The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Art of Tea: A Journey of Ritual, Discovery, and Impact By Steve Schwartz

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Art of Tea: A Journey of Ritual, Discovery, and Impact By Steve Schwartz https://amzn.to/4bejI2C Artoftea.com Have you ever wished the world would just stop for a minute? What if it could? As a teenager, Steve Schwartz lived in 24/7 survival mode, going hungry whenever he couldn't find enough work to pay for a school lunch. At the age of eighteen, he nursed his dying mother through the final stages of terminal cancer. His mother's death launched him on a journey to the far reaches of the world, where he discovered a passion for the ancient, calming rituals of tea. Fascinated by the craft, he voyaged with sages and tea gurus around the globe, sourcing in far-flung fields and developing award-winning blends along the way, turning that passion into world-renowned teas. Join Steve, the founder of Art of Tea, as he reveals the surprising true story behind its international success. Learn how he grew a tiny tea concept into partnerships with brands like Wolfgang Puck, Caesars Palace, Disney, and Vera Wang, all through the timeless ritual of tea itself-and its mysterious ability to carve small pockets of peace into modern life. About the Guest(s): Steve Schwartz is the founder and master tea blender of Art of Tea, a handcrafted tea purveyor based in Los Angeles. He is also the bestselling author of "Art of Tea: A Journey of Ritual, Discovery, and Impact" and an expert in Ayurvedic traditions. Steve's passion for combining herbs and botanicals was deeply influenced by his studies at the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico and his personal journey following his mother's battle with cancer. His company, Art of Tea, sources the top 1-2% of tea leaves and botanicals from around the world to create award-winning tea blends. Notable Quotes: "Stories are the owner's manual to life." - Chris Voss "I found the school in New Mexico called the Ayurvedic Institute and fell in love with the alchemy, blending herbs and teas and botanicals." - Steve Schwartz "The beauty behind tea is, when you're making a high-quality tea, 97 to 98% of that is water." - Steve Schwartz "Imagine, getting a bag of unsalted unflavored chips. So on the top of the bag you get these beautiful uniform shapes, right? Well, that's what we source in tea." - Steve Schwartz "Incorporating a seven-minute tea ritual in your day can significantly enhance your time management and focus." - Steve Schwartz

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. I'm host Chris Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. There you go, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the big show. We certainly appreciate it. As always, you come by the Chris Voss Show.

We have these amazing authors, these brilliant minds, these people that share the cathartic moments and challenges of their life, give you the stories, as we always say. Stories are the owner's venue to life, and they share these in their massive books, their massive insights, the CEOs, the billionaires, the White House presidential advisors, Pulitzer Prize winners. All of the great minds are on the show,

and I'm just the dumb idiot with the mic. In fact, we were going to call the show A Dumb Idiot with a Mic and then Really Smart Guests, but it was too long. It didn't work out on the, I don't know, it might have been a good SEO poll if you really think about it, but it's a mouthful. Anyway, guys, the Chris Voss Show works good.

Refer your friends. Go to goodreads.com, 4chesschrisvoss, linkedin.com, anyway guys the chris voss show works good refer your friends go to goodreads.com for chest christmas linkedin.com for chest christmas christmas one the tiktokity and all those crazy places on the internet to be an amazing gentleman he's going to tell you about his journey and what he does he wrote a book in april 26 2022 called art of tea a journey of ritual discovery and impact by Steve Schwartz. We're going to learn about tea today because tea is good for you. And I have a love affair with coffee, but I probably should drink more tea because either way, I love caffeine.

I think that's the true derivative of what I'm after in my caffeine addiction. Steve Schwartz is the founder and master tea blender at Art of Tea. He is the best-selling author of the Master of Tea Blender, and he's the best, let me recut that. Steve Schwartz is the best-selling author, master tea blender, and founder of Art of Tea, a handcrafted tea purveyor based in Los Angeles. At Art of Tea, he applies his background in different variations of tea

that were cultivated during his time at the, let me see if I can say this right, Ayurvedic? Ayurvedic. Ayurvedic. There you go. So his background in Ayurvedic at the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico. I learn stuff every day. That's why I love the show. To the creation of award-winning tea blends that showcaseases passion for the alchemy of combining

herbs and botanicals. He was really drawn to the field when his mom died of cancer when he was 19 years old. He became fascinated with Eastern and preventative medicine as an alternative to Western medicine that failed to save his mom. Welcome to the show. How are you, Steve? Living the dream. So honored to be tracking with you today, Chris.

Thank you. There you go. I should have wrote more tea jokes for this show are there a lot of tea jokes there's some dirty tea jokes wow there's a variety of ones out there but we're just gonna move on to the show there yeah my my brain just you just lit a fire in my brain and we're not going there it's still early in the morning over here and and I'm sitting there thinking, what are some tea jokes? And you just went off the deep end for us, but we'll stay away from that deep end. So, Steve, give us your dot coms.

Where do you want people to find you on the interwebs? They can find us at artoft.com, or they can follow us on Instagram at artoftla. There you go. I'm actually Googling normal tea jokes. We can pull some for the show. How does Moses make his tea? He brews it. All right.

So there you go. Oh, nice. We saved the show. We're on a good course now. No one's worried. So anyway, this book, we'll get into your company, the tea business. But tell us about your book, The Art of Tea. Give us a 30,000 overview, if you would.

Sure. It details sort of three tracks. So there's the foundational story of Art of Tea, followed by how to create a sense of ritual with tea in your life. And the third part is recipes. So zero proof cocktail recipes, baking recipes. So in terms of the foundational story, you were mentioning how at 19, I lost my mom. I got a full paid scholarship out of high school to college. I started going to college six months into it. My mom got diagnosed with brain cancer. I dropped out of school,

moved back in with her, took care of her for about 10 months. And we tried all different types of Western medicine. We went from one Western doctor to another Western doctor. Nothing worked for my mom. And there's nothing wrong with Western medicine. It just didn't work for her. So after 10 months, she ended up passing away. And it really woke me up, Chris. It got me thinking more about health and wellness and what can I do to understand myself a little bit better, my body, help my family, my loved ones, my community. And I didn't want to be a doctor. I didn't want to be an acupuncturist and stick needles in people. Again, there's nothing wrong with either of those. But I found the school in New Mexico called the Ayurvedic Institute and

incorporated Eastern and Western medicine. And I fell in love with the alchemy of blending herbs and teas and botanicals so much so that I was chosen as the only student in advance enough to work with the masters at my school on how to blend and source. And so I saved my money. When I finished studying, I got a backpack and I started traveling around the world to find the best teas and botanicals. And I started blending in my living room and I caught the attention of Wolfgang Puck and his team. And then I got the attention of Caesar's Palace. Yeah. They asked me to train. They said, is there such thing as a tea sommelier? And there wasn't at the time. And so I trained the first

tea sommelier in the United States. And it really sort of grew from there to, you know, fast forward 20 years later, you know, blending unique teas for the White House to Google, to cruise lines, hotels. And so it's been a really fun journey. Really, really honored. There you go. Tea is really good for you. It has a lot of different aspects.

And so the story of your book is your story of your journey going through all that. And then, of course, how you built your company, The Art of Tea. Give us a 30, how you built your company, the art of tea, give us the 30,000 overview of what goes on there over the website. So we are vertically integrated tea company. So imagine getting a bag of unsalted on flavor chips. So on the top of the bag, you get these beautiful uniform shapes, right? And as you work your way down to the bottom, you just get the shake, the stuff that's left over, the powder, the dust. So that stuff is swept up off the floors. They sweep that in giant piles and that's what's

reserved for most traditional supermarket teas. And so what we source is the top one to 2%. We bring it in from all over the world. We blend, we pack and we sell just the highest quality leaves on the market. Nice. It looks like you have two different caffeine contents. You have medium and, and just normal caffeine. Why don't you have high caffeine? Ultra. Yeah. So I'm so glad you asked this. So you talked about your love for caffeine. So, so imagine, imagine like with wine, right? So all wine comes from what type of fruit typically it comes from grapes it comes from grapes grapes grapes yeah it's early i'm still getting them so now depending on the type of grape that's used right is it you know a cab is it a syrah

is it a merlot there's all these kinds of grapes now depending where that grape is grown is it grown in napa is it grown in tuscany and who's the family, the artisan that's making it? How are they storing it? Is it an oak barrel or stainless steel container? So in the same way, all true tea comes from one evergreen shrub called Camellia sinensis. And that's what creates white, green, oolong, black, and another tea called puer.

Oh, wow. And so if it's not from Camellia camilla sinis then it's not a tea so for example chamomile is lovely mint phenomenal but not a tea it's a totally separate category called tizan so leaning in on the caffeine question or comment so there's only like about four or five things that we know that naturally contain caffeine, like coffee, cacao, which creates, you know, chocolate, you have tea or camellia sinensis, and you have yerba mate. And there's a few other things that naturally have it, but each of those different ingredients have different ways the body absorbs caffeine. So coffee has caffeine, and that is known to really stimulate the musculoskeletal system.

So if you're going to go work out and you got to be physically active, then coffee can be fantastic musculoskeletal stimulant. If you're going to be doing a presentation, you need to stay focused, you need to be in the zone, that there is properties within chameleon sinensis, and that we know of as tea, that polyphenols and flavonoids and catechins that combat the negative side effects of caffeine. So what happens with coffee, there's nothing in the bean itself to combat those negative side effects. So you reach this elevated state and you crash because there's nothing combating that negative side effect. And it takes a long time to come back to that normal state. But when it comes to tea, those polyphenols and flavonoids and catechins

help neutralize a lot of those negative side effects. So you come back down to your normal state without the actual crash that's often associated with it. So you just drink more coffee. But eventually, you're catching up right you're constantly in this catch-up mode i've been known to drink high high-powered coffee and man if i don't get the timing of everything right i'll end up with hangovers and they're they're they're just like it's hardcore right so there's some coffee and it's depending on how i and i love coffee there's

some really fantastic coffees out there and i definitely go to the dark side and i enjoy like a really good rich cup of coffee yeah but there's something about tea that just puts me in a frame of mind that gets me so much more present so much more focused so much more in in the zone right what what what's your favorite tea for doing that getting you in the zone like for working and focusing because i have bad adhd and so yeah squirrel yeah no it's great it's and i think most people in our society really suffer from it a big part of it is this it's the i'm holding i'm holding a cell phone like it's it's the technology that's these constant distractors so one of the best things we can do and i do have a particular

tea that i really enjoy that we that we make that helps me get more focused and in the zone but before i get to that it's it really is about creating that sense of ritual and it's seven minutes it's no more than seven minutes you get get the water ready. You get your leaves ready. You get your teapot ready and you pour it inside the teapot. You watch the leaves unfurl. You pour yourself that cup of tea and just be really mindful in that few minute process of being in the zone with that tea. What ends up happening is you may think, I don't have seven minutes to make a cup of tea. But the whole paradox is you end up getting so much more time back just by allowing yourself that seven minutes of turning your phone off, turning the computer off, tapping out of social media just for seven minutes and being really mindful in that

process. And yes, there are tons of benefits around tea that allow that sense of presence to come in and that sense of ritual. So you get time and you get energy and you get focus back in significant ways there you go so what's the name of the tea i feel like you're dodging yeah it's called yeah it's called matcha plus and so what we did was we took the benefits of matcha and we took a benefit of a shade grown green tea called sencha they're both of that japanese origin so our matcha stone ground green tea leaves without any stem that we it's a ceremonial grade meaning like just really the highest caliber organic ceremonial grade matcha that we hand dust onto the sencha tea leaves so what you end up getting is this almost like a key lime pie liqueur. And it doesn't take a long time. You steep it for maybe a minute at a much lower temperature

than you normally would with a black tea. But you get this really rich, it's almost like sweet corn or fresh cut grass. It's just this really delicate, slightly candied flavor profile. But the way the caffeine gets absorbed in the body and the way that the other polyphenols and flavonoids get absorbed in the body, you get this nice natural lift that simulates a thyroid,

which governs metabolism and immunity. And so it moves things along and you just, for me, at least I just feel better. I feel clearer and yeah, everything tends to work a lot better excuse me and as i'm looking over your website you know i can see that these these tea leaves they're they're like the things you find at the top of the bag sometimes and you know as you go down like you say there's that there's that dust of tea and you're like i don't know this doesn't look quite as this wasn't quite as delectable as the you know that top tea that was there and i was there's even a brand that i i bought tea with before that i'm trying to pull up here but the whole thing looks like someone stepped on it a lot and now that you've given me this this picture in my head of people sweeping tea up off the floor

i'm thinking all their tea is there maybe i shouldn't say anything about what their name is but they're very popular especially on vegans but all their tea looks like i don't know it got run over by a car way too many times but i when i'm looking at your website i'm seeing these beautiful these kind of long lots of dried up leaves that are very large it's not the dust sort of thing so you guys basically just focus on getting that top would you you say 1%, 2%? Yeah, we source from the top 1% to 2% of all leaves and botanicals that are found in the world. And the reason is because you get not only more traditional health benefits out of it, but you also get significant amount of flavor profile coming through. There's natural amino acids and oil content that's naturally found in higher quality leaves and botanicals than you would with something that's been, you know, deliberately separated as, you know, powder grade or what's called dust or fannings, the schwag, the stuff that's left over.

And that's what's put in traditional supermarket tea bags. And then they put it in like a paper bag with a staple and all sorts of other chemicals behind it. So if you're looking for a really clean source, you know, we are, even our bags are microplastic free. There's no glues, no binders, no staples. So it's the microplastic adds that extra flavor and texture that I really like. Plus it never leaves your body or something like that. I don't know. That's what I hear, especially as men, it can really stay. It's not so good there you go yeah so i'll have to check this out and you know one of the things i do is i do a lot of intermittent fasting i usually

do that in the morning and i lost 100 pounds doing it so it works really good i mean if you really want to lose weight intermittent fasting is where it's at everything else is bullshit i mean unless you want to go on meth and crack there you can definitely lose weight on that. What's your routine with intermittent fasting? How many hours do you go? I try and go 16-8. Nice. So I go to bed hungry or whatever. I just don't eat anything before bed.

Plus, at my age, it just sits in rockets for the night in your stomach. And so I do that. And then in the morning, when I get up, hopefully I get eight hours of sleep. In the morning when I get up, I have coffee, black, no sugar, no nothing. And that's going to leave me with my next question for you about coffee or teas that you have that aren't going to trigger my insulin response. And then I'll have coffee. And then after a while, once I start feeling some p pangs i'll have water with a spoonful of apple cider vinegar that will kill the pangs and then later in the day i'll have some couple lemons

that won't trigger the insulin response and then if i want to go long i'll repeat that cycle coffee usually i'll have a second coffee sometime in the afternoon. And then, yeah, that's the basic thing I use. And you really feel better. You feel more focused. But one of the problems I have with coffee is lately is it's really triggering dry out in my bowels and stuff. Whatever that chemical is that's supposed to make you poop, basically, is locking me up sometimes. And so it might be that maybe I need to switch to tea. Maybe there would be a better response by my system in my gut.

It's possible. It's possible. You may also want to try just what electrolytes could do. There's a fantastic company called LMNT, and just adding that to your water. The challenge is those will trigger my insulin response and break my fast. The electrolytes will yeah yeah yeah yeah so i mean i've never found any electrolytes that won't but if you know of some let me know yeah i just lament if there's no sugar it's just potassium magnesium and salt i think element yeah l no i think i've tried element

eat lmnt right yeah yeah i've tried LMNT, right? Yeah. Yeah, I've tried that. They have a little bit of sugar in them. Oh, interesting. I don't think there's one that you can get that doesn't. They have at least five calories in the lowest one, which I believe is their, I forget which one, but there's one they have that's really low. I think it's the watermelon one, but there's still a trigger in there. They say the problem with these zero sugar bullshit things is they're using all sorts of hidden sugars.

Right. So those will trigger you. So the beauty behind tea is when you're making a high quality tea, 97 to 98% of that is water. So you want to pull from a really clean water source. And typically high quality teas have zero calories behind them and so you're able to get that full mouth feel without the guilt associated with the calories there was a period of time where i tried the i forget what it's called but you put the patch onto your the back of your arm and you can test your insulin resistance and one of the best things i found was just walking after i eat if i just

walk for 20 minutes after i eat even according to ayurveda if you walk after you i saw my insulin dip significantly in that process oh i'm just gonna start eating on the treadmill just gonna get on the treadmill no no you eat you eat you let that you let the food really get absorbed in the system and then a few minutes after you're done eating without diluting it with a lot of liquid, just go on a 20 minute walk. And it's incredibly powerful in that process. I might start doing that.

See LMNT has stevia leaf in it. Extra. So is there, is there one that's unflavored? That's the one I use. These are technically, let me see. Let me see.

I use the unflavored one and there's, as far as I know, there's zero sugar in it so you got me interested in in teas in switching or at least half-halfing my coffee and tea because my coffee is is has been out of control for a long time and then the gut response has really been bugging me in the mornings where i'll lock up especially if i don't take a lot of magnesium, if I get off my magnesium cycle. But you got me thinking that I might try switching to good teas. And what is your thoughts on, I have all these devices that you can put in the fridge and steep the tea for long periods of time or overnight. What's your feeling about that as opposed to hot tea? Yeah, cold brewing iced tea is phenomenal.

Over 85% of all the tea that is sold in the United States is actually iced tea. So there is significant benefits behind iced tea. It's easy to use, especially here in the south, southern part of the United States, it tends to get hot. If you're based in Vegas where it's like 100 degrees in the summer or over, having iced tea just really helps cool the system down. So there are significant benefits. And by the way, it doesn't mean you necessarily have to go off coffee. A friend of mine says he drinks one cup of coffee all day. It's the same cup, but he just keeps filling it up all day.

So there's a lot of people that are very much hooked on coffee and they'll experience the same dehydration symptoms that you were describing. So if one were to mix it up where they would have maybe coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon, their sleep is improved, their digestion is improved, their skin clarity and tone is improved. There's significant benefits that can be found within tea. I'm not here to make any sort of medical recommendations, but just based on my experience, this is what I've heard and what I and what i found there you go it does appear there's an unflavored lmnt i guess i've never tried it it does have zero calories and it says it doesn't have stevia i'm always suspicious though one thing i do chris is i'll take i'll take this water

bottle i'll take a lemon it's about what, what is it? I think like 64. I think it's, I don't know. It's fairly, maybe 48 ounces. I'll take one lemon, water, one bag of our matcha plus. You can find it on our website at rdt.com. And I'll happily send you some. And I'll take one packet of lament, unflavored. And that's my drink that I sip on throughout the day. And you don't feel like it triggers your insulin response, huh?

No, absolutely not. I sip on throughout the day. And you don't feel like it triggers your insulin response, huh? No, absolutely not. I feel great. All right. I'm going to try that unflavored stuff and check out this matcha thing. Because I'm having a, like, my gut's getting sick of tea, or not tea, coffee all day. And it's just kind of like, seriously, dude, do you have anything else to add? It's a lot. It's powerful.

Again, there's nothing in the bean. And I love coffee. There's some phenomenal, there there's nothing in the bean. And I love coffee. There's some phenomenal coffee. There's just nothing in the bean to combat those negative side effects. Tea has, you know, I'll give you an example. I was invited by the government of Japan, one of four tea companies from around the world, to go meet with different growers and suppliers, a full red carpet treatment for about 10 days. And I had an interpreter with me the whole time.

And on her own, she was quizzing each grower and each supplier that we were meeting with over a 10-day period. And at one point in that trip, she was in a long conversation with a Japanese grower. And they were laughing and talking and discussing. And I said, what's so funny? What are you guys talking about? And she said, you know, Steve, I've been doing my own analysis. I grew up here in Japan. And we grew up knowing that tea is just

good for you, but I didn't know that I ever really believed it. So I noticed that, you know, I was asking people, do you drink green tea? And the ones that do drink green tea, their hands were softer, their skin had a richer complexion. They had a more youthful appearance behind them. And those that only drink coffee had rougher hands, had rougher skin texture, just didn't have the same youthful appearance. And so they were agreeing and they were exchanging their notes and feedback. This is pretty wild. Yeah, I'm one of those people when I get into things, I go all in and get a little out of control. I went into Espresso last year.

I haven't bought the three thousand dollar machine yet because i'm trying to there's so many machines you're just like i don't understand this business but i bought like the 600 700 coffee grinder and and i think a 250 more scale which is just like this teeny little tiny scale you know i just do stupid shit like that because i don't know i'm single and don't have kids and and you you know, I just walk around in piles. You're creating a sense of ritual too, right? There's something about the different gadgets and dialing in to the exact feel that you're looking for. It's very powerful.

Plus, I'm a purist, and it gives me something to annoy my followers with on social media. They're like, what is Chris on doing again now? So I noticed, you know, you guys have a lot of this pure sort of elements and devices. There's something you have on your website called a matcha whisk. Tell us what that is. That looks really cool. The matcha whisk is made out of bamboo and each, it's called a thine. It kind of looks like, you know, small threads and each thine is individually hand cut. And what it does is it creates, when you add your matcha into bowl, you end up frothing it. So when you're making that espresso, you're looking for that crema,

right? You're looking for that frothiness. And that's what gives it that, the amino acids give it that nice body and texture that hold up well in milk. So the same sort of thing happens as you're frothing the matcha, you end getting this you know very eggy frothiness coming within the texture it helps aerate the matcha and sweetens that that liqueur so it gives you matcha more matcha yeah it makes you a matcha man right this is why they pay me five dollars a day i make all the big bucks now does this only work with matcha or does it work with the other teas? Specifically matcha.

So the matcha plus is a little different because it's matcha and whole leaf green tea in a bag. So you get really the best of both worlds without needing to whisk it, without needing the bowl. It's just literally a bag or what we call a sachet. It's a beautiful plant-based derivative see-through sachet with the whole leaf and the ceremonial grape matcha. And so you get the best of both worlds. But if someone wanted to go through the process, so it sounds like you're a gadget guy. When we have a whole kit, we have a matcha kit with a double-walled glass bowl, a scoop, a whisk. Chris, I'll have to send it to you. It's absolutely beautiful, and it's a really interesting process in the making.

I think I see the matcha kit here. It's got a beautiful, I guess, a bowl. It's got a little teacup that looks like a Japanese sort of little tiny teacup. It's actually, that's what you hold the matcha whisk holder on. Okay. Yeah, because what is happening is the bamboo, after you use it, it starts to form and shape a little differently.

So that helps keep it in place and maintains the thines moving in the right direction as it dries. There's also like a little scooper or something here on the left. Yeah. The picture, is that what that is? Yeah. Is it a stir or a scooper? It's a scooper, yeah. You take the bamboo that's been deliberately bent and you place it inside the bowl.

Add a little bit of water. You froth it in zigzag motions with a bamboo whisk. And you can drink right out of that bowl. And you get this. So one of the differences between drinking matcha this style versus a teabag is with a teabag, you steep the tea and you pull the leaves out. With matcha, you're drinking the entire leaf. So you're getting all the EGCGs, the polyphenols, the polyvinyl. You're getting everything.

So you get what's called tea mind, that level of sharpness and clarity that is often talked about in Japanese ritual and Japanese ceremony. In fact, this is often used in Zen monasteries throughout Japan. So before going into sitting in lotus pose for hours and hours at a time and being able to stay hyper-focused in the moment, matcha or sencha is often used in that process. My audience is going to be like, oh, fuck, Chris went from being obsessed with espresso

and never shutting up about coffee to tea. This matcha thing is pretty interesting. What other teas would you recommend for people who are coffee addicts and maybe want to move away from that? And, of course, this show just became about me. Those people in the audience that are listening, what would you recommend to kick the coffee habit maybe or push away? Yeah, we have different types of samplers.

So, you know that's saying it's not my cup of tea and we have different ones that are like jokes purists we have the yeah so we've actually nailed quite a few jokes so far chris this is yeah we're doing that and we cut the clean which is good too yeah which is um we have one called dark chocolate peppermint it's it's a poor it's like a really rich earthy dark tea um that we blend with cacao nibs and pink peppercorn and mint. And so it literally tastes like a dark chocolate peppermint. So from that to English breakfast. So we have multiple samplers.

I'd recommend someone starting their journey. And we also have on our website a tea quiz. So someone can fill it out. They're not quite sure what they want. Or if they know that there's someone that they love that that would be interested in teas they can go to our tea quiz and find out and discover in that process what might be a good fit for them there you go you know sample through it see what see what fits your bill i know green tea is supposed to be really healthy there's supposed to be elements in that that you know make us you know when you look at japanese

people there was a show i watched several years ago called Blue Zones. Did you ever see that movie? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And they go around, and one of the places that they found was in Japan. I think it was, yeah. And basically, these people live longer. And there's a few different aspects that they cite that are the attributes.

I think one of them is what they eat or something. But definitely, you know, Japanese people, they seem to stay skinny. They seem to live long lives. And I don't know, they seem semi-happy. And there's definitely with these blue zones, the other thing that they find is that there's a sense of ritual behind consumption. So if they gather around a table and they're serving each other tea or pasta or wine, whatever that might be in that process of serving for someone else and receiving from someone else

and being able to open up discussion. And there's something about this mild stimulus, mild elevation of caffeine that actually gets people more in the zone and a bit, again, more present in that conversation. So there are lots of different studies around that. There you go. What haven't we talked about when it comes to what you guys do there on the website that we need to plug out and let people know about? We also have, if someone wants to learn more about tea,

we have a full tea sommelier training program. It's hours and hours of content, really diving into the origin and stories and craft so it's a level one how to become a tea expert and level two um so i've i've taught many people in the industry around tea and this is just a great way to really start to dive into your interest around tea there you go there you go you've got me sold on unflavored lmt i'm going to try it i i tried lmt for a while and it's good but you know sometimes i need that jam of i usually take magnesium in the morning but and then i drink a lot of for potassium later in the day once i

broke my fast i drink what is it coconut water and those coconut water bottles have about a thousand potassium most people don't know you you need to drink about close to five thousand things of potassium a day at optimum performance which is a lot of which is a lot of damn potassium yeah but when you get a thousand a pack for for that but you know sometimes they need that crap in the morning and the salt probably too one thing is they one of the things they do do with intermittent fasting is i get this mineral rock salt from utah and you can see the minerals in it and it's made by a massive salt producer and so they sell these they sell these rocks of salt that you can hold in your hand and you just break them up a little bit you suck on those for a

little while when you get hungry and your hunger will dissipate. Most people don't realize that a lot of times when you're hungry, it's not because you're hungry for food. You're, you're dehydrated and your body's communicating to you going, Hey, stupid, give us like,

give us sustenance any way we can so we can bleed some hydration from it. And a lot of people don't realize that was one of the tricks I learned. So that's a really cool trick. That's awesome. Especially if you are consuming a lot of coffee and you're feeling dry in the mouth or dry at that last stage of digestion, adding some of those minerals back can really give back to your body in meaningful ways. Yeah, there you go. So you got me convinced I'm going to check out tea because I'm drinking way too much coffee and I just I'm starting to i don't

know it's it's it's just it's becoming a little raw in the gut sometimes in the mornings i'm old so there you go what are you going to do oh tea tea as there's there's many advantages of tea and i'll happily send you a kit of different things for you to explore and my only ask is i just want your feedback there you go we'll never shut up about if we get into it. I like this matcha thing. I like the little, the doodad there. You know, I like to say I'm a gear guy, so I buy all sorts of stupid shit when I get into stuff. I'm really surprised I haven't bought the espresso thing yet.

It's just so complex, the variations. And they go anywhere from, from you know 600 bucks to several thousand yeah just like it's like buying it's like 50 variations of a car and brand and you're just like oh this is overwhelming and just think that's that's only beans and just roasted differently and from different origins just imagine how wild the varieties are with tea there's over 10 000 varieties of tea out there. Wow. So there's a whole world. In fact, tea is the second most consumable beverage in the world, right behind water. And there's more men that drink tea in the world than women.

Really? So we tend to have all these impressions of what tea is as a society, but there's a huge amount of people that are starting to turn more towards tea. And in fact, 85% of millennials are tea drinkers. It doesn't mean that they don't drink coffee. You and I grew up where it's either you're a coffee drinker or you're a tea drinker. But nowadays, we're starting to see that people go to both sides and they get value and benefit at different times of the day in terms of incorporating that beverage ritual into their lives. Yeah. And I tried to go to tea years ago. I think I was in California at the time, but I would get now what you call that tea dust. And I would see,

you know, full leaves and some of the expensive teas. I'm like, I don't know, but now I know. So thank you for coming on the show and enlightening us. It's been an honor to track with you. I appreciate the opportunity.

There you go. Now I'm never going to shut up about on social media. My audience is going to be like, Oh God, he's onto something new. So give us your final pitch out. Tell people how they can onboard with you. I noticed that you can subscribe and get a discount. If people want to do that for future orders, tell us what.com to go do as well. Yeah. You can find us at art of t.com or Instagram at arttoftla.

There you go. Thank you very much, Steve, for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. And thanks to our artists for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, Fortress, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress, Chris Foss. Chris Foss won the TikTokity and all those crazy places on the internet. Be good to each other. Stay safe.

We'll see you next time. Thank you so much. And that should have us out, man. Great show.