Tuesday March 17, 2020 - St. Patty's Green Tea

Video Subtitles:

Hello welcome everybody. We are
doing our first live stream

from the tea room here in Vegas.
I'm gonna try this out for a

bit and see if this could be a successful
way for us to keep

the tea room here in Vegas active
and social. I'm just going to

also go live on Instagram as well
so that way we can be

everywhere.

Let's see hi hi everybody. We are
in the tea room and we're on.

We're live on Facebook as well as
Instagram so really excited

to have you here. I'm hoping at
some point. we'll get some

folks linked up with us and we can
all drink some tea together

and talk together. you know in this
time of difficulty and. The

isolation and you know there's no
better way to come together

as a community, then to drink tea
together and We we're still

having the tea room open here in
Vegas, but only doing very

intimate like one on one tastings
and of course, sanitizing the

whole space in between each session.
so you can see we have our

handy dandy disinfectant wipes here
that we've been using quite

a bit. you know just to ensure them
the cleanliness and safety

of our of our team room here. So
let's see okay so we got some

people on Instagram. Hi guys. if
you guys are drinking tea and

wanna join in, you can just request
to come live with us and

I'll leave you in and we'll we'll
get all connected and of

course. if you're on Facebook, I
can see your comments and you

know if you have any questions or
you know I wanna help guide

where this conversation goes and
where our time together goes

you're welcome. Just put the comments
right in, I can see it

right there on the computer as well
as seeing it alright. So

here we got somebody that wants
to come in on Instagram.

Who is it? Oh it's coming in? Oh
we got Eric Eric you there.

Hey. yeah. Awesome. Oh man. good
to see ya. How's your day

going. How's your Saint Patrick's
Day too. How's your how's

your Saint Patrick's Day? Oh.

Just sitting in yeah, well good
good for you. Thank you for

doing that. you know that's it's
a really important thing. We

gotta be doing right now to support
the decisions that our

community as a whole has made to
isolate this problem and to

get rid of this problem. that we
have you know I guess there's

there's one of two choices We have
in dealing with this is

either isolated in quarantine it
and you know try to. Let our

community build yourself or you
know let it run its course, you

know and we've chosen to to isolate
it. so here we are going

live. I think that this is gonna
be a trend that we're gonna

see a lot more of in social media.
Eric is this your first time

to like go into a live stream on
on Instagram. See there we go

Are you nervous.

Are you nervous? Yeah, always nervous.
Drink more team in.

Yeah, it is it's nerve wracking.
doing a live videos is

actually the first one I've ever
done and you know I've done my

videos before, but it's usually
like a public. Speaking or you

know some event that's already happening
that we're just trying

to engage the community but to actually
you know, do it as

interactive thing of course across
multiple platforms, making a

little tricky too. So I appreciate
Yes patients as I go between

the the two cameras but Gonna be
drinking Green tea to get

today today is Saint Patrick's Day
so wearing my greens. you

know may not be out downtown drinking
Green beer, but at least

I could be sitting in my tea room
drinking Green tea. So I'm

gonna be brewing up a dragon well
as well as a matcha. How

about you? What do you? What do
you bring up?

I know you love three and teas.

Yeah, I love Korean teas too. You
know they make really great

Green teas that the tip there is
very unique. very unique to

what you're typically seeing from
Chinese or Japanese. It's

very uniquely sweet. little more
brassy than what you you you

typically get from Chinese tip off,
but what I find about

Korean. I don't know Eric if you
agree is that it's very high

price. Is that true? yeah but not
only a believer cost. The

labor cost I see.

His career, It's Korea Yeah, so
there's like a higher standard

of living there or a different standard
of living which you

know actually just a few days ago,
I finally got to see the

parasite movie and so that was like
a really interesting movie

that kinda talks about the dynamics
of you know the rich versus

the poor there, but I know that
there is a thriving upper class

that that does appreciate luxury
products and I think that

that's something that supports you
know that that higher value

in the Green teas that are for.
There so so I'm just I'm

warming up on my wares here at my
table. This is my my tea tray

here you've ever come to the tea
room here in Vegas. probably

very familiar with this table in
this space but yeah, I think

I'm gonna start with this dragon.
Well, I'm gonna yeah

everything is warmed up.

Getting a little messy here that's
okay and by myself, so I

want to worry about anybody. Judging
my my my my wet tea table

here so this is this is the dragon
will be drinking. I don't

know if you can see it too well
from the camera up there on

Facebook but here you can see make
sure it doesn't slip out.

Whoops. I took a little bit tipped
out at yeah. so this is

actually not hunger logo This this
is coming from. Province and

the reason why we're working with
farmers and in a different

province than what typically you
find you know longing from.

Typically it's Westlake area on
Joel area is that the price

like you know the Korean tees. The
price is also gone very

high. for you know the authentic
Westlake Dragon Wells and the

the growers that we work with are
are getting a great price for

their teeth there and we're happy
for them but unfortunately.

Priced out of the US market, you
know we just don't value those

things as much as you know the the
the domestic market in China

so but you know coincidentally,
I was at UC Davis for the

Global Team Initiative conference
or the the symposium that

they do once a year. It was the
one in 2017 I believe and 2018,

that was a few years back. It was
the. Topic was on

sustainability and there was a Speaker
there that actually

spoke after I spoke at that conference.
that actually wasn't a

tea person he he was an environmentalist.
He runs in an

environmental nonprofit, actually
the largest environmental

nonprofit in China and he had a
unique story because he was

working with a small community and
guns province. the the

village is called which is. Field
and they work growing tea

growing you know, longing cultivars
there and his NGO was

actually empowering that community
to convert their land to

organic develop like biodiverse
agriculture systems there and

by the end of the project after
several years, they realize

that the the key to supporting that
bio diversity was making

the quality tea. good quality Dragon
well team and so they you

know worked on honing in their process
and making you know good

quality and he was you know trying
to get the word out of this

story and so it was like just a
really good serendipitous

connection for us to make their
because now we get access to

this like very, very organic long
Jean, which is not common.

You know very uncommon to find organic
cuz you know the home.

Joe Area like the traditional area
is very low in elevation and

they have a lot. Books you know
bugs are are very typical there

and so pesticides are highly used
and you know it's interesting

like their perception on pesticides
use and the cleanliness

cleanliness of their tea is very
different than what you and I

may you know think about where you
know they say, Oh well, the

past just come during the summer.
When the weather is hot, We

are not harvesting that tee that
tea is not valuable. so you

know we wait until the following.
Spring After there's been

several rains and all of those chemicals
have been washed away

and it's like well, you know our
perception of that is well.

The The rain is actually integrating
these chemicals more and

more into the soil and so we should
actually be more more

mindful of that. But where is where
is your your your teeth

from Eric? Do you know about it?
Yeah. it is a say Jack, which

means. From late April, okay basically
and this team, if you

wanna see it, yeah, let's see it.
Oh nice. Oh those those are

look like pretty pretty long leaves.
Yeah, they're they're

pretty different from most three
teas. Yeah. Yeah. this guy his

team fields are wild in the bamboo
forest. Wonderful gonna chop

down the bamboo in order to get
to it. So a lot of things like

that. a lot of farmers and a bunch
of farmers had a bad and so

you have very low yields. Yeah doing
it. Yeah, this one is very

interesting. Because you need

Grassy Okay. And but if it is still
there Yup, but it's also

more sweet, especially in the taste.
Nice very good lingering.

so I just can't did my my first
step If you wanna take a look

at it. look so nice. Yes. so very
nice delicate. Oh, it's so

nutty it smells so good.

I think it's gonna be sweet. I haven't
actually trained this

team in a long time. This is the
it's a early early spring.

it's not the you know prior rate
as the the teaming it's not

preaching me. That's you know also
too valuable for the US

market, but it is early harvest
and so you know it it smaller

smaller size leaf. you can see the
size of the leaf. It's

pretty pretty small. Still, really
sweet and nutty, but let's

see do you typically drink Green
tea or is this a special thing

for you since it's Saint Patrick's
Day.

Maybe once a week okay by much Green
tea, this is all I have

left of it. Thanks for thanks for
bringing it out today for

Saint Patrick's Day. Oh, this is
so good. This is a really nice

and refreshing. Yeah. I hope everybody
at home has a little

Green tea that they can they can
pull out. enjoy right now. you

know Green tea is gonna be higher
in in all the good stuff. You

know like makes tea so magical for
us of making us feel good

and feel connected. you know a lot
of that is Associated not

just with the caffeine, but most
importantly with the authentic

and higher quality Green teas like
the ones that we're drinking

now the sweeter ones like not the
tannic bitter ones. the more

sweet and soft they are like a matcha
is another good example

of that the more of the theming
there is in that and Nathaniel

is an amino acid which works with
the caffeine to create that

mental. Focus and body relaxation
so you know it's a good state

to be in, especially with what we're
dealing with right now in

the world. you know just trying
to keep hope together. you know

this is not the end of the world.
It really is it. you know we

we're all gonna come out of it just
fine in a couple of weeks

and we've gotta keep our our head
focused on that. you know,

even though things seem difficult.
you know we still have Green

tea. so you know I highly recommend
that pull out tea drinking.

Often it'll make you feel good,
It will relax you. I mean even

just a few sips and I'm already
my whole like mood has has

changed. I I had to drink a tea
yet you know I I I usually like

to eat food before I drink, especially
Green tea cuz they drink

Green tea on an empty stomach. It
can you know make make you

feel unsettled but in addition to
eating before I like to eat,

I like to exercise. so you know
I have like a whole you know

morning. Process that I do and so
now here I am able to drink

Green tea and it feels really nice.

One thing about Korea cheese, Yes,
yes, Japanese bushes the

Chinese bushes. I say I can drink
on an empty stomach.

Recommend it. Yeah. Why not but
another side from Japanese

bushes. It hurts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Japanese Green tea

essential. you know they can they
can really be strong. You

know I get the same kind of effect
even from like young She you

know like if if I drink it on empty
stomach, the one time

there's only been one time of all
my tea drinking career.

There's only one time that I got
sick and that was actually. A

good very famous poor tee seller
here in the States and I was

staying at his House and he was
so excited to share all his

favorite teas with me like we woke
up in the morning and he was

the first thing he's like let's
set the table. I got this. I

got this. I got this. We gotta try
this. I'm excited about this

and yeah, I was excited too. You
know I love sharing teas with

friends and sharing stories of you
know our adventures and and

the people that we meet along the
way but maybe like 40 - five

minutes into the session Stomach
got so upset and I actually I

actually you know threw up and I
was like wow. This has never

happened to me and you know he was
slightly embarrassed and I

realized that yeah, we shouldn't
have done this. We probably

should have had a little snack before
we jumped right into

this.

Anymore because it hurts my stomach.
Yeah, most of it and I've

had some pretty good chunk and I've
been told it's pretty good.

Yeah and it still hurts me, especially
my chest. Okay

interesting so that that might be
achieve thing. huh. That

might be you know the cheese that
she kind of interacting with

your your body chemistry. Yeah there's
cheese. That's also

something really important to think
about you know it's not

just the caffeine or the tannins
that could be reacting but. It

it can you know be the the the energy
the the. You know that

that magical energy that is really
hard to explain in a

scientific way that kinda interacts
with your your body and I

think eating food does help you
know settle your whole body

before you jump into to drinking
a bunch of tea. So you guys

might have noticed that I've been
pouring my water into my

picture. first before I poured into
the guy want to sleep the

the longing and the reason why I'm
doing that is just to cool

the water. so that's that's an important
thing with Green tea.

you know. Sometimes people might
say they don't like Green tea

a lot. It's because they they just
might have never stepped it

correctly before to bring out the
optimal sweetness in savory

ness of the tea instead you know
if you you steep Green tea

with too hot of water, it can extract
you know a lot of the

caffeine and a lot of the the things
that that does make the

flavor really intense and and bitter
frankly which is why it's

always good to. Be mindful of your
water temperature,

especially with Green teas, You
know other teas. you may have a

lot more flexibility with how you
can brew it, but with Green

tea it's good to be mindful of your
water temperature and it

doesn't have to be an exact degree
like oh, it has to be

a hundred and 70 - five degrees.
No more. you know I was taught

about tea in Japan and you know
what they always told me was

yeah, just put it. You know, put
it in the picture and put your

hand up to it if you can There for
an extended period of time

before it's too hot to take it off.
then you know the team is

gonna be happy with it. there's
there's no absolutes and tea

and that's you know a lot of what
we like to advocate for here

is more just like intuitive understanding
and connection with

your teeth. Hi Marilyn. I saw your
comments there. you drink

some Green tea last night. that's
great good to hear that I

hope you're enjoying time at home.

We all should be yeah.

Yeah.

I almost always use water. okay
so

alright, let's hear your tricks.
Okay. So one trick is to

actually rinse it like new law.
I just flash rinse it and then

Steven for about 10 to 20 seconds
and it's fine. Okay. I

generally work them in Japanese.
No other tricks you can do

with it. so you're just you're just
doing like a Super fast

flush of the tea and but so you
do a rinse first and then you

do a fast steak. that's interesting
cuz you know, I think that

that initial amount of warm water
that you expose the tea too

releases a lot of the aromas. So
do you feel like if you rinse

if you do that rinse, you're gonna
lose those aromas and that

in that rinse.

I will say I'm not great at smelling
teas. Okay. so I can't I

can't you know attest to that, but
it does change the taste of

the tea. I say we I don't know what
it does, but some teams are

changed. one way. some become large
sweets become normality.

Yeah, I don't know how. exactly
but

different

Hey there, it's really good. It's
really good. Yeah. you know.

I'm not. I'm not one to like really
like to talk about you know

tasting notes as I'm drinking the
tea. you know a lot of folks

do like doing that or some like
review the tea as I'm drinking

it. I really just like to to sit
with it and enjoy it, you know

and you know, added on this layer
of a little bit of extra

awkwardness of you know live streaming
this for the first time

that I've ever done it. you know
I just like. Keep it casual

relaxed but I will say one thing.
the tea is definitely call me

me and making me feel good right
now. so that's good and for

everybody that's watching live.
If you want to change the

subject of what Eric and I are talking
about or if you would

like to join the conversation, you
can just request to be added

in our Instagram live and you are
welcome to join us and have

tea with us. Let's see.

Yeah. So yeah just go ahead and
like comment If you want if you

have any questions or you wanna
change the topic and we can

talk about anything we're just trying
to create a social

environment here really my intention
of this of why I even

decided to do this is that this
year at the beginning of this

year, I made a commitment about
my space here in Las Vegas that

I would do more physical events
and build more community here

in Vegas at through. You know what
I've done something events

in the past. some some of you guys
may have come to some of

them. They're Super fun. They're
always different and unique

but I would only do maybe a few
year and it takes a lot of

energy to do it. But this year I
decided to commit myself to

doing two a month but unfortunately
with what's going on, I've

had to cancel our live events and
the the co-hosts of these

events. we're very saddened that
we had to cancel the. And

requested that we we make them virtual
events. so this is like

a whole new territory of making
a virtual event and not just a

virtual event like this one that
we're doing right here right

now but one where we're making like
a highly curated

high-quality content that can give
back to the artists that are

contributing to that content. so
leading up to these events. We

have the first one on March 20 -ninth
which is a clean energy.

Panel with the Green team which
is a newly founded a nonprofit

that engages the community with
activities of how to advocate

for clean energy and clean economy
legislation. so we're gonna

do a clean energy panel. The the
panel will be all virtual of

course, you know I think we'll have
a great audience for that,

but I also want to engage the audience
that we built through

tea into that event. And then the
next event after that which

I'm really excited about is on April
Fools which is a comedy

night so we were gonna have stand-up
comedy all these like

professional comics and amateur
comics. We're gonna come here

and do comedy and we were of course,
gonna drink tea and and

laugh all night long, but unfortunately,
that would be

extremely irresponsible for us to
host this event. So we will

be creating a live stream of that
event and so leading up to

that event iron. Gonna be trying
to do if not daily hopefully

daily if we can manage this live
streams like this just so that

we can engage our audience build
that audience and create that

platform that ultimately is going
to benefit the artists you

know like not you know. Unfortunately,
I can't share tea with

people. That's my goal with these
events in person is that

through different art or music,
we can engage new communities

of of tea lovers that maybe don't
even know their tea lovers to

come here for that. Drink some tea
realize Well, this is really

great. This is really good and those
are the seeds that you

know our business is trying to plant
within the tea community

to to build the opportunity for
good tea business but it's also

you know, double double edge where
we're trying to support

artists that you know are collaborating
with it be in a band or

be at the stand-up comics or be
you know live artists you know

Artists that will come here and
create that high-quality

content and be a really authentic
genuine revenue stream you

know and and support for for their
art cuz you know that is a

big pain point is people with talent.
people with passion

creating good things are not valued
you know just like the tea

farmers that we work with are not
valued in. Conventional

system and what we're going through
right now is really

challenging that big time. you know
artists that are living gig

to gig. you know and all those gigs
have been cancelled. Now, I

really struggling with understanding
how how they're gonna

survive this unknown period of of
known gigs. So we're gonna

try to create a platform for them
to you know just one. Woman

will be the platform of course,
but we're gonna try our best so

thank you for being a part of it
and tuning in. let me see I

read a comment.

Good to see you thank you for commenting
so much for your

support. Appreciate you hope you're
doing well. I've been up in

Seattle. How are you doing? Eric?

Really relaxed, I'm no longer nervous
at all good.

I thought you said, you're always
nervous man.

Degree

Yeah. I'm I'm I'm I'm feeling pretty
you know. people always

say they always say you gotta drink
a certain amount of tea to

to get that state and if it's good
tea, it could just be like

literally one Sip. you know that
gets you to the elevated place

of relaxation and you know, fluid
flow and thoughts. So yeah

that's good.

Mary I had no idea that maybe we
can move this all to Twitch

where there is income ability. Yup,
that is exactly the idea

you know maybe moving to to Twitch
or have it like multi multi

multi leveled on on different platforms.
just like I'm trying

to do now between the Instagram
and the Facebook. So yeah,

that's a good idea. I've never I
don't have a twitch account. I

don't have a following there. I
have some friends that do and

they're actually doing quite well.
actually my buddy Spacey

blurry. Shout out to Stacey Blur
here in Vegas has been doing a

lot of live streaming. you know
for over a year now I think and

you know slowly slowly built up
a community on Twitch and you

know I don't know how it's doing
on his income, but I know that

you know he is excited about it
and motivated by it and he's

you know creating this series of
of music festivals with all of

his his music friends to create.
To some economic opportunity

for artists during this time, yeah,
we just we gotta support

value. You know I think that's a
big a big thing that we're all

getting in question right now. What
do we value? What are the

things that we actually need and
how do we support it?

This maybe the last step I can get
out of this. Yeah. how many

did you get? It should be five,
yeah six. That's a good team. A

lot of times you know we we like
to associate quality of of a

tea with the number of steps that
you can get out of it. so

yeah, five or six is really good.

One way to test quality, Yeah, he
doesn't have to last that

long, but yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I feel like with you know
like high-quality Japanese

Green teas like I I usually keep
it three times you probably

could step it more but the third
step is my favorite. I'm

completely satiated and satisfied
after that third step and you

know happy to. You know, move on
to

actually eating belief. I like to
eat the leaf. you know it's

really tasty really sweet and savory.
It's not a secret. No.

it's it's very common thing. I would
have never had beautiful

coral what you never have to open.
Oh okay. Well, you got a

couple of Vegas and you know I'll
set you up right. That's my

favorite tea. That was a friend.
That I ever drink you know in

my process of of learning about
tea where I was like, wow. This

is what T should not should, but
this is what T can taste like

and wow. This is amazing you know
and and I really learned you

know how how tea can be special?
how it can be on that next

level and I didn't have that experience
again with the tea

until like four years later when
I had. My first real real

authentic Don Song a tea where it
wasn't so much about the

texture, which would that's what
it was about. It was about

that texture just like coated my
whole mouth and was just like

wow. But like with the Don song,
it was about the aroma. You

know I I've smelled aromatic teas
before, but something about

and I don't even remember what cultivar
it was. I was just so

blown away and I was there in charge
and you know they poured

for me and I was just like okay.
I get it now, you know when

all the Phoenix mounts. Longs that
my friends here in the

States where you know so happy to
share with me, I'd realize

you know none of them had ever really
impressed me that you may

impressive. They could be good but
like really impressed on

that level where it shows you where
where tea can really go.

yeah, it's really really special
when you have those moments

with tea, especially when you've
been sitting for so long, you

know that could be surprised by
a new type of tea. you know

five years into intensive study.
it's a nice experience.

First introduction to dental the
Phoenix was in charge of Yup.

That's the best place to have it.
Yeah, you're lucky. Yeah. it

was it was very similar experience
was like. Longer like this,

I think they can get to that. you
know, I got from other

companies that begin with.

Yeah. yeah. Yeah. They're expensive,
you know and good teeth

should be it is not expensive. The
right word is valuable, you

know and it's a special treat. You
know it's not something that

you're gonna be drinking every day,
but it's it's something

good to have. you know. I have some
really special ones. I have

some I have someone's. I've never
even drink before I bought

them and just alright. they're gonna
sit there for a while. you

know, maybe I'll wait wait until.
The right moment feels right

now. I'll pull them out but.

From 2013, That I got a call well,
Green teas.

Yeah. that's some do well, you know
that's something that

people sometimes will dismiss that
you know White teas or or

especially Green teas. Don't age,
you know something like a

matcha, you know like Matcha has
you know a very a lot of

surface area for oxidation to happen
that can definitely. You

know be questionable on shelf life,
but you know like even a

dragon Wall. I have some Dragon
Wells from like 2012 when I

first started studying tea and I
drink them now and I'm like

wow they. they changed a little
bit but there's still holding

up. so yeah, I do suggest that if
you have Green tea that

that's been sitting around, don't
don't be afraid to drink it.

You know it's can still be very
good and something. Able to

have a little surprise.

Hungry I will say that this is probably
the most sober Saint

Patrick's Day I've ever celebrated
before which is good.

I don't care if you don't you don't
drink so that's good.

That's good for you but yeah, same
tactics you don't you don't

drink alcohol. Right, No. Yeah.
that's good good for you. I

respect and appreciate that choice.
I do like to drink I don't

like to drink excessively but that
doesn't up happening in

these like social conditions like
going out for Saint Patrick's

Day with your friends and you know
that's another reason why I

am building up this space here in
Vegas so that we can create

like really fun and engaging experiences
that is on the same

caliber of Vegas Entertainment,
you know like we're known for

having this crazy party. Here in
town but don't make it alcohol

centric make a tea centric right.
This is a tea room. We're

drinking tea so we should be learning
how to enjoy our time

without alcohol. which you know
everybody would say it's no

place in Vegas for that but we're
actually seeing a lot of good

success and you know a lot of people
viewing this right now are

probably a part of that. you know,
part of creating that

community and that fun we had a
music events maybe a few months

ago really young. Like almost a
teenager audience and I knew

that that would be an issue if we
had underage people here for

that event to not have alcohol here
available for them to drink

and the the musicians that we are
collaborating with all this

event. we're really worried that
their followers and their

audience would not like that because
you know, of course

they're their audiences used to
seeing them play and bars or

places where it is very alcohol
centric I said no don't worry

about it like we're gonna we'll
make sure that their Cup is

always filled with something be
a cold brew. so we have like

cold brew set up all over the place.
People could self serve or

of course the hot tea service you
know at the table and you

know just as I predicted. you know
some of these people were

here for 56 hours. It was the whole
like music festival and not

once did people complain about their
not being alcohol here or

you know asking you know there's
a bar. they they saw the tea

table they were attracted to it.
They sat down. They grabbed a

Cup and you know some of them ended
up just sitting in one spot

just drinking tea learning about
tea and and you know being

surprised and feeling good and I'll
tell you what that's

probably like the easiest clean
up of any you know Music

festival so that that's ever happened
in Vegas because you know

people really respectful of the
space and they were respectful

of the community and the people
around them. so you know other

than having to. To wash the dishes
afterwards, there really

wasn't you know much of a clean
up so another reason to

integrate tea into your party environment.

Eric What time is it? But my time
yeah sure minutes. it's been

20 minutes. You got 20 minutes left
for what an hour. It's been

40 minutes for an hour cool. Alright.
Oh, I just noticed that I

can see all the computer screen.
How many minutes we've been

going. That's cool. That's good.
awesome. I'm learning this

technology. you know this is this
is gonna be something you

know. we're all gonna become a lot
more familiar with with how

these things work you know, but
I'm I'm glad I figured this out

and thanks for your patients. We've
had several people come in

I'm looking for. Doing this more
having another guests come in

so yeah if you if you wanna join
in on different live that we

do let me know ahead of time and
I can make sure I I I make

like so Eric had reached out to
me and said he wanted to have

tea together with me. so I said,
hey, well, let's do it with

the public. We'll we'll

no this is good. It's it's good
to to keep conversation and

it's great to connect with people
in other places. You know we

always get like bogged down with
our work life and what what's

got going on that we don't you know
the. Really gonna have a

lot of time to to connect with our
tea friends. you know, I

would say that for the tea festivals
you know you travel around

the festival LGBT friends. I know
Eric. you're also a tea

festival Ruby like I am I don't
know about this year, though.

yeah, of course, not you know what
it's so interesting because

at the same time that I made the
commitment to doing more

events here. I also made a commitment
to

Not go to as many or not travel
as much and not go to as many

as 10 festivals and so I was like
really sad to have to tell

some of these tea festivals that
I have long standing

relationships with of doing speaking
presentations or education

at the events that I won't be joining
this year but you know

now you know that we can just save
up for you know the next

event. I just received another email
this. From Realty Expo

that they are still planning on
having the expo as planned in

June, so we'll see if that still
happens and I actually didn't

have plans to go Realty Expo but
I got invited to do a panel so

looks like I will be going

Realty Expo like took a lot out
of me energetically last year.

It was a very busy expo. You know
we had a booth and we also

hosted the official after party
here in the in the warehouse

but it was a lot of work you know
and I think the the festival

are not festival, but the expo itself
is changing a lot. You

know. it's changed a lot in the
years since I first went, you

know. So much as far as like the
structure of the expo or the

conference, but the audience you
know and that's really what

I'm I'm focused on is engaging with
an audience that values you

know good product the quality

Yeah, I don't know.

How's the community in Saint Louis
Eric

That's growing and it's dying. I
thought his down. Yeah. What

do you say that medication? You
guys just did you do the event

earlier this week. That's nice to
get everybody together and

then coming post owning the next
one. Yeah. obviously that's

happening everywhere you know and
so we just have to have

patients with it and and those people
and their love for tea is

not going anywhere. So we just wait
for this to pass and I'm

sure at all it will come back together
in time. Yeah, there's

been a lot of changes here I would
say. In the past two years,

a lot of things have changed dynamics
things like that, Yeah,

he shouts to become less friendly
to each other. Do I would

say, which is very sad.

Editing yeah. Well, it's understandable
competition between tea

businesses within the local market
is completely

understandable. yeah. yeah. Yeah.
I get it. I think that's kind

of a a thing happening across the
country. not just in. it's

not exclusive just to Saint Louis.
It's a shame you know. yeah,

I tried to hold space for club.
Especially you know that's what

we're all about but you know sometimes
the need for

Isolation as we're going through
right now, you know kind of

affects that so. Is it really a
bad thing? you know if you have

if you if you successfully built
a community around your

products and around your space and
your value do that I will

say the tea shop here and she runs
a very different dynamic.

Yeah, and they will all have crowds
around me. Yup, but they're

very competitive against each other.
You know they're very.

Different Yeah. Yeah. That's that's
where the issue is. you

know you gotta remind people were
like offering completely

different things. you know, we're
not we're not really

competing with each other and that
that tends to be my main

thing. Whenever I have a competition
that I'm dealing with

unnecessary competition, especially
is like hey, why why? why

is this happening between us? We
still completely different

products and we cater to a completely
different community.

There should be no reason. For this
happening but you know,

sometimes it's just It's hard for
for people when they're

dealing with pressure like we're
all dealing with right now to

understand that so I don't criticize
them. I understand them

and have patients with it. so I
think you should have patients

with it too. Eric you know focus
on your your community and

that you're doing it right. You
just didn't even on Monday

looks great. look like you have
a lot of people there.

we had you know the first fun we
had seven. Should we had five?

So I would take the declining I
said this one I mean there's

been too, but you can't say the
client or anything, but you

know there's always been small.
I've always had a small group

of friends, but when they reach
out and just have a good time

at PT session and yeah, I'm happy
to technical and I don't

wanna teach anything no this point
I kinda like build up.

Appreciation good print them seeds
to plant them seeds. So I've

I've moved on to to my matcha. I
don't know if you noticed that

I'm like completely hacking it here.
I like I don't have my

strainer here. I'd love some some
parts of my tea tools or

somewhere else. So I'm using like
a a straighter that would

typically be used like on top of
the pitcher to strain out

leave, but the holes are so small.
You know and it worked it

actually worked because look the
the matcha you know it's it

works.

Sometimes you just gotta you gotta
do what you gotta do to get

it done.

How do you drink matcha?

Had since the festival okay.

With you, I had a little taste.
Oh yeah. Yeah. we want we are

grinding fresh matcha there. That
was great. Yeah. yeah and it

was amazing. I mean, I'm not one
to make much. I'm not fond of

it, but what I do get is you know
it's a good treat. Yeah. I

feel the same way about it. I mean
that's that's definitely

like become like the highest volume
tea that we we work with is

matcha but I don't drink it too
often, but I'm drinking it

today because this is the greenest
of the Green team that you

could drink to to celebrate on this
Saint Patrick's Day.

So, yeah, I'm completely not using
any of the proper tools

except for this. This is the only
proper tool it should be

using and I got that going for me,
but I think I did okay.

Okay. let's see here's the muddy
shots coming in. Hello How's

that look look pretty good. Yeah.

Better than 10 times, Yeah, sometimes
you just gotta hack it

together. Yeah. yeah. Well, I mean
I don't drink it myself or

someone else makes it let's say
for Facebook. I'll let you guys

see you guys can see. Oh there you
go. You got a view. Look at

that. Nice frothy Green Magic matcha.
So I'm gonna have to tune

out soon, but I wanna make sure
that before before I do that so

that I you know, encourage everybody
that's been watching and

you know enjoying watching us drink
tea on our own that they

should be doing it themselves and
the best thing that we could

do to support good teeth into the
future is by supporting the

tea businesses that are supplying
it. A lot of these businesses

even mine included is really being
challenged right now and so

now is a better time than ever to
order tea online support your

favorite vendors tomorrow I'll be
releasing like a full list of

all the vendors that we work with
and encourage you to support

during this time. all the vendors
that have online shops or

Facebook stores or you just Email.
And say hey, how can I

support your business? I'm sure
they'd be more than happy to

arrange a shipment of yummy tea
for you which you can enjoy

While you are born at home, you
know you don't necessarily have

to be bored, but you know you drink
tea. I have like over and

out are almost an hour pass now
and the time went Super fast

and it wasn't boring at all. So
yeah drink more tea. It's

always good won't hurt. But

Who said that yes, someone said
who's this who's this?

so you said you are going to launch
a learn going to course

yeah definitely I think ah you should
definitely try to reach

out to T sellers and ah see if any
of them are wanting to

support something like that ah you
know and if you are if you

are a tea seller and your you really
confuse about why should

be doing with your time now and
how what you could be doing to

ah support your business for the
future ah Try new ideas That's

why I'm doing this here now trying
to engage a a conversation

and a channel for you know social
interaction. Oh man that much

is so good, just like a delayed
reaction.

then yeah, get creative with your
ideas. Don't be ashamed to

you know engage with your audience
like I'm doing now and you

know reach out to people. This is
Eric Eric Turn. I'm sorry

Eric I I don't think I've ever interacted
with you before, but

I'm going to message you after this
and see if there's a way

that I can help you know connect
you with some of the the tea

vendors that we work with and I
appreciate you engaging with us

and letting letting us know what
you've got going on and

perhaps you can tune in to one of
our life tastings or live

sessions that we we do in the coming
days. I'll I'll definitely

be messaging you and Everybody feel
free to message me directly

on my email address is a lease at
T dot com. That's E L Y S E S

at T E A L E T dot com or you can
just message directly through

Facebook or through Instagram. I'd
be happy to connect with

you. talk to you with you. most
importantly, give you ideas of

how you can support good tea during
this time of Struggle for

for business, especially for service
businesses like tea shops

and tea sellers. So yeah. Thank
you so much for tuning in guys.

Eric Do you wanna say anything before
we we tune out? Yeah.

sure what's that. I mean a teenager.
oh good for you happy to

hear that.

Alright, Eric has been great. I
really love you brother. Yeah.

drink more tea. Yeah. Yeah. state.
Stay cool. Stay relaxed and

I'll talk to you soon. Bye Instagram.
See ya. Alright.

Alright, you can't get in there.
we go. alright. so Facebook

your next. I'm gonna tune you guys
out. sorry about this but we

will talk to you again soon. I'll
keep you updated of our next

session and

Thank you all so much love you.