In a community that is separated by oceans and tremendous travel, tea enthusiasts are still tightly woven together via shared steeped experiences and communication online. When seeking a place for sincere steeped support, one can always look to the tea infused projects being backed on Kickstarter. One particular project that has caught the attention of our community is the campaign for Tea Journey that launched on April 3rd. When funded, the mobile magazine will connect “growers in 35 countries with consumers worldwide who are seeking authoritative tea knowledge.”
This collaborative effort of tea journalists will share work from reporters who live in 12 countries and speak 18 languages (from Mongolian to Portuguese), with much of the work being translated into the English language for the first time. According to their Kickstarter page, Tea Journey will identify “the best tea articles found in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Hindi and Japanese publications. The staff then translates and ‘retells” these stories in nuanced English.’” To get to the root of the matter, translated stories will offer local perspectives directly from those who nurture and produce teas.
According to Dan Bolton, the founding editor and publisher, “Tea Journey is like a digital caravan of story tellers who travel to origin and return with authoritative, elusive and exclusive articles, photos, and video that will help our readers discover their tea destiny.” Currently, this collaborative magazine is being financed by editors, writers and tea experts, who are now reaching out to the global tea community for support via their Kickstarter campaign.
Donors who support the mobile magazine will be rewarded with incredible tea incentives and priceless steeped experiences. With a donation range from $2 to $7,000, potential backers can choose from over 40 varied rewards. Beyond receiving access to their mobile magazine, donors will have the opportunity to choose from rewards that feature samples of teas direct from the garden, tea 101 educational videos, tea appliances (smacha autobrewer, craftea brewer, matcha tea grinder), focused tasting courses with tea experts, World Tea Academy courses, tea school in Montreal, dinner/tea with tea expert and author James Norwood Pratt, and even a trip to China with Tealet. Charter subscribers will also see their names included in the inaugural issue.
Visit Tea Journey’s Kickstarter Page to learn more about how you can support their campaign.
