becoming TREEMAN Tea Tour Digest
E Nan
Hello dear friend,
We've postponed writing you this letter for many, many weeks. We sent out the first newsletter months ago. Then came the trip to Germany and our tea-tour / road trip to Czech Republic, the Baltics and to Scandinavia. This served as a great justification to postpone and postpone and postpone.
The truth is none of that matters.
If I had really committed to sending out this newsletter every single month, then I would have done so. One can seek to blame the outside world, but that doesn’t change the facts. This is something I have been reflecting on.
So, I think the “becoming TREEMAN” tea-tour was the biggest block, the single biggest element during the last couple months. It came into existence in a very spontaneous way. We were not even sure if we wanted to do this in the first place but it ended up being a huge inspiration, a huge challenge and a huge learning curve for us. It ended up being so many things.
Let me give you a little rundown: We did close to 6.000 kilometers in 11 days. We started in the very west of Germany, went to Prague to meet Agha who helped us organize to get some people together. Very, very lovely experience. The next day we drove all the way through Poland. Unfortunately we couldn't find anyone who wanted to work with us. I guess it was too spontaneous. Despite the 10 hour drive, it was still lovely to see the landscapes change, stop by at different supermarkets and have small interactions with the friendly people there.
Then came Lithuania. Another beautiful experience at Yugen Tea run by Giedre. Again, a lot of helpers showed up, many friendly people, much hospitality, really. Same in Latvia and then Estonia. I don't even want to single out just one event or one crowd. That would miss the point. One was not better than the other. They were all very, very different and all very unique. Just all really lovely.
Past our last event in Tallinn, Estonia, we were looking for a place to sleep after we dropped off Janus from Chado. We intended to head south to go back to Germany the next morning, when this idea struck us: Why not drive back through Scandinavia once we’ve already made it so far? It was around midnight when we booked the ferry to Helsinki. The next morning we hit the ferry and drove directly all the way up. A bit sad though, because we were hoping to hold meet-ups in Helsinki as well, but we didn't feel the same fire, this burning curiosity that we felt in east Europe and the Baltics. But maybe the fault was on our end with being too spontaneous and unorganized. Or maybe we weren’t the right fit with the content we create.
The northern part of Scandinavia is where we felt most comfortable. There’s just so much solitude, space and less people. The cold air is clean and crisp which puts you into a very different space and lets you perceive the world and yourself in it from a very different angle. It is meditative by itself to just be there. Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet up with Assi, a kind woman from Finland who spends much of her time outdoors with tea. Sadly our schedules didn’t match up.
Years ago we discovered a remote corner not far from Oulu. We more or less coincidentally passed by again and what can I say… it's still as breathtaking! When we arrived people were still fishing in the midnight sun and two guys, Tommy and Nico, were even swimming in the sea. It was when the sun was slowly sinking into the water when a long conversation with them started to unfold. We ended up hanging out for hours, shared sandwiches and introduced them to our wild farmed tea. Especially given that we are talking about Finland, where people are a bit more reserved, that night made for a very lovely experience.
We continued to drive through Sweden where we had many more beautiful stops at lakes, in forests, took showers in rivers and brewed tea in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded just by a lot of mosquitoes and some reindeer.
It was such an intense and rich journey, intended to show what's possible. You just need to show up and tell your story. That's how we made some of you curious; how we made you question us and more importantly question yourself, your own life, your own doing. That’s really what it was all about. We received so much support, even now, many weeks later… We made friends. You seem to care about us which we are grateful for that. And we care about you! We're curious about how your live continues. I'm sure on the long run things will develop even further in terms of cooperations and contributing to the community with introducing more clean, wild farmed tea alternatives. Offering and bringing in options into the existing tea world, which we seek to disrupt.
Because we do not agree with the way things are. You have a few big players – and I have to be careful not to drift off into ideological territory – who have been around for a long time. They were early adopters in the digital age which was smart, gave them a good head-start and yielded in a huge following that naturally pulls in more people to this day. I think this is great and very respectable. However, it does not mean that their tea is extraordinary by default. All it really means is that they have market power, can buy cheap and sell at dumping prices. The market leaders trade tea as a commodity. I cannot spot a genuine and soulful contribution to a healthy development of the tea industry. Conventionally farmed tea makes up the bulk of their portfolios which causes significant land exploitation. They propel ethics that we criticize when we look at Amazon and other similarly structured services. But when it comes to tea, we don’t observe the same reflected behavior on the consumer side. People seem to assume that the tea industry is somewhat innocent by nature which couldn't be farther from the truth. We vote with our money and therefore shape the world be live in.
So we're here to show that alternatives do exist. We will never be able to compete over price. But we can take you on a journey. A journey that leads to change within you:
Belonging.
That's really what we hope to convey when we show up for you, when we have a chat and when you taste our wild farmed teas.
Please see our words as an invitation to challenge us and give us feedback. Your input helps us tremendously to improve, so we can then serve you better. Without you we are nothing but two people in an echo chamber.
Let’s talk!
Shao & Enan
We've postponed writing you this letter for many, many weeks. We sent out the first newsletter months ago. Then came the trip to Germany and our tea-tour / road trip to Czech Republic, the Baltics and to Scandinavia. This served as a great justification to postpone and postpone and postpone.
The truth is none of that matters.
If I had really committed to sending out this newsletter every single month, then I would have done so. One can seek to blame the outside world, but that doesn’t change the facts. This is something I have been reflecting on.
So, I think the “becoming TREEMAN” tea-tour was the biggest block, the single biggest element during the last couple months. It came into existence in a very spontaneous way. We were not even sure if we wanted to do this in the first place but it ended up being a huge inspiration, a huge challenge and a huge learning curve for us. It ended up being so many things.
Then came Lithuania. Another beautiful experience at Yugen Tea run by Giedre. Again, a lot of helpers showed up, many friendly people, much hospitality, really. Same in Latvia and then Estonia. I don't even want to single out just one event or one crowd. That would miss the point. One was not better than the other. They were all very, very different and all very unique. Just all really lovely.
Past our last event in Tallinn, Estonia, we were looking for a place to sleep after we dropped off Janus from Chado. We intended to head south to go back to Germany the next morning, when this idea struck us: Why not drive back through Scandinavia once we’ve already made it so far? It was around midnight when we booked the ferry to Helsinki. The next morning we hit the ferry and drove directly all the way up. A bit sad though, because we were hoping to hold meet-ups in Helsinki as well, but we didn't feel the same fire, this burning curiosity that we felt in east Europe and the Baltics. But maybe the fault was on our end with being too spontaneous and unorganized. Or maybe we weren’t the right fit with the content we create.
The northern part of Scandinavia is where we felt most comfortable. There’s just so much solitude, space and less people. The cold air is clean and crisp which puts you into a very different space and lets you perceive the world and yourself in it from a very different angle. It is meditative by itself to just be there. Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet up with Assi, a kind woman from Finland who spends much of her time outdoors with tea. Sadly our schedules didn’t match up.
We continued to drive through Sweden where we had many more beautiful stops at lakes, in forests, took showers in rivers and brewed tea in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded just by a lot of mosquitoes and some reindeer.
It was such an intense and rich journey, intended to show what's possible. You just need to show up and tell your story. That's how we made some of you curious; how we made you question us and more importantly question yourself, your own life, your own doing. That’s really what it was all about. We received so much support, even now, many weeks later… We made friends. You seem to care about us which we are grateful for that. And we care about you! We're curious about how your live continues. I'm sure on the long run things will develop even further in terms of cooperations and contributing to the community with introducing more clean, wild farmed tea alternatives. Offering and bringing in options into the existing tea world, which we seek to disrupt.
Because we do not agree with the way things are. You have a few big players – and I have to be careful not to drift off into ideological territory – who have been around for a long time. They were early adopters in the digital age which was smart, gave them a good head-start and yielded in a huge following that naturally pulls in more people to this day. I think this is great and very respectable. However, it does not mean that their tea is extraordinary by default. All it really means is that they have market power, can buy cheap and sell at dumping prices. The market leaders trade tea as a commodity. I cannot spot a genuine and soulful contribution to a healthy development of the tea industry. Conventionally farmed tea makes up the bulk of their portfolios which causes significant land exploitation. They propel ethics that we criticize when we look at Amazon and other similarly structured services. But when it comes to tea, we don’t observe the same reflected behavior on the consumer side. People seem to assume that the tea industry is somewhat innocent by nature which couldn't be farther from the truth. We vote with our money and therefore shape the world be live in.
So we're here to show that alternatives do exist. We will never be able to compete over price. But we can take you on a journey. A journey that leads to change within you:
Belonging.
That's really what we hope to convey when we show up for you, when we have a chat and when you taste our wild farmed teas.
Please see our words as an invitation to challenge us and give us feedback. Your input helps us tremendously to improve, so we can then serve you better. Without you we are nothing but two people in an echo chamber.
Let’s talk!
Shao & Enan
This month’s quote:
“What gives me pleasure in learning something is that I can teach it. Nothing will ever please me, not even what is remarkably beneficial, if I have learned it for myself only.” – Seneca
Music for tea meditation, reflection and inspiration:
Balsams by Chuck Johnson
listen on Bandcamp
Thank you from the bottom of our heart to:
Agha (@fluffies.and.tea)
Yugen Tea run by Giedre (@yugen_tea_vilius)
Lina and Paulius, tea community in Vilnius (@vilniustea)
Katrina (@dragonsleaf)
Raimunds (@prusis.raimunds)
Gundega with TABU TEA HOUSE (@tabu.teahouse)
Janus from @chadoteepood,
Assi from Finland (@tinyadventureswithtea)
Goeff with Amsterdamteas
Helmut with teehaus.cöln