We soon converted our living room into a tea room and I started to experiment with making music. From tea session to tea session the realisation grew that this is exactly what we wanted to do: tea & music. Returning to an "ordinary" life had already become unthinkable at this point. We eventually decided to give up the known, left Berlin and moved to Taiwan, walking our own path.
From vision to execution: The first one and a half years were challenging for both of us but particularly for me. Shao was returning to the environment she grew up in, though for me the move meant an even bigger transition. Humidity, heat, noise, mosquitos, the housing situation were all wearing me down when my battery had already been depleted so much. What became our small refuge was a little motorbike we purchased. In less than a year we put 10.000 km on the clock, always on the watch for a place that felt "right". Throughout those trips we came across countless tea farms, sat down with their owners, drank tea, listened, learned from them. In retrospect this is probably how we built our (tea) map of Taiwan. And then there it was: On our last day along the east coast we found the place that felt "right". We signed a lease the next morning and moved to Taitung shortly after. From this point on our day-to-day life has been centred around drinking tea as part of our meditation practice (坐禪). We knew what we wanted to dedicate our energy to, however our vision still had to ripen over the question how to bring tea, writing, music, photography and film together. Fast forward to January 2023: We had been back in Germany to visit family for a couple of weeks. It was during one of our hangouts with Jens & Katrin when everything clicked. The missing part was for Shao & me to open up and let someone in who is genuinely interested in the matter plus can actually contribute to make things happen. Our close friends instantly caught fire, we teamed up and brought satotea to life a few weeks later.
So what exactly is satotea? The answer is: not this and not that (不二). satotea is a great source for wild & naturally farmed tea - but it wasn't conceived by a business model, nor is it intended to be your typical online shop. It offers blog-style publications - but can rather be seen as a wild garden full of written articles, poetry, film, photography, music and spoken words. What we would like satotea to naturally grow into is an expression of our true unmasked selves.
Lastly, why wild & naturally farmed tea? There are four pillars to this: nature, health, flavour and something that can't be rationalised. The first three aspects are easy to grasp. Huge tea farms look impressive but harm the environment. Monoculture, zero wildlife, depleted soil, in consequence heavy use of fertilizer and pesticides throw nature and eventually us out of balance. The effects of drinking conventional / organic tea on body and mind can be quite unpleasant. We are both sensitive people and encounter allergic skin reactions, nervousness and an overall edginess. Wild & naturally farmed tea on the other hand typically delivers a very clean, bright, uplifting and smooth experience that integrates very well with meditation practices. Touching on flavour I don't mean to sound snobby, but there is no competition (for us). Conventional tea can taste good but is usually very much "in your face", lacking fine layering and depth, whereas wild & naturally farmed tea takes you on a much longer lasting journey with lots of twists, turns and surprises. Eventually, all tangible aspects aside, it really comes down to how you want to live life. We just enjoy the mindset and energy of people deliberately going against the grain with pursuing their visions. To us this feels home.
