BINGELY BOOKS

FINDING ME: A MEMOIR

HarperOne

Viola Davis

We have been long-time fans of award-winning actress and producer, Viola Davis. She is known for taking on dramatic roles and bringing her characters' essence to the front of our minds. In Finding Me: A Memoir, we meet her as a little girl where she had a decision to make when she realized that she would take on a decision that would make her stop running from herself and life.

She takes us from her early beginnings in Central Falls, Rhode Island to owning the stage in NYC and beyond. She shows how she found herself, claimed her space and made those listen who didn't see her when she made her presence known.

In analyzing her path, Viola Davis allows us to think about how we navigate our own lives. She also looks at the duality of who we are versus how the world labels us once they believe they know who they think we are. Her hope is that through her journey, others can look at how they define themselves and to provide the proper self-love that they deserve.

ART OF TEA: A JOURNEY OF RITUAL, DISCOVERY, AND IMPACT

Lioncrest Publishing

Steve Schwartz

We love a great cup of tea and we had the pleasure of interviewing the founder of Art of Tea and Master Tea Blender, Steve Schwartz for our AUG ISSUE #56 in 2020 and our podcast, Athleisure Kitchen. In his debut book, Art of Tea: A Journey of Ritual, Discovery, and Impact, he shares about how he obtained his passion for tea and founded his award-winning international tea brand. He explored the notion of impact by creating a tea ritual in one's day to enjoy creating a powerful, timeless and analog experience.

You'll find brewing tips for recipes while also learning how he grew his business that is a network of relationships with Google, #Slack, Caesars Palace, The Peninsula Hotels, The Getty and more.

CLEOPATRA AND FRANKENSTEIN

Bloomsbury Publishing

Coco Mellors

When the opportunity for a Green Card presents itself for 24 year old Cleo a painter, in her marriage to Frank who is 20 years older and financially successful.

Neither could imagine how their lives would change.

In Cleopatra and Frankenstein, we delve into the lives of both of these characters while seeing those that they are associated with. We learn the complexities of interpersonal relationships and how we go about navigating life when it throws curves into how we would like to live our lives. We see how an impulsive and convenient decision can create issues that we can't resolve easily.

Read the MAY ISSUE #77 of Athleisure Mag and see Bingely Books in mag.

S1. E14. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN WITH STEVE SCHWARTZ

On today's episode of Athleisure Kitchen, we sit down with Art of Tea's Founder and CEO, Steve Schwartz. Around the office, we have always enjoyed tea as it's a beverage that can be enjoyed hot, iced, alone, with an array of sweeteners and even mixed with the spirit of our choice. We wanted to delve more into tea culture to find out the origin of tea, how it should be consumed, stored and what the benefits are when drinking it. We talked with Steve about his company which is known for their 100s of options that they have available on their site, their hospitality partnerships with Wolfgang Puck, Aria, Caesars Palace and more. He talks with us about his background in Ayurveda, how he got into the industry, how he grew his company and the importance of our individual tea rituals wherever we are in the world.

Read the latest issue of Athleisure Mag.

CREATE THE RITUAL WITH STEVE SCHWARTZ

Tea has always been a beverage that we have enjoyed hot, iced, alone, with an array of sweeteners and even mixed with the spirit of our choice. We wanted to delve more into tea culture to find out the origin of tea, how it should be consumed, stored and what the benefits are when drinking it. We talked with Steve Schwartz, the founder of Art of Tea which is known for their 100s of options that they have available on their site, their hospitality partnerships with Wolfgang Puck, Aria, Caesars Palace and more. He talks with us about his background in Ayurveda, how he got into the industry, how he grew his company and the importance of our individual tea rituals wherever we are in the world.

ATHLEISURE MAG: What is a master tea blender and what does that position entail?

STEVE SCHWARTZ: Great well let me first share a little bit on my background. My background entails Ayurveda. It’s a form of preventative medicine based in India. I got into that because my mom was actually diagnosed with brain cancer when I was just out of high school. I got a full paid scholarship to go to college and I ended up dropping out so I could go and move back in to take care of her. So, I took care of her for about 10 months until she passed. The whole time, we were just on Western medicine and there is nothing wrong with Western medicine, it just didn’t work for us. So we went from one doctor to another and one external treatment to another. Before she passed, it got me to thinking, “gosh, cancer must have been around for thousands of years, we have only just recently labeled it as cancer. What are the other healing modalities that are out there?” I didn’t want to stick needles in people, I didn’t want to be a massage therapist or an herbologist – there is nothing wrong with any of those, it just wasn’t my path.

So, I found this school in New Mexico called the Ayurvedic Institute and really fell in love with the alchemy of blending herbs, teas and botanicals and how those herbs and botanicals link together to create unique flavor profiles and how those flavors, their profiles, herbs and healing properties affect the body in very different ways. In both a metabolic way, but also in terms of helping with hormones, digestive fire, immunity, longevity and all these things that really rally behind how these botanicals are blended together. So it’s not 1 herb plus another herb or botanical equals 2, but rather 1 + 1 could equal 4 or 6. It could multiply and increase in terms of its strength.

So I was looking into old texts and Sanskrit while I was at school and really trying to get an understanding of the alchemy of teas and herbs and it was funny that one of the patients that was there was a gentleman by the name, Yogi Bhajan (Editors Note: he is cited as bringing his version of Kundalini Yoga to the US in the late 60’s/early 70’s) and he would come to the facility and see the doctor. I would make the blends for him. Another thing that was requested was that their family would ask for other ingredients and ask us to blend in different ratios these different botanicals. So we would source and then send them the first samples and I would find 6 months or 9 months down the road that these blends were on supermarket shelves known as Yogi Teas. I was like, ok I know what I’m doing and at this point, there wasn’t a lot of real internet connectivity.

There was this company Amazon that was starting out. But most of what I was doing was making phone calls to origin all throughout Asia and India. I remember that I needed to source ginkgo. So I called and it was like $4 a minute, so I wanted to be respectful of budget and time and I said, “I need to order some ginkgo.” They said, “do you want a Western slope or an Eastern slope next to a river?” I told them that it didn’t really matter, I just wanted to order ginkgo. He said, “no sir, it does matter. I need you to come here yourself so you can experience it.” I was intrigued, I appreciated the invitation and I saved up my money and worked 4 different jobs, got a backpack and started traveling the world to find the best teas and the botanicals possible.

I had no idea that I was going to start a tea company. I just knew that I was a huge tea nerd and was into it. I saw the impact that it had on people’s lives – those that drink tea and those that don’t. What it means to them, whether it’s sitting down with a loved one at the end of the day, engaging in a meditation practice or needing to work out a research paper. Whatever it might be, I just saw the level of the impact that tea could have and so I started sourcing the different botanicals in my living room, started blending and started peddling my teas around town. I caught the attention of Wolfgang Puck and a hotel, a restaurant, a spa! Then I caught the attention of Caesar’s Palace and I ended up training the first Tea Sommelier in the United States. It sort of just grew from there and I ended up teaching classes at these world tea conventions and they were sold out. So I taught them 5 years in a row beginning with advance blending classes. There was no one teaching blending. In fact, when I realized they were asking me to teach it, I knew I had to look up old books and I ended up finding one from 1896 on blending!

AM: Wait what?

SS: Yeah! There was nothing at the time. So I said, “ok, if I’m asked to create a format, then I’m just going to share my failures and my wins. What’s working and what’s not and hopefully leave an impression and an impact. For people that took the classes, they’re now publicly traded companies or sold to Procter & Gamble. So, it’s awesome to see the impact on what’s happening in the tea industry.

AM: Wow, just thinking of you talking about this, are there new blends or nutrients that grow that they didn’t exist in the 18 or 1900’s? We enjoy a number of the items that we consume and feel that those have always been around, but are there new hybrids?

SS: Great question! First, let’s dive into what is tea and what was that book from 1896 all about back then? True tea comes from one evergreen shrub called Camellia Sinensis. All true tea comes from that evergreen shrub. If it’s not from this evergreen shrub, then it’s not tea. So for example White Tea, Green Tea, Oolong Tea, Black Tea, Pu-erh – all of these come from Camellia Sinensis. Then there are differences in terms of how they are produced, but it is very similar to wine – it all comes from grapes. Now depending on the grape that’s used, how it’s grown and processed – is it stored in an oak barrel or a stainless steel container, is the skin left on? All these play into crafting a really delicious glass of wine. The same way that tea is separated, picked at different harvest times depending on what they are looking for, put into these silos of White, Green, Oolong, Black and Pu-erh. There are some subcategories between there, different varietals of tea, those that are grown specifically for those types of teas as well.

But if it is Chamomile or Rooibos then it’s not actually a tea. It’s a totally different category known as a Tisane. It is a fancy French word that basically means botanical. You can have Mint, Chamomile and Rooibos blended together and you have a Tisane or what is called a fusion or you can blend it with tea and then you have a Tea Fusion. But Chamomile tea is actually an oxymoron as it’s not really a tea.

AM: Wow!

SS: And you now know more than 99% of the US population!

AM: Our minds are now kind of blown as we’re processing this information!

So, what do you define a Master Tea Blender as?

SS: I guess the 10,000 hour rule plays deeply into this. Having a strong sense of origin, where and how the teas are grown and when you’re tasting tea about 98% of what you are drinking is water. So what you’re looking for is the nuance within that 2% and so your tongue ends up becoming like an instrument. You’re learning how to play with the high notes and the low notes, the terroir of the different ingredients and how they will play well together. So, like an artist that is using color and a color palette to define what a painting will look like, they know where and when to add specific colors. The same thing with a blend. You want the blend to be even in terms of ingredient size so that smaller bits don’t fall into the bottom, you want that flavor profile to have a nice mouth feel in terms of what you are looking for in terms of beginning, middle and finish. But it’s knowing your ingredients well enough to see how that symphony of ingredients will come together for that final composition.

AM: What is that process like when you’re blending the teas? As you were talking, I was thinking back to last month’s issue when we talked with a Master Winemaker and she was talking about how it’s the harvest season and what takes place during this time. You were talking about that there is that kind of season in tea as well. So what’s the blending and the harvest season like for you?

SS: Great question. So the blending process in terms of the creations, when I was first starting out, I became obsessed with new blends that were coming out and I had a journal next to my bed where I would wake up in the middle of the night and I’d go, “oh, I have this great inspiration.” Sometimes, a great inspiration comes from odd things. My wife is an aesthetician and she got tons of samples of different skincare products from vendors that were sending them to her to try. Our shower is populated with tons of different scrubs and conditioners and all sorts of stuff. Being curious, I opened one up called Mandarin Cashmere and it was wow – you could almost bite into it. It was smooth, sweet, citrusy and creamy! I thought it would be an amazing tea and obviously I didn’t want to eat a scrub and no one is going to want to eat cashmere, but I thought, “ok, maybe I can take this and make it. Call it Mandarin Silk.” I ended up really honing in on where those flavor notes were hitting my nose. Over 80% of what we taste, is through our sense of smell. So where are those flavor notes hitting my nose and how can I duplicate that within a product that someone is going to want to drink? It ended up doing really well and the tea won Best Oolong in the World. So, it was really really fun and really cool!

So, there’s that part and then there’s Vera Wang who is coming up with a new line and she was like, can you make a tea that matches this perfume. In some cases, it’s really complex and in some cases, it’s really trial and error. One blend I made, I made on accident. What happened was, I was first starting out and I was on the phone with a customer and I was blending one ingredient in a batch of other ingredients that were resting. Meaning, as you blend, you want certain aromatics and compounds to be able to mesh together before you begin to introduce other ingredients to it. Just like you’re going out with friends and say you’re inviting other friends over, you may ask, “should we invite that other person?” Because that person could add a lot of value or that person could just take the air out of the room. So in the same way, you’ll introduce ingredients at staged times. So I was on the phone with the customer and I accidentally dumped one ingredient into a batch with another. While I was on the phone with them, I was like “oh shit” and this was with a 5-Star restaurant and I was like, “oh no, I’m sorry, how can I help you?” This was when I was customer service, sales, accounts receivable, accounts payable and marketing. Everything was tied into my cell phone when I was in my living room. I actually blended this, realized that I made the mistake and put it in this cello bag and put it in the corner. My wife walks in and she immediately notices where I messed up right? It’s part of her super power and she asked me what was that and I told her that I had messed up and she asked how I knew that I had? I told her that I was a Tea Expert, a Tea Master and that I knew. She said, “well you might want to try it.” I told her that I didn’t need to try it and that I knew it would be bad. She was right, it was burning in my head and I knew that I should at least try it. The next morning I woke up, I tried it and it was really good. I ended up sending samples out to different customers and they loved it. This is a tea called French Lemon Ginger and it’s still one of our most popular herbal botanical tisanes that we have to offer.

AM: What lessons have you learned through creating your teas?

SS: Allow yourself permission to fuck up!

AM: Yup!

SS: Giving yourself that permissions, messing up along the way, learning and customer feedback! That’s also been really powerful. When we launch something, what we do is first go through rounds internally and then we’ll go through rounds externally for our customers and then we’ll do a launch. So right now, we’re experimenting with a bottle beverage and we’re testing it out and we created it during this time of COVID-19. It’s called Open Sunshine and the whole idea is that there is so much power and energy by just going outside. People have this mixed relationship with what it means now to go outside and be in open sunshine. There are so many health factors about going outside. We took a look at getting Green Tea, Black Tea, Passion Fruit, Jasmine, Lemon and Ginger. We created an effervescent sparkling tea out of all of these different kinds of ingredients. So it’s a little spicy and a little sweet and slightly floral. We’re launching it in about 2 weeks and we’re pretty excited about it!

AM: That is so exciting! What is that process like when you’re thinking about your assortment? Do you have a brainstorm where x amount of products have to come to market and x amount have to go into the vault to then come back again? You have an extensive amount of teas that are on your website – so it’s interesting to hear about the rotational aspect to it.

SS: That’s a great question. So in some cases, it’s through that trial and error and we’ll walk before we run. So we’ll do soft launches, we gain feedback, learn from what people are experiencing and our tribe is very vocal. They will share direct feedback on what they love and what they don’t love. It could be through Facebook or wherever that opportunity is for them to share with us. It’s having that dynamic trust relationship with our customers to be able to learn and to hopefully get better.

We’ve tried shaving back some of our offerings as well. I think that because we have such a vocal community, they will tell us that we can’t take that tea down. So we decided that at particular times, you may or may not like this analogy – the McRib.

AM: Haha that’s smart!

SS: Yeah, we’ll say, “we’ll McRib that.” We won’t get rid of it, but we will offer it at this particular time. For example, we have a tea called Pumpkin Spiced Chai that does so well in the fall and in the winter time. But for us to sell it in the heat of the summer, just doesn’t make sense. So we’ll breathe life back into certain teas at particular times of the year.

AM: What destinations have inspired you in terms of creating different kinds of teas?

SS: Great question! We actually created and found that there are 4 reasons that people like to drink tea. We did this whole brand exercise a couple of years ago really trying to identify what it was that people are gravitating towards for their cups of tea. We found that they drink tea because it tastes good, they drink tea because of a period of time (they have to drink it in the morning to get them going, at night to help them wind down) a location (I remember going to London and sitting outside and enjoying a beautiful cup of tea or sitting on your grandmother’s porch and enjoying a delicious tea) and the last piece is the wellness piece. People drink tea because they think of the medicinal value whether it’s something that their grandmother gave them when they were a kid or they read on a supermarket label that this does a particular kind of function.

We created a Location Collection that included London, Big Sur, Tuscany – that’s a few. We also created specific teas that are only sold at specific hotels. Like at the Peninsula Hotel in Tokyo, we created a Cherry Blossom Tea in honor of the cherry blossom season. I’ve been very inspired by these different areas. In terms of the seasonal blend, there is one called Summer Rain. My family and I were driving from LA to Palm Springs and we got stuck in a monsoon. We couldn’t leave the car because it was pouring rain. By the time it stopped raining, we opened the door and you have this dry desert that is now hit with fresh rain and the smell that comes up from that floor is incredible. So I thought, how can I capture this in a tea and we created a blend called Summer Rain. It’s always a different inspiration and it’s not always so far out there in the world. It could very much be in our backyard, a memory or something that is close to us.

AM: We believe in drinking tea for its medicinal properties and we have members of our team that do so as they opt out from taking traditional medicine. Can you share what the benefits are in consuming tea in general and are there specific teas that are good for targeting immunity, relaxation and gut health?

SS: All great questions. The most powerful benefit of tea is really the ritual. I was just learning with someone about how SnapChat had this new thing called Spectacles it’s Augmented Reality and you can dive in and it transforms your physical reality with these goggles and puts you into this internal/external world combined in one. Sounds interesting right? I was curious, So I wondered, what is “augment” mean? To me, it means to change or to alter. But augment actually means, to improve. So this whole world is going to continue to evolve as we’re dealing with what COVID-19 could mean, what connecting with people remotely could mean and this whole AR world is going to continue to transform. If the biggest benefit of tea to answer your question, is that ritual, then how can we create a modern day ritual without feeling foreign or without feeling like you need all these right tools or worry that we might mess it up.

So this morning, I also looked up the word, “analog.” Analog means relating to physical space. So you have augment which means to improve and analog which means to relate to your physical space. So, I’m sort of playing with the idea of AAR. Instead of Augmented Reality, there is an Analog Augmented Reality. So what does that mean? Basically, how can we dive into that ritual of getting your water ready, selecting your tea pod, getting your cup together, selecting the right tea leaves and tapping out of technology. I am a huge fan of technology, but for just about 8-10 minutes, turn that stuff off and really dive in and hone in on that process and really be mindful and intentional. If you allow yourself that permission, that space – imagine what it could do throughout the rest of your day, the rest of your life, the people that you love and the people that you are surrounded with. Giving yourself that permission to dive in completely with all of your senses and go all in on that Analog Augmented Reality of brewing that process and sipping that process. Your mind will get totally distracted and say, “oh I need to do this and I need to tackle that email.” But just keep honing in on those few minutes and that intention is a whole paradox. You might now have 8-10 minutes to do this, but if you allow yourself that time, the impact will be so great, but it’s really allowing yourself that permission.

AM: It’s a great way of putting it. In Tokyo, we went to a tea house and had the ability to see them make our tea. To think about all the steps that we do to create tea on a daily basis as a ritual is an interesting concept – from the use of our Breville, designated cups and you do take at least half a beat to do that.

SS: And it’s a modern day ritual right? You don’t have to travel to Tokyo to have this experience. It’s a corner in your garage, it’s a small section in your patio, it’s a place in your room – wherever it might be where I am designating this space as a sacred space. That intention, you are breathing life into that intention. It will spill over into everything else that you are doing.

AM: Do you have teas that you would suggest that people can use to target issues that they are focused on?

SS: Great questions and I will answer it twofold. The first is yes, we have a wellness section on ArtofTea.com. It’s Flow Blend and Glow Blend. We have a Happy Tea, a Chill Out, Feel Better Blends, Throat Therapy, Breathe – all of these things that target very specific things. They’re all blended with Ayurveda and wellness in mind and at the same time, there is a story out about the student and the master. The master says, “You’re ready for the final exam. I want you to go in a 1 mile radius and I want you to find a specific botanical that doesn’t have medicinal value.” The student is excited and says, “ok, great”. The student has 24 hours, goes and comes back 24 hours later sobbing and says, “master, I failed. I couldn’t find a single botanical that didn’t have medicinal value.” And the master looks up and says, “no you’ve passed. Every root, every leaf, every berry, every botanical, bark has medicinal value.” But on the same tree or plant, the root may be medicine for one person and the leaves could be poison for someone else. The berry could affect one part of the body, meanwhile, the stem or the roots could affect a different part of the body. How they are blended together might also have very powerful affects. Whether you’re living reading or listening to this in the East Coast, West Coast, Mexico or Canada wherever you might be – within a 1 mile radius there are many different botanicals that are worth learning about. So I encourage local sourcing as much as possible, but also if you don’t have time, we have definitely taken a lot of the guess work out and crafted really delicious teas through what we are doing in our wellness line.

AM: You have such an interesting distribution in the sense of the website and your hospitality partners. How is that for you, is it different when you’re doing something for a hotel group versus those who are coming directly to the website to purchase?

SS: It’s a great question. We will do signature blends for our hospitality partners that are just for them like Google for example for their offices. The Aria Hotel, there are very specific teas for very specific properties, but the large majority of teas that we have to offer can be found at our website. We found that with a lot of our hotels closing and people had summer plans, a lot of the places where people would meet to work over tea – they still needed to connect over the tea experience. The ritual of what they built, still needed to happen even if it was virtual. So we decided to create a Rework kit and we crafted it with Google. Google said that they had budget and that they wanted to connect with their team and would we could do. So we created this kit with a little message inside that said, “Loving you remotely, from Google.” It was sent out to a variety of different staff members there at Google. A certain amount of boxes that were sold were sent out to First Responders. It’s been great and we’re trying to tie into this element of still connect ing with our tribe or community and really looking to make an impact through tea.

AM: We find ourselves asking this to everyone because of the impact of COVID-19 across industries has been beyond what anyone could have even imagined. Have there been effects in terms of production of tea? Has it hindered it in any way?

SS: Good and bad. So, from our side, we have the freshest and best Chamomile that we have ever had and we have a very abundant amount of this Chamomile. We bought based on what we thought the demand would be. We’re sitting on a lot of amazing Chamomile – we’ve always sourced it great, but this is really good! On the other side, Darjeeling, which is a region in India – think about a large hippie commune that has a very specific region where they have low valleys and high hills. It’s the champagne of teas and a really crisp tasting tea. They have 3 harvest seasons. Their most profitable and most important season for that region happens in a very short window. It starts, regardless of climate change and on a very particular day of the year. All the workers come together and they wait year around for this day when they can harvest. This happened at the end of March, I believe it was March 29th and the government said the day before when everyone was gearing up to harvest, that we couldn’t harvest and they were preventing it from happening. All these estates, estate owners, garden workers and harvesters – their livelihood was about to be shifted dramatically. There is already a shortage and a high demand for this high quality product so those stories, we have seen an impact. They were still able to harvest, they got creative through means of social distancing, but they were unable to do it on the exact day that it has been happening for many many years.

AM: From a customer perspective when they go to your website, are they able to request custom blends for themselves if someone is having a wedding or if they have a small business? Is there an ability to do that on a smaller level vs your larger accounts?

SS: What we have done is to create blog articles where people can take specific teas that we have and create their own fun blends with them with specific recommendations around that. We’re doing a project now with these guys called Try Guys that have a YouTube channel. We’re working on a custom tea blend with them. So we will work on specific projects, but in terms of custom blending based on individual customers or a smaller business, we will typically have them start with our 100+ teas that we have to offer on our site and helping them navigate through that process through that channel.

AM: What is the Art of Tea Academy and can you tell us more about what happens there?

SS: So glad you mentioned it. This COVID-19 period has given us the time to be super creative. So we created a 25 video series all on becoming a Tea Expert. It’s in depth training on how to taste tea, how to understand origin, flavor profiles and indepth learning on the different styles of tea. Lots of people that are foodies know where their wine comes from, their coffees their chocolate, but there is still a lot of mystique around tea. There is this idea that people will mess it up somehow. So we wanted to demystify the leaf and get people more closely connected with learning about tea. So in a very short period of time, we have had a few thousand people sign up and the response has been super positive so far. People have the time to learn and they want to up their game. Whether they’re in the hospitality space or are passionate about the love of learning, we wanted to put this out there in the world.

AM: You recently launched your tea app as well, which looks really beautiful. What are the types of things that people can do through that app?

SS: I’m so grateful for the talent of our team. Specifically, Hanna who helps leads up our marketing and is so instrumental in getting both of these sections live on our site. With the app, the app is a really fun and dynamic way to understand to best brew tea? There is a steep time section on there that you can take a really quick glance on. I found that one of the most popular pages on our site was how to brew tea. So it’s a quick and easy way that you can know how not to mess up your tea and how much to put in there.

The others connect to our tea quiz. So a lot of people will say, “I know that we need to get into tea because it’s good for me, but I don’t know where to start.” Or they have a loved one who loves tea, but they don’t know what to get them. The Tea Quiz is a bit of the ShoeDazzle and helps you navigate what is out there like a personal shopper. In just a few minutes, how can you best identify what tea will best match what you are looking for. Those are some of the fun connections that are happening on the app as well as discounts, checking out and notifications.

AM: What are your 3 go to teas that you enjoy?

SS: Wow man – it’s like what’s your favorite kid? We have a tea called Earl Grey Crème which I know we sent you guys.

AM: Yes – so good and we like the idea of adding a little gin to it at night!

SS: That’s awesome! We found that with Earl Grey, there’s lots of ways to make it. We found, that we like to make it the authentic way with Bergamot oil and we use an Italian Bergamot Oil. We put that in our Earl Grey and we also found out that some may find that it is slightly astringent for some people so some add cream, milk or sugar to it which kind of neutralizes that. What we did is to add a touch of French Vanilla which is sort of this eggy, creamy flavor profile. So the combination of that Bergamot Oil which is a bright citrus note that is slightly floral and that black tea with its brightness and astringency blended with the French, lemon, ginger – you get this full mouth feel really rounded out and smooth. I could drink that all day and we grow mint in our backyard which is easy to grow and we’ll throw that in there as well. We have a blend that has it already called Big Sur which is awesome. I could drink Earl Grey Crème all day.

I also love Japanese tea – we have one called Matcha+ which is Sencha, Green Tea and blended with ceremonial grade matcha. So you get more of a bioavailability from the matcha and it impacts the thyroid which governs immunity and metabolism and gets everything active. It is the same style tea that they use in Zen monasteries throughout Japan before they go into meditation so they can focus. You get this clear rush, but you don’t feel that jolty jitteriness that you feel with coffee.

The third that I can drink on an ongoing basis is our Silver Needle. It’s harvested about 7-10 days out of the year. It’s handpicked from Fujian Provence. We bring it in and it’s like drinking from a fresh spring. It’s slightly sweet and has slight notes of melon to it and it’s really great.

AM: Do you envision with the trend to have tea and alcohol together as a hard tea, do you envision a collaboration of something like that?

SS: It would be fun. We do work with several Kombucha companies that have both hard as well as non-alcoholic. There is a cider company that is in the works to launch something sometime next year with our tea. Just in general, I think that tea and alcohol especially now, right? I need to do something good for me and I need to be able to put something in my body and at the same time, they’re like fuck it – I need alcohol and I need something that’s going to make me chill out a bit. When you blend the two together, it’s not so bad!

AM: Does tea have a shelf life in general and what is the best way to put it in containers to keep it fresh?

SS: Great question! Tea is sensitive to light, heat and humidity. As long as you keep it from those, you can have tea last for a long time and have a really great experience. If it is subject to any of those or is near your spice drawer or anything that is fragrant, it acts as a natural odor absorber and it will take up the smells of other things. You just want to make sure that it is in an airtight container.

In terms of the shelf life for tea, tea if produced well and is high quality, it shouldn’t go bad. What we end up finding is that we have Best by Dates as we believe that there is a peak flavor profile that you’re going to get out of a tea in terms of being a live product. Over time, that flavor will drop which means you will lose some natural oil content, the vibrancy of the leaves will start to diminish.

We moved warehouses a few years ago from one location to the next. We found, tucked away in one drawer, tea that was over 5 years old. It was packed well, kept cool in a dark place and we decided to try it and it was fresh, dynamic and really really good. As long as it is stored right, you can have tea last a long time.

AM: I know earlier we were talking about the Pumpkin Chai Tea, but are there things coming out in the fall or holiday that we should keep an eye out for whether it’s new to market or being placed back into rotation?

SS: So a few things. Today we just launched in celebration of our SoCal roots, a beverage that is really popular here is Agua Frescas – just imagine melon water, hibiscus water or cantaloupe water. We did a few events, one was called Summit and a big coffee and tea tea trade show where we soft launched this product called Matcha Fresca!

AM: Oooo that sounds refreshing and amazing!

SS: Haha yes we will send you some! It’s a premium grade matcha with cantaloupe essence and it’s so good! You get this fresh taste like you’re biting into this juicy cantaloupe and the matcha is a really bright green color to stay consistent. This is out now and we’re super excited about that!

IG @ArtofTeaLA

PHOTOGRAPHY | Audrey Ma

Read the Aug Issue of Athleisure Mag #56 and see Create the Ritual with Steve Schwartz in mag.

Hear the founder of Art of Tea, Steve Schwartz on our show, Athleisure Kitchen - which is a part of Athleisure Studio, our multi-media podcast network! Make sure to subscribe to find out when the episode drops. You can hear it on iHeart Radio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and wherever you enjoy listening to your favorite podcast.

ATHLEISURE MAG | #56 AUG 2020

This month’s cover and back cover is ABC’s Station 19, Boris Kodjoe. Our cover shoot editorial – Living with Purpose, talks about Boris’ career, how he came into acting, preparing to shoot the upcoming season of Station 19, the importance of using your platform to raise issues regarding safety in these times as well as social justice, his fitness brand KoFit and more. This interview will also be in an upcoming #TRIBEGOALS podcast episode. We also have an interview with Celebrity Fitness Trainer Gunnar Peterson as we talk about working out from home, how he advises his clients to maintain his workouts, how he worked with the Lakers to ensure the safety and continued training of the team heading to the bubble and his thoughts on gym and studio openings. His interview will also be on an upcoming episode of #TRIBEGOALS. We check in with 3 X NBA Champion Dwyane Wade who is the Co-Founder of Budweiser Zero a non-alcoholic beverage. He talks about his work with the brand, importance of this category and more. We caught up with Celebrity Hair Stylist to a number of our faves from Beyonce, Shakira, Kelly Rowland and Mary J. Blige. We found out what Kim Kimble has been up to with a number of her projects including her hair care brand, her salons, TV opportunities and more. You can hear her episode on an upcoming #TRIBEGOALS. We also found out more about tea, how it benefits our bodies, the importance of having a ritual with the founder of Art of Tea, Steve Schwartz. You can hear his episode on an upcoming Athleisure Kitchen. We get the intel on how we can maintain our oral care with Dr. Brian Harris who is also the founder of Klen.

Read the Aug Issue #56 of Athleisure Mag here.