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Blog

Tea Love Stories

Let’s explore some tea love stories! This post shares how tea has been a conduit for different kinds of meaningful relationships among members of the tea community.

A glass, heart-shaped mug full of tea and love, surrounded by colorful tulips.
Love for tea connects so many of us.

Marriages and friendships have been made and celebrated through a shared love of tea.

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Blog

A Lesson about Beauty from Tea Life

Tea life has taught me a lesson…again! This time, the lesson is about beauty.

In this post, I share how my tea practice helped me realize the source of my reluctance to use a very practical tea accessory that is also beautiful.

A tea accessory that taught me a lesson. Shown: Blue tea travel bag with flowered ribbon and button detail.
The lovely tea travel bag I received for my birthday, with a rolled up chabu on top.
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Blog

Virtual Tea Table

The Virtual Tea Table is a space to gather online with other tea lovers and build pauses into our workweek. Read on for Traci’s dream for the group and how to join.

[The *Winter* Virtual Tea Table has ended. You can still sign up for the *June* gathering.]

If you follow me on social media or subscribe to Tea Infusiast News, you may have noticed that I have been trying to be more intentional about building restorative pauses into my day. Grind culture, unfortunately, makes this effort seem transgressive –particularly on “work days.” The Virtual Tea Table is part of my effort to invite other tea lovers on a journey together to create a better way.

The Virtual Tea Table is for pausing
to steep, sip, and connect.
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Blog

Tea Less Serious

This post shares how my relationship to tea has both deepened and become less serious.

Not too many years ago, I enthusiastically embraced the punch line of the following joke that you may have seen on social media.

“How do I take my tea?”

“Seriously. Very seriously.”

Indeed, a number of my friends even sent me this joke back then. But, I feel very differently now. Although I may be a “serious” tea drinker in one sense, it is no longer the whole story of my tea practice.

Clay ram teapet with white and magenta orchid on its head.
Playing with my tea pet, Rocco, and adorning him with fallen orchid petals–definitely an example of how I tea less serious.
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Blog

How to Enjoy Tea When You Can’t Taste

After losing my sense of taste while having COVID, I’ve pulled together some tips on how to enjoy tea when you can’t taste anything.

I read about people who lost their sense of smell and taste while they had COVID-19. For me, however, it was hard to fully appreciate what that would be like until I also temporarily lost these senses. Tea is an important part of my life. So, I was determined to find a way to continue to enjoy tea when I couldn’t taste or smell it.

Colorful gold and blue teacup and saucer on vibrant red cloth
Colorful teaware and accessories can brighten
tea time and the mood.
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Blog

Gift Ideas for Tea Lovers, Part II

This post shares more gift ideas for tea lovers, focusing on giving tea classes and the opportunity for online tea community. It is part II in a two-part series of gift ideas. (Post revied and updated on 11/24/23.)

So, you are thinking about gift ideas for a friend or family member who is a tea lover. This may seem counterintuitive, but giving tea can be a challenge unless you have a very good idea of what kinds of tea the intended recipient loves and what they already have in their cupboard. For this reason, the first post in this two-part series focused on tea-themed items like stationery, jewelry, and apparel. This second post likewise focuses on non-tea gift ideas for tea lovers. But, instead of tea-themed items, it highlights tea classes and opportunities to be part of an online tea community.

Person in front of a computer at an online event. A mug of tea is nearby.
Online tea classes can be fun and convenient!
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Blog

Tea Infusiast Newsletter Launching in 2023

This post shares why I am launching a Tea Infusiast Newsletter in January of 2023, why you might want to subscribe now, and how to sign up!

Example of part of the heading of the Tea Infusiast Newsletter--at least as envisioned in late November 2022.
The newsletter was under construction at the time of this post! Above is a small snip of one draft.
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Blog Tasting Notes

Three Teas from Teawala

This post shares tasting notes for three delightful teas from Teawala. Read on for my thoughts on their Khiri Gold (black tea from Thailand), Rice Oolong (oolong tea processed with an herb from Thailand), and Ruby Red (black tea from Taiwan).

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Blog

Gift Ideas for Tea Lovers, Part I

Looking for gift ideas for tea lovers and aren’t sure where to start? This post shares some ideas for tea-themed items. It is part one of a two-part series. (Post reviewed and updated on 11/24/23.)

Stationery, stickers, washi tape, zipper pouches –and more– with tea themes from the Tea Thoughts shop.
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Blog Events

January Sip & Listen: Story of a Teacup

If you have bought your ticket, please join us for our rescheduled “Sip & Listen” edition of Story of a Teacup on January 14, 2023! We will join together online, settle in, steep tea together, and listen to four members of the #CommuniTEA share a story about a special piece of their teaware. (This event was rescheduled from November 2022.) I’m thrilled to welcome Taniya from Yoga, Tea, and Poetry as our special guest for this event! Nazanin from Tea Thoughts and Jeff from UNYtea will be joining Taniya and me as featured storytellers.

The proceeds, ALL ticket sales, have been donated to a nonprofit organization in Chicago, Erie Neighborhood House. This organization supports low-income and immigrant families. Among the many things it does, Erie House has also been providing direct assistance in Chicago to hundreds of people who have been bused in from Texas under Governor Abbott’s inhumane policies against immigrants legally seeking asylum at the southern border.

White and gold teacup with blue flowers on a crimson tablecloth. Traci's Sip & Listen story is about this teacup.
This lovely teacup has an even more beautiful story.