Emily J Payne

December 3, 2014

AAD 550 Art in Society

Field Guide Write-up

I.  The World of Tea in Eugene

Tea first originated in China and “was discovered in the Yunnan Province in China sometime before 1000 BC” (Teavana, para. 1) but when it came to America it was not until the 17^th Century.  Here in Eugene, various companies have sprung up over the last 10 years and the focus of my field guide is to locate all of these companies, and any non-tea businesses that serve tea, to then create a walking field guide or map for visitors to use.  Terms I am focusing on to present in this world of tea are education, connectivity, and community.

How I am defining education is to refer to the knowledge and instructions given to a participant on how a cup of tea is prepared properly, or rather, the knowledge need to ensure the flavor of the tea comes out the way it is anticipated to.  Connectivity is the way the tea shops or manufacturers in Eugene relate to one another in either practice or philosophy and community is defined as the relationship between these businesses, the consumer, and other businesses that do not specialize in tea but serve the product.

As tea is a passion of mine and I enjoy learning more about, utilizing the field guide as a platform for communicating the diversity of teas and businesses in Eugene is only showing a glimpse of the new and growing aspects to the Eugene culture.  Going out and meeting others who are a part of the world of tea has inspired me to develop this field guide and to bring attention to these businesses and help them network with each other and to build a larger participant base.  Also to help Josh Chamberlain, of J-Tea International, in his mission to be able to visit someone’s home and have a good cup of tea without him having to brew or supply it himself.

II. Home is Where the Teapot is

To gage the environment of the tea businesses in the Eugene area, I interviewed four business owners/representatives; Angela McDonald of Labrang Tea Traders, Josh Chamberlain of J-Tea International, Leah Murray, Executive Director of the Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson (SMJ) House, and Carrie Hites of Scatter Joy Tea House and Eatery in Junction City.  Each of the businesses or organization’s start dates range from as early as 2002 to about 2012, Scatter Joy being the most current to the scene.  A more defined timeline of tea businesses in the area is available in Figure A.

Figure A.

Choosing  these four individuals came down to focusing on two main categories of the field guide, one being the focus on small, local manufacturers and two being businesses that focus on providing a tea service.  Labrang Tea Traders and J-Tea International offer on-line ordering and can be found in markets, coffee shops, and co-ops throughout the state but they are home-based businesses.  Angela operates Labrang under a Domestic Kitchen License as she does not deal with raw products like meat and dairy, Josh operates under a similar license but if his shop were to expand and offer more food, then he will need to have a Lane County restaurant license.  Other similarities between the two businesses are they source many of their teas from Asia but they do utilize local suppliers in the Northwest to help create new blends, particularly for herbal style teas.  As part of their business practices, they source high quality tea leaves from smaller farms; J-Tea goes to the extent of having their tea tested for pesticides and metals (jteainternational, para. 3), and Labrang looks to fair trade and organic farms.  Each provides high quality teas that also ensure the products are harvested under ethical practices and safe for consumption.

The Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson House and Scatter Joy provide an experience which you may not always get at home or at the J-Tea shop.  SMJ House and Scatter Joy do more of the English High Tea that includes either a multicourse meal or small sandwiches and desserts.  SMJ House does 6 public teas each year seating up to 40 people and Scatter Joy is open 6 days a week for the lunch time hours and seats around 36 people.  SMJ House sources their tea from the local company Tea Lady Teas and Scatter Joy goes through an online source as time and finances have not allowed Carrie to find a local product to serve in store, yet.

As the interest in tea continues to grow in the US, companies like Labrang and J-Tea are seeing an increase in business.  Angela has seen her business double in the past year since going full-time and in a recent Register Guard article (Paulson, 2014, para. 4) a factor for the increase of tea consumption “is a public that is becoming more knowledgeable about teas and the growth of companies that provide more and better types of tea…”  Labrang and J-Tea fall under this category as you can go to Labrang’s website and be given a description of how your water should behave at various temperatures and which types of teas need a specific water temperature and steep time.   J-Tea occasionally offers classes in their shop on Friendly Street and has a “Tea Education” tab on their website where they describe various forms of Oolong tea.

III. Let Me be of Service

During an in-class presentation, brewed tea was served  as a from of transmedia along with the tea samples and pamphlets from Labrang, stickers from J-Tea, ice tea* spoons, tea tray, apron, and the dry and wet leaves as the tea transformed when mixed with the hot water.       The electronic transmedia presented for this project is a Prezi presentation, located at this link: http://prezi.com/c_b0boxngsrx/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy and is the beginning phase of a walking map for tea shops and partnered coffee shops.  The physical manifestation is not available at this time but Labrang Tea Traders, SMJ House, and Scatter Joy are on board to participate in a formal guide.  Once the prototype of the walking guide is created, it will be presented to Travel Lane County for feedback and to initiate the process to create such an item for visitors and residents to use and be able to participate in the world of tea in Eugene.

The Prezi presentation does organize numerous links and photos from the various tea shops and businesses, but there is a link at the start of the presentation that takes you to a site where you can play ambient sounds of a café and/or rain.  A number of afternoons were spent in Townshend’s on Broadway and the site almost replicates the sounds of being in their shop.  Once you open the link, return to the present and first meet Labrang Tea Traders, then J-Tea as they represent small, local manufacturers.  Following them is tea shops like Scatter Joy and SMJ House, J-Tea would be a part of the tea shops as they offer tea by the cup or pot in house.  Moving from SMJ House is The Tea Lady with the side café of Everyone’s Cuppa.  From here we go onto larger, local manufacturers such as Blue Lotus Chai, Mountain Rose Herbs, and Yogi Tea.  To round out the presentation, there are links and images of tea manufacturers who operate outside of Eugene.  Closest to Eugene is Albany with Allan Bros, then in Bend is MyChai and Townshend’s; in Portland there is Stash, TAZO, Smith Tea, and Oregon Chai.  Many of these companies either have dedicated shops or have their products in other businesses like Noisette, Vero, or Dutch Bros.

*Ice tea was first introduced at the 1904 World’s Fair by Richard Blechynden, he “ had the novel idea of serving his brewed tea on ice since no one was interested in drinking hot tea during the summer heat wave” (Teavana, History of tea in America, para. 4).

IV. Reading the Dregs

One of the biggest connections I saw with each business was accessibility in either the physical place or how to find the product.  Getting to SMJ House was an issue as there is no driveway off of Shelton-McMurphey Blvd, there is a sign facing south on Pearl St but as I could  see stairs and an “OPEN” sign from Shelton-McMurphey I assumed that was the only way there.  I later discovered their driveway off of 3^rd and Pearl along with their parking lot.  Leah from SMJ pointed out that since they are on the other side of the tracks, they are left off of walking maps and having one dedicated to tea shops would help as the teas are a fundraising program for the House.  Though they offer private teas, the seating has to be at a minimum of 7 people and may depend on the time and energy of the volunteers.

Scatter Joy is about a 15 mile drive from downtown Eugene and the immediate parking spots are right off of Ivy St which is also Hwy 99/Pacific Hwy.  This street can be very busy and without prior knowledge from going before, you would not know that the Napa parts next to the store allows you to park in their lot.  Carrie did mention a new sign would help the business and having it located on a specific wall would then grab the attention of those driving by, especially to the locals who may not have experienced her shop.  There is an advantage that Scatter Joy has over SMJ House, they offer their tea service year round whereas SMJ House relies on volunteers to help curate and serve the teas at various times throughout the year.  With more volunteers, particularly those in a different target group, they would be able to add more public teas and also grow their presence in the community.  Areas of growth for SMJ House  would be more visible signage that helps locate their driveway and parking, adding more volunteers, and for Scatter Joy to add later hours to catch the dinner time crowd or any students who need a place to study.

Labrang Tea Traders does not have a store front so locating them will be in stores, coffee shops, or going to the Saturday and Holiday Markets.  Occasionally, Labrang will attend the Asian Celebration but if you have not tried their tea, the likelihood to purchase their product at Market of Choice is low.  An example of the importance of exposure happened after my in-class presentation.  A member of my cohort, Tara Burke, was excited to taste test the tea but to also know where she can find them as she was interested in getting their product.  The pamphlets provided in class do not list area retailers that carry Labrang and this could be remedied with a walking guide that has a dedicated section to stores that carry teas from Labrang, J-Tea, The Tea Lady, etc.

J-Tea has an accessibility issue in the area of cost of the product, since the teas they provide are one of a kind and go through rigorous testing, their value can fluctuate.  But what determines value in this situation?  Is it the price placed on a pound of tea or is it the experience the participant gets from having a cup of tea?  Josh helps put this question into perspective that it comes down to exposure and knowing that you are making a good investment as you understand the value of a quarter pound of tea.  Hence the offering of classes in store, next one is coming up on December 12.

Ultimately, the result of the interviews with these businesses for the field guide has allowed for brainstorming on attracting new participants but to also start greater connectivity among them to build a stronger community that can bolster the tea culture through education and exposure.  Their basic mission is to share an experience that we may not encounter until introduced, like the number of times I have seen Angela’s booth at the Saturday or Holiday Markets with three to four pots of teas, tea canisters, and little compostable cups and how just a simple taste introduces someone to this world of tea that is not in a bag.  Her simple act reminds me of what Williams says about society and culture, “The growing society is there, yet it is also made and remade in every individual mind” and “Culture is ordinary; through every change let us hold fast to that” (pp 17-18).  Tea had been ordinary to me with its dark color and flowery fragrance that came from a bag, now it is about the unfurling of leaves and being confident that what you spent was worth the drive as it was worth the trip to the small farm in Taiwan, China, India, Sri Lanka, or Salem, Oregon to hand select the leaves.

Resources:

Paulson, D. (2014, November 2).  A time for tea.  Register Guard. Retrieved December 3, 2014, from http://www.registerguard.com

Williams, R. (2000). Culture is ordinary. In G.Bradford & G. Wallach (Eds), The politics of          culture: Policy perspectives for individuals, institutions, and communities (pp. 16-19).       New York, NY: The New Press.

Unknown, A. (2014) About.  Jteainternational.com/about. Retrieved December 3, 2014,   http://jteainternational.com

Unknown, A. (2014) Tea education.  Jteainternational.com/tea-education. Retrieved December 3, 2014, http://jteainternational.com

Unknown, A. (2014) History of tea.  Teavana Corp.  Retrieved December 3, 2014 http://www.teavana.com/tea-info/history-of-tea

Unknown, A. (2014) Tea history in America.  Tevana Corp.  Retrieved December 3, 2014 http://www.teavana.com/tea-info/tea-history-in-america