Our Recent Tea Tour

A few months ago we were approached by the International Studies Program at Harding University to see if we would be interested in discussing our knowledge of the tea world with their summer program, Tea in Postcolonial Literature.  

Harding's program takes a select number of students on a global trip to "introduce them to postcolonial literature and theory while using tea as a focal point through which to understand literature, history and culture."  They also emphasized "the power of tea to bring people together in a spiritual community."

Our visit took place a few days ago and was their first stop on an impressive global tea tour.  After leaving Searcy, Arkansas and touring Boston (steeped in tea history with the patriotic Boston Tea Party), they visited historic Concord and spent a few hours at our offices in Acton.  After leaving us, they were off to visit Darjeeling, India, London and Morocco.  What an amazing adventure for these students.  We all wanted to accompany them around the world with tea as their guide!

We were honored to have been asked to speak about our tea firms background , our knowledge of specialty teas and our daily operations here at our Acton warehouse and offices. Starting with a viewing of 12 varying types and styles of teas, we had great discussions about all our tea selections, how we have navigated the global commerce of tea for over 107 years and how tea really and truly transcends cultures across the globe.  It was noted that they were essentially travelling their "tea tour" backwards.  We showed them the packaged tin of tea about to be mailed to one of our mail-order customers and remarked that they now had the great opportunity to travel to the source in Darjeeling where it was first planted, nurtured and picked from the ground.