Episode#2 Drinking Long Jing with Jens Dennig & Tips on Buying Tea

My Guest for episode 30 is Katherine Boucher one-half of the founders of The Jersey Tea Company, who are growers and producers of handcrafted organic single estate tea in Jersey.

The Jersey Tea Company began in 2016 and is owned and run by two couples, Katherine and Terry Boucher and Michelle and Cardin Pasturel. As well as working on the tea farm they also have other careers as health professionals (Psychologists and Chiropractor) and in the finance industry. The Jersey Tea Company was founded because the couples wanted to be involved in working with the land (in particular thinking about regenerative farming and biodiversity) and doing something different in their “day jobs”.  They started experimenting with tea plants in the garden and progressed to having two fields and a nursery of tea plants. 

Check out the Jersey Tea Company Website here: https://thejerseyteacompany.com/

Follow the Jersey Tea Company over on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thejerseyteacompanylimited/

Thomas Langnickel-Stiegler is a tea educator & consultant with over 10 years of experience working as a product specialist, educator and industry consultant with various projects at the forefront of what is sometimes referred to as the renaissance of loose-leaf tea in the Western world.

Thomas was a founding partner and chief teaist for Paper & Tea based in Berlin, and from there went on to work as a Tea Specialist at Temial.

A copywriter and public relations specialist by original profession, Thomas turned his passion for tea into a fulltime career after training with one of Berlin's most renowned stores for loose-leaf tea. There he learned how to open wooden tea crates and package the tea for sale, how to taste and judge tea samples, and how to handcraft house-blends, flavour tea with natural essential oils and create innovative recipes for delicious herbal infusions and flowery tisanes. 

An avid Gamer and self-professed gaming tea nerd, Thomas now hosts a weekly live strem on Twitch. Get in touch with Thomas via his many social media outlet links listed below, to check out his other tea related projects.

Thomas's Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/TeaGamesAndStarstuff

Book Thomas for a personal tea session here: 
https://thomastalkstea.thinkific.com/

Follow Thomas on Instagram here: 
https://www.instagram.com/thomastalkstea/

Thoma's Youtube Channel: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFYKuukJZautQ8U_ed0BInA

Check out Thomas's Podcast (in German) here: 
https://dingeundtee.podigee.io/

Temial Website: 
https://temial.vorwerk.de/

Annabel Kalmar is the founder of the Tea Rebellion which was started in 2017 to change the way tea is traded and to connect tea drinkers with tea farmers. Annabel developed a passion for improving farmers’ market access and incomes while studying agriculture and working in the fields of El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, harvesting coffee and interviewing farmers.

Annabel believes in transforming things that don’t work. She noted that coffee and chocolate seemed to have gotten all the love from consumers and that drinkers cared deeply about the origin of their coffee. Why then did most tea drinkers know so little, buy the same product and drink low-quality blended teas? Annabel decided it was the perfect time to shake things up in this traditional industry and create a social enterprise to change how tea is traded, marketed, and consumed.

Annabel grew up with artisanal production of olive oil, white wine, and herbal tea.  Annabel spends her time between Toronto, Canada and London, England.

Check out the Tea Rebellion website here: https://tearebellion.com/

Follow Annabelle on Instagram here: 
https://www.instagram.com/tearebellionuk/
https://www.instagram.com/tearebellion/

Tea Rebellion Linktree here: https://linktr.ee/tearebellion

Anna Ye is a tea educator & speaker for private, corporate tea experiences and community tea events based in New York.

Anna comes with years of hospitality and fine dining experience, having previously worked at Chikalicious and Restaurant Daniel. In 2017, her growing passion for tea lead her to join the team at In Pursuit of Tea– a high-end purveyor that sources loose leaf teas from around the world– where Anna came across  the opportunity to curate and lead educational workshops for home drinkers and hospitality industry professionals. 

Anna realized her tea journey became one of self discovery and deep exploration. For her tea is more than simply a beverage on a menu– it is an extension of her Chinese heritage, and more importantly, a plant deeply rooted into our global cultural fabric. Through her work,  Anna hopes to introduce world class teas to a broader audience and draw awareness to the craftsmanship and restorative elements of the tea leaf. 

Check out Anna's website here: https://www.anna-ye.com/

Follow Anna on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/annaye.tea/

Beyond the Cup Interview series info here: https://www.anna-ye.com/beyond-the-cup-events

On today's show, I have Diana Zheng one-half of the founders of Three Gems Tea based in Los Angles. 

Ayumi and Diana started Three Gems Tea to make tea breaks easy and wanted to create something but keep it good, simple, and fun by sourcing delicious loose leaf teas from family farms and designing teaware with a pop to brighten your table.

Their teas are grown in China and Taiwan, on family farms that use holistic growing practices and forgo pesticides. The teaware that they provide is handcrafted by a small studio of artisans in Jingdezhen, the history-steeped ceramics capital of China. 

Whenever the ladies returned to China, they loved the unfussy way that families drank tea together — low-key gatherings that inspired them both to share the magic of a casual tea break with the rest of the world, and with great design too.

At present Three Gems tea is launching a series of botanical herbal teas, a project collaboration with Windrose farm based in California. The new packaging has been designed to be fully eco-friendly and biodegradable.

Check out Three Gems Tea Website: https://threegemstea.com/

Support the Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/threegemstea/botanical-teas/

Follow Three Gems Tea on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/threegemstea/

Check out their fantastic Brewing guide here: https://threegemstea.com/pages/brew-guide

Check out Diana's website: https://dianazheng.com/

Check out Ayumi's beautiful Illustrations on her website: http://www.ayumitakahashi.com/

Jia Cookbook website: https://www.jiacookbook.com/

This weeks show's  guests are Vivian and Lorenzo the founders of Eastern Tea Leaves. The couple fell in love with an ancient tea forest ensconced in the dreaming mountains of southwest Yunnan.

Eastern Leaves owns thirty hectares of wild tea plantation land in the mountains, which flourishes naturally in the undergrowth of centuries-old Yunnan high mountain forest.

Their teas are fully organic, and they interfere as little as possible with the growth of their trees. This is the reason they call themselves wild forest keepers rather than farmers.

Alongside their Project in Yunan, they run a tea room/ tea studio in Milan. It is a place they long dreamed of, made of wood, beautifly designed with unique hand-made ceramics from Yixing and Jingdezhen and Suyuan furniture, a bespoke furniture brand based in Beijing.

Eastern Leaves serve tasting menus with fine and rare teas, brewed in Chinese style gongfucha. 

Check out Eastern Tea leave's website here: https://easternleaves.com/

Follow Eastern Tea Leaves on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/easternleaves.milan/ 

and here: https://www.instagram.com/eastern.leaves/

Suyuan Furniture website: https://www.suyuanfurniture.com/

Today's guest is Sergei Pegushin the founder of Chánnagasse Tea House,  located in Vienna Austria.  His tea house offers a variety of Chinese teas. Based on the traditional Chinese tea ceremony Gong fu Cha (工夫茶, Gōng fu chá). The premise of the teahouse is to offer guests a special tea experience, where they can sit and brew top-grade quality tea, inside the tea house.

I came across Chánnagasse via Instagram and was immediately impressed with their humorous and out-of-the-box stories and posts, totally unique and a pleasure to watch.

Check out Chanagasse's website here: https://www.channagasse.at/

Keep up to date and follow Channagasse on Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/channagasse/

Today's episode is with Alessandra Rovetta a Tearista/ Tea Expert who works at Fortnum and Mason.  Fortnum and Mason is a famous upscale department store in central London well known as an “essential destination for anyone in search of extraordinary food, exceptional service, and joy-giving things”. I'm a big fan of Fortnum and Mason and really enjoyed having afternoon tea there. 

Fortnum & Mason have recently launched a Bespoke Tea Blending Service which allows customers to create their own unique personalized tea blend.  During our discussion, Alessandra talks about the new tea blending service, the new Fortnum & Mason “Time for Tea“ book written by Tom Parker Bowles, and some alternative London tea shop recommendations.

Check out Fortnum & Masons website here (tea section): https://www.fortnumandmason.com/tea/all-teas

Personalized tea blending link:
https://www.fortnumandmason.com/tea-blending-landing

Fortnum & Masons Tea blending service (Instagram video):  
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGmei2vp9hD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Alessandra's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/doolallyldner/

In this one off coffee episode (It'll be back to tea next episode, I promise) 
I have the founders of Mikah Blue Coffee company,  a family owned business lead by Investment Banker and Second generation Coffee Trader, Michael and his wife Shenika,  both Jamaicans who now reside in the United Kingdom (UK) and Jamaica.

The history of Mikah Blue Coffee company dates back thirty (30) years since 1990 when Michael's Uncle and Mentor Donald acquired lands in the Blue Mountains of St. Andrew and Portland and commenced cultivating coffee berries for sale to local Middlemen. The berries were then processed, and sold to Importers, primarily to Japan and the USA.

Coffee beans harvested from their farms consistently receive a cupping score of 85 and over and they primarily sell beans that have been certified by the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA) as Grade 1.

Mikah Blue are certified by JACRA and is also a member of the Jamaica Coffee Grower's Association. 

Mikah Blue website: https://mikahbluelovers.com/

Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikah_blue/

Today's guest is Regina Rivero the founder of OHA tea based in Mexico. Regina spontaneously started her tea business and has been running the business for 6 years, using a mix of local Mexican herbs and teas from around the world.  Regina infuses live events with poetry, arts, and tea tasting sessions.

Follow OHA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oha.mx/

Check out Regina's website here: Website: https://oha.mx/