The Tea Appreciation Society was founded in 2007 by a small collective of surfers, it is the one thing we all have in common, individually we are artists and designers and musicians and writers, together we are surfers, surfing really is our cup of tea.

Based in Cornwall in the UK we are often in the ocean, and when we’re not, we’re enjoying good quality loose leaf tea.

Because we are surfers there will often be an element of what we do, and write about at the Tea Appreciation Society that is connected to our surf culture, it’s a culture that spans the world and there are many different elements to it.

We embrace creativity in every genre of art, music, tea drinking and wave riding. It is a broad canvas, and we will respect individuals and movements that paint on their canvas in any way they choose.

It’s all about Tea & Creativity

The world is a better place with both…

TEAm Rider Mr John Isaac (Revolver Surf Shop)

The drift surf magazine exhibition in Bristol on Saturday was a huge success, we started early on the tea, thanks to everyone at the howies shop for letting me make the brews it was good to catch up with you all again since my visit earlier in the year to talk at the wee do lecture about Tea & Philosophy, I’m sorry I missed Matt this time.

A big thanks to Howard and Angela from drift, we all enjoyed the good food and good Traditional English Ale

Here’s a short film of the exhibition.

We’re all looking forward to the next one.

drift surf exhibition 2009 from teajuana on Vimeo.

artwork by Yakob Swyer

Exotic new organic China teas could soon find their way onto our shelves.

A new agreement means small producers of high quality organic China tea will find it much easier to access the UK market with their products.

New green and black teas, as well as more unusual white, yellow, oolong and puer teas expertly produced by small-scale tea gardens across the major growing regions of China, may be in UK shops by summer 2010, following a mutual agreement between the two leading organic certifiers – the Soil Association in the UK and Organic Tea Research and Development Company in China [1].

Following a series of negotiations and detailed training, these two certifiers have agreed to recognise each other’s inspection regimes [2]. This will significantly reduce the cost of organic certification in China, as UK inspectors no longer need to inspect in China, nor vice versa. This opens the way for much smaller producers to extend to the UK market.

Soil Association Certification’s Managing Director David Peace said: “This is great news for tea lovers. We expect to see 15-20 new tea varieties arrive in the first couple of years, with perhaps many more to follow. These will probably be available from specialist tea shops, but we’re hoping that supermarkets will show an interest too.

The challenge for the Chinese tea producers now is to market their products here successfully. Most significantly this agreement means that large volumes of organic China tea will be certified to the Soil Association’s high standards, so consumers can be sure it has been grown without artificial fertilisers and avoiding pesticides.”

Thanks to Jack at the soil association for this info.

New ladies tees in stock now.

We hand print all our organic tee shirts in Cornwall.

We only ever print in small batches, so numbers are limited, get them while you can…

Chin Chin!

Interesting little interview published in Drift Surfing Magazine

See the full interview here http://www.driftsurfing.eu/index.php/archives/2858