Tea Time for Togetherness
A personal note on what we’re up to these days, how the business is taking action and new partner organizations.
Hello guys, gals and nonbinary pals,
LOVE AND KINDNESS IS THE ONLY SOLUTION
It's impossible to ignore what's going on with the public health (and economic) crisis and deep social injustice these days. It makes me ask myself ‘what can I do to help?’ How can I show up for my family and neighbors to make the world safe, fun and inclusive?
I choose to be kind to those around me, and harness the power of voting with my dollar in support of fair-trade, benefit corporations and small business. I garden and volunteer to help charity groups, I smile more and hold the door open for strangers. As a business, we do the same plus support habits that break down the barriers of misunderstanding and fear that wedge society apart.
TEA, BOOZE, and TOGETHERNESS
Teatime is as old as time. Why does booze get all the credit for helping people open up and make friends? Everyday we hydrate. It's a chance to infuse our water with healing herbs, and to infuse our time with meaningful connections. What if we all used this opportunity to meet up with people we don’t know, or don’t understand, and hear their story. Like someone of another political affiliation, from another place, of cultural heritage we don’t share, or simply a neighbor or coworker we haven’t connected with.
I suggest we make a routine (once a day to once a month) to invite someone “new” to share a drink and a story. May it lead to more understanding, friendships and good solutions in the world.
If you’d like to join me on this #goodnessteatime campaign, please do! And email me your story of how it worked out. For you on social media, tag it, or us @goodnessteatime and let's make a movement out of sharing a friendly beverage and increasing the love out there. I’ll even send your free tea to help pay it forward! For every story you share, I’ll send you two cups of one of our teas so your next meetups on me (Note: you’ll have to tell me where to send it to for this to work out!).
TEATIME SUPPLIES
A lot of wilderness areas, great shops, farmers markets and internet portals make getting great tea easy. I bet there are local tea possibilities at your farmers market, and likely options growing wild in your neighborhood! Try our selection of teas at goodnesstea.com, check out our etsy store or one of the retailers we partner with at GoodnessTea.com/find. A big thanks to the Orcas Island Food Coop, Port Townsend Coop, Kitsap Community Coop, Kitsap Fresh, Fresh Food Revolution Co-op and Hitchcock Deli for helping our tea get into more hands this season. On the Olympic Peninsula, Country Aire Natural Foods, Sunny Farms, B&B Lavender, Prima Materia, Sunset’s West Coop and the Chimacum Corner Store have been long time friends and promoters of our tea since the early days.
FARMS to SUPPORT
This season, we are taking the imitative to give $1 from every Mountain Ma’am Chai homebrew kit to farms owned by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), or organizations that do. To highlight one group doing amazing work, check out SoulFireFarm.org. Why our chai? Chai is a traditional India spicy tea blend that has become loved the world over. It illuminates the value of diversity: each element, cardamon, pepper, ginger, tea and so on is nice by itself, but together create a new drink that is a treasure to partake in. Every element lifts up the value of the other, its beauty doesn’t diminish the importance of the other parts at play, but rather shows how necessary and wonderful the flavors are -especially when they come together- with hot water and intention. Our Mountain Ma’am Chai springs from a solid classic tone, adding wildharvested northwest nutrient dense favorites like rosehips and nettle, but locally farmed rock-stars like lavender in our newest addition to the lineup: Mtn Ma’am Black Lavender Chai. We are thrilled to support small farmers with how we source our teas, and now in how we distribute the profits. Thanks for helping us rebuild a food system resonating with love!
WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER
I once heard “No one is free while others are oppressed”. Do you know who said that? As a child I struggled over this statement, like why does someone else’s pain have to get me down? Now I understand we are all connected. Just like in a garden. Beauty is created by the whole, and the health of everything in the system is dependent on everything in it being supported. If I allow one plant to suffer from the wrong amount of water, sun, or malnutrition it invites disease, predators and malease to spread to other plants. Moreso, acts of violence and oppression speak loudly of the turmoil within the perpetrator. There is no freedom for those who oppress.
May we all have increased boldness to examine the bias we may have towards people of different backgrounds, the old, the young, the rich, the poor, foreigners and our neighbors, even ourselves. May we speak up for kindness and understanding and walk in compassion as a light to the world.
Best,
OUR MISSION
Goodness Tea champions teatime as the perfect venue for breathing life into a healthy NOW, crafting refreshments to get the work done. Organic practices, local food systems, realizing beneficial collaborations: Earth-Care, People-Care and Fair-Share from start to finish. Find us at farmer's markets, in shops, online and at our HQ & farm in Sequim, Washington. Lift up the love Folks! ! !
Formula:
We get what we put in
