My journey in tea began 5 years ago in Hawaii when I first started working for Ito En (USA) as a QA supervisor. Here I learned how awesome tea is and was finally content with my career as a food scientist. For once I was helping an industry that produces a product that is healthy for our bodies, communities, and environment. I left Ito En to do a second Peace Corps assignment in the Caribbean and upon my return to Hawaii I studied for a Japanese MBA. At the University of Hawaii I co-authored a market feasibility study for the young Hawaii Grown Tea industry. My team identified a great potential for US- grown tea and saw that Hawaii is at an advantage because of it’s prime soil and conditions for growing and producing tea. At the end of my school program I completed a 4-month internship at Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations with the International Tea Farms Alliance (ITFA). Here I became a Global Tea Ambassador and have since connected deeply with tea growers in India, Indonesia, Korea, China, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka.
ITFA has a mission to connect tea grower with tea lovers. I have assumed this mission since I’ve returned to Hawaii and started building Tealet. Tealet is a marketplace that allows seamless and transparent commerce between tea growers, tea lovers, and tea retailers. This company has taken me around the world and have introduced me to many incredible people such as Kevin Rose, James Norwood Pratt, and leaders within the industry. This company is not the traditional corporation, we are a social enterprise and will be built by a community. It’s a company built upon technology and community which is why much of our development has occurred on Facebook and Twitter. If you love tea and are interested in joining our community please connect.
Tea Lovers – Browse, Buy, and Rate teas in our retail marketplace
Tea Retailers – Interested in sourcing tea direct from the farm online? We are soon launching a wholesale marketplace, Sign up to be notified when it’s ready!
What I ask of the tea world: Please connect with me! I can’t do this alone and there are those with much more experience and knowledge that can give me and my team guidance. Tea growers, please let me know if you would like my team to document your stories and help you sell tea online. Retailers, let us know what your customers want and how we can connect you with the best sources of tea. Tea lovers, join my journey as we help revive tea culture around the world!
I don’t know about you, but I am feeling some incredible energy going into the next year. It’s positive, it’s urgent, it’s creative, and most importantly it is going to cause people to become more entrepreneurial and risk taking. We feel that we can take on our own responsibility for our welfare and find ways to connect with others to collaboratively find solutions. We are all connected through social networks and want to do something to make it a better world. Watch out for big things in 2012!
On September 30, 2011 a large group of disgruntled citizens identifying themselves as Occupy Wall Street released their first document as a united interest group demanding accountability on Wall Street. This message has resonated with thousands of other individuals and communities causing protests in cities across the U.S. Hawaii has even experienced its own protests in Honolulu, Kauai, and Hilo. Identifying with the concerns of the original Occupy Wall Street movement Hawaii residents are forming their own interest group looking for social change. The Occupation movement, like any young interest group, is facing a number of conflicts. These conflicts are both external and internal and must be resolved in order for this social change to occur. The external conflict exists between the so-called 99% of Americans struggling to maintain a livelihood and the 1% that possesses 42% of the nation’s wealth. (DeGraw, 2010) As the protests continue to grow conflict will also grow. This is because of an internal conflict that is ultimately inhibiting the opportunity for collaboration and sustainable change. The internal conflict involves the various grievances that each of the protesters bring and their inability to focus on solutions and not blame. The foundation of this conflict is cultural as the protesters bring their grievances of the consequences they face because of the unbalanced distribution of wealth. These consequences are associated with the communities, occupations, education levels, income levels, and social status that make up the cultures with which they identify. In order to overcome this obstacle protesters must use this opportunity to find commonality among this 99% of the population and collaboratively come up with solutions.
