My Story

I grew up in Japan, where many people love and drink tea daily. During my life in Japan, tea was the beverage I had the most, even over water, and in my family, tea was always the drink served at the table from breakfast to dinner. I even had iced cold tea at basketball practice when I was a kid. When I look back on my life in Japan, tea always played a large role in my life–until I moved to the US.

This year marks my 10th anniversary since I moved to the US from Japan. Ten years ago, I moved to Memphis for school. As my lifestyle changed (or maybe I just became more "Americanized"), my drinking habit naturally adapted to coffee—the popular beverage here in the US. Coffee became my best friend throughout my school and early career years, and I couldn't have lived without it. Without even realizing it, coffee had taken over the space previously occupied by tea.

However, last year another change in my drinking ritual happened. I returned to being a tea drinker! I stopped drinking coffee every day, and currently I only drink coffee on weekends as a reward for myself. Now, tea is my weekly drink, not only for the taste and nostalgia of Japan, but also as a healthy way to reduce my caffeine consumption.

Until recently, my inner tea-loving-spirit was long gone, but it came back to me for a simple reason.

"I wish we had tea shops in Memphis." This was a thought my friend muttered to me one day when we were in a tea aisle at a grocery store. Something inside of me clicked. "That's right...we have many coffee shops in Memphis but no tea shops!”

I don't remember what else we talked about after the conversation, but I do remember that I started reflecting on my life and concluded I had been far away from tea for a while because I had such a limited opportunity to encounter tea while living in Memphis. If there was a system or culture where teas were more appreciated and accessible, I would have been drinking more tea during the last ten years. With access to a welcoming and educational tea shop, I believe people would be drinking tea as much as they drink coffee.

I was fascinated and intrigued by the idea of having a unique tea shop in Memphis since my grocery aisle realization, and thousands of exciting ideas kept coming to mind. I eventually just asked- "Why don't I just do it? Why can't I be the one to bring the new tea-drinking "NovelTEA" culture to Memphis?"