🐣 January Recap

The first month of 2024 is in the books! The tea stand got off to a great start in January: 5 popups, 2 interviews, 1 distro, 1 tea talk, 1 grant application, and lots of planning for the upcoming year. It felt great to enter the new year with clear programming goals, fresh collaborations, and familiar faces by my side. I can feel the momentum building and I'm thrilled to be along for the ride.

In January, I served 144 cups of free tea. Also...

🇮🇳 "the chai stand" was born: a popup serving homemade masala chai!

✏️ I wrote a long-form recap of my Maria Hernandez Park popup!

❄️ I served tea at a formal tasting table in the Prospect Park Boathouse!

More on these updates in the recap below!

Before diving into the recap, some announcements:

❓ Interested in volunteering with the tea stand? Willing to share your input on the future of the tea stand? If you fill out this survey, I'll serve you free tea for the rest of my life :)

🗓️ I created a Calendar page where you can see all of the tea stand's events. Especially helpful for those without Instagram!

... and some upcoming events:

⛩️ Popup | Herbert Von King Park
A reporter from NY1 is coming by with a film crew, so Friends are encouraged to stop by and hang out!
🗓️ Wed, Feb 7 / 11am - 4pm

🫖 Tea Talk | Winter & The Cold (Free RSVP)
A small-group conversation over tea hosted in my apartment! This month's topic is "Winter & The Cold."
🗓️ Wed, Feb 21 / 7pm - 9pm

All events can be found on the Calendar.
Updates are shared via Instagram.

Now, to the recap!

🇮🇳 Introducing "the chai stand": free, homemade masala chai for all!

The first ⛩️ Popup of the year was a special one. Friend Adin, who's been serving me heartwarming masala chai for years now, offered to prepare a big batch of chai to be served at the tea stand. I immediately accepted, so long as we called it "the chai stand" and served the tea together.

On a sunny Monday, the chai stand came into existence. It was the first time I co-hosted a ⛩️ Popup from start to finish: we biked over to Irving Square Park together, Adin picked the spot for the day, and we joyfully served dozens of cups of his chai. It's worth nothing that Adin would never call it "his chai" – he'd be quick to remind me that it's his mother's recipe, beaming as he does so.

Halfway through the day, I asked if he'd be willing to write a recap about the ⛩️ Popup. As usual, he was one step ahead of me and was already planning on it.

Here it is: a recap of "the chai stand" from the perspective of a dear Friend. Seeing the tea stand and its journey through Adin's eyes was incredibly insightful for me, and it inspired me to write a recap of my own just a few days later, detailed below.

✏️ Seeking serendipity at Maria Hernandez Park: a long-form recap

A couple weeks into January, the winter blues had slowly seeped their way into my body, and I was bombarded with doubts and anxieties surrounding the tea stand. I was hoping my upcoming ⛩️ Popup at Maria Hernandez Park – my local park and most frequented venue for popups – would help remedy such negative thinking.

And boy did it deliver. It was such a powerful experience that I did something I hadn't done in months: I wrote a long-form recap about the ⛩️ Popup. I'm really proud of this recap and would love for you to read it. The final interaction is up there with the most impactful moments I've ever had at the tea stand.

Here's an excerpt from the ⛩️ Popup recap:

He saunters my way and squats in front of the table, his skin glowing.

“Remind me your name?” I ask after we exchange excited hellos.

“Langston,” he replies nonchalantly. “And remind me yours?

“Miles. It’s great to see you again.”

“I love it here because every time I come, there’s always someone sitting next to you,” Langston says in a poised, kind manner. “Of all days, today is the day to be out here serving free tea. The people need this today. Tea is liquid love, you know. You just need to sip it.”

You can read the full recap here :)

Also, this ⛩️ Popup marked the first instance of a new commitment: I will be setting up the tea stand at Maria Hernandez Park every second Sunday of the month! I'm psyched to (finally) have a regular, scheduled presence at my favorite park.

❄️ Feeling like a tea master in the Prospect Park Boathouse

I must confess: I'm not the only nonprofit going around Brooklyn serving free tea. An organization called Tea Arts & Culture shares many goals with the tea stand – namely to cultivate community through tea – though their programming looks quite different. Whereas the tea stand takes a more guerrilla approach, Tea Arts & Culture hosts fewer and larger public events (in addition to their community programs, which I know little about).

Winter Tea is a great example of a large, public event organized by Tea Arts & Culture. Hosted at the gorgeous Prospect Park Boathouse, it's an impressive ordeal – there are several tables set up for tea tastings, performances by string musicians, and an outdoor fire pit alongside hot tea. As a volunteer, I was assigned usher duties, which ended up being an essential (and overwhelming) role as the amount of attendees greatly exceeded expectations (thanks, Gothamist!).

No shade to ushers, but I had hoped (and signed up) for a volunteer role which was more involved with the tea preparation. I reminded myself I was there to help and continued smiling and gesturing to the best of my ability.

Now that I had accepted my role, I was given the opportunity for a new one.

"Can you serve tea?" Wenting, the founder of Tea Arts & Culture, asked me with urgency. On a day like this she had a million things going on at once.

I paused for a second before replying, mustering up my confidence: "Yes."

She briskly walked toward the tea tasting tables, weaving through the dense crowd as I struggled to keep up. We approached a carefully adorned table with several attendees patiently seated, each with an empty teacup in front of them. One open seat remained on the other side of the table, Wenting gestured me toward it.

"So, uh, what kind of tea is it?" I asked her in a whisper, realizing there would be no training session, no explanation of what's to be done.

I can't remember if Wenting answered me, but I do remember feeling wholly unprepared as I sat down and felt everyone's eyes on me. I was the youngest table member and feared I was the least experienced in terms of tea, too. Wenting set off to attend to some other urgent matter, leaving me alone with a table full of people and a bag of unlabeled tea.

"Hey everyone, my name is Miles, I'm a volunteer with Tea Arts & Culture. To be transparent, I've never led a formal tea tasting before, though I do love tea and actually run a separate tea nonprofit myself," I explained with a smile.

Many smiles came back in return, along with some supportive words ("you got this!"). I easily settled into the magic of the moment – it was snowing for the first time in forever, we were in the legendary Prospect Park Boathouse, and I was serving free tea, my natural state. We chatted about the tea stand, how they found out about this event, and our favorite teas. And I started brewing.

I let my intuition guide me on the three variables which dictate a good cup of tea: the amount of tea, the temperature of the water, and the steep time. I explained parts of the process as I served the tea (e.g. the "fairness pitcher") and realized I knew more than I thought (and thankfully I was not the most tea-ignorant at the table).

The tea tasted wonderfully steep after steep. We sipped, savored, and smiled, grateful for the moment borne from an unexpected collaboration between two tea nonprofits.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed.

Once more, please consider filling out this survey regarding the future of the tea stand (and your involvement in it!). It should only take a few minutes and will be INCREDIBLY helpful for me as I plan for the year and beyond.

As always, upcoming events can be viewed via the Calendar and announcements are made via the Instagram.

Be well! Keep steeping!
Miles 🍵