❓ FAQ

Because exchanging trust, instead of money, makes for more meaningful interactions! Because if something can be free, it should be free! Because we as a culture need to learn to receive help & love without shame! Because it serves as a simple gesture of care in a world full of fear & loneliness!

Because we want to serve tea FOR ALL!

Read more about the why of The Tea Stand in our Manifesto here.

Well, we do more than just this, but serving free tea in public parks is the original & fundamental format of The Tea Stand.

In December 2022, I (Miles) set up The Tea Stand for the first time in my local park — Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick. I served free tea to dozens of strangers, neighbors, and friends. The day was full of local connection, much-needed stillness, and serendipity.

As I began serving tea in the park more consistently, neighbors began inviting me to serve free tea in different places, like food distributions and neighborhood events. In this way, these park "Popups" became the venue for community input and enabled the natural evolution of The Tea Stand.

Today, we host Popups every month in Maria Hernandez Park (every second Sunday) and Herbert von King Park (some other Sunday).

Read more about Popups — serving free tea in parks — here.

We host events all year-round, mostly outdoors. Most of our events are free but some feature a small suggested donation. And there is always free tea.

Here's a brief summary of our programming:

⛩️ Popups: 2-3 times a month, we serve free tea for all in public parks. We're in Maria Hernandez Park (Bushwick) every second Sunday of the month and in Herbert von King Park (BedStuy) once a month.

🥬 Distros: we serve free tea at the Riders4Rights food & clothing distribution every second Saturday of the month in BedStuy. Sometimes, we serve tea at distributions organized by Club A, BK Jail Support, Collective Focus, and other local mutual aid groups.

🫖 Tea Talks: once a month, we host a guided, topical conversation over tea at my apartment. Previous topics include childhood, peace, and travel. [Note: As of March 2026, Tea Talks are currently on hiatus.]

📀 Steeped in Sound: once a season, we co-host a Sunday afternoon event series featuring free tea, live DJ performances, a guided meditation, and local vendors. Co-hosted with local musician LEEWAY.

All of the tea we serve is donated by supporters of The Tea Stand, mostly our neighbors. As a result, we have a diverse inventory of teas & herbs, everything from sheng pu'er to chamomile.

Generally, we like to offer at least one "true" tea and one herbal tea at events. Most of tea we we serve is loose leaf; we bag the tea in advance using unbleached tea bags.

We serve hot tea in the cold and cold tea in the heat!

If you'd like to donate tea, we'd be take it off your hands, so long as you know the ingredients. You can drop-off any tea donations at one of our events (calendar here).

Visit our Calendar page here to see all of our upcoming events in one place. To stay in the loop, you can also sign up for our free monthly newsletter here.

We host events all year-round, and most are free and open to the public.

The majority of our events are in Brooklyn, specifically Bushwick & BedStuy. By staying hyperlocal, we seek to become a familiar presence and develop meaningful, long-term relationships with our neighbors.

However, we love to explore this city and meet its many inhabitants. We're proud to have served free tea in all five boroughs of NYC!

If you'd like to collaborate with us, there are generally two options:

1. Join us at an event we're already hosting. This could mean setting up a small table next to us in the park, vending / offering something at one of our events, etc. You can email us with any ideas.
   
2. Invite us to serve free tea at an event you're organizing. Send us an email with some event info and we'll see if we can participate! We love serving free tea in collaboration with local artists & radical orgs. Please note that we ask for payment for these types of collaborations.

Here is our email!

Also, there are many ways we can collaborate outside of just events, so don't be shy if you have an idea that doesn't fit in with the above! We'd love to chat :)

Here are some ways you can support The Tea Stand:

1. Donate money! Support us via our membership program for as little as $3/month! As a thank you for your support, you'll receive a variety of perks, like discounts at tea shops, seasonal boxes of tea & postcards, and locally-made ceramics. Sign up here.
   
2. Donate tea! Contribute to the circular tea economy! All tea is welcome, so long as you know the ingredients. You can drop-off any tea donations at one of our events (calendar here).
   
3. Donate time! Help us serve tea at a future event – we share volunteer opportunities via a WhatsApp group chat here.

Miles is the founder and steward of The Tea Stand – he hosts most of the events, writes the newsletter, etc. This is their full-time work!

However, friends and strangers alike share their time, funds, tea, and ideas to collectively create, operate, and support this project. This is why I use "we" pronouns when describing The Tea Stand.

A special shoutout to Adin who helps with the website, opens up his apartment for us to host events, and serves as an advisor for all high-level decisions. We couldn't run The Tea Stand without him.

Miles, the founder & steward of The Tea Stand, spent a few weeks backpacking around Southwest Asia and North Africa in 2019. Never before had he experienced such warmth, trust, and hospitality from complete strangers.

Miles was particularly drawn to the ubiquitous teahouses while in SWANA, each of which served as a hub for conversation, stillness, and togetherness. They loved being able to share space with others without any pressure to show up in a certain way.

Upon returning to the US, he was saddened by the lack of casual, social spaces like these teahouses. And so, in an effort to fill this void and create more opportunities for strangers to connect over tea, he started serving free tea in his local park & hasn't stopped since :)

Well... yes and no. Crazily enough, I came up with the idea to serve free tea to strangers before I had ever heard of the Monk & Robot books written by Becky Chambers.

When I got around to reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built — the first book in the Monk & Robot duology — I could not believe the alignment between myself and Dex, between the world The Tea Stand believes in and the world of Panga. It remains a personal favorite and something like a sacred text for The Tea Stand.

(If you haven't read the Monk & Robot books, you can borrow A Psalm for the Wild-Built for free through our library here!)

In July 2024, we started a membership program with the hopes of financially sustaining this project. It's like a Patreon – people make monthly contributions to support The Tea Stand and receive perks in exchange.

Here's a brief explanation of how the funds from the membership program are used:

First, to cover expenses of The Tea Stand. All of the tea that we serve is donated and we get around by bicycle, so our operating costs are quite low: mostly just cups, lids, and general maintenance.

Second, to cover my cost of living, as The Tea Stand in its current form could not continue without me pouring all my creative & physical energy into it. As of writing this, member contributions cover about half of my living expenses; personal savings from my previous job cover the rest. More on my background & privilege here!

Longer term, we're inspired by the possibility of the funds from the membership program being distributed (in a more formalized way) throughout the neighborhood – compensating artists, supporting local mutual aid groups, etc.

Also, your donations are tax-deductible! We are 501c3-certified.

You can sign up for our membership program here!