Why We don’t Make Lunar New Year Teas
For the past few weeks you might’ve seen some of the teas released by various tea companies to celebrate Lunar New Year. From luxury brands to blends by Adagio, it seems like everyone has a Year of the Rabbit inspired offering. So, why not Moody Teas? While we’ve posted about the holiday, we haven’t released a new blend. Well, there’s a couple reasons, and they all come back to one point. We’re not part of the AAPI community.
We’re not part of the AAPI community
Don’t get us wrong – teas’ origin is in China. We owe most of what we know about tea to communities throughout Asia. Every country in Asia has played a major influence in tea culture and how we drink tea today! That being said, while we respect and appreciate the Lunar New Year, and enjoy celebrating personally, this isn’t our holiday to gain from. We’re just not comfortable using a holiday we don’t have a cultural hand in as a way to profit personally. While we sell our own blends and our take on tea year round, we also want to support and uplift AAPI owned tea businesses, especially when they release culturally significant products.
We’re Not Qualified
We also don’t feel qualified to produce a blend inspired by Lunar New Year. Many LNY tea based traditions draw on principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine. As you’ve probably noticed, we focus on functional blends. While we use a lot of different sources when researching to develop a blend, we aren’t licensed practitioners of TCM. On the one hand, we wouldn’t be comfortable about formulating a blend that disregards the cultural significance of TCM. That feels like ignoring a part of tea culture which is both critical and underappreciated. On the other, we are by no means qualified to formulate a TCM inspired tea. And we feel trying would be appropriative and inappropriate. So, we’d rather refer this to members of the AAPI community. They can best formulate a Lunar New Year inspired blend that acknowledges aspects of culture we aren’t a part of.
We’d Rather Uplift AAPI Owned Small Businesses
We’ve seen how some other western tea brands release products for Lunar New Year, and we don’t feel great about it. The AAPI community has been historically devastated by colonialism. It doesn’t feel right to us that large brands owned by non-AAPI people who benefitted from colonialism make tens of thousands of dollars off of LNY inspired products, especially when those products don’t even come close to adequately representing all the flavors and traditions of the holiday.
For instance, Adagio releases a LNY blend every year. This years, called Year of the Rabbit, features white tea with floral and vanilla notes. Many of their reviews note that the flavors were lacking. In looking at the ingredients on their website, we see why. With so many flavors found throughout Asia to work with, this blend felt like an everyday tea in LNY packaging. Harney and Sons also released a Year of the Rabbit blend. The flavors on this one do look much more interesting, with toasted rice and sesame. However, at $2.50 a tea bag (not including takes or shipping) it’s definitely not accessible or affordable. At the end of the day, there are so many AAPI owned tea companies that are making incredible LNY blends. Don’t spend your money to support huge corporations; instead, keep reading for some of our recommendations.
Celebrate with these instead!
So, if you’re going to purchase a Lunar New Year tea, we support you! We hope as tea lovers you all take the time to research teas origins and history, and part of that means learning about and celebrating cultures from across the world, specifically in Asia. We’d prefer that you use this as an opportunity to uplift and celebrate AAPI owned businesses as they celebrate a culturally significant holiday. We’ll be right there celebrating too, we just won’t be capitalizing on it to make sales.
Check out these Lunar New Year Teas and Gifts!
Want our recommendations? Check out these awesome AAPI owned small businesses and their featured products for Lunar New Year!
Volition was founded in 2021 by Annie, a first generation Chinese American, and queer woman. Volition opened with the mission of uplifting tea farmers who for hundreds of years have been rendered invisible in the western consumer world. Volition’s incredible LNY offering is unfortunately sold out, so this is one to look for early next year. However, they’re still a great example of exactly the kind of Lunar New Year offering we love – socially responsible, AAPI owned, and culturally relevent. We especially love the inclusion of White Rabbit rice crispies!
The Qi was founded in 2018 by Lisa, who grew up near Beijing. “Rooted in time-honored Eastern holistic healing wisdom a wellness brand on a mission to empower you to feel more joy, beauty, and inner calm in our busy days through the power of healing whole flower tea rituals.” Their Lunar New Year bundle is a great option if you’re looking to explore traditional ingredients like chrysanthemum and goji!
“Té is a New York-based tea company specializing in Taiwanese tea. Founded in 2012 by Elena Liao and Frederico Ribeiro, the company sources exquisite teas directly from small farmers in Taiwan. In addition to an array of loose leaf tea, Té is known for its exceptional tea snacks, including the beloved Pineapple Linzer.” Their LNY offering is super creative, as it’s a snack box! Full of an assortment of sweets that traditionally accompany tea for LNY, this is a great gift for the tea lover who doesn’t need more tea but still wants to celebrate.
Tea dealers is founded and owned by Korean American Shin Won-Yoon and her husband. They specializes in Korean teas, which are generally harder to find in the United States than Japanese or Chinese teas. Tea Dealers “work directly with agricultural conscious farms throughout Asia. care deeply about the people behind the cultivation of tea and thus never change, process or blend their creations. All of teas use traditional agriculture methods that do not use pesticides and only natural fertilizers when needed.” This Lunar New Year offering includes 3 Korean semi-wild teas, 2 greens and one black. This is an awesome chance to learn about and experience Korean tea while you celebrate!
Tea Drunk is a Certified Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise in New York City. They specialize in terroir-specific; cultivar-specific; and vintage-specific leaves. They even have exclusive rights to some of these teas, so you won’t find them anywhere else. Their Year of the Rabbit sampler includes 4 of their teas, including white silver needle. Now, these teas are expensive, but they’re also a one of a kind experience. So, if this fits into your budget, go for it!
So, what are your Lunar New Year plans, and how have you been incorporating celebration into your tea practice? Have an AAPI owned small business you love?
Let us know in the comments!
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