One of the most common pieces of advice a Boulderite will give to a new resident is “Go check out the Dushanbe Teahouse,” but what’s so special about a teahouse? Well, ours was handcrafted in Tajikistan during the Cold War, and kindly shipped by our sister city of Dushanbe. The rebuilding of the teahouse in Boulder was an awesome accomplishment which nearly did not happen. The idea of a sister city or twin town developed from the Cold War following WWII. The point was to form legal and social bonds between disparate cultures, and even promote relationships between former enemies.... Read More

Tea is awesome and can be healthy. In fact, I’ve found green tea particularly appealing because it is so good for you. Green tea is made from Camellia sinensis leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process used to make oolong and black teas. For those interested in managing their caffeine intake, eight ounces of green tea contain about 35 mg of caffeine, about half the amount found in black tea and about a quarter the amount found in coffee. Caffeine has been shown to provide performance enhancing benefits by mobilizing fatty acids from body fat and making them... Read More

I spent the majority of last week sick with a sore throat (a name that doesn’t quite do it justice as I felt it would be better described as nightmare throat or raging-baby-dragon-trapped-in-my throat), and I found myself wondering about cannabis teas, or in short, CBD tea. First, a couple of facts: Tea alone is packed with benefits for the body. There’s the antioxidants that protect the it from free radicals that can wreak havoc on our health, and let’s not forget about its association with weight loss and a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes. When ingested, such as in tea, cannabis... Read More

Since its permanent settlement in the 1850s, the City of Boulder has been a Western hub of thought, culture, and appreciation for natural beauty. Since the 1980s, Boulder’s uniqueness has allowed it to participate in the international sister cities program, a program whose ongoing success is reflected throughout the city. Boulder shares a bond with seven sister cities all across the globe (in Tajikistan, Nicaragua, China, Mexico, Japan, Cuba, and Kenya); through these bonds, Boulder has experienced an objectively positive exchange of culture. The international sister city movement began in 1947,... Read More

It is that time in the semester when stress spreads like a rampant plague through the ranks of the students at universities. We are right about halfway through the semester, and every week my workload seems to grow heavier and heavier. When I was a freshman in my first semester at college, I had no idea how to cope with this stress. I wish I’d known about some of the options available for students to reduce this anxiety. What I have come to learn is that there are a wide variety of resources available for college students, many of which are quite reasonably priced. Yoga I know how this must... Read More

Before you get too worked up–they didn’t find microplastics in your tea if you were using paper tea bags. Generally, pyramid shaped tea bags are made of plastic, while paper bags are flat. The plastic tea bags did surprise researchers at McGill University, however, as they expected at least some microplastics to show up in their testing, hence the reason for the study. They did not expect that there would be billions of microplastics in a single tea bag. “We were expecting to find a few plastic particles, maybe hundreds or thousands,” a researcher said. “But we were extremely... Read More

One of my favorite things to do is go to cute local coffee shops on occasion! I love the variety of coffee shops, each one having a different little pizazz and style; makes paying $5 for a coffee (kinda) worth it if it’s a cute shop with a good atmosphere. In Boulder, there is no shortage of great coffee shops, and here are a few of the best. 1. The Laughing Goat Ah, The Laughing Goat is a favorite of the Boulder coffee scene and it makes sense why. A nice location a few blocks off of the busy Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall, the Laughing Goat is a nice little oasis. They have a tiny cute patio... Read More

Experience a stress reduction the moment you walk into Rebecca’s Herbal Apothecary & Supply. From the instant aroma of fresh, local herbs, to the warm welcome from the trained herbalist staff, you’ll know you just walked into one of Boulder’s long-time gems. Rebecca Luna, owner of Rebecca’s Herbal Apothecary, opened the store in 2004. Before opening, Luna was a botanical medicine-making teacher, and she said she could never find everything she needed in one place. So, she decided to open that place. Now, after almost 12 years of business in Boulder, Luna said it’s all about being... Read More

  For thousands of years, drinking tea has brought human’s together. Believe it or not, tea is the second-most consumed beverage in the world after water. With public interest in wellness increasing within the past decade, you should be aware that tea has been found to not only relax and calm you down, but that tea consumption is also related to a decrease in depressive symptoms, according to a recent study in Public Health Nutrition. There’s some solid proof that drinking tea can be a truly enlightening experience, and Wu Mountain Tea Co. has a fascinating, local story and message to... Read More

There are a lot of stereotypes about Boulder. It’s a college town with a reputation for partying. It’s home to a Buddhist-based university, Naropa, started in part by Allen Ginsberg. Its people are some of the healthiest, in one of the healthiest states in the country. And, of course, there’s the “granola crunch” factor, encapsulating the intersection of once-dominant hippiedom and alternative eating practices. Exactly how Boulder gained that last reputation isn’t an easy question to answer. To my mind, though, one of the biggest factors comes in terms of tea. And if we’re talking... Read More

A group of bold women in Pakistan are fighting to desegregate public spaces, one cup of chai at a time. Roadside tea stalls or coffee shops in Pakistan—known as “dhabas”—are generally unwelcoming to female patrons. In various parts of Southern Asia, it is culturally unacceptable for women to frequent public spaces or communal spots regularly. In these painfully patriarchal rural and urban communities, women are not encouraged to socialize publicly or move around on their own freely. But Desi feminists are fighting against these sexist standards by claiming typically segregated places like... Read More

It’s that time of the week again, and to kick things off I’m implementing a new topic. Once a month I will be blogging about an up and coming startup in Boulder. For the first “Startup of the Month”, I will be focusing on a recent tea startup called Wu Mountain Tea. Wu Mountain was co-founded by University of Colorado Student, Dylan Rothenberg. Dylan, President of Wu Mountain Tea, originally went to China as a Boren Scholar to study Chinese, and ended-up living and working in the famous Tea Markets of Gungzhou where he learned to source tea for a European premium tea distributor.... Read More