{"id":31169,"date":"2022-06-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/?p=31169"},"modified":"2022-06-28T10:52:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T15:52:04","slug":"beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Traditional loose leaf teas are hardly rare in the US. For a long time, importers have brought teas from places like China, Taiwan, and Japan to the American market. This is particularly true in big cities like New York and San Francisco<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet most American tea drinkers still mainly drink Lipton<\/a> tea bags or flavored\/scented teas. Even many specialty coffee shops\u2019 tea programs can be an afterthought compared to their coffee programs, mainly offering flavored teas like Earl Grey or Jasmine Green. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo by Mikey Rinaldo. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This gap between a shop\u2019s coffee and tea programs is not an issue. Yet the generic nature of many tea programs in caf\u00e9s does reflect the larger American tea drinking culture. Song Tea<\/a> founder Peter Luong states<\/a>: \u201cYou go to a grocery store, you find tea bags that cost just a few dollars for a pack of 40\u2014that is very much the vast majority of the current market for tea here. Because of that, there\u2019s a perception by vendors and sellers at origin that the American palate means Americans want lower-grade teas in the first place.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the past decade has seen a newer crop of quality-minded tea importers\/vendors. They resolutely focus on single-origin, farmer-direct loose leaf teas. Sprudge editor Jordan Michelman dubs them the \u201cprogressive wing of the American tea scene<\/a>.\u201d For these importers, Michelman quips, \u201cselling flavored black teas is like spraying award-winning coffee with artificial hazelnut.\u201d While they would love to introduce single-origin teas to coffee shops, their more immediate concern is simply to bring higher-quality teas to the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past few years, craft tea brands like Spirit<\/a>, Song, and Hugo Tea<\/a> have become familiar names in specialty coffee shops (particularly in the Midwest, where I\u2019m based). Here are other smaller vendors that may be less familiar to coffee folks. As this piece is written belatedly in honor of AAPI heritage month in May, the vendors featured here are all AAPI-owned. Each, in their own way, is reclaiming and rewriting the narratives surrounding tea in the US. In doing so, they indirectly or directly challenge tea\u2019s Western-colonial legacy of keeping it cheap and anonymous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West China Tea<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

West China Tea<\/a> was founded in 2012 by So Han Fan. Born to a Chinese father and a Jewish mother, Fan became tea-obsessed during his studies in Santa Cruz, California. After spending two years visiting numerous tea regions in China, Fan moved to Austin, TX, and founded West China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
So Han Fan. Photo by Montsho Thoth. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The company offers farm-direct teas from China and Taiwan, making sure to list the farmers\u2019 full names. The company\u2019s small herbal offerings are traditional Chinese herbal teas, like chrysanthemums, with the producers\u2019 names also mentioned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While West China supplies teas to a few coffee shops, Fan has not ventured too much into selling to specialty caf\u00e9s. He told me over Zoom that he was simply too busy handling other parts of West China, including running a tearoom. So he\u2019s had \u201cno time to reach out\u201d to different coffee shops and take care of tasks like \u201canswering a lot of emails.\u201d Fan also thinks that caf\u00e9 owners may find his offerings to be \u201cmuch more expensive\u201d than they are perhaps used to paying for teas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more I talked with Fan, the more I understood why craft tea can be a tricky fit in coffee shops, pricing issues notwithstanding. For him, the speedy rhythm in many US coffee shops makes learning and appreciating tea more challenging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a caf\u00e9\u2019s tea program can still be intentional, it is tricky to fully implement a slow, traditional gong fu cha<\/a>-style brewing. The modern American coffee shop usually serves tea that is only steeped once\u2014at most twice\u2014either with a tea bag or an infuser. Gong fu cha brewing, on the other hand, highlights different layers of a tea through multiple, shorter steeps in smaller brewing vessels. Fan believes \u201cyou can\u2019t steep tea just one time.\u201d Some teas like aged pu erhs\u2014highly sought-after fermented teas from Yunnan\u2014can go through as many as twenty steeps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
West China tea room. Photo by Montsho Thoth. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The underlying idea behind gong fu cha brewing is intentional tea appreciation by slowing down. It is admittedly a difficult concept to apply at a fast-paced caf\u00e9. For Fan, \u201cthere\u2019s no substitute for educating your customer at a teahouse.\u201d If you live in Austin or are just passing through, you can reserve a table at West China\u2019s traditional Chinese-style tearoom<\/a>, which boasts over 130 teas to choose from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volition Tea<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The newest company on this list, Chicago-based Volition Tea<\/a> has only been around since October 2021. Volition\u2019s founder Annie Xiang was born in Urumqi, the capital of China\u2019s far northwest Xinjiang Uyghur region. Xiang\u2019s early childhood memories of drinking tea were brews made of black teabricks and yak milk. I was fortunate to meet and chat with her over a bright, floral\u00a0Colorful Peony<\/a>\u00a0white tea. A huge part of our conversation centered around Volition\u2019s visual identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re very used to\u2014and perhaps beginning to rally against\u2014minimalist coffee branding. However, this branding style in tea can still seem novel. Volition\u2019s branding and packaging\u2014designed by Kam Wang of Bluetiful Design<\/a>\u2014betray much attention to detail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Annie Xiang. Photo by Kristen Mendiola. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As she explains her branding choice in an Instagram post<\/a>: \u201cWe are not here to perpetuate the impact imperialism had on tea culture. So we won\u2019t be luring you in with crazy serif font, or fancy afternoon <\/strong>[European] tea setup<\/strong> (emphasis in original).\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Xiang, identity issues surrounding tea wouldn\u2019t seem as urgent in China because the country already has its \u201cown sufficient, large tea market that is very little tamed by the Western market,\u201d she says. The US context, however, is entirely different: \u201cWe are here [in the US], standing in the convergence of Western tea influences with Chinese tea, so we have to navigate these identity issues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volition is careful to avoid Orientalist tropes\u2014depictions of the East through a Western lens. Xiang chooses a bold sans-serif typeface in lieu of quasi-Chinese-looking scripts. The bold type immediately gives Volition a modern look. If anything, Xiang doesn\u2019t necessarily want the brand to look like a tea company and instead derives more inspiration from surf culture in Santa Cruz, CA. The typeface serves as a visual aid to Volition\u2019s focus on the farmers, whose full names are always given on the retail packaging. She half-jokes that, if asked, she would \u201cgive the address to the village\u2014you\u2019ll be able to find [the farmers].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same spirit, Volition often showcases tea brewing on its social media using\u00a0gaiwans<\/a>. For her, this is not just a form of cultural pride but a counter to European colonial narratives surrounding tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serene Tea<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Serene Tea<\/a> was founded in Seattle in 2019 by Guangzhou native Jingyi Huang, who goes by Rainy in English. Rainy first got hooked on tea when served Dan Cong Oolong by a tea farmer in Phoenix Mountain, a famed oolong region not too far from her hometown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While specializing in Chinese teas, especially oolongs, this year, Rainy began branching out to Thailand, a developing craft tea region. After sampling teas from a Chinese-Thai couple, Rainy visited their farm in Wawee Village, near Chiang Rai, in March of 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, she experienced an incident of gatekeeping by an owner of a larger American tea importer when trying to purchase from the farmers in Wawee. Over a blog post<\/a> and an Instagram Live video<\/a>, Rainy detailed her experience of the incident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the farmer, the importer, who Rainy refers to as \u201cJack,\u201d became \u201cangry\u201d when he found out about Rainy\u2019s visit and planned purchase. Per Rainy\u2019s blog, the farmers told her that there was a verbal agreement that they \u201care not allowed to sell any of their pu erh or sun dry black tea\u201d to importers selling to US consumers. In response, \u201c[Jack] messaged [the wife] in a hostile manner after midnight \u2026and the couple stayed up till 4am to come up with a solution to this dilemma,\u201d Rainy writes<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the farmers\u2019 distress, Rainy tried to mitigate the situation by buying only their white teas. But Jack also wouldn\u2019t let the farmers sell those teas to her. While not wanting to out Jack, she feels the story deserves to be told more widely: \u201cThis is my personal experience and I feel the need to be transparent with you, so to let you, a conscious tea drinker and a responsible consumer know about the dark side in our industry,\u201d she writes. \u201cIt could affect not just you, or me as a small business owner, but most severely, the tea farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This incident speaks to the potential power imbalance between a farmer and a Western buyer in a lesser-known tea-growing region like Thailand. Rainy hopes that her work in Thailand will counter that exploitation. Over email, she explains her interest in Thailand in greater detail: \u201cThe Thai tea market is greatly under-appreciated\u2026since education is a big part of our principles, I felt the need of making this part of the tea world[\u2026] known to our tea drinkers. The Thai tea farmers also feel the need to step into the global tea world[.]\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rainy with one of the farmers she sources from, Kasem. Photo courtesy of Serene Tea. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, Rainy hasn\u2019t encountered an instance of a Western tea buyer bullying a Chinese tea farmer. As she describes, this market is akin to \u201can A-list star of tea Hollywood.\u201d With a robust local market, \u201cWestern buyers only make up a fraction of what [Chinese tea farmers] sell\u2026The Chinese farmers decide who to sell to and what to sell on the conditions of whether they like you or whether you buy a lot or not [.]\u201d In other words, Western tea buyers \u201chave no \u2018power\u2019 in China.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Rainy was able to source teas from a different farmer<\/a> in Wawee. You can purchase them here<\/a>. The Wawee raw pu erh release is appropriately named \u201cNo Exploitation<\/a>\u201d in both English and Thai. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reclaiming Tea<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At their best, progressive tea importers, both Asian-owned and not, are humbly mindful of the vast culture and history of tea\u2019s native regions. We in the West need tea, but tea doesn\u2019t need us. Regions like China, Japan, and Taiwan already have robust networks of local aficionados ready to pay exorbitant prices. As Michelman has stated, \u201cthe cultures that grow [tea] most revere it, and typically keep all the good shit close to home<\/a>.\u201d Importer Taylor Cowan from Spirit Tea told me, while steeping a nice Himalayan Snow Curls<\/a>, that he\u2019s careful not to use the phrase \u201cour <\/em>tea,\u201d To him, the importer\u2019s role is to curate, not possess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Taylor Cowan of Spirit Tea. Photo by Mikey Rinaldo. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over Zoom, Marco Namowicz echoes the same sentiment. A tea blogger for Steapd Tea, Namowicz believes the crucial part of tea is \u201cnot about the person pouring the tea.\u201d Like wine, much of the work in tea is done at the farm level, and many progressive tea vendors value and foreground that labor, both in established and emerging tea regions. Importers like Fan, Xiang, and Rainy are doing impressive sourcing work for the US market. Concurrently, their work also poses crucial questions on the colonial heritage (and neo-colonial specter) behind a cup of tea in the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the importers mentioned above, here are a few other tea brands that spotlight the work of farmers, including  Us Two Tea<\/a>, Kettl<\/a>, Liquid Proust<\/a>, and Kong Mountain Tea<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikey Rinaldo\u00a0<\/strong>(they\/them) is the roaster\/founder of\u00a0New Math Coffee<\/a>, a Chicago-based roastery focusing on specialty Asian producers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correction 6\/28\/22: An earlier version of this article included a misspelling of one of our sources. We apologize for the error. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The past decade has seen a newer crop of quality-minded tea importers and vendors: here are three you need to know. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1668,"featured_media":31170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[14250],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBeyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers - Fresh Cup Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-\ufffc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The past decade has seen a newer crop of quality-minded tea importers and vendors: here are three you need to know.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-\ufffc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Cup Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FreshCupMagazine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-24T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-28T15:52:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/VOLITION-TEA-PACKAGING-Kristen-Mendiola.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"719\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mikey Rinaldo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@FreshCupMag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@FreshCupMag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mikey Rinaldo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/\",\"name\":\"Beyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers - Fresh Cup Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-24T11:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-28T15:52:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/eb27225ff83894b4e2346188ff8824f0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Coffee & Tea\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/category\/coffee-tea\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Beyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/\",\"name\":\"Fresh Cup Magazine\",\"description\":\"Coffee Industry Stories and Insights\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/eb27225ff83894b4e2346188ff8824f0\",\"name\":\"Mikey Rinaldo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a563a6b96239218c2b652ea5772e20e?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fp194.p3.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com%2Fitems%2FNQu4LeXQ%2Fd67247f7-9611-4038-b16a-7478cd067ca3.jpg%3Fv%3Dfdbe2c631762f9448134eee172d9efb5&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a563a6b96239218c2b652ea5772e20e?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fp194.p3.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com%2Fitems%2FNQu4LeXQ%2Fd67247f7-9611-4038-b16a-7478cd067ca3.jpg%3Fv%3Dfdbe2c631762f9448134eee172d9efb5&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mikey Rinaldo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/author\/mikey-rinaldo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers - Fresh Cup Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-\ufffc\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers","og_description":"The past decade has seen a newer crop of quality-minded tea importers and vendors: here are three you need to know.","og_url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-\ufffc\/","og_site_name":"Fresh Cup Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FreshCupMagazine\/","article_published_time":"2022-06-24T11:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-28T15:52:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":719,"url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/VOLITION-TEA-PACKAGING-Kristen-Mendiola.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mikey Rinaldo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@FreshCupMag","twitter_site":"@FreshCupMag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mikey Rinaldo","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/","url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/","name":"Beyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers - Fresh Cup Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-06-24T11:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-28T15:52:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/eb27225ff83894b4e2346188ff8824f0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/beyond-earl-grey-tea-wisdom-from-three-aapi-owned-importers-%ef%bf%bc\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Coffee & Tea","item":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/category\/coffee-tea\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Beyond Earl Grey: Tea Wisdom from Three AAPI-Owned Importers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/","name":"Fresh Cup Magazine","description":"Coffee Industry Stories and Insights","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/eb27225ff83894b4e2346188ff8824f0","name":"Mikey Rinaldo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a563a6b96239218c2b652ea5772e20e?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fp194.p3.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com%2Fitems%2FNQu4LeXQ%2Fd67247f7-9611-4038-b16a-7478cd067ca3.jpg%3Fv%3Dfdbe2c631762f9448134eee172d9efb5&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a563a6b96239218c2b652ea5772e20e?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fp194.p3.n0.cdn.getcloudapp.com%2Fitems%2FNQu4LeXQ%2Fd67247f7-9611-4038-b16a-7478cd067ca3.jpg%3Fv%3Dfdbe2c631762f9448134eee172d9efb5&r=g","caption":"Mikey Rinaldo"},"url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/author\/mikey-rinaldo\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/VOLITION-TEA-PACKAGING-Kristen-Mendiola.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pf7LWY-86J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}