About Page
Short Version
Headline:
- Example: A Timeless Tradition; A Modern Experience
- The Tea Tavern was born from a passion for the positive influences and effects of tea culture. Inspired by the warmth of old-world taverns and the ritualistic beauty of Gong Fu brewing, we source the finest loose-leaf teas from around the world, ensuring each leaf tells a story of craftsmanship and connection.
SEO Friendly Mission Statement:
- We are dedicated to helping helping you achieve a better, healthier life through qualifiably high-quality beverages.
Call to Action:
- Meet Our Teas and Learn About the Brews.
Long Version
The Originating Tea Journey
Many adventurers come through the tavern seeing respite and fine drink, after their adventures. The Tea Tavern aims to support it’s patrons by providing them with the finest brewing supplies, teachings of how to best use them, and a community of people to share it all with. We support bringing people towards a better, healthier life.
In the beginning, the Tea Tavern's keeper found a consistent problem when brewing tea...
The brew was never as good as the tea brewed by others.
Many can say that tea brewing is an art, however it is an art that the tavern keeper never seemed to be able to perform well in. However, year after year, more and more people came to the keeper to talk about tea, to share tea, and to talk about the different aspects of the art of brewing tea to study. Over time, many tea importers, tea house owners, brewing experts, and scientists shared their teas and techniques. "The Art of Tea" was found to be the wrong direction; rather, "The Science of Tea" was something the keeper could get behind.
The journey of the Tea Tavern's creation started with WillyDoesLife, a friend who taught gongfu tea brewing.
WillyDoesLife introduced David Lee Hoffman, one of the first - if not the first - people to sell tea from China.
David showed what a difference high quality leaf made, as well as a gifted all the tooling needed for gongfu brewing.
Through familial introductions, the tavern keeper later met the TeaHouseGhost; a specter with not only enough charisma to compete with Casper, and enough knowledge of traditions and brewing to give the impression that his spirit is also that of his ancestors. He was able to teach everything that the Tea Tavern's keeper was missing in brewing tea, what made tea a science, and what made tea an art. The trouble with the keeper's brews was not an inability to move the brush, however. Rather, there was something wrong in the pigments for painting... which is to say... when brewing tea, there was something in the water.
The TeaHouseGhost then suggested that the Tea Tavern's keeper speak with the Water Wizards of Tea Curious.
And true wizards they were; Tea Curious' Rei was able to explain that how tea water and its dissolved components can strongly affect the flavor of the brew. Not only did they provide the answer to what was preventing the keeper's tea from tasting as good as all those who shared their own teas, but they even provided the scrolls on which they recorded the measurements, components, and the reasoning for them with the grand "Internet" archives of the world!
The answer to "why can't I make good tea..?" was in the composition of the water. Not just the leaves.
With the journey at an end, the Tea Tavern was made, aiming to bring the same wisdom found from the brews made with the science and the art. No matter the situation of the tavern patrons, the Tea Tavern will be open. Perhaps one is like Mr. Frodo, who seeks to recover from encounters with dark forces; like Tripitaka, seeking the wisdom of the world; or simply like Princess Merida, in an attempt to escape the stress, hustle, and bustle of the castle, the Tea Tavern will lend the wisdom needed to reach their goals for the finest composed teas.
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With this all said, the above story is indeed a romanticized story, but it is a true story. Everyone referenced (except the story book characters, of course) were a direct influence to not only the support in the creation and development of Tea Tavern as a business, but also to the tavern's products.
The Tavern's Tea Vendors
The Phoenix Collection
David Lee Hoffman is the owner of The Phoenix Collection, where we wholesale teas such the 1995 "Green Pu'erh" and Aini Bamboo Shu (2014). He was one of, if not the, first Americans to go to and source tea from China. In the documentary All in this Tea, people can see the attention to quality through his telling of how tea smelled, how tea tasted, and what was used to grow the tea (ex. organic fertilization). He even cared about the lives of the farmers and their ability to sell tea without requiring a factory as the middle-man. Something that may have helped the growth of two other vendors: West China Tea and Grass People Tree.
West China Tea
West China Tea's owner is the the TeaHouseGhost (So-Han Fan). Having gone to China themselves, West China Tea sources teas directly from farmers who care about organic, healthful farming of tea. They provide some of the most in-depth and informational educational content as a course and for free. They built a vibrant community of tea drinkers at their establishment in Austin, Texas, converting people who may have previously avoided tea into people who seek out quality tea.
They supply the Tea Tavern with teas such as Moonlight White tea bings, Ancient Black Rain tea coins, and Black Phoenix.
Grass People Tree
Grass People Tree (GPT) is one of Tea Tavern's and West China Tea's direct-from-farm vendors.
The Tea Tavern's keeper occasionally speaks with Rui, the owner of Grass People Tree and found a genuine passion in her for tea as an art, as a medicine, and it's traditions. Based on her educational content and blog postings, the Tea Tavern finds that the ecosystem they grow tea from, the people they work with to craft their products, and the process in which they use to make their teas are perhaps honored more than the tea that they sell, itself.
The teas that they sell are all from wild and ancient trees. The leaves are processed in a much more careful and special manner, as to prevent qualities that would make them bitter. As a result, people can be sure that the plants they use are healthy, that all the health benefiting substances in tea are at their strongest, and that there won't be any additional substances that can result in harming a person's health. This results in a tea that is unlike any other that the Tea Tavern finds in that the brews almost never becomes bitter...
Even when accidentally leaving Master's Green brewing in boiling water for a minute or two. (^^;)7
This proves that GPT tea is also difficult to brew in a way that would makes the tea's brew unpleasant to most people.
Further, Rui takes care of her employees by helping the "sisters" who pick and pack tea. This is done though obtain funding to help the sisters progress their personal goals, such as learn English. Rui communicates directly with many of the wholesale vendors, visits many of their tea houses as she travels, and is one of the most welcoming and helpful people in the world's tea community.
As a result, GPT is the partner supplying us with the teas found in the Wild Tea Sampler. (^-^)
Tea Curious
Tea Curious sources teas from primarily Taiwan and Napal, however they also have teas from other places like China. The organization was founded by Steven and Rie who went to various parts of the world to learn how to find and make quality tea. They have a passion for high quality tea, community, and a scientific degree of attention to brewing.
Tea Curious teas have the most details recorded about their teas compared to all of the Tea Tavern's other vendors, including what degree of organic that the farm grew the tea in (wild, low intervention, organic certified, working on certification, etc..). The attention to detail also stretches into their water, as they are the organization that the Tea Tavern wholesales tea water minerals from, and thus are the ones who made the recipe that the tavern uses for tea water..
Thanks to the teachings of these water wizards, the Tea Tavern was able to move from "ok" tea to "the finest of teas".
Mei Leaf Tea
Mei Leaf Tea, as a brand, has made itself stand out as the vendor of "pinnacle" tea, as it pertains to flavor. Numerous daily gongfu, Chinese tea drinkers strongly recommended that the Tea Tavern work with them as a wholesale vendor, and the reasoning makes sense. One only needs to browse the Mei Leaf tea YouTube videos to see how they are passionate and effective at teaching people about tea and finding only the finest tasting versions of those teas (to the owner's taste, of course). They have scouts go out to Chinese tea farms, funnel thousands of teas down to a select few hundred that they ship samples of to the Mei Leaf, which then go through taste testing with the owner to decide on a select few teas that they decide are the "pinnacle" of the particular type of tea.
Mei Leaf Tea is actually a prime example of why the Tea Tavern likes to work with wholesalers. Yes, the price is higher for working with them, but our vendors go through significant efforts that are more immediately capable of supporting the goals of the Tea Tavern.
Non-Tea Herb Focused Vendors
Tea (camellia sinensis) is in an interesting situation in America. Very nice herbs are grown right here in America, the herbs have their own wide variety of flavors, uses (including medicinal), and have even ended up merging in terminology with tea. As a result, of the difference in cost, the demand of the local market, and a desire to avoid caffeine made the Tea Tavern decide to work with herbalists to obtain the finest "herbal teas" or tisanes.
Tea Tavern's vendors are all either small farms who run truly organic or restorative farming practices or are herbalists who know and work with these types of farmers. They all make their own blends of herbs, the blends are sometimes more popular than the tea served, and they give people who want to avoid caffeine a way to participate at the table..
Moss Cap Tea
Mosscap Tea is run by herbalists passionate about farming to the most naturally beneficial extent possible. They have helped the Tea Tavern in researching the organic certification, its pitfalls, and how to farm to a level of "organic" that the certification does not assure. Due to their depth of knowledge and skill in making tasteful herbal mixtures, the Tea Tavern works with them to wholesale blends of herbs that are mostly grown from small farms local to Texas.
Teas from "Mosscap" is in the name of all the products that the Tea Tavern wholesales from them, such as The Mosscap Hearth and Rain of a Mosscap.
Sacred Blossom Farm
Sacred Blossom Farm is a Wisconsin herb farm that advertises restorative and low-intervention (or "low-input") farming practices to grow herbs, as well as a degree of foraging for some wild grown herbs. Their focus is on selling the finest tasting herbs with the healthiest plants they can produce, to provide the healthiest and most medicinally effective herbal blends that they can.
An example of the herbal blend that the Tea Tavern wholesales from them is Sacred Blossom Immunity.
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