Amidst a global pandemic, many of us are tempted to feel disconnected. The changes we are experiencing can be disorienting, pulling us in unfamiliar directions and creating distance from our loved ones, our routines, our places, our normal. Fortunately, tea is a way we can stay connected with our world safely and deliciously.

Tea enables us to sip across continents and eras. This healing beverage has been connecting people, places, and cultures for many centuries. We are fortunate to reclaim these connections for ourselves during this trying time. The simple, yet profound, act of crafting a cup of tea can infuse the rest of your day with hope and health.

The wealth of connections you make with every cup of tea are manifold. Let’s explore a few of them here.

Connect with Nature

Whether you are savoring a true leaf tea or a tisane, your senses are delighted by the region from which your beverage was harvested. The unique particulars of any tea garden – namely the nutrients in the soil, the climate, and the elevation – contribute to the flavor and aroma of the tea you enjoy in your home.

Natural conditions inform the structure of the plant which then informs its processing and eventually culminates in your overall experience. 

You enter into the life cycle of each loose leaf batch and connect with our earth on an intimate level with every cup.

Taste the slow winter growth of a matured black tea; smell the earthly notes of spice blends; see the rich colors of uniquely oxidized leaves. 

The undeniable effects of nature upon each cup is one reason we provide detailed regional and harvesting information on our Premium Tea selections.

Sustainable production is of paramount importance in the global fight against climate change. Better conditions mean better tea, poor conditions mean poor crops and yield.  One way you can participate in healing the earth and healing ourselves is drinking a cup of organic single-batch tea. Investing more attention to the land and the hand of those harvesting contributes to the healing of both.  

Tea's ability to connect us to the earth helps us make strides towards more ethical, compassionate treatment of our environment for future generations.

Connect with Others

We connect with others through tea in several ways. One form of connection is with those who grow and tend the tea plants you consume. Most premium tea continues to be hand-plucked from the bush and delicately processed before being packaged and shipped to you.

Gratitude for the workers whose hand crafted your tea is one way of establishing connection. Ethical community responsibility promotes proper respect for and honor of those who make our tea experiences possible.

Another way to connect with others over tea is sharing a pot. Although the current pandemic has limited such meetings, you can still enjoy a shared journey of tea by purchasing the same blends and discussing the beverage with your family and friends. Tea makes us feel nearer when apart. Certain aromas and tastes bring up memories of times past and enrich the present. 

Connect with Culture

Speaking of connecting with others throughout time, tea can embody culture in accessible and meaningful ways.

Culture is a mixture of rich ancient heritage with recent innovation, reflecting a tensegrity network of give and take. Globalization has opened dialogue between various, differing cultures with profound impact on the global community. Now is a better time than any to learn about new cultures and you can begin by exploring tea. Intercultural dialogue has enhanced the world of tea by inspiring tasty variations of classic tea offerings.

It is possible to travel through your senses without leaving home.

The art of tea blending has the unique ability to reflect cultural norms and deviations. Tea has been an integral aspect of various cultures for many generations, finding its own special expressions in each age. India, in particular, has an abundant tea tradition that Ahista communicates to the world in fresh ways. Our blends interpret flavors and enhance notes to pay homage to their home countries. Historical practices meet modern opportunities in a cup of tea.

Tea is an embodiment of culture with which everyone can connect. A simple cup of tea offers you immediate entry into another world like a portal across the sea or across the continent. 

Connect with Your Cup

Teaware is another portal of connection. Humanity makes meaning through aesthetics and teaware is no exception. Both functional and beautiful, ceramic teaware is often used to demarcate a special (perhaps even sacred) space to craft our chosen tea journey for the senses. Pausing to appreciate the tools of the tea world is one way you connect with the grander experience of tea.

Muriel Barbery puts it beautifully: “When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?”

Tea infuses the daily with the sacred. Your tea cup is an active participant in that process.

The teacup itself assumes the role of a microcosm. Its small contents hold the wonders of nature, culture, and community all at once, offering them to you openly through a sip of repose and flavor. When your lips touch the lips of the teacup, you kiss a myriad of marvels culminating in the tea liquor dancing over your palette.

Intentional connection with your cup reinforces every magnificent encounter with tea.  

Connect with the Moment

Lastly, tea allows us to connect with the moment. Tea and meditation have been linked for centuries with good reason. The way tea engages all five senses paired with the zen process of crafting each cup with the proper leaves, temperature, and time make tea a window into the present, if we are attentive.

As quarantine distorts our understanding of time, take the comfort and tranquility of a cup of tea to meditate on your relation to the present moment and the riches therein. We have so much to be grateful for and so many directions to share that gratitude.

Connect with the moment. Slow down and appreciate the delicate and nuanced flavors of each blend that reaches your lips. Actively enjoy a beverage that simultaneously takes you on a journey to foreign lands, introduces you to the past, and anchors you in the now. Meditate on the interconnected magic of each sip; surely you will reap the rewards of health and happiness.

Connect with Us

Ahista Tea relishes in slowing down and practicing intentional, joyful pause over luxury handcrafted blends. Our teas combine rich cultural legacies with the innovative present for unique depth of meaning and flavor. Paired with our commitment to ethical and sustainable practices that honor the people and the places behind the tea we share, we are in the mission of cultivating connections. You are always welcome. Connect with us.