but it lets you know how they are holding up. Don’t forget to smell. Smell the dry leaves, wet leaves, lid and bowl! All of these aspects help you feel “closer” to the tea and to me, improves your tasting experience.

Do you have any questions for me? Other topics you want me to discuss? Comment and let me know!

Gift Guide Series: Cantrip Candles

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

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

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

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!

Read more about the shop below!

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

I am from China and have been in the west (Seattle and Italy) for over 10 years. My tea passion and tea business idea came to me about 4 years ago when I was living in Italy. In 2018 I had a chance to go back to China to receive tea sommelier training (tea tasting and the art of brewing tea), visit tea plantations and sourcing, then I came back to Seattle in 2019 and the business took off in April, 2019.

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

Yes! So as I mentioned before, the idea came to me when I was living in Italy (ironically). There were two main reasons, 1. I felt like coffee is so overrated haha (no offense to coffee lovers), 2. Chinese community and culture are very poorly represented in Italy, and I was looking for a medium to bring a different perspective of Chinese culture for them. However the business unexpectedly took off in Seattle, but Italy is still in the plan for 2021 or 2022.

What is your personal tea ritual like?

This is a great question! I don't really have a tea ritual during busy times or set a routine for tea, but I usually choose teas based on season and based on the time of the day. For example, in autumn, my to go teas are definitely all kinds of aged white tea or black tea, and I will usually drink teas in the afternoon or early evening to calm my energy down after a busy day.

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

Love this question too! My favorite teas from my shop right now are aged white tea Peony 2015, Phoenix Dan Cong Gardenia aroma, and Dan Cong black tea, the chocolatey black tea was my favorite but is currently sold out. My favorite teaware is probably the Four Season Cat Tea Tray since it's inspired by the traditional Chinese agricultural calendar which has 24 seasons instead of 4!

Do you have any holiday specials going on?

Gift Guide Series: Teakan

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!

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

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!

First Try at Tea Eggs!

Pre-COVID I frequented a Chinese tea house in DC pretty often called Ching Ching Cha. I’ve written about it before, you can check it out here!

One of the visits I tried their tea eggs and wow, they were good! They have this potent aroma and flavor that really elevated the eggs. Ever since then I wanted to try it but was afraid I would ruin a bunch of eggs.

Fast forward to last week and I found a recipe that was relatively simple and while I didn’t get ALL the ingredients, I got most of them and made a few tweaks.

Here is the original recipe!

One big change is that I made only 4 eggs instead of the 12 in the recipe. The recipe mentions 12 eggs but because you are essentially boiling the eggs then placing them in the broth, I think the number of eggs can vary without causing any problems.

For my broth, here are the changes I made to the recipe based on availability of what I had.

• 4 eggs soft boiled

• 3 star anise

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 4 slices ginger

• 2 teaspoons sichuan peppercorns

• 2 tbsp Ritual from Aera Tea

• 3 Bay Leaves

• 4 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tsp salt

• A dash of mirin

• A dash of rice vinegar

The method for this is very simple:

• Bring the eggs to room temperature and boil them to your preference of hardness. Put them aside.

• In a medium sized pot, take all your ingredients (minus the eggs) and bring that to a boil. Let it boil for a little bit. The original recipe called for 10 minutes but I left it a little longer until it was very fragrant. Turn it off and let it cool completely.

• Crack the eggs all over to allow the broth to seep in. Place the eggs into the completely cooled broth.

• Make sure the eggs are totally covered by the broth.

• Let them sit in the broth in the fridge for 24 hours at least. You can leave them for longer! I took 2 out after 24 hours and left the other 2 for another day.

While my eggs didn’t come out as marbled as I would have liked, these were delicious!!!!! They are so fragrant and the flavors of the tea and spices seeped into the eggs well! I think these are a really simple and fun treat! If you have a lot of tea, this is a great experiment. I definitely want to try using other teas as well!

A little bit about the Tea Thoughts Journey!

Happy Sunday friends and thanks for joining me as I share a little bit about the Tea Thoughts journey. As my next shop update approaches tomorrow I’ve been doing a lot of reflection myself and wanted to share. Before I start, I want to say that I will be sharing difficulties and triumphs with you. I don’t share the difficulties as a way to garner sympathy, just to share. I feel extremely grateful to be able to have the means and time to run a small business.

The Start

Many of you have been around since the inception of Tea Thoughts. I was hired for a creative type job that turned out to not be that creative, I felt drained and like I didn’t have a place to express myself. I’ve always crafted, hand making gifts and cards. I’ve also almost started an etsy shop maybe 10 times at this point but fear always got the better of me. So Instead I started a blog and since tea was such and important part of my life I wanted to make it about that and learn more because I didn’t know that much.

I started my blog and began “reviewing” teas. This eventually turned into me creating recipes because that was something I enjoyed more. After a couple of months, that creativity bug was still biting and I decided to start an etsy shop. That was back in May of 2016. At the start, there was no direction, I was painting, doing calligraphy, creating items for weddings, custom pieces etc. It was nice to create but It wasn’t working well so I made the decision to connect my shop and blog and create tea themed designs!

The Shop

Tea Thoughts has come a long way as a shop, mostly because I’ve come a long way as a designer and business owner. When I started my shop I also starting teaching myself design. Tea Thoughts has always been bootstrapped by funds from my full time job. Working at a small non profit, this isn’t a ton but I’ve made it work. There were some scary times where this funding method really took it’s toll on me but overtime as the shop has grown, the pressure is less.

The most difficult part of my shop has been keeping it stocked while at the same time trying different products to see what people like best. For a couple of years I was drowning. Funding an idea, having it fail and then being stuck with all of the stock in my tiny apartment. I think many people assume that if you have a certain amount of followers, you are rich or have a sell out shop. Not the case. The reality is that marketing your products is like asking over and over “please buy this.” Something I did a lot of was watching webinar after webinar about how to have a successful social media presence. They always say that follower count doesn’t equal a paycheck and let me tell you: TRUE!

Attachment

Something I’ve really had to overcome is connecting shop sales and social media success to my personal worth. When your shop isn’t doing well, it can be really tough mentally. When I didn’t get likes on a photo, I felt like a failure. There were many times where when my shop wasn’t doing well and I saw myself as worthless because I couldn’t make it succeed. Much of my desire to start a shop was to have creative control and freedom and something I built that I could be proud of and these feelings made it difficult to go on. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost quit Tea Thoughts because I didn’t think it could work. Thankfully I have a wonderful support network who always encourages me to keep going because deep down that’s what I want to do. While most nights look like: staying up late, falling asleep in front of my computer and burnt out, I don’t mind because I love Tea Thoughts. The feedback I get from you all motivates me to keep creating and thinking of new things! I’ve come a long way in my mindset. I spend less time on social media and obsessing over likes. I try to share good content with you all and that’s it. I’ve also learned to not take slow sales personally, just that I need to keep going!

Hope

Now for some good. Tomorrow, I release my second annual Tea & Treats Advent calendar. Want to know how random things are? Last year I was hunting for an advent calendar for myself and since I don’t really like tea bags or blends, It was tough to find one so I decided to make my own! Last minute I ordered tea from a few places and was able to throw together 15 listings of an advent calendar. It was so much fun wrapping everything and I was so excited to be able to combine my love of gifting and tea.

It was a hit! So I did a valentine’s day box and a spring box and a summer box and a halloween box! The halloween box sold out in one day and y’all I can’t tell you how much I cried that day. Tears of joy of course. I cried because I finally felt a little success after all my hard work. It was very emotional and I think about that day all the time to remember to be grateful. Now, selling out in one day sounds great but honestly, four years later and I am still working a full time job because I’ve barely scratched the surface of being able to make Tea Thoughts a full time gig. The reality is that on release day I get sales and between release days, sales ebb and flow. Despite this, I’ve never felt more hopeful. The items I’ve been putting in my shop have been doing well and while the countdown boxes are very labor intensive, I love them. I love curating, wrapping, and most of all - seeing your reactions.

The Future

Thanks to all of your support, I feel like I finally found my dream job. I get to design things that combine my love of tea and other items and also fill a need in the tea themed items category. Thanks to your support, the shop has been self sustaining in 2020 for the most part. Still have a long way to go but I feel hopeful and grateful. While I feel like my hard work and trying different things have helped I couldn’t have done it without you. People who shop from me, are putting their trust in me as they shop from a small business and I try my best to make your order feel special. As I look to 2021, I already have 2 boxes planned and depending on how this holiday season goes, lots of new fun items! Something else I am really excited about is that I am saving to purchase my own pottery wheel so that I can update my shop with pottery more often!

I wanted to write this to give you a little peak into Tea Thoughts. Most of you probably follow me on social media and there, I try to keep my feed put together and calm because I think that’s what we could all use more of. In an effort to keep it real though I wanted to share that it’s not always pretty pours and fun product shots!

I am incredibly grateful that I’ve been able to start this business and keep it going. As COVID hit, I thought that it might be the end for Tea Thoughts but in an amazing turn, this has been my best year yet! This is something that’s hard to celebrate, especially because people have lost so much. I will continue to stay humble and keep creating and bringing you tea goodies.

To all of you who follow on social media, thank you!

To those who like and comment on my posts, thank you!

To those who subscribe to my newsletter, thank you!

To those who order from my shop, thank you!

To those, who share about Tea Thoughts, you have been a huge part of my success and I thank you so much!

Wishing you lots of joy and tea,

Nazanin