I am a natural night owl. Well, at least until 12-2am. But I also love the beauty and energy of early morning. I’m talking when the sun is already out not that pitch black morning crap. I only get up that early if there is a really sweet carrot in it for me. I’m talking 7ish. The tricky parts for me are late morning and early evening. I kept trying to coax myself into earlier nights just to get the mornings on track consistently rather than just for projects, but it always failed. Then I discovered polyphasic sleep. As the name implies it is sleeping in multiple stretches of time rather than just one long one.
 
I had found a video of someone who had tried it and gave a detailed account of his experience. I thought it was a really clear account and very encouraging (I'll post the link below). There are many polyphasic patterns you can choose like one long period with other shorter periods or just a series of short ones. Now this guy went in bold and immediately dropped his nighttime sleep amount to four hours and added two 25 minute naps during the day. Like he said, it is hard on the body and he walked around like a zombie for days.

I wasn’t on board with that. For me it made more sense to do a more gradual dip. Usually I would sleep between 7 and 8 hours at night unless I was ill or had a particularly demanding day. While I was thinking about trying this polyphasic sleep I found myself naturally moving into a 6 hour nighttime sleep period from 2/2:30am – 8/8:30am with one nap during the day in the early evening. It wasn’t hard because it wasn’t drastic, but the reboot feeling I got from the nap and the consistency of when I would sleep and when I would wake made me feel like I was getting two days in one. I know this is mainly psychological, but greater productivity, clear focus and satisfaction were what I was going for rather than just a huge time gain. Now, technically my schedule was biphasic sleep as I was sleeping in two periods of time not more, as in polyphasic.  I just felt this naturally worked better for me. I tried moving the nap to late morning sometimes instead of early evening. I was just listening to my body and taking it when I needed it most depending on schedule demands.

Now how does tea factor into this, you might ask. Well, I had always been able to drink tea whenever I wanted to, even late at night, and I would still be able to sleep. I know that is not the case for everyone and it may have had to do with my constantly changing schedule. I felt that to be successful with this test it would be best if I stopped my tea drinking in the 5-7pm range. So, I would have my last cup of tea after my nap (if I took it in the evening). This kind of gave me the feeling of a second day even more.  I found it worked so well that I started to wake up just before my alarm. That’s something the man in the video mentioned, that he had gotten to a place where he no longer needed an alarm.
 
He also continued to drop his nighttime sleep amount until he was only sleeping two hours per night along with his two daily naps. He said his productivity was amazing.  I have not gotten that far. I am going to try to gradually reduce my nighttime sleep period to about four hours and see if that works for me. The time gain is attractive, just so long as I don’t feel deprived.
 
I am also curious to see if a tea done in a Bulletproof coffee style would give a more sustained caffeine release to make my mornings even more effective. For those who are unfamiliar, Bulletproof Coffee was designed by a man named Dave Asprey. He was inspired after being rejuvenated by Tibetan yak butter tea while in Tibet. The basic idea is adding high quality fats (like MCT oil derived from coconut oil and grass fed butter ) to the coffee which allow for a more effective use of the caffeine and slower release eliminating the crash and extending the brain boosting energy effects. I have tried some variations using tea and did find I enjoyed it. I will have to report back on how well it works with polyphasic sleep. I might even compare the Bulletproof Coffee effect against a tea-centric version.

Now there are some challenges to this kind of sleep pattern. As most of our society doesn’t function this way it is a bit of an isolating experience unless you are in a tight crew of people all taking this on together (which sounds brilliant!). The naps are key but it may take some planning to work them into your schedule. For 9-5ers a nap during lunch and/or a nap after work may suffice. Working around children’s schedules in addition to work schedules may make this a no go for some.  Also, it is easy to fall off the pattern. All I needed was one day where I missed my nap and I got off. Also, if you get sick or have the occasional 16-20 hour workday, like us crazy creatives, it can shake the schedule. Still, I feel like I want to see how long and far I can go with this as it really felt right for me. It was like I finally found a sleep pattern that fit my life rather me trying to fit it.
 
There are many videos and articles out there but if you’d like to watch the video I referenced it is on Youtube. Interested in trying polyphasic sleep or do you think it sounds too radical? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook.  Wishing you great sleep and great tea!
by  Cassandra Vincent

This is not a sponsored post

There are two Blue Moons this year. My friend and I set our alarms for 5am this past January 31st to step out and groggily try to view the even rarer Super Blue Blood Moon – the first to be seen from the US since 1866. The next one will be in 2037 so it seemed worth it to try and catch this one.  So there we were, two women in our pajamas on the sidewalk in the blackness of early morning that looks like night trying to take a picture through binoculars with an iphone of a moon that kind of looked like a floating orange. It was very cool though. NASA’s pictures do it far more justice but here is one of ours.

When I posted the pics on twitter I noticed posts about Blue Moon Tea from Adagio Teas.  They have an herbal blend called Bella Luna Blue that they only sell when there are 2 full moons in one month. It is also blue in color when brewed. Very intriguing. Then, as there is another Blue Moon (though not Blue Blood Moon) March 31st, Adagio reached out to me about this unique tea. I love all that synchronicity! I gladly took the opportunity for a new tea experience so here we are. The ingredient of this blend that gives it such a beautiful indigo blue color is pea flower.  The other elements of this blend are lemongrass and natural blueberry flavor.
 
SCENT – The dry leaves have a sweet blueberry dessert-like scent with the lemongrass walking around in the background. The pea flower doesn’t seem to add much scent. The steeped tea is also sweet smelling, like a blueberry cobbler.
 
 
TASTE – Pea flower by itself is pretty mild. I tasted some of the dried flowers alone and they clearly had some of the blueberry flavor on them but were very innocuous underneath that. Some compare pea flower taste to an earthy green tea, but I feel it reminds me more of barley tea. In combination with the lemongrass and blueberry flavor the tea is well blended with all the flavors holding hands in harmony. I like it both unsweetened and sweetened with a bit of honey. The honey brought out the blueberry flavor more.

We took pictures of the tea in a few different vessels with light from above and from behind, with more or less tea and sometimes there were multiple colors visible including purples and deep pinks like a wild sunset captured in a glass.
 
Then I started playing with the wet leaves. Many artists paint with tea, so it isn’t novel necessarily, but it is fun. This tea reminded me of watercolors. I couldn’t resist splattering and writing with it. I fully believe in playing with your tea and getting creative with the ways even steeped leaves can be used.
 
Bonus: I was also able to get more than one steeping out of a round of leaves. Satisfying. 
 
You can get this lovely Bella Luna Blue tea on the day of the next Blue Moon, March 31st 2018,  from Adagio Teas. I encourage you to set your alarm, grab a friend,  bring some binoculars  and go out into the night to gaze skyward for this rare experience!

I was unaware of the fading of traditional tea drinking culture in Japan. Apparently it is mainly the older generations that drink traditional tea with younger ones going for sweet RTD beverages. You can read more about this interesting challenge to the Japanese tea trade here: http://www.tching.com/2018/02/japanese-tea-farm-fighting-japans-biggest-problem-age-part-one/  It is wild to think the 8th largest producer of tea, Japan, is losing their own tea drinkers.
 
When the CEO of Japanese Green Tea In, Kei Nishida, asked me to try his company’s newest teas I anticipated that the quality would be good as in my past experience. It is the story of how these teas came about that makes them doubly interesting. The Arahataen Tea Farm is where the tea for Japanese Green Tea In is grown. This tea farm partnered with a local High School for a year teaching tea farming, production and business. Another goal of the partnership was to discover a new way to engage young people and get them interested in drinking tea. Nice! Like businesses listening to their customers this company decided to court a new customer base by actually working with some of their demographic to create a tea product targeted to their preferences.
 
By defining commonalities among drinks popular with the teen crowd prototypes were created then tested among all the High Schools in the region.  Sweet and sour were the most popular tastes across the popular drinks analyzed. There was also a desire for something easy to make that didn’t require a tea pot as most of the students did not have one at home.  
 
The result was a powdered green tea mix including light amounts of natural sugar and locally sourced lemon that can be made equally easily with hot or cold water.  A second blend was made using mikan, which is called the Japanese tangerine, instead of lemon. Even though lesser quality tea is often used in powdered versions the decision was made to use high quality tea for these creations. The tea in question is grown using what is called the Chagasuba method. This method of tea growing uses sugar cane and other beneficial natural elements to cover the roots adding nutrients to the soil, preserving moisture and warmth. This results in a natural sweetness to the tea itself aside from the sugar added to these blends.

I sat down with a fellow tea lover, Elexis, to taste these creations and this what we experienced:
 
 Green Tea with Mikan 

I used the suggested 2 tsp. of powder to 7 oz. hot water


SCENT – Super fragrant, fruity nose, almost flowery; Scent of the green tea is mild but still present; Initial thought on the fruit was citrus but hard to get specific on likely because neither of us had ever had this particular type of orange
 
TASTE – Unlike any green tea I’ve ever had; A surprisingly mild, friendly, high end taste with a gentle balanced sweetness. The tea taste is there but it’s like it is holding hands with the mikan and allowing the fruit to step forward. The mildness of the sweetness was a pleasant surprise. To many western palates it may not be sweet enough which is easily remedied by adding a sweetener of choice, but it is cool that it doesn’t start off mega-sweet so the drinker has that choice. The mikan orange reminded me of San Pellegrino’s Aranciata Rossa made with Italian oranges and blood oranges.
 
I was advised by Kei that when the tea is made with hot water some prefer using 1.5 tsp. per 7 oz. water instead of the 2 tsp. I used the 2 tsp. and I and my friend Elexis (who kept saying “I really like this!”) both thought it was great that way.
 
Green Tea with Lemon
 
SCENT – Clearly lemon; Less fragrant than the Mikan, but inviting; Sharp, fresh real lemon scent (not at all like strong lemon scented cleaners or anything like that, more like the explosion of scent from peeling a lemon by hand releasing the real lemon oil)
 
TASTE – Mild though the pleasing bitter bite of the lemon is present; I would consider using the 1.5 tsp. per 7 oz. water as opposed to 2 tsp. in hot water version more because of flavor profile than sweetness level. The lemon tastes stronger than the tea to us here. Still it is a mildly sweet, instant gratification option for green tea goodness on the go.

Ingredients: Lemon (or mikan), green tea, Sugar, Dextrin and Sucralose
According to Kei sugar is less than 5% of the entire tea

You can find these teas here:
https://www.japanesegreenteain.com/collections/matcha/products/green-tea-with-lemon
https://www.japanesegreenteain.com/collections/matcha/products/green-tea-with-japanese-orange
 
Thanks to Kei at Japanese Green Tea In for providing the tea for this adventure
https://www.japanesegreenteain.com/
 
This is not a sponsored post

When you think of something called the FitExpo it may bring to mind testosterone and steroids, men made of muscle and women kickboxing their way to their best butt ever. Yes, there were best arm competitions, workout classes and the Marines were there with their chin-up challenge but there were many people there who were just starting their fitness exploration and even families just looking for healthier options. This was most apparent in the food and beverage section.

This was my first time at the FitExpo LA and I had a feeling I would encounter tea somewhere in the sea of booths, and sea of people. Someone likened it to a night at a club just set in a convention center. They were accurate. It was like moving through a crowded amusement park, just with the majority of people having almost double the shoulder width of the average person. I even ran into an awesome wrestler I’ve seen live at Lucha Underground, Brian Cage! (yes, I am a proud wrestling fan) His catch phrase is “he’s not a man, he’s a machine!” In person I can see why!
 
Still I found a few companies hawking their tea wares. First up:

HONEST TEA
 
The guys working for Honest Tea had great attitudes and seemed to be having a good time sharing tea with the FitExpo’s many, many attendees. They had some of their line of RTD (ready to drink) teas with an iced focus.
 


Organic Unsweet Peach Ginger Tea
 
SCENT - peachy nose, fragrant, satisfying scent
TASTE – Ginger mutes the sweetness of the peach, but doesn’t kill it. Slight bitterness but not overpowering. The first time I had it I felt it was more bitter than the second time. It may have been where my palate was at the time, what I had eaten, etc. Tea flavor is light to mid-level – not robust. If you prefer your tea with additional flavors and no sugar this may fit you.
 
Organic Honey Green
 
SCENT – faint nose, minute green and honey notes
TASTE – It is said to be ‘a tad sweet’. This may be true in comparison to the American palate, as it is 19g sugar per bottle compared to many RTD drinks that have 30-60g per bottle. If you are used to your tea without sweetener this may taste sweeter to you that just a tad. There is sugar in the ingredients as well and that taste is more forward with the honey a ghost in the background. Green tea flavor is very light.
 
Pomegranate Blue Flavored Herbal Tea
 
What does blue flavor taste like?  I think is referring to the use of organic blueberry juice concentrate, but I thought it sounded funny.
 
SCENT – Smells like a fruit punch
TASTE- Tastes like a fruit punch. There is no tea here and the ingredients include organic pomegranate and concord grape juice concentrates so that makes sense. It is a satisfying fruity taste with moderate sweetness at 23g per bottle.  Sugar is the second ingredient after water so this is not juice, per se. The hibiscus doesn’t add too much bite thankfully.  It is essentially adult fruit punch with a bit less sugar.
 

NUMI TEA
 
Aged Earl Grey
 
SCENT – This RTD smells like tea. The bergamot doesn’t drown the tea itself, but acts like a partner which is great.
 
TASTE – It is also great that they indicate it is an Assam tea base. The tea taste is milder than the tea scent, which is surprising considering it is an Assam which is known for boldness. The flavors are well blended and it is closer to a home brewed iced tea than most and only has 14g sugar per bottle.

LAKANTO
 
 Matcha with Monkfruit  
 
Lakanto is mainly a supplier of monk fruit as a sweetener. They created a Matcha powder you mix with milk of choice that has their monk fruit in it. This is far from a traditional Matcha experience. It is more of a bridge for the sugar-dipped western palate looking for a sugar alternative. The monk fruit is the focus here rather than the tea. Monk fruit is touted as zero glycemic index and zero calorie yet can replace sugar in equal amounts. In their Matcha it has a malty result. The packet I tried indicated it was to be mixed with 8oz. of milk substitute. I used regular milk because right now it is my preference and how I am rolling. I found it to be too sweet for my palate. I prefer the traditional grassy taste of traditional Matcha but the sweetener itself is intriguing. It has a natural taste free of the bitterness of many other sugar substitutes. I would just prefer being able to choose the amount I use so the pre-measured thing isn’t for me. This is in the sweetness level category of a Starbucks drink, but without the calories or sugar spike.
 
If fitness and healthy living are of interest to you, the FitExpo is still making it’s way through many major cities in the US with Philadelphia, Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim and San Diego still on deck for 2018. Maybe you’ll find some tea gems I missed. Cheers!
 
This is not a sponsored post

If you missed part one of this interview, you can check it here.
Phil Harrington 2 – Youbloom Begins and Youbloom Now

Youbloom Begins
 
Phil Harrington: The original idea behind Youbloom which was launched in 2009 didn’t take off. 
 
Tea Deviant: Why do you think that was?
 
PH: It was because it wasn’t focused enough yet. Secondly I didn’t really know enough about the music business at that stage. Also, I didn’t know enough about software. However, I managed to keep it going because of the fact people had ownership in it. People kept it going. They worked for sweat equity. Somebody said, “Could we have a song contest?” I was like, “Well I’m not into song contests myself, but sure let’s put one on the homepage.” It took off.

I was at the time talking to an investment bank in London.  They were into it and they loved the fact that Bob Geldof was involved. The CEO, who I’m very good friends with now, an amazing man, he came to the Youbloom team get together in London and in Dublin. After that I was like,  “Well, if there was any chance of us getting money off these guys it’s over now” (laughs) The guy called me the next day and he was like, “I don’t know what’s going on here, but there’s something going on and we’re going to give you the money.”
 
TD: You didn’t think you were going to get it?
 
PH: Yeah.  After he said, “That was a very unusual meeting.”
 
TD: Clearly he didn’t think unusual was a bad thing.
 
PH: An amazing visionary man. So we turned on a dime and we turned the weekly song contest into an annual song contest. I went to Bob and I said, “Will you be the lead judge?” Then he brought in Rupert Hine, a big UK producer and Nigel Grainge who was the guy who signed Sinead O’Conner, The [Boomtown] Rats, Thin Lizzy and loads of other bands. He sadly passed away last summer. He was our first keynote speaker of Youbloom LA. He was very into alternative medicines and so on. We were very good friends.  So we got lucky with the banker in London. Who would have believed?
 
TD: When was that?
 
PH: That was in 2010.
 
TD: So 2009 the initial seed idea and by 2010 you actually started to get some momentum.
 
PH:  Yeah. Straight away when the annual song contest launched it took off.
 
TD: And the banker gave you the seed money to grow.
 
PH: Exactly, yes.  Then a guy in London came on board, working for sweat equity, and he started to do gigs.
 
TD: Was he a promoter?
 
PH: Yeah, a promoter.  Then as well, Nigel Grainge started to listen to all of the music being submitted not just the winning songs. Those years we got several thousand artists who submitted their songs and over 100,000 people voted.
 
TD: So it’s supportive of people who write their own music. It’s giving the songwriter a chance to be heard. It’s giving the performer a chance to be heard. If they are one and the same, boom they have an opportunity to be heard by people who are actually in the industry?
 
PH: That’s right. Connections happened out of that. Then a man in Dublin, who was an investor, came to the gigs in London. He loved the gigs so much. He said, “What about bringing these bits together in the form of a mini South by Southwest (SXSW) type of event?” I was like, “Yeah that sounds like that would be great to do.” He said, “I think maybe we could get some money from the city of Dublin to sponsor this, to get it started.” So I put a powerpoint together and I presented it and they said “Yeah, we’ll support it.” So in May 2012, after they had said yes, I went to Dublin. I based myself in Ireland, a year in Dublin a year in Belfast, working on the first two Youbloom Dublins which is a combination of the gigs, showcase and the conference or summit as we came to call it later. I was like, well I could do one in LA and then I could go home and see my kids. I had been living here [LA] since 1996. I had lots of connections and there were people involved here as well who were shareholders as well as in Ireland.
 
After the first Youbloom Dublin we did focus groups to talk to the artists and I told the story like I just told to you.  A man whose band played at Youbloom Dublin who was a software developer as well, he sent me an email and we got talking.  As a result of that the original concept was redeveloped as what is now called Youbloom Connect. Youbloom Connect is Airbnb comes to LiveNation. Inside there is fan crowd sourcing for artists to come and play for them; there’s artists partnering and co-marketing with eachother
 
TD: So it will be an artist in one town partnering with an artist in another area so that they can take their two areas and harness them for each other’s benefit?
 
PH: Yes. Bands do that all the time. The software is doing that the same way people have always done that in the context of dating, but a dating site turns it into something more expansive. You can meet more people. So it’s the same idea.
 
TD: Dating for bands! (laughs)
 
PH: It is. It’s dating for bands. Then they’re the hosts who see what’s going on and they can jump in and say “I want to host these bands with these fans.”
 
TD: It can be any kind of venue as long as the host is up for it, right?
 
PH: Exactly.
 
TD: So the host is basically opening up their space to bring in these two bands…
 
PH: …or five or whatever it is
 
TD: ...and the fans of those bands who are also being connected with the software…
 
PH: …they’ve committed to buy the tickets in advance and the host sees that.
 
TD: So the fans request first.
 
PH: Yes.  The fans request, the partnering with the artists takes place and then the host sees the mix of that to where they say “I’ll do it.”
 
TD: And the funds get split
 
PH: According to the settings they picked.
 
TD: So they can create the split amongst themselves, the host and the bands. There is freedom for them to decide based on what they think the draw will be?
 
PH: Yes, but even more important than that is the fan experience. If you take Airbnb for example, people have always done Bed & Breakfasts, but what is it about Airbnb? It’s the experience, how easy it is to see the places and when you do book a place it’s talking to you all the way to where you get to the place. It’s managing your experience. There are millions of people who come to LA every year. If they want to go and check out below the top level music in price and notoriety it’s actually very difficult to figure it out and get to those gigs. If you’re just an ordinary person coming say from London and you’re into live music you don’t have that controlled experience. You don’t even know where you’re going.
 
TD: It’s a crap shoot.
 
PH: It’s kind of a crap shoot. Whereas if it was very easy our belief is that many more people would do that. At the level below the top level it’s very hit and miss.
 
TD: Discovering new music?
 
PH: Yes. It’s very hit and miss. 
 
TD: How is it different from something like Bands In Town?
 
PH: Bands in Town is more oriented to the bigger artists, secondly it’s more telling you who the bands are. It doesn’t get you from your seat to the gig. So this man Neil Buckley in Dublin, the software developer, has been working with me and with other members of the Youbloom team for the past few years. We started accepting sign ups. The original promoter we worked with in London, his name is Mickey P., he started his own festival. It’s in Notting Hill. He calls it Portobello Live. 
 
TD: Are you interconnected with that?
 
PH: We made a partnership with him where the bands that apply to his event go into Youbloom Connect and he gets to give those bands an opportunity of more gigs as well as playing in his festival. Our goal is to make partnerships with many more festivals. Youbloom Dublin and Youbloom LA we hope will end up being the annual regional community events: Dublin for Europe and LA for North America.
 
TD: For the bands who are going for example from America to Dublin, Ireland/British Isles to America or from any other country do they have any visa issues doing this kind of festival?
 
PH: Not going to Europe it’s not a problem. Certainly showcasing it’s not a problem. In the US if you’re coming to showcase and you’re not getting paid we don’t give advice on it because it’s not 100% clear. We know that bands do it and they even tell the immigration guys “I’m just coming in to do a showcase gig,” and they’re like, “No problem.”
 
If you’re going to go on a tour that comes out of Youbloom Connect it’s a different thing. Now you definitely have to have a visa. It’s the same way as if you’re a business and you come to America to do a trade show you don’t have to get a visa to do a trade show.  You’re not setting up in business you’re coming to promote your business. So from what we can tell that’s ok.
 
So all things going well and Connect growing around the world then Youbloom Dublin will be the annual European get together of artists, fans, promoters, music industry where they get together to network, do business and learn once a year. Our hope is that Youbloom Connect will grow to being gigs all over the world every night and then we would potentially have annual regional events in another three, four or five cities like Sydney or Singapore or Moscow or whatever it is that could cover regions.
 
TD: So that’s the goal for where [Youbloom] is headed?
 
PH: Yeah. So it’s come back around to the original idea. We have relationships with thousands of artists and we know all these other festivals like ourselves. You get to know them being in the business. It’s like a community.
 
TD: Like Reading?
 
PH: No Reading is like Glastonbury, more a consumer one.  Then you have ones like SXSW, The Great Escape, Eurosonic, Reeeperbahn, Canadian Music Week – they’re more for new emerging independent bands coming up and people who love new music. Like people who go to Austin for SXSW they love to discover new music that’s not yet been discovered.
 
TD: So that’s an opportunity for industry and the artists and the fans to come together so that these artists can move to becoming a part of the bigger festivals like Glanstonbury, Reading, Download.
 
PH: Exactly. We’ve had artists that have come through the song contest, through Dublin and LA who have now played Glastonbury and so on. They’ve gone up through the system. So the network is opening up now. We just agreed to showcase Irish bands in a huge show called Musikmesse Frankfurt in April. So the network is opening up now and Connect is the infrastructure underneath it.
 
TD: So how do bands become a part of Youbloom Connect to submit for the yearly festivals in Dublin and LA or to connect with hosts and fans to make their own tours and shows?
 
PH:  So when they apply to play at Youbloom Dublin or Youbloom LA then they go into Connect automatically.
 
TD: So it’s www.youbloom.com for all of it?
 
PH: Yes. You can also just sign up to be in Youbloom Connect by itself.  On top of that through the partnerships like the one just starting with Portobello Live you have artists coming in through other festivals. Our goal is to form partnerships with as many of those other festivals in Europe, the US and all over the world that will attract artists into Youbloom Connect.
 
TD: Those artists then because of Youbloom Connect become interconnected with those festivals?
 
PH: Yes.
 
TD: Is there any information for artists who are trying to navigate this whole new world of trying to promote themselves and staying financially viable while doing free shows to get seen by A&R/Industry? Does Youbloom offer anything like that?
 
PH: Where we have information like that is on the blog. The workshops in the [yearly] summits are primarily all about how to make a living. The music business has its own language so we try to have the artists learn that language. For example we have workshops on all the different rights of a song - there are potentially hundreds of different rights within one song; how to make money playing live; how to make money from placing your music in film & TV, and so on.
 
TD: Are any of the seminars you have already had through the summits that have already occurred available in video or audio format form online?
 
PH: No. For a number of years we did interview the speakers and we had a 60 seconds of wisdom. Of course we would love to be doing all these things. We did research doing learning courses but we focused in on the live side.  As that grows we can do more and more things.
 
The vision is more and more music for more and more fans more and more artists more and more venues. The number of people that fly is colossal in Europe. We’re hoping that Youbloom will be part of that movement for music below the top level.
 
TD: It’s a little different now from what I understand. When I had interviewed Andy Gould (a speaker for Youbloom LA 2017) he had talked about sometimes back in the day a band could be signed before they had even played a gig. Then they’d have the seed money to begin giving them some kind of boost to get over the first few hurdles. Whereas now it seems more often expected that the new band is doing all that on their own before they would get signed. 
 
PH: Yes.
Youbloom Dublin and Youbloom LA type of events are inherently charitable events not viable events.  We’ve doing those on total bootstraps, totally passionate, committed people, lots of volunteers because there’s hardly any revenues in it. It’s a labor of love. Youbloom Connect has the model potentially to be a successful business and now you have the opportunity to do more creative things because you have the money. 
 
Youbloom Dublin is the 30th May – 4th June (2018) where for 5 days we do gigs and showcase artists at an event, funnily enough called Bloom, Irelands’s biggest lifestyle festival that started as an arts and crafts horticultural festival. We program the main stage. On the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights we have the gigs in the city center in a bunch of venues.  Then we have the summit on two days in the city center.
 
TD:  So for bands, fans and potential hosts they can go to youbloom.com to explore the Connect model.
 
PH: The homepage explains the whole concept and there are three videos: how it works for fans, how it works for artists, and how it works for hosts.

TD:  Very cool. Some information for new bands and new artist to launch their careers. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

Youbloom Dublin is currently accepting band submissions until February 19th, 2018 http://www.youbloom.com/youbloomdublin-2018/
More Tea & Music posts are to come. For previous interviews and music entries click here 

-by Cassandra Vincent

Tea. To many it still conjures images of ladies in floral dresses and big hats or zen masters pondering the mysteries of the universe as in the case of Thor: Ragnarok. When Doctor Strange offers Thor tea he responds:

 
Then a huge magically refilling beer glass appears in Thor’s hand because everyone clearly knows that beer is a more appropriate drink for a man who calls himself the God of Thunder. Ahem. (great fun film, by the way)  Now, I love beer. I have nothing against it, but ‘back in the day’ tea had a dark, criminal underbelly. Yes, the nobility and the wealthy drank it first, but as with anything perceived as exclusive everyone started to want it. So demand gave rise to everything from substandard knockoffs to black market trade.
 
Let’s look back to the 18th century. Britain became ravenous for tea more than any other western country of size. 
 
“Recorded imports into Britain rose from 13,082 lbs. in 1699 to 1,241,629 lbs. in 1721. By 1750 the total was 4,727,992 lbs.” 1  
 
But that is only the legal recorded amounts. The cost of tea was too much for most households to afford, especially with the duties imposed by the government and the East India Company monopoly on the tea trade. This unmet demand resulted in violent, prolific, smuggling. Some gangs that engaged in the tea smuggling trade went so far as torturing and killing informants and customs workers who tried to bring them down.

Yeesh. It’s like that spoof of “Breaking Bad” that some of the cast of “Downton Abbey” did on Colbert called “Breaking Abbey” where tea replaced meth. It is hilarious, but when you realize how like the drug trade parts of tea history are it is…slightly less hilarious.  If I saw a biker gang drink tea now I would not think it strange (Sons of Anarch-tea?  Yeah, that’s an image. )
 
The general public wanted tea but were against the cost of the legal version of it so millions were complicit in the smuggling trade2.  The cheaper tea was often not much real tea at all. To keep the cost down it was often cut with anything from leaves of other plants, used tea leaves purchased from servants and even sheep’s dung3. Even dangerous dyes were used, like copper dyes in inferior green tea, which may have added to the British switch from green tea to more black tea. A fine was imposed for such adulterations but it was difficult to impose on tea sold under the radar. It kind of makes that Versace knockoff you got from a NYC street vendor seem mild by comparison. Unless you intend to eat it, of course. I suggest you don’t. You don’t know where that thing has been.
 
In 1747 the was a large drop in the tax on tea which caused legal imports to Britain to roughly triple and smuggling to shrink. But by the 1770s smuggling resurged with large armed ships with large crews running the game.  During this time historians estimate that 4-7.5 million lbs. of tea was smuggled in exceeding the recorded 4-5 million legal lbs4.
 
Americans in the colonies were digging tea too and demand was increasing. As they were still under British rule the tea came through Britain for the first half of the 18th century. This tea came with heavy cost as the import duties paid in Britain were passed on to the cost in America. Because of this it is estimated that ¾ of all the tea imported to the colonies in 1760 was smuggled in5.
 
Then it got even more interesting. In 1767 there was a law passed that let the import duty on tea sent to America to be repaid which slowed smuggling for a time6. Then in 1773 the East India Company was allowed to export straight to the colonies and would include a threepenny tax per lb. As Britain had already taxed American newspapers, bills and legal docs prior and then initiated taxes on lead, paint, paper, glass and now tea7 it is fair to say America was getting tetchy. It was the Tea Act of 1773 that began the rumblings which would lead to the infamous Boston Tea Party. It was felt that Britain was attempting to secure greater and greater power over American interests. Customs officers had to be guarded by British troops. Apparently a man died and protests erupted when troops fired into a mob in Boston in 17708 (sound familiar?). The people began to organize preventing ships from docking and attacking tea warehouses. It was like tea had become a symbol of the establishment that the angry public wanted to bring down.
 
In the book there is an interesting log entry from the journal of a mate named Alexander Hodgdon who served on the ship the Dartmouth which arrived in Boston:
 
“Between six and seven o’clock this evening came down to the wharf a body of about one thousand people. Among them were a number dressed and whooping like Indians. They came on board the ship, and after warning myself and the Customs-House Officer to get out of the way, they unlaid the hatches and went down into the hold, where there were eighty whole and thirty-four half chests of tea, which they hoisted on deck, cut the chests to pieces, and hove the tea all overboard, where it was damaged and lost.9”
 
This was the Boston Tea Party, which resulted in the destruction of all tea on three ships that had arrived in Boston. The tea that had arrived in Charleston was left to rot and tea that had been sent to Philly and NYC was sent back to London. It was Boston that took the biscuit, though, sending a strong message to Britain who responded with closing Boston harbor and attempts to exert control that resulted in the war that led to American independence. No wonder coffee gained a foothold here. Tea was somewhat demonized for a time as a traitor’s drink.
 
Quite a ride for a beverage sipped in some of the West’s most opulent hotels and enjoyed around the table of many a common home today.  
 
Tea - there is a world of history in your cup.
 
 
The source for this post is an interesting book written by a man who began his work in the tea trade at the age of 21 in 1960. The book is: Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire, by Roy Moxham. This post touches on just a piece of what the book covers. If you are interested in tea history I recommend it.  Here are the pages I drew from:
 
Moxham, Roy (2003) Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire, New York, Carroll & Graf
 
1 pg 24, 2 pg 25, 3 pg 29, 4 pg 26-27, 5 pg 46, 6 pg 46, 7 pg 47, 8 pg 47, 9 pg 49

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Tea Memories:
 
Tea Deviant: So we are here with Phil Harrington who is the creator of the Youbloom festival that started in Dublin and then also has a LA component. You do two festivals a year?
 
Phil Harrington: Yes
 
TD: ...and that’s been going since?
 
PH: 2013
 
TD: Bob Geldof was originally involved when it was starting in Dublin to support it as well. You’ve had numerous speakers of note from the music industry and probably hundreds upon hundreds of bands by this point.
 
PH: Yeah.
 
TD: Very cool. We’re having some tea of course. I brought an Assam for you. You like your tea without milk?
 
PH: That’s right. Since I was about 10 I decided to give up milk for some reason.
 
TD: Do you remember the first time you had tea, or has it just sort of always been a part of your family?
 
PH: I think probably when I was like 7 or 8 or something like that, you know. It is kind of like a big boy moment when you got to drink tea, yeah.
 
TD: Do you have any remembrances of tea, like how your mom served it or anything like that?
 
PH: Oh yes I do indeed. I remember that my grandmother who was in Cork and would come and visit. She would, you know, have a cup of tea brought to her in bed and she would send the child back down with the tea with the explanation that it was like piss and she wanted a real cup of tea. (laughs)
 
TD: (laughs) It was too weak?
 
PH: Yeah, it was too weak.  And in Ireland everything is punctuated with when you have a cuppa. I would come home in the afternoons and my mom would be there with one or more of her neighbor friends, you know, sitting around the table. They’re all drinking tea and chatting and so on, before like coffee became a thing.
 
From Medicine to Music:
 
TD: If I am not mistaken you started in medicine
 
PH: That’s right.
 
TD: From medicine to music and music as medicine?
 
PH: That’s right. I sang and I came from a musical family. My parent’s were great singers. My dad was a great piano player. So there was a lot of music around when I was a kid. When I was in medical school I was the guy in the pub who on a Friday or Saturday night would love to get everybody singing. It wasn’t so much that I was performing as much as I got it going singing you know, folk songs. I loved as well the drama of having a few pints under the stools, closing time coming and the guards at the door banging at the door because it was closing time, and the Publican going crazy about losing his license, and where we would continue to sing. It was this whole kind of drama of youth that would go on. The Publican would get quite upset, but once we were out I mean we were all friends again.
 
After I qualified as a doctor I found that working in the regular medical system really didn’t suit me. I was just a more creative kind of person.
 
TD: The rigidity?
 
PH: Rigidity, yeah. I jumped up out of bed at five o’clock in the morning with maybe two months to go to where I got my papers and it was just really clear. You have to go off out your own road. So I got my papers and I stayed practicing for year as a regular doctor.  I had worked through the summers to put myself through medical school as a kid. My dad had died when I was 18. I carried on being in business. At the same time I stumbled into alternative medicines. So I immersed myself into the medicines and I got the idea to do a TV series on alternative medicines.  I came to London, and to LA and to San Francisco to interview the leading people whose books I’d read. That was like doing a thesis. Out of that really came a philosophy. Up till then it was difficult to go from western medicine to the other medicines, but after I’d gone through that process I came into a whole new paradigm in myself and with people.
 
A workshop that I was on in the middle of all that with Paul Rebillot called Transformation Ritual, he did work based on the work of Joseph Campbell. That workshop helped you to look at who you were and your past, what you wanted to let go of and what you wanted to bring into your life. Then you created your own ritual to symbolize that. In that ritual I went into hyperventilating then I went into screaming.
 
TD:  As a release?
 
PH: It was completely spontaneous. There was nothing planned about it. I had been at these workshops before where I heard people screaming and I was like “Oh my god, let’s get out of here now.” Now here was I the guy screaming. The stuff I saw… I saw my parents and so on in front of me saying “Do this. Do that.” The scream was basically “Let me speak! Listen to me!” But in that moment as well I saw myself that I was somebody who needed to be singing to be well.  So I went on a journey into sound healing and I developed a music therapy called Voce, which is the Italian and Portuguese word for voice, because it was like I was getting the voice out of people. I still do that to this day. At the same time on the medical work I was coming to a philosophy. I had this insight that it’s a wonderful thing and I want to be involved in helping people to get better but I was also aware of all the people who want to try to live the creative life.
 
TD: To be whole. Like you had found that you needed to sing to be whole you recognized in others that need?
 
PH: Yeah.  I saw how many people who wanted to do that. Those people in the context of the US then I don’t think it was referred to as a term, but maybe 15 years ago or something like that they came up with the term Cultural Creatives…who are people who are some kind of artist in the way in which they approach their lives.  I was really attracted to the idea of more and more people being able to have that life …more singing and dancing and less fighting.  That’s where the spark of Youbloom came from.
 
The original idea behind Youbloom was if you were to bring the same sophistication to all these independent artists and Cultural Creatives as micro businesses that there is in larger business, big corporations and so on, what potential could you bring out in terms of that becoming viable? If you take say the music business: 75% of all the revenues go to the superstars which is like in the hundreds, then 20% goes to like three quarters of a million bands that gig all the time and the last 5% goes to like 10 million [bands]. The inequity is huge. The original idea behind Youbloom was to try to figure out ways in which the cohesion between the little guys would become much better.
 
TD: Supporting the indie model.
 
PH: Supporting the indie model, the independent, yeah.
 
TD: Which has become huge. The industry has changed so much over time with the advent of things like Youtube, streaming sites…
 
PH: That’s right.
 
TD: So finding a way to help emerging artists to have their own business, if necessary you mean, outside of the old-fashioned record industry model?
 
PH: Yeah. The vision was more and more people being able to be creative and viable.  Then the original mission idea was what if everyone was in a data cooperative where they shared all the data they had about themselves and their fans? What are all the opportunities you could find out of that?
 
When I started Youbloom this was before the crowd funding thing happened.  I wrote out the names of all the people I knew who shared that vision. It was over a hundred people and I gave them all shares in the company. One of those people was Bob Geldof. In the business I had in Ireland I got introduced to Bob through a shred accountant. He was an investor in that business and we became friends through that. When I was on that journey of my own discovery he was supportive of that. He was very into the whole philosophy of Youbloom.
 
In Part 2 we talk about the start of Youbloom, where it is now and plans for the future. For more on Youbloom annual festivals and Youbloom Connect visit www.youbloom.com . Youbloom Dublin is currently accepting band submissions until February 19th, 2018 http://www.youbloom.com/youbloomdublin-2018/
-by Cassandra Vincent

This is a concert reflection and fan piece. If you love Fall Out Boy or just love the love of music grab a cuppa and share the experience with me - Cassandra
 
Ok, so this week alternative (or as some still say pop punk ) music artist Fall Out Boy releases the long awaited MAN I A (or is it MANIA with no spaces?) album and I thought back on their concert at The Forum this past November.  It was a shiny moment of happy that stands out in the year. The Forum was buzzing with a positive and youthful energy from kids to adult music fans with kids in anticipation of the FOB’s LA stop on the North American stretch of the MANIA (or, pre-MANIA) tour.
 
Firstly, I love and respect this band for many reasons:

• Their longevity – 17 years is pretty epic in the music world – and they still like each other!! They’ve been playing together all that time, barring a brief ‘hiatus’ and through their musical evolutions, collaborations and massive success they have maintained a welcome realness in an industry often associated with posturing and short-lived victories.
• Their fearlessness – they have played around with their sound being true to who they are in the moment, embracing their past without rehashing it.
• Their openness – about their process, about embracing multiple forms of music and collaborators, about their challenges too
• Their attitude and personality – They are a band of four unique individuals and their personalities shine through their music, their performances and their videos.  I love that they speak of each other with love and respect. I love that they speak of their fans and colleagues with love and respect too. It is great to see a band from a punk core yet who have evolved to encompass more than that rage. They show that there is more to sing about than just anger and that it is indeed cool to be kind and even cool to be happy. They also have their own quirk and humor wearing it boldly, unafraid to send themselves up in their videos. 

 
It is very cool to see a frontman like Patrick Stump with a stadium sized voice capable of everything from a croon to a float to a roar while playing guitar and piano and rocking it in a  cardigan and sneakers.  And the more colorful Pete Wentz who so naturally takes over the usual frontman duties of talking to and going out into the audience connecting them to the spirit of the music. Andy covered in tats, pounding the drums with a fierceness that is in beautiful contrast to his soft-spoken nature. Joe is a clear focused, fun guitarist and presence that roots us in rock without any pretention or cliché.  A damn fine band I think.
 
Now the show.
Note: Black Bear and Jaden Smith supported them on this tour. I am sorry to have missed these guys due to time constraints tho.
 
They opened with the powerful "Phoenix" and sounded tight with Patrick in good form to take on his marathon of singing Fall Out Boy songs all night. He certainly doesn’t take it easy on himself. As a singer I respect that. I do wonder if an oxygen tank is standing by though. The man barely has time to breathe.
 
Pete addressed the audience asking us to get in the car with them for the next 90 minutes. We did. Singing along to great tunes from their wild and fun career to embracing the newest tunes off the MANIA album – to be released January 19, 2018.  One of these new songs, “Young and Menace”, has a tricky chorus in the recorded version that posed a challenge to do live. I had heard the band do a full version on the Tonight Show with Fallon with both Patrick and a digital voice doing the chorus, which because of the overlapping lines is a rough job for a singer. He did a great job, but if FOB shows are a marathon for Patrick this song is like a sprint relay with no one for him to pass the baton to. Exhausting.  At the Forum the band took a different approach – a brilliant piano only version allowing Patrick to stretch tempo and show off his soul voice. Sorted!
 
They also played my favorite of the new releases, “The Last of the Real Ones”, which Pete described as being about finding someone whose glitches match your own. For me the song was a sigh of relief in finding someone that makes you feel home, or at least less alone. I am so glad that they followed their guts and delayed the album release (which was originally set for this past September) because according to a tweet by Pete this song was created a week after the album was delayed. Perhaps if it weren’t delayed we would have been denied this exciting song. 
 
Other songs from MANIA they performed include “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes)” – which Pete just introduced as “Expensive Mistakes” – with the great line “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color”. This line is apparently a nod to the Addams Family film (and a statement maybe the goths and emos can agree on? Maybe? No? oh well…). Pete was mouthing the words while Patrick was singing. In a way they do sing together.  They also did “Hold Me Tight or Don’t” with images on the screens reflecting the Day of the Dead images of the music video.  "Expensive Mistakes", "Dance, Dance" and "Thnks Fr th Mmrs" were played with the band atop rising platforms at the opposite end of the arena from the stage giving those fans furthest away a shot to see the band a bit closer. They may be hugely famous and hugely successful but it feels that part of them is still that band in a basement with their audience inches (if that) from their faces. They have done many things to bridge the gap created by fame and this is one of those gestures.
 
Andy gave a great drum solo while the rest of the band was being wheeled under the stage to meet him. Joe joined him on his platform with Patrick and Pete on another raised even higher. With no railings around these platforms I can’t blame them for being tethered to them like rock climbers on belay. Who wants to try to give a great performance while sweating and thinking “Oh shit I hope I don’t fall off this thing!”
 
The visuals were bright and bold on the main stage screen and surrounding the rising platforms. I was mainly interested in just seeing the band do their thing, but if they want to fill an arena with flashy images, go for it! One place where it was particularly funny was in “I Don’t Care” when the screens flashed images from films, gaming and everyday people flipping the bird in various ways.
 
The Monsters (or Llamas as most are calling them) from the various MANIA videos and red carpets made an appearance. They first showed up on screen doing a kind of Statler & Waldorf (Muppets) snarky critique of the show, and then showed up on stage with T-shirt cannons. Hey, those costumes must have been expensive. They are so memorable and entertaining it makes sense to use them as often as possible.  With the new URL llamania.com could it mean we will see even more from these…whatever they are?
 
Though my friends and I did miss “Young Volcanoes” (we just have a soft spot for that song) the Save Rock and Roll album was well represented including the opener “The Phoenix” and “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ‘Em Up)” in the encore. They also did “Save Rock and Roll” and it is fun to hear Patrick singing Elton John’s lines. He got range!
 
In traditional fashion the last song of the encore was “Saturday”. I could feel the collective mix of joy & sadness – joy for the following of a familiar, loved tradition and sadness for a fun night with some of our favorite musicians coming to an end. As the confetti and T-shirt parachutes rained down I felt happier for having been there for those 2 hours. That’s the magic of a great band. Thanks guys.
 
The awesome people at setlist.fm assembled the set list for this date and you can view it here
 
Remember MANIA drops this week! 1-19-2018 https://falloutboy.com/ 

This not a sponsored post

I love tea gifts and when my friend Joanne went to London and brought me back some Mariage Frères Love Song Tea I was jazzed! Thanks Joanne! So this is a mix of a brief review and a cocktail suggestion.
 
First, a sip of history:
 


Founded in 1854 and named for a family with a long history of trading in various goods, Mariage Frères supplied tea and tea accessories to hotels and salons of the noble classes.  The main shop has 650+ teas from 36 countries including rare varietals and their signature blends based in perfume tradition.

Love Song Black Tea
 
This tea embodies the romantic notions of Paris to me, with the flavors of roses and almonds in a black blend base. There are actual rose petals and pieces of almonds not just flavoring. There are no further details on the blend on the website, but I found it can be steeped to a deep strength or to a lighter brew by adjusting the amount of tea without losing balance. It is a quite broken leaf so the steep is quick. At 3 minutes, using my usual amount of tea it was quite strong.
 
The blend has a lovely balance between the almond and rose flavors – neither overwhelm the tea blend which tastes like it includes a bold Indian leaf. The sweetness of the blend is brought out in different ways when adding cream and/or sweetener of choice.  I found I could drink this with or without milk if I brewed it light to average strength. The Love Song Tea line includes a green and a rooibos version also.
 
Tea & Champagne
 
We decided to say hello to the New Year with a bubbly glass of fun that includes tea of course.  Mixing champagne (or sparkling wine) with other flavors is hardly new. If you have not yet paired the bubbly with tea you may want to try these combinations for any time you are feeling festive – birthdays, weddings, launching of a new project or just because life is worth celebrating.
 
A very simple, low effort way is pairing a pre-made kombucha of your choice with a champagne/prosecco/sparkling wine. I like the brut or dry versions for a less sweet result. If you put the kombucha in your flute first then pour the bubbly leaving some room at the top you can perfect your mix adding more kombucha or bubbles to taste.
 
Another option is to steep a strong tea of choice to mix with your bubbly. That is what I did with the Love Song black tea.  General suggestion:  Steep double the amount of tea you would usually use for a cup in half the water. Here is the lowdown:
 

• Steep 2 tsp. tea in 4 oz. water for 3-4 min
  
• strain
• Add sweetener while warm if desired (bearing in mind this will be diluted with your bubbly. If you use a sweet instead of dry champagne you may wish to skip the sweetener)
• Chill
• Fill champagne flute 1/3 with chilled tea
• Top with champagne/sparkling wine to 2/3
• Taste and decide whether more tea or more champagne is needed
• Top with a rose petal or include a berry for presentation
  
  

I thought the tea really came through here. I used a brut sparkling wine. I think another great combo would be a dry champagne with a Lapsang Souchong! For those who want the bubbly without the buzz this can be done with a sparking water or seltzer too.
 
I am looking forward to a new year of festive tea adventures to share with you and wish you all many reasons to celebrate in the coming year! Cheers all!