Tea RoomA year in tea

Twelve months, twelve teas

A seasonal calendar that moves from familiar teas toward more involved ones, pairing each month's tea with what is in season in the Pacific Northwest. No striving — only observation, through the body as it arrives.

Choose a month to open its tea, pairing and practice. The dotted mark is this month. Arrow keys step through the year.

Select a month on the wheel. Each opens the month's tea, a seasonal Pacific Northwest pairing, a gentle learning focus, reflection prompts, and its sources.

How the year is held

Each sitting is its own. The same tea, the same room, and the same people never quite meet again — the atmosphere shifts with the moment, the participant, and the season. Nothing is kept, judged, or performed; the tea is drunk and it is gone. This mirrors Therapeutic Studio's practice of learning by doing and attending to what arrives. See Other Bodies and Emotion Stories.
What is ours to design, and what is cited. The choice of which tea meets which month — the progression from familiar to more involved — is the Tea Room's own curation. The facts inside each card are not: how a tea is made and where it comes from, and what is in season locally, are drawn from the sources listed on every month and gathered in the references below. Where a winter pairing leans on stored, dried or preserved food, that reflects the Pacific Northwest's real cold-season table rather than a shortcoming.
A note on care and respect. Several of these teas belong to living traditions — Japanese chanoyu, Chinese gongfu preparation, South Asian chai among them. The Tea Room borrows their ethic of presence and hospitality while naming their origins and staying a learner rather than claiming mastery. Brewing figures are gentle starting points, not rules.

Beginner's glossary

Approximate pronunciations for the terms used above. Tones and regional variation are simplified; these are a friendly starting point, not a strict guide.

References

Independently verifiable sources behind the facts on each card.

  1. “Processing, chemical signature and food industry applications of Camellia sinensis teas: an overview” — open-access, peer-reviewed. The six tea types (white, green, yellow, oolong, black, and dark/pu-erh) are classified by degree of oxidation and post-harvest processing; the basis for the processing facts on most cards.
  2. Global Japanese Tea Association — Japanese green teas are steamed rather than pan-fired; the first flush (ichibancha) is picked in spring; matcha is stone-ground from shaded tencha leaf and whisked.
  3. Darjeeling tea — a registered Geographical Indication (India’s first, 2004); the muscatel second flush is picked in early summer (May–June).
  4. Jasmine tea — a scented tea, most often a green-tea base layered with fresh jasmine blossoms so the leaf absorbs their fragrance.
  5. Eisai, Kissa Yōjōki (1211) — the treatise that helped establish tea and powdered-tea drinking in Japan, associated with Uji and chanoyu.
  6. Government of British Columbia, Buy BC, Guide to B.C.’s local, seasonal foods (Seasonal Chart) — month-by-month availability of B.C. fruits, vegetables, herbs and nuts.
  7. BC Farms & Food, What’s in Season (south coast British Columbia) — winter “shoulder season” foods: stored apples, root vegetables, hardy greens, hazelnuts and walnuts, preserves and honey.
  8. BC Farmers’ Market, What’s in Season — regional seasonal availability, including cold-storage extension.
  9. Wuyi rock oolong (yancha) is a roasted, mineral oolong from the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian; its processing — partial oxidation, then charcoal roasting — follows the oolong pathway described in reference 1, and its origin is corroborated across independent tea references.