Looking Back to the Future

The Double Cup Tea blog is 1 year old now! *tosses tea leaves like confetti in the background* For those new to the project (all 6 of you! yes, I counted) it began years ago with an idea. That idea was shared with a small group of supportive friends in 2016, who helped to pack it's diet with more fiber. Our e-mails back and forth developing the project became the monthly teamail we enjoy today. It's my way of asking nicely for feedback & critique on the project while giving back - sharing what I learn about tea, art, and activism along the way. 

Looking back over DCT's first year, I'm excited by the progress made. Personally, I've learned a lot about project management, communication, and tea - especially tea. But I'm happy to see the ripples of the blogs growth, here are a few highlights from 2017:

The teamail gained 5 new members, we are 23 strong now!

We made the teamail prettier, and easier to read by designing a template. Crafting a teamail became much simpler. More time was afforded for developing content.

We collaborated with a local photographer, and a local tea store, to create Fandom Blends for a feminist nerd lifestyle magazine.

We interviewed one of our tea-mates and shared her stories brought back from Greece.

We received samples from Wudong tea, which opened up the world of gonfucha style brewing to us, and our readers. These are the beginnings of a tea partnership with farmers abroad in China.

We added book reviews to our blog content through “Tea-Reads”

We sent 8 teamails (of 12) and added 17 (of 24) new articles to the blog

We expanded our Instagram footprint: currently we have 175 posts, 132 followers and are following 129 people.

We added an archive to the DCT website so that readers can search the blog for specific content.

We expanded our studio, and invested in materials and software (illustrator) to help facilitate the development of stripped teas- our reusable teabag project.

We added to our tea library, and continue to seek out educational tea experiences.

We began work on a tea based role playing game: Tea-trade & Travels

I always end the teamail with a thank you. I actually got scolded for this once by my sisters, who counted the number of 'thank yous' in a past teamail and finally snapped one day "PLEASE - stop thanking us! we get it, you're thankful!" to which I replied something like "I just can't help it, I'm so surprised people are actually reading this." For all the support given, I feel I can never give back enough. You've helped to keep the dream alive - So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. There I said it. (that's six more times for those of you keeping track).