Tea for Me Please Turns 17

It’s hard to believe that I started Tea for Me Please seventeen years ago today. If you told me back then about all that I would discover and accomplish through this blog, I don’t think I would have believed it. In this post, I’ll take a look back through the years, as well as what my hopes are for the future for me and my relationship with tea.

How It All Started

I first started this site on Blogger.com as a place to back up the reviews I was writing for Teaviews.com, which is now defunct. The basic idea behind Teaviews was that different people would write reviews of the same tea, allowing readers to gain various perspectives. Looking back, I realize this was a great concept because taste is so subjective.

I learned this lesson early on when I was sent a tea infused with chili peppers that left my sinuses screaming. Another reviewer, who grew up in Southern California, described it as tasting like home. This experience was an incredible introduction to the world of tea. Teaviews would send me large packages of teas from all over the globe to try, and I would diligently brew them in my dorm room.

I can’t help but cringe when I look at my early blog posts. I leave them up for posterity because it shows how my writing has evolved. One thing that was clear from the beginning was my enthusiasm for tea, and it’s something I still feel all these years later.

Over the years

Here are some statistics and things that I’m proud of accomplishing as a tea writer and educator over the years.

• Connected with tea people all over the world
• Went to the World Tea Expo six times
• This is my 2,283rd blog post. Of those, 1,307 are reviews of teas or related products.
• Guested on 22 podcasts
• Quoted in 30 articles
• Presented at the Chicago Tea Festival, Nomad Tea Festival, and Toronto Tea Festival
• Judged the first North American Tea Master’s Cup
• Graduated from the Being Tea Teacher Training
• Published my first book, The Tea Recipe Book
• Collaborated with Elizabeth Arden for a tea and perfume pairing event
• Became a tea expert for WikiHow
• Traveled to Japan and completed the Japanese Tea Master course with the Global Japanese Tea Association

Looking to the Future

2025 has presented some unique challenges. I recently paid a 63% import tariff on a shipment of tea from Japan. Sponsored blog and social media content have taken a hit as brands don’t have the marketing budget in this economic climate. I also had to leave my job to make my dream trip to Japan happen. I don’t have any regrets about that, but I’m currently searching for the next opportunity (HINT HINT to any tea companies hiring). The plus side is that I have had more free time to edit and process all of the content I collected on the trip.

One of the most ambitious goals I have for the future is to write another tea book. This one will be a non-fiction guide to tea that will require more time and effort than anything I have ever done previously. I am also hoping to travel to the Northwest Tea Festival next year, as well as to visit some of the domestic tea farms we have here in the US.

I have no plans to stop publishing here anytime soon. One of my favorite things about tea is that it’s a rabbit hole you can never quite reach the end of. There’s still so much left to write about and share.

Thank you so much for reading! Whether you’ve been following this journey with me for years or you just stumbled upon my website, I wouldn’t still be doing this after so long if it weren’t for people like you. The most rewarding part has been helping everyone learn more about tea. Here’s to many more years to come!

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