Inspiration & A Cup of Tea

With the window slightly opened, on a cool morning, as the rain pattered gently outside, I lit anime, turned on Nina Simone’s Live At Ronnie Scott’s, an enjoyed a cup of green tea. And as the honeyed and sweetgrass-like notes warmed me, I recalled the relationship I’ve had with tea over the years. As a little boy, my aunt, my mother’s triplet sister, would give me a cup of tea and oranges as she babysat me while my mother worked. When I got old enough, I often enjoyed a cup of tea after school, using the same small pot that was reserved just for me, and dropping in a black and orange pekoe tea bag. By high school, Arizona’s unmistakable tall green floral-decorated can of green tea had made it’s debut, and I bought one every day on the way to school, to enjoy at lunch. By college, I stopped at the first proper tea house on the north side of Chicago, and was introduced to Matcha and loose whole leaf teas filled with shredded pieces of tea leaf and flower buds, or curls of roasted black tea mixed with intoxicating spices. It’s been a life-long thing for me; but I often found I was alone in that passion.

Socially, in America, tea has always seemed to be associated only with people of Asian descent, specifically Chinese & Japanese, or with people of English descent. We hear about Londoners enjoying tea and crumpets on a rainy British isle day. We constantly see images, both modern and ancient, of Chinese or Japanese people enjoying a cup of green or floral tea as part of a traditional and millennia-long relationship with the substances. Yet, rarely, is tea associated with Black people or people of African descent. In fact, rooibos tea, an amber-hued tea from the red bush of a plant in South Africa, or Hibiscus tea, a staple of Caribbean cuisine, didn’t become a standard at health food stores like it’s Green, White, Black, Orange Pekoe, and floral counterparts until fairly recently. It has seemed that Black people are generally, and perhaps negatively, associated only with juices, sodas, or sports drinks. And that includes the way tea is marketed. When I’d come home to the South side of Chicago, which is predominantly Black, the options I had in stores were generally very limited: beautiful and progressive though Chicago may be, it is still very noticeably segregated, at times. Yet, when I went to to other areas of the city, my options for different kinds of tea improved.

Therefore, as the adage goes, imagine my surprise when I noticed a Black Woman had started her own company of fine organic teas and teaware. In a country where Black people, and especially Black women, are rarely afforded opportunities in business, establishing a successful company is a hurdle, in and of itself. To do it in an extremely niche category makes it difficult, doubly so. And as if that alone wasn’t enough of an accomplishment, Taylor Lindsay-Noel, the founder of the luxury speciality brand Cup of Té, is a former Olympic gymnast who survived a tragic accident which left her paralyzed from the neck down; she overcame that to create a brilliant podcast on tea which then led to a stunning product.

At 14 years old, Taylor Lindsay-Noel was a National gymnastics champion in Canada, who was preparing to represent her country in the 2012 Olympics in London. While practicing an exceptionally difficult technique that would have potentially made her an Olympian star, she fell unexpectedly. It was not a mere fall that she could easily recover from. Taylor broke her neck while dismounting from the high bars, and it left her paralyzed from the neck down. At 14 years of age, she went from flipping so high that it seemed she defied gravity to lying prone in a rehab center, wondering if she would survive, let along ever walk again.

Years of surgery and rehab followed, and while she remains in a wheelchair, she has regained movement in the arms and the ability to speak, eat, and swallow, which at one point, she was unable to do. While this may have seemed like the end for others, for Taylor, it was an opportunity to rediscover possibility in a universe of endless opportunity. In 2016, inspired by her love of tea, she created her own podcast, where she would brew tea and speak with guests. The success and popularity of that beautiful moment of sharing over a cup of quality tea inspired her to create a business called Cup of Té, which provided quality loose leaf teas.

This is a difficult prospect; outside of certain parts of the world, loose leaf teas are a speciality and niche. Everyone loves the boxed brands of tea we find in stores, generally containing tiny tea bags full of a small amount of poorly produced, dried out tea, with barely any taste. The quality of those store brought teas is usually so poor, that you must improve it with sweeteners and products to provide it with any kind of real flavor. Loose leaf teas are the real deal. Fresh whole leaf tea full of natural flavor and antioxidants, roasted lightly to bright out of the most lovely taste: the light and fresh white tea, the nutty, floral, and sweetgrass-like green tea, the strong, robust, full-bodied black tea. Sometimes these foundational tea elements are flavored with flower buds like rose and jasmine, or spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and vanilla (masala chai). In some cases, they come from elements of bushes and flowers themselves, like rooibos and hibiscus. However, the production makes them more expensive, and in a world where sodas and juices, with stronger and more addicting flavors at cheaper prices, have taken over, quality teas like this sometimes fall behind.

That difficult alone makes it difficult for a tea company of this type to be established. Yet, Taylor forged on, continuing to promote and push the product. A turning point was the Coronavirus pandemic: as people found themselves at home more, they became bored with the humdrum and same-old-thing. They wanted to try something stimulating and invigorating, and a whole new audience discovered Taylor’s brand. During this time, we also saw Black Lives Matter and the movement for Black Lives, civil rights, and equality take hold of the country during the unjust murders of Breonna Taylor & George Floyd. Protests, marches, and demands for justice began and also powered a “Buy Black” movement, where people gave economic power to Black people by supporting their products. Both of these things helped uplift Taylor’s brand.

Then, an email came from Oprah Winfrey, herself a lover of tea, who was inspired by Taylor’s product, story, and passion. As another adage goes, the rest was history. Before long, that amazing stamp-of-approval from Oprah brought Taylor a level of success she had only dreamed of. Now her product is on Amazon, in stores across the world, introducing more and more people to this ancient elixir.

Thus, Taylor has inspired me to no end. I am amazed by her diligence, her courage, her determination and I am encouraged by her success and accomplishment. I have also had setbacks in my life, none as serious as Taylor’s, but still noticeable. In 2016, I was diagnosed with serious Anxiety Disorder, Depression, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I, finally, had a diagnosis and words to put on this...*thing*...that had followed me all of my life and which had caused me years of pain that no doctor could understand and that I couldn’t shake. Understanding it made it no easier, and I found myself in bed, refusing to leave the house for almost a year, as debilitating panic attacks caused me to faint, caused my blood pressure to spike, and left me unable to even step outside. It took awhile for the medication to kick in, but even when it did, I felt myself left uncertain. I had had to quit all my jobs, drop out of the Master’s Degree program I was in, and leave the lifestyle I had known. The prospect of starting over seemed overwhelming.

Yet, around the same time as Taylor, in 2018, I began working again as a writer and musician, and slowly attempting to build my brand. When I saw her story, I was spellbound. She has encouraged me to move forward, to press toward, and to reach higher. All of us can see ourselves in her, the humanity, what Gwendolyn Brooks calls the “progress-toward”, and through her example, we can see that it is possible to survive, to succeed, and to thrive.

I am amazed and inspired by her. And I think you will be as well.

Be well.

And