Michelle Rabin

Michelle Rabin is the founder of T Ching. Two years ago, she left New Jersey where she'd been in private practice as a psychologist for 25 years, and moved to Hood River, Oregon with visions of tea in her mind, body, and soul. Her mentors, Robert G. Allen (N.Y. Times best-selling author) and Mark Victor Hanson (Chicken Soup For the Soul) taught her that she is limited only by the limitations she imposes on herself. It is her vision and drive that is the inspiration for this innovative new business. She was able to see, early on, the direction the tea industry was headed in this country and was drawn to every aspect of it. A former coca-cola addict, Michelle first discovered green tea as a healthier beverage choice to wean herself off of her coca-cola jones. Her love affair with tea began while studying the traditions of the Japanese and Chinese Tea Ceremonies. But it didn't end there. As a tea connoisseur herself, Michelle saw the need to educate consumers about tea and to provide products that would help make the preparation of tea an easy, mistake-proof process. Keep your eyes open for a revolutionary new product for the preparation of tea which marries art, design, and innovation. Currently patent pending, it's due to be released before the end of the year. Her prediction is that once Americans can make a delicious cup of tea quickly, painlessly, and perfectly, their consumption of tea will significantly increase, bringing it in line with the rest of the world's enjoyment of tea. Second only to water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. The profound health benefits associated with tea consumption will have the potential to impact health and wellness in this country unlike anything before it.

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Sandy M. Bushberg

Sandy M. Bushberg is one of the original founders of T Ching and a member of the board of directors. Having been in the healthcare field as a psychologist for over 20 years and as a clinical herbalist, Sandy has a long-term vision of promoting health and wellness and devoting himself to reversing the destructive trend of declining health in this country. He is driven by the realization that if more people don't start to do something soon to begin reversing this rapid decline in our health, then our nation's economy will be overwhelmed by the growing costs of healthcare. His interest in tea as an inspiration for promoting health was piqued during a trip to Southeast Asia where he began to study the myriad health benefits of tea. During the ensuing years, Sandy has done in-depth research about tea - its history and health benefits, both physiological and psychological/spiritual - and has obtained certification as a Tea Specialist through the Specialty Tea Institute. Sandy's strong vision and creative insights have been key in the development of Tching.com.

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Connie Armstrong

Third-generation Californian and software developer, Connie lived behind the "Orange Curtain" until she couldn't stand the commute any more. Now happily established in Culver City with a husband who is a professional musician and serious coffee addict, a live-in high school stepdaughter, and two cats, she has very little down time and relishes her daily commune with her morning cup.

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Ajay Bhatla

Ajay Bhatla makes things happen that improve the lives of individuals and organizations. Born into a family that moved to a new city roughly every 8 months and one that relished its four-a-day leisurely teatimes, Ajay alchemized a creative, participative, investigative, and confident demeanor and made new friends and influenced people of different ethnicities and from varied cultures focused on their individual interests and perspectives. This talent to bridge differences and find common ground, an affable personality, and formal training as a technologist and as an engineer have made it easy for Ajay to serve as a "College Application and Writing Coach" for over 60 college-bound teenagers mortified by the need to select a college major, write an essay that reveals their passion, complete college applications on schedule, and, in many a case, communicate and interact with their parents and guardians during this process. This same talent and desire to help individuals at life's crossroads convinced Ajay to supplement his corporate executive career by, in the early 90s, designing and establishing a "Multimedia Training Program for Displaced Workers" at Fullerton College, co-founding an organization (Digital Bayside) in the mid-90s that helped over 300 workers transition from their traditional "analog" entertainment industry careers into the digital computer animation and gaming age, and co-founding an "Internet Start-up Roundtable" at Caltech in the late-90s to mentor over 50 budding entrepreneurs seeking to work at their dream job. "Technology is any change that improves" is Ajay's work philosophy (http://bhatla.blogspot.com) and "Seek change and be adaptable" is Ajay's lifestyle, as he continues sharing pots of hot tea with his family, old friends, and recent acquaintances at his home in Santa Monica, California, and on his frequent business and personal travels within the U.S. and around the world.

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Brett Boynton

Brett Boynton is the manager and assistant tea buyer for Seattle's Teacup store. In 2004 he began a side business called Black Dragon Tea Bar, which provides Chinese tea education, sales and catering. He is often hired by private clients to provide personalized Chinese tea demonstrations around Seattle. His hobbies include studying Mandarin, and vegan cooking.

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Jack Bukowski, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Jack Bukowski is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a physician (rheumatologist), a scientist, and chief scientific officer of the Nutritional Science Research Institute (NSRI). He has been researching the immune system for over 30 years and became interested in tea when he discovered that tea boosts the immune system's ability to fight colds and flu.

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Charles Cain

Charles has made a career of starting and building businesses in hot new markets. Before falling in love with tea, Charles specialized in using technology to solve real-world problems in several industries from heavy industry to public education to consumer products. As an entrepreneur and as a consultant, Charles participated in the planning, design, implementation, and optimization of more than 50 e-commerce websites. In joining TeaGschwendner, he saw the opportunity to bring the strength and experience of one of the world’s leading Specialty Tea Retailers to the United States. TeaGschwendner has more than 145 retail shops in nine countries on four continents. Charles opened and managed TeaGschwendner’s first U.S. retail store in Chicago in 2005 and is now heading the expansion of the brand across the U.S. through franchise and wholesale partners.

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Chris Cason

Chris Cason is the author of hundreds of tea articles, as well as the book "A Guide to Tea." Chris' work has been featured in the U.S. National Archives as well as in many other museums and publications. When he's not writing about tea, Chris is the co-founder of New York City's tea sensation, Tavalon Tea, where he is also the tea sommelier and editor-in-chief and creates unique blends, delicious tea treats, and intoxicating tea cocktails.

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Richard Chow

Drinking tea is part of Richard's culture, having spent his childhood years in Hong Kong. Richard began exploring photography in his teens, but pursued a degree in Computer Science and a high-tech career. While this may seem like a dichotomy, Richard feels the challenges of a high-tech career complement his creative side and views computer programming is an art rather than science. Most recently, he acted as a Regional Manager for Citigroup deploying global Internet banking systems to Europe and the Middle East. As a photographer, Richard was initially intrigued by all aspects of the medium. As he refined his technique, early mentors, recognizing his mastery, encouraged him to explore beyond the boundaries of purely technical considerations, exposure, and lighting. This shift in focus allowed Richard to create images that enable people to see the world in new ways. While he never abandoned precision, it is truly his natural ability to see mundane things in unique ways that makes his art special. Richard has crafted a style that highlights strong and compelling composition. Richard was honored by Nikon who selected his image, Twilight, for their internationally distributed 2007 Nikon NPCI calendar. The calendar was comprised of 13 photographs selected from an annual contest, for which 31,000 entries were received from 117 countries. Richard is represented by the Art Rental & Sales Gallery at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). His work can be viewed and purchased at the gallery, and a portion of the proceeds are contributed to the ongoing support of LACMA. In an effort to aid at-risk and high-risk youth through creative arts mentoring, Richard serves on the Board of Directors for CREATE NOW in Los Angeles.

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Erika Cilengir

A native Californian, born literally on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, Erika Cilengir grew up in the Highland Park/Mt. Washington area of the city, a haven for persons marching to a different beat. After graduating from local public elementary, junior, and high schools, Erika attended Pomona College, earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature, with an emphasis on creative writing. She then spent four months in Germany, studying German at the Goethe Institute in Luneburg and traveling throughout the country. During her stay in Germany, Erika met her future husband, who immigrated to the United States the following year. Erika’s first job was as a proofreader in a small computer company, a position that launched her nearly 20-year career as a technical communicator in the computer industry. In the mid-1980s, Erika and her husband became parents with the birth of their son. Shortly before their son entered Kindergarten, Erika began pursuing a master’s degree in Communication, which she received in 1994 from the University of Southern California (USC). In 1998, Erika made a career transition, moving into business analysis, which involved gathering, refining, and analyzing requests for product changes and new products from corporate customers around the world. She continued to work as a business analyst until the end of 2007, at which time she left the corporate world to pursue her dream of starting a tea house. After eight intense months of pursuing her dream, Erika decided it was not the right time to open a business and put her dream on hold. But Erika continues to be a tea enthusiast and makes a point of savoring at least one cup a day. Her positive associations with tea began many years ago when Erika regularly spent afternoons with a good friend and tea lover, sampling various teas, enjoying her company, and leaving feeling refreshed and relaxed. Today, steeping a cup of tea is one of the best ways Erika has found to take a break from the hustle and bustle of living. It is a healthy habit that complements her other healthy habits of running, yoga, and eating well as well as her volunteer work with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

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Cesar De Vasquez

An artist in several media, Cesar De Vasquez has been in the entertainment industry as an on-camera and voice actor for over fifteen years. He has appeared in countless national and regional commercials and major motion pictures. He’s also a screenwriter with a play, two films, an animated pilot, and another feature under his belt. In addition, Cesar is a songwriter and bass player for the band he formed in 2004. Since the birth of his son, Evan, in 1997, Cesar has been on a spiritual journey, trying to find the perfect balance of mind, body, and spirit. Along with a healthy lifestyle and positive thinking, he believes we are all here for a purpose and that we are all one. In his search for inner peace, Cesar has done extensive traveling over the years and has experienced the struggles of life first-hand in countries where all hope is gone, which has given him insight on how the spirit lives in us all. Cesar also believes that we are all here to serve and that giving back in the smallest of ways can change a person’s life forever.

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Pearl Dexter

Pearl Dexter is the editor and publisher of TEA A MAGAZINE ®, now in its twelfth year of publication. It is dedicated to a worldwide audience, informing, educating, and entertaining its readers with articles exploring the history, culture, consumption, and dramatic health benefits of the venerable beverage. Its raison d'être was the passion for the way of tea (she calls it "pachado"). Her tea enthusiasm and spirit are felt throughout the magazine, and is carried over in her lectures on many aspects of tea. In 1999, Pearl founded The TEA Schoolâ„¢. It was established to give people who are serious about tea a firm foundation on the subject. Many of the school's guest speakers have included distinguished leaders in the tea community. Also in 1999, Pearl co-authored TEA with Presidential Families. It gives a fascinating look at the tea history of America's first families. It is lavishly illustrated with photographs, prints, and original works of art—many never before published. Her second book, a compilation of tea poetry, debuted in November 2003. And her third book, a compilation of recipes, Scones, Shortbread, and more, released in March 2006. Pearl has lived in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Providence, and London, and has travelled throughout Europe. Visits to Sri Lankan, Indian, and Azores tea estates afforded her the opportunity to learn about tea from bush to cup. Working with everyone in the tea business, from small tea-room owners to the president of large companies like Lipton, she keeps her finger on the pulse of the fast-growing specialty end of tea. Although tea is just a beverage to some, to Pearl it is a way of life. For further information, contact TEA A MAGAZINE ® 3 Devotion Road ~ Scotland, Connecticut 06264 1.888.456.8651or Email: teamag@teamag.com

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Kate Dumont

Kate Dumont is a writer and artist living "la dolce vita" in Sausalito, California. She has had a love affair with tea all her life when she began drinking tea at the tender age of 16. In a family of hard-core coffee drinkers, she felt like she was a cocker spaniel living with dobermans. When she was 18, she lived in Sweden for one year, where tea drinking was more common, found her tea bliss, and learned that there is more to tea than Lipton (tho her British friends love Lipton.) The clouds parted and the heavens opened when she lived in Los Angeles in the 1980s and took a tour of Chinatown; one stop on the tour included the Ten Ren tea shop…rose tea, oolong tea, white tea, jasmine, and all the varieties were available there. Right now she is on the hunt for the best Masala Chai.

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Dharlene Marie Fahl

Dharlene Marie Fahl is the author of a Tea Trilogy, three books connecting tea and spirituality. She has also written 101 healing prayers to enjoy while slowly sipping tea in sweet surrender. Her first book, "Sipping Tea - Celebrating Me", is available now and the other two are being represented by a literary agent, with a Foreword by James Norwood Pratt in the second book. She is a level three + certified tea specialist with the Specialty Tea Institute of America and traveled to China as a delegate in the China Tea Tour with the Tea Association of the USA. Dharlene was also a participant in the first American Tea Masters Association program in San Diego. She is an inspirational speaker with several heartfelt presentations she offers to companies, organizations, women's groups, and churches. In addition, she is on a personal mission to address the ever-growing issue of childhood obesity by getting to the heart of the problem - self-worth and self-love. Having been morbidly obese herself, Dharlene is looking for help from anyone interested in assisting with this current dilemma. You can find her at www.TakeUpTheCup.com and also at www.LeanTeenSelfEsteem.org.

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Donna Fellman

It was the ceremonies of tea that first intrigued Donna Fellman and moved her to look deeper into tea. It was the wisdom of the spirit of tea, informing our traditions and rituals, that inspired her to learn more about this enduring drink. And it was the discovery of the world of tea and a healthful beverage that infused her life with a sense of well-being and centered energy that motivated her to share that knowledge with others. As director of the Tea Education Alliance (T·E·A), she offers professional consulting and staff training programs, and publishes educational materials about tea. She is the co-author of Tea Here Now, (Inner Ocean Publishing, December 2005) exploring tea as a lifestyle and written for everyone who wishes to infuse uncomplicated spirituality and mindfulness into his or her tea drinking. And she is Chairman of the Specialty Tea Institute's Education Committee where she is working to expand the structure as well as cohere the educational core of the STI Tea Certification Program to meet the needs and demands of the rapidly growing tea industry. She studies chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony through the Urasenke Foundation.

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Amy Graham Fitch

Amy Graham Fitch was born and raised in southern California. Growing up, Amy often enjoyed a hot cup of tea with her relatives. During her college years, she had her first tea room experience when she visited a local tea room with her aunt. The cozy, relaxing atmosphere, paired with the great food and tea, left a lasting impression - so much so that it led her to one day join a direct sales business called "Let's Do Tea", which promotes loose leaf tea. Amy pursued a career as a food scientist, but continued to focus on what she loved best: tea. Currently, Amy keeps busy holding tea-tasting parties, where she introduces the benefits of fine loose leaf tea. To request samples, host a tea-tasting party, or inquire about business opportunities, please contact her at 323-893-7737 or amy@seeme4tea.com. To order online or learn more about "Let's Do Tea", visit Amy's website at www.amy.letsdotea.org.

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Dan Greenfeld

Dan Greenfeld grew up in Brooklyn and was an attorney for 35 years. Now he's a New York City potter-ceramic artist (a hyphenate he obsesses over) specializing in teapots - porcelain, wood-fired, wisteria handled - that are as functional as they are beautiful. His interest in ceramics was kindled seven years ago when he met his spouse, a ceramicist, artist, and creativity educator. Having no real knowledge of ceramics, but fascinated by the pieces she was making in her studio and from which they were eating and drinking, Dan began looking at ceramics in museums and galleries, and reading and asking questions about, and ultimately collecting, ceramics. Feeling he could never really understand ceramics without some experience in making them, Dan started taking classes and had the good fortune to receive instruction from some potters during his first trip to Japan. He progressed by taking workshops with potters whose work he admired, and refined his techniques, forms, and materials by using the wisdom and experience they so graciously and selflessly imparted. Dan chose to explore the teapot because he was challenged by the form's inherently conflicting aesthetic and functional issues. As his thinking evolved, he began to understand that a teapot of sufficient beauty and functionality could enhance people's lives. The teapot can be the focal point of a daily ritual (used in the best sense of the word) encompassing aesthetic contemplation, tea connoisseurship, considered and focused utilization of the senses, and most importantly, discourse and human connection - the essence of the tea ceremony.

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Richard Guzauskas

Richard entered the specialty tea industry in 1991 by founding the Leaves Pure Teas. Since selling that line, Richard has been employed as a consultant within the industry, developing tea lines, traveling to the countries of origin and promoting, buying and lecturing about teas. On May 15th, 2006, Richard commenced work with Tea Forte', a high end specialty tea company, on an exclusive and full time basis. An avid traveler, contributor to many tea publications and lecturer, Richard has taught many overflowing classes on the subject of tea. He continues to lead seminars on teas across the country and abroad, serve as Chairman of the Specialty Tea Institute and sits on the Board of Directors of the Tea Assn. of the USA.

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Murielle Hamilton

Born in Switzerland, Murielle Hamilton grew up on Lake Geneva, drinking tisanes from her linden tree. As she traveled through Life and The World, she tasted a variety of teas and careers, sipping and working her way from the business side of the music industry (The Rolling Stones, Prince, et al.), to Starving Composer and ending with Feast-And-Famine Fashion Designer. During that time, she wrote millions of words, drained thousands of teacups, and has some silly stories to tell. You can find her designs at www.MurielleKnitwear.etsy.com.

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Antonia Hardy

Antonia Hardy, a writer and workshop leader with an Asian antique business, splits her time between Harrison, Idaho and the Montrose area of Houston. Having lived and worked in Indonesia for nearly seven years and traveled widely throughout Asia, her fascination with old wood, vintage fabrics, and unique objects (including teapots and tea items) evolved into a business. Upon repatriation to the States in 2000, she and her husband built their Asian-inspired family home in the north Idaho woods. Designed by her husband, the Idaho home sits on land homesteaded by her maternal grandparents in 1910. It features old Asian wood architectural and accent pieces and furniture, and now contains her inventory and collections. In contrast to quiet, rural Idaho forests, Houston is home to a burgeoning, diverse, enthusiastic Asian community, teeming with groceries and businesses, tea specialty shops, Hong Kong- and Taiwanese-style Dim Sum palaces, delicious noodle shops, and rich cultural celebrations. Introduced to T Ching by her second cousin, Managing Editor Erika Cilengir, Antonia contributes an Asiaphile perspective through tea-related stories inspired by different national and international locations and experiences.

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Adela Hasas

Born in Romania but raised in Southern California, Adela is a proponent of all things natural and health-oriented. Brought up in a family where a good portion of the ethnic food was deep-fried and the most popular vegetable was a baked potato, she eventually learned the true value of proper nutrition’s role in overall well-being. She is an advocate for the Fair Trade movement, contributes to several nutrition-focused groups and blogs, and has won several speech tournaments on related subjects. She currently works for Sencha Naturals, a Los Angeles-based manufacturing company of green tea-inspired foods. Aside from the occasional herbal infusion, she was not much of a tea drinker until the company founder, David Kerdoon, introduced her to his specialty: agave nectar-sweetened Chai iced tea. She quickly delved into all things tea-related, and is now adamant about getting her daily fix of green tea. Adela authors the Sencha Naturals blog, newsletter, and company press releases/media literature. She recognizes the increasing popularity of tea around the world, and looks forward to upcoming avenues of tea-infused products. She plans to release a book on her experience with several esoteric lifestyles, and would someday like to be a counselor for women with eating disorders. Adela sees herself as a lifelong learner of natural lifestyles, and is always ready and willing to go with the flow that comes her way. In the words of poet Buddy Wakefield, she is learning to live for a living in this brutally beautiful world.

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Naja Hayward

Naja, owner of Naja Tea, began her love affair with tea as a young girl, observing her grandmother preparing her morning cup of freshly steeped chamomile tea and savoring each sip. Through her grandmother’s morning ritual, Naja came to see tea as a symbol of the lifestyle she cherished. This impression was only strengthened as Naja grew up and traveled the world, noticing that tea was a source of goodness for so many people: where there was tea, there was laughter, intellectual stimulation, love, and delight. Naja studied the history of tea and its many social traditions, but she also craved a fresher, more modern tea experience. When Naja visited Boston in the winter of 2003, she sensed for the first time that having her tea and drinking it too was, in fact, possible. During a brief afternoon break from meetings, she stumbled upon a unique, contemporary tea bar on Newbury Street where she enjoyed a simple, yet refreshing, cup of Bancha green tea. It was a vibrant tea lounge, full of people who seemed content with the day. Some were reading intently, others were working diligently on their laptops, and others were in the midst of conversation with friends. The energy was infectious and truly inspiring. She walked out of that trendy spot feeling satisfied and motivated, and compelled to design a company that would make others feel the way she felt that afternoon.

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Alexandra Hoover

Alexandra Hoover has been obsessed with tea ever since she visited her grandmother and watched jasmine flowers gracefully unfold in a mug. She drinks too many cups of tea a day and tries to make up for it by consuming more water than the average person ("tries" is the key word). She is a freelance writer who also creates reviews for a travel website and a Los Angeles community resource site. Alexandra has a degree in anthropology and would love to visit Japan to see an authentic tea ceremony in action.

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Ifang Hsieh

A Taiwanese, Ifang Hsieh immigrated to the U.S. with her family at the age of sixteen. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in computer science and engineering, Ifang started her career as an analyst and later worked as an IT manager responsible for the development of a major bank's online banking software. Ifang also took time to obtain an MBA degree and learn to play the violin during her employment in the corporate world. In 2008, Ifang decided to pursue a career change and spent eight months touring and living in Asia. Writing, traveling, and operas are Ifang's passion. Favorite destinations include Bogota in Colombia, Venice in Italy, the Jiangnan region in China, and Taiwan. Her favorite opera is Offenbach's "the Tales of Hoffmann". Ifang enjoys visiting tea rooms internationally, especially those that provide an eclectic selection of teas and are whimsically decorated. Ifang is also a distributor of healthy, antioxidant rich chocolate.

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Elizabeth Knight

Elizabeth Knight is the author of several bestselling books on the subjects of tea and entertaining including Tea with Friends and Welcome Home. Her latest book, Tea in the City: New York - a tea lover's guide to sipping and shopping in the city has just been published. She writes for magazines such as Romantic Homes, Tea & Coffee Asia, and Tea A Magazine. Elizabeth is a frequent guest on national television and radio programs including WNBC's Today in New York, WOR's Food Talk, The Travel Channel, The Home Shopping Network and QVC. Sharing her love of tea and entertaining with others has been the basis of Knight's business, Tea With Friends, www.teawithfriends.com. As the tea sommelier for the historic St. Regis Hotel, Elizabeth is much sought after for speaking engagements and workshops. She regularly speaks to national retailers including Bloomingdale's and Marshall Fields, cultural institutions including The British National Trust, historical and botanical societies including The Missouri Botanical Garden and schools including New York University. As spokesperson for the 40th anniversary of Royal Doulton's china pattern, Old Country Roses, she created and presented consumer programs in stores across the U.S. Her latest offering is a series of guided walking tours through New York City based on her new book Tea in the City. For the first time, Knight will share her expansive knowledge of Manhattan's “must sip and shop spots.” This unique experience is steeped in the expertise of one of the country's leading tea authorities.

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Heidi Kyser

Heidi joined the World Tea News team in 2008 to oversee editorial operations for all the company’s tea-industry publications. Prior to that, she was senior editor at Tradeshow Week, a B-to-B publication for the convention industry. During her eight years there, Heidi participated in two web site redesigns and launched a local online edition of Tradeshow Week for Las Vegas. In addition, over the last decade, she has freelanced for a variety of consumer and trade publications from Boston to Los Angeles. Heidi holds a master's degree in Romance Languages from Harvard University. She is a member of the American Society of Business Publication Editors and a Yoga Alliance-certified yoga instructor in her spare time.

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Ankit Lochan

A graduate from St. Pauls, Darjeeling, Ankit Lochan has tea in his veins. Starting his tea career at the ripe old age of 15, Ankit has developed a keen sense of the value of this local product. Having been trained at Doke Organic Tea Farm, he has become the main tea sourcing brain for Lochan Tea Limited. Our strategic location at Siliguri gives us an edge over others since this place is the centre of tea growing areas of Assam, Dooars, Terai, Darjeeling and Dinajpur districts of North East India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Bangladesh. All 500 million kilos of tea produced in this area passes through this town and 100 million kilos is sold through the Siliguri Tea Auction, of which we are an operating member. The small tea growers movement has led to the establishment of scores of Bought Leaf Tea Factories (BLF), which in addition to single estate teas gives a wide spectrum of choices for a buyer, sourcing teas from this town.

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Rajiv Lochan

Life provided Rajiv Lochan opportunity to experiment with tea, and that he did in Darjeeling and China, and now working on a project to find original tea cultivars which were brought from China to India to establish a parallel tea industry to cater to the needs of Imperial trade in early 1800s. After serving as a tea planter for 23 years, he started a tea business, which has helped him find more and more about tea, and finally made him into a tea researcher. Deciphering Chinese tea scriptures is the only key to success. Born in 1953 in Aligarh, in northern India, he planted about 1000 hectares of tea for his company which he served till 1997 and for his own small plantation, which he is using as an experimental plot in non-tradional tea growing area of Bihar, the land of Buddha. Promoting Indus Foundation to look after the educational needs of local children, who should grow to be better citizens, is the social aspect in his mind. www.doketea.com www.lochantea.com www.indusfoundation.com

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Susan McKeen

Daughter of a Japanese mother and a French-American father, Susan Yachiye McKeens connection to tea began at birth. Graduate of Duke University (1986), Susan served in the United States Navy, experiencing tea in two dozen countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and Indonesia. Active in the tea industry, Susan shares her extensive knowledge of tea in person and in print. Long-time instructor at Emory University's Center for Life Long Learning, Susan McKeen's Tea 101 and Tea 102 classes are rated by attendees as educational and entertaining. As Editor-in-Chief of Tea Experience Digest, the premier magazine for tea enthusiasts, she takes the mystery out of tea with informative articles, health facts and feature articles about tea around the world. The best-selling tea magazine on Amazon.com for 17 straight months, it was recently chosen by Borders Bookstores for distribution nationwide. Actively involved with tea in the South, Susan McKeen was the first President of the Southern Association of Tea Businesses, Inc. a non-profit business organization for owners of tea-related businesses established in 1998, and drawing members from nine states. Susan Yachiye McKeen is a Level III Certified Tea Professional and member of the Specialty Tea Institute of the Tea Association of the USA.

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Patrick McMullen

Fr. Patrick is a Roman Catholic priest serving in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, currently in the Dayton Ohio area as a relatively newly ordained associate pastor. Fr. Patrick has had many of those same experiences that many of the readers of TChing have been through, namely drinking tea as a child from one of those large corporate entities that came in one form only – BAGGED, black and dark. It was usually administered as some form of medicinal tonic with lemon during times of cold and flu season (although as a child it was quite readily accepted when mixed a little bit of bourbon or whiskey!) Those days have been past for quite some time now and having gone through a tea epiphany he now enjoys many varieties of tea (as well as owning a few preparation devices to properly prepare said whole leaf tea, i.e. a few lovely purple clay Yixing pots and a Zojirushi hot pot for proper water temperature with of course TChing tea and several other varieties to boot). Able to enjoy a good cup of tea is a bit like prayer time (meditation, down time call it what you will), a daily necessity in our hectic modern lifestyle and if Martha Stewart were to write about it would be considered a “good thing.” Keep enjoying the good stuff – namely, most any tea related beverage/food product that you enjoy and know that the other benefits (fellowship, health etc.) are just the icing on the cake. Peace

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Tracy Monson

Tracy Monson is the owner and founder of Essencha Tea House & Fine Teas in Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduating with a degree in Film from the University of Colorado (Boulder), Tracy took a 2-1/2-year trip around the world, spending much of her time in tea-producing, tea-drinking cultures. A large portion of that time was spent in Japan, where she worked while studying ceramics, tea, and Japanese. Although she had always been a tea drinker, it was during this time that she began a true love affair with tea and its associated cultures, rituals, history, art, and aesthetics. After leaving Japan, Tracy decided to backtrack, taking another trip around the world, during which time she met and married her husband of 14 years. After her return to the States in the mid-90's, Tracy began a career in IT while pursuing her MBA. It was during this time that she began to explore the feasibility and viability of opening and sustaining a modern teahouse in Cincinnati. About a year and a half after graduation, she left her career and opened Essencha Tea House in March 2006. In addition to overseeing strategy at the teahouse, Tracy is the mother of three young children and spends what little free time she has outside the teahouse exercising, cooking, reading, and entertaining.

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Nancy Murphy

Nancy Murphy lives in Austin, Texas, where, after many years in the corporate world, she is currently on sabbatical to learn more about tea and work on her dream of owning a tea shop. Although currently looking for a full-time job, she is continuing to pursue her tea interests, and has been pleasantly surprised by how open and welcoming everyone in the tea world has been. She has enjoyed exploring tea shops and markets in locations such as China, Malaysia, England, and France, and would love to take a trip to the tea estates in India, Taiwan, and China.

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Nini Ordoubadi

Nini Ordoubadi is an interior decorator and stylist who lives in New York City. She embarked on the path of tea in 2002 when she created her signature tea blend, Persian Rose (a black tea with rosebuds, rose petals, cardamom, and borage) to serve at the many dinner parties she hosted at the time. Encouraged by friends and family to share this widely popular blend with a larger audience, she founded Tay Tea in 2003. In the same year, she and her husband bought a farmhouse in upstate New York and soon after Nini opened TAY HOME in the nearby hamlet of Andes. The teashop soon became her showroom, headquarters, and blending studio. Her private tea blends were created here, one after the other: Better Than Sex, Berber, Kaapstad. She now has a total of 19 in her collection and introduces a new blend every season. Born and raised in Iran, Nini comes from a tea-loving culture and a long line of tea blenders in her family. Her great grandmother, uncle, and great aunt were all tea blenders. As a child, she spent a lot of time with these relatives observing them as they shared their knowledge of tea and taught her about the nuances of tea blending. She remembers the joy she felt as a child following her great grandmother around the garden picking quince from her trees, peeling them, and drying them in the sun to blend with different kinds of botanicals and teas. Nothing made her happier than to do this and taste the different combinations with her - it was pure magic! That passion for tea has just gotten stronger in her. She now shares her tea blends with the public who visit her at her store in Andes and her online shop at www.taytea.com. Nini also wholesales her teas in bulk to exclusive spas, restaurants, hotels, and teashops nationwide and creates custom blends for clients such as Henri Bendel of New York and their four new department stores.

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Jennifer Petersen

Jennifer Petersen, aka Cuppa Countess, owner of the Carnelian Rose Tea Company and Tea Trade Mart, is in her fourteenth year as a tea entrepreneur. Always curious about the hospitality of tea, Ms. Petersen appreciates the simplicity as well as the sumptuousness of tea. She has observed the customs of several countries including Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, and Mexico. Ms. Petersen is a respected, results-oriented teacher of tea and trains those who wish to create businesses related to tea. With afternoon tea themes developed around menus served at world-renowned (and sometimes off-beat) establishments, she features tea recipes and tea menus provided by the chefs and culinary staff at those lodging and hospitality venues.

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Johanna Pick

Johanna was educated in the public schools of Los Angeles. Upon graduation from L.A. High, she entered the University of Southern California. Originally a sociology major, she added a second major when the head of the German department called her attention to the availability of a scholarship for a woman majoring in German. Throughout her four years at U.S.C., Johanna was active in student government, campus publications, and a number of service organizations. She was tapped for both service and academic honoraries, and as she had been in high school, was selected one of the outstanding women in her graduating class. Blessed with a father who loved to eat and a mother who hated to cook, she was able to earn a half dozen food-related Girl Scout merit badges in less than a year. Later in life, she continued honing her culinary skills taking classes with teachers ranging from Wolfgang Puck, Joachim Splichal, and Roy Yamaguchi (before they were famous) to Michelin-starred Chefs Jacques Maximin and Anton Mosimann. An unabashed fan of afternoon tea, to date her favorite is one she savored while traveling aboard a restored, vintage Pullman dining car from Folkstone to London, the final leg of a journey on the Orient Express, that had originated in Venice, Italy.

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Piero Ardizone

Bio coming soon.

 

James Norwood Pratt

James Norwood Pratt published his first book on tea in 1982 and is widely acknowledged as an instigator and prophet of America's present tea renaissance. With numerous columns, articles and interviews in overseas tea periodicals and books which have been translated into French, German, Czech and Chinese, he is perhaps the world's most widely read author on the subject today. He was made Honorary Director of America's first traditional Chinese tea house, was instrumental in creating APTI (precursor of the current Specialty Tea Institute), has been editor-in-chief of two tea magazines and leads tea tours to China and India. In 2005 he was chosen International Juror in India's first-ever tea competition. His entertaining talks and tea classes reach growing audiences each year and James Norwood Pratt's "New Tea Lover's Treasury", his now classic "bible of tea", remains the most comprehensive compendium on tea in English. Besides his "International Tea Dictionary" for the tea trade, his works in progress include "All About Black Tea: For those who've given tea a thought but not a try." T Ching will preview selected excerpts.

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Rosalinda Pussietoes

Rosie Pussytoes was born in a cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the mid 1970's. Her parents were seeking a simpler life, and believed that five acres and hard work would allow them to remain independent of the city and its wicked ways. Rosie spent the first four years of her life without a name. Her parents simply called her "Baby Girl," or "Baby" or "Girl." When her parents gave birth to another baby girl in 1979, they began to see the necessity of a name. Later that spring, Rosie found her name while backpacking with her parents along a section of the John Muir trail that traverses Yosemite National Park. A particularly spectacular section was beautifully arranged with Antennaria microphylla, or Rosy Pussytoes. The little girl was enthralled with the soft and fuzzy blossoms, stopping every few feet to admire them. Her father told her the common name, and was treated to three miles of a four-year old singing out, every minute or two "Roseeeee Pussytoes!" When the hikers stopped, at the base of Mt. Marshall, to pitch camp and make dinner, her mother jokingly said, "Miss Rosy Pussytoes has a bowl of rice and vegetables with her name on it." Little Rosie was delighted, the name stuck, and five years later when her parents returned to civilization and paying taxes, her identity was legalized. Rosie works in an office of cubicles at one of those very large "DotComs" in a forgettable city near you. She reads a lot of historical fiction, runs half-marathons, and is partial to matcha.

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Regena Rafelson

Regena Rafelson was born and raised in the Columbia River Gorge, witnessed all the memorable weather events: Columbus Day Storm of 1962; floods from 1964 to 2006; the blowing of Mt. St. Helens in 1980; and the first visit of Thomas the Tanker Train. She has summitted most of the Cascade Volcanoes, including 6/7 of Mt. Rainier. Formerly an avid backpacker, and telemark skier, gravity has taken its toll. She is content with hiking the Columbia River Gorge, "You could take a different hike every day for 75 days, all of them uphill at least one way." Fearing that her stepchildren will place her in an assisted care facility in Rockaway, Oregon, Regena has recently switched to tea after a thirty year affair with espresso. She is an English teacher at the high school level. On Tuesdays, tea is served in each class.

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Sam Ritchey

Sam is Tea Sommelier for TeaGschwendner, the world's largest specialty tea retailer. He is a self-described ambassador for tea, sharing his passion one cup at a time with those curious about the most popular drink on the planet. Traveling far and wide in the name of tea, Mr. Ritchey has visited gardens in Nepal, India, and Japan, engaging with dozens of artisanal teamakers along the way. While he brings the insight of these journeys to his tastings and workshops, his true expertise has been built in Chicago during his daily conversations with tea drinkers from every corner of the globe. As he says, sometimes you just have to let the world of tea come to you!

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Dan Robertson

Dan Robertson is the founder and owner of The Tea House (www.theteahouse.com) in Naperville, Illinois. Born in New Haven, CT and raised in the Midwest, he also lived in Atlanta, GA and is a graduate of the College of Wooster, Ohio. Before venturing into the world of tea Dan owned FRAMEWORK Video & Sound, a video production company specializing in documentary and educational programming. Although traveling to the orient previously, involved in the freight industry, it was his career as a filmmaker that took him to China in 1994 to produce a documentary on tea. With two years of preparatory work he traveled across China for a month filming tea gardens, factories, teahouses, hospitals, universities, museums and historical sites interviewing tea experts in all areas. He returned again in 1995 for another month collecting more footage. As an unexpected result, he began his own tea business, drawing upon the resources he had developed during filming. Since then he returns to China nearly every year either to meet with suppliers, discover new teas, study and research. Since 1996 he has been organizing and leading the acclaimed China Tea Tour, where tea lovers from around the world get first hand experience in tea making, history, culture and business. As an importer, wholesaler, blender and retailer of fine teas and accessories, he is involved with many levels of the tea industry. Known for his informal and engaging style, Dan shares is passion for tea, lecturing around the country for business, educational and private groups. His recently released DVD The Art of Chinese Tea — The Tea Ceremony, is a demonstration and tutorial on the gongfu style of tea making.

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Paul Rosenberg

Bio coming soon.

 

Melanie Salim

Melanie is the mother of three adult children and the grandmother of four. She is presently working full-time for the U.S. Dept. of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) as a Data Survey Specialist. She is also completing a degree in Visual Communications/Motion Graphics at the Art Institute of Atlanta. Melanie is an exceptional designer with collaborative and interpersonal skills and is highly skilled in client/vendor relations and negotiations. She is a passionate and inventive creator of design themes for marketing materials for start-up companies and non-profit organizations. Melanie has experience with video/sound editing, working with Final Cut Pro, Garageband, iTunes, and Adobe CS3, specializing in Photoshop. For the past 5-1/2 years, she has served as Art Director for the Majestic Dance Conservatory (a non-profit dance organization), managing and coordinating design productions from concept through completion. Communicating through design and imagery is her passion! Sometimes a picture is "worth a thousand words". She has been with T Ching for about a month and a half and is glad to be apart of the tea revolution!

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Milton Schiffenbauer, Ph.D.

Dr. Milton Schiffenbauer is a microbiologist and assistant chairman of the Department of Biology at Pace University's Dyson College of Arts & Science in New York City. Dr. Schiffenbauer's current research focus has been looking at the antiviral, antibacterial and antimicrobial properties of white tea.

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Phyll Sheng

Phyll is a tea and wine enthusiast who enjoys drinking and discussing the them. He mostly brews his tea using the Chinese gongfu method. Phyll maintains a blog on tea and wine (mainly). He also co-moderates a lively wine discussion forum called Winexiles, in which passionate members come from all walks of life and professions. He writes independently out of personal enjoyment, and he owes much of his knowledge to many people he has met and will meet in the future. Phyll resides in Los Angeles.

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Joseph Simrany

Mr. Simrany is president of the Tea Association of the USA, Inc., the Tea Council of the USA, Inc. and the Specialty Tea Institute (STI). In this capacity, Mr. Simrany tracks trends, disseminates information, and represents the interests of the wholesale and retail tea industry on a broad spectrum of issues. As president of the Council, he leads the industry's educational and public relations' efforts relative to communicating the many attributes of tea to consumers. Joe Simrany first came to the tea industry in February of 1991 after 25 years in the biscuit industry, most recently as vice president of marketing for Sunshine Biscuits, Inc. At Sunshine, he was instrumental in evolving the company from a manufacturing driven strategy to a consumer driven strategy. In addition to significantly strengthening the companies' share and profit positions, he spearheaded the effort to expand and update the companies' product lines. Prior to his time at Sunshine, Mr. Simrany was a product group director at Nabisco Brands, Inc. where he was employed for nearly 20 years in a marketing and sales capacity.

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Kristin Sloan

Kristin Sloan is a dancer with the New York City Ballet and founder of thewinger.com, a community oriented dance website that shows the lives, insights, and personalities of professionals, students, experts and pioneers in the dance world. Growing up, Kristin's mom was always drinking tea, but it wasn't until she was accepted into the New York City Ballet and felt the rigors and physical demands of being an elite athlete that she came to realize the benefits that tea could offer her. Kristin hopes to help T Ching readers understand the importance of health and nutrition for athletes as well as help dancers understand the performance and health benefits of tea.

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Emma Spaulding

Emma is a high school senior. When not attending school, she enjoys reading with a warm beverage in hand, listening to music (anything from opera to heavy metal), drawing, acting, and baking, although she has yet to accomplish all of these tasks at once. Her plans after high school include traveling abroad and studying foreign languages and cultures. A tea drinker since childhood and a lover of food, Emma is also considering attending culinary school.

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Jane Terjung

Hiding out with her husband in the artist-strewn organic hills of Topanga, California, Jane is struggling with the "joy" of retirement. She spent 20 years developing software for aerospace, video games, stock brokers, and on-line banking, but now feels moved to write in a language that something besides machines can understand. A UCLA alumna with a mutinous daughter enrolled far, far away on another planet at UC Berkeley, she is now trying to channel her inner healthy tea-drinking person, who has been mugged and left for dead by her coffee-swilling evil twin. If the tea leaves predict success, she dreams someday of getting her act together and creating her own website where she can freely admit that, besides coffee, she likes junk food too.

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Amanda Thomas

Spawn of a marathon runner, Amanda has been a vigilante about what is allowed to enter her body since before she could write her name in cursive. Of course, having grandparents who own and operate an organic farm, yeoman style, in the Columbia Gorge probably didn't help much either. An awareness of consumption quickly led to a personal preference for teas and infusions; there was never a kool-aid period. She has been a writer her entire life, and though her love of teas has never diminished, it has certainly evolved. Weaned the British way from milk to tea, she abandoned bags of Lipton quickly for something requiring a little more involvement and ritual. While visiting Japan in the April of 2003, her love of green teas compounded and took the forefront of her tea infatuation until the summer spent as a barista introduced her to yerba mate. Amanda is thrilled to have finally found a way to intertwine the two great loves of her life, writing and tea, here at T Ching. As a sophomore English major with experience working for three non-profits already under her belt, she has a lot to learn and to offer.

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Maria Uspenski

Maria Uspenski's love of tea was fostered at an early age by her Russian parents. Later, as an undergraduate student in Paris, France, she was introduced to many more varieties than the traditional black teas of her childhood. During stints at the New York City Ballet and US Rowing team, Uspenski began to discover the health benefits of tea. Fast forward to 2008, and now we find her educating the Boulder public as well as her two daughters on ways to enjoy tea to enhance a healthy lifestyle. As founder of the TeaSpot, she brings her engineering background into action to make it easier for us all to steep up a perfect pot of loose-leaf tea.

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Diane Walden

Diane Walden has been a life-long entrepreneur. After over a decade in the wholesale industry with customers including Wal-Mart and K-Mart, she and her husband became interested in specialty tea in 2004 and, in the summer of 2008, opened their specialty tea concept, California Tea & Coffee Brewery, in Temecula, California, the second tea-centric company Diane has co-founded. Her husband, Vern, is the inventor of a patent-pending, one-minute brewing technology for loose leaf teas and tisanes used in the store on a daily basis, which has already received interest from well-known companies and publications in the specialty tea and coffee industry. Diane may be reached at 951-693-5727 or 951-506-1433.

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Brendan Waye

A life-long tea drinker, Brendan jumped into the business of tea in 1999 with the opening of his first tea café in Edmonton, AB. Steeps The Urban Teahouse was Canada’s first tea-only café and served up 150 varieties of loose leaf tea. The next five years saw Brendan open four more teahouses and start an artisan chai brewing company, The Chai Company. Steeps had become an institution for loose-leaf aficionados in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. In 2004, Travelocity voted Steeps in Calgary one of the top ten hidden gems in Canada. By that time, Steeps had converted thousands of patrons to the joy of steeping loose leaf tea. Meanwhile, The Chai Company was growing rapidly with a recipe Brendan had brought back from a climbing trip in the Himalayas. Slow brewed, spicy, artisan brewed chai was catching on all over Canada’s west coast. Today, The Chai Company is Canada’s largest producer of authentic chai concentrates. In 2007, Brendan moved to Toronto to join Teaopia and assist in the rollout of the country’s first shopping mall-based retail tea café.

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John Weisburger, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Weisburger was a commissioned officer in the US Public Health Service, assigned to a research program at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD. He was concerned with the mode of action of chemical carcinogens in general, and arylamines in particular. Some of these chemicals were important occupational carcinogens, and in more recent years it was discovered that they occurred in the environment of every consumer of cooked meats, since the cooking process generates heterocyclic amines. Between 1961 and 1972, Dr. Weisburger was also concerned with effective means to test for environmental carcinogens, as Head of the NCI Carcinogen Bioassay Program. With the discovery at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories that carcinogens could be mutagens, he organized national programs to develop rapid in vitro bioassay systems to test for carcinogenicity. Dr. Weisburger later left NCI to become Director of Research at the American Health Foundation. Dr. Weisburger is known for his research on the mechanisms of chronic disease causation, as a sound basis for prevention. The main theme of the research deals with disease prevention, the definitive approach to disease control. In particular, the research involves studies of the association between specific lifestyles anywhere in the world, and the locally prevailing chronic diseases, the area of geographic pathology. A number of chronic diseases stem from inappropriate oxidation reactions and the formation of reactive radicals. These can be prevented by ensuring the presence of antioxidants, such as are provided by vegetables, fruits and the beverage tea. Dr. Weisburger states that regular exercise is also a part of a healthy lifestyle. Based on sound research as described above, people anywhere in the world need to be provided with guidelines as to healthy lifestyles as a means of health promotion. This is important in view of the high cost of medical care to the individuals concerned, their families, their insurance carriers and their governments.

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Robert Wemischner

Pastry chef and culinary educator, Robert Wemischner has always been intrigued by the flavor potential of ingredients, from turmeric to tea and from cumin to coffee. Author of three books with a fourth, "The Dessert Architect", to be published in June, Wemischner began his career to great media acclaim in the food business in the early 70’s as the owner of a pioneering gourmet-to-go shop in Beverly Hills. He then went on to open a similar operation in Baltimore and in the early 90’s returned to Los Angeles and began teaching pastry and culinary arts in earnest. Drawing upon his exposure to classical cooking at a young age during informal apprenticeships to chefs in France, he has been imparting his knowledge to a diverse audience of students as a teacher of baking and pastry for the past fifteen years at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. He has also vigorously pursued freelance food writing and has been a valued and regular contributor to "Sante", "Food Arts", "Angeleno", "Pastry Art and Design", and "Robb Report" magazines, among others, writing on a wide variety of food and food business-related subjects. He is also the author of "The Vivid Flavors Cookbook", a groundbreaking book about fusion cuisine, "Gourmet to Go" on the business of specialty food retailing, and "Cooking with Tea", an exploration of the culinary potential of the leaf. Over the past twenty-five years, Robert has presented on baking, pastry, and other food-related topics to professional organizations, including the International Association of Food Professionals, Retailers Bakery Association, and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, and continues to consult and present to food service professionals and media for companies such as Lipton Tea/Unilever, and independent operations including start-ups in the baking, food service, and restaurant fields. He has also been guest chef on board Silversea Cruise lines to Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, where he presented on tea, cooking with tea, and tea and food pairings and also escorted tours to tea manufacturing plants as part of the shore excursions programs. This summer he will be guest chef aboard Crystal Cruise lines' luxury trip through the Baltic; on board he will lecture on desserts and cooking with tea and will work side by side with the ship's chefs to create a menu of his signature desserts with appropriate beverage pairings.

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Virginia Wright

Bio coming soon.

 

Zach Hodgson

Born and raised in Southern California, Zach Hodgson is proud to be part of the T Ching family, working from his new home in Seattle, Washington where he currently makes his living as a freelance photographer and graphic designer. You can find some of his work on his personal web site at www.ZachHodgson.com. His love for tea goes back several years and his affection for photography goes back even further. He received his first camera, a 110 Instamatic, as a gift from his parents when he was only a small child. He received formal training in both the graphic and photographic arts in college, where his professors were quick to point out his natural talent for composition. In 2007, Zach received a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design, and left college with a life-long love for learning and new experiences. He finds himself most often enjoying P.G. Tips black tea, Yerba Mate, and Sencha and Genmaicha green teas as well as an occasional masala chai, often out of one of his mother's hand-thrown mugs.

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