Hello! It’s me @thetinyteamaker
I thought I would share a little bit more about who I am, and my journey into tea!
First off, I identify as a mixed race, Indo Caribbean Canadian womxn 💁🏻♀️! My mom is Trinidadian and British, and my dad is French Canadian. They met at @CalgaryCoop when my mom was a cashier and my dad worked in produce (I feel like this is now super relevant to my tea making journey).
If you’ve been following along, you probably already know why and how I started my tea company (if you’re new here — hi! 😊 check out my previous posts or blog on origin stories). What you probably haven’t heard is the story of why I am passionate about steeping equitea into our supply chain, working with small communities and farmers.
#IndoCaribbean people were brought to Trinidad after the abolishing of enslavement to work on the sugarcane fields. Despite being “free” they worked under exploitative contracts, and experienced largely horrific treatment. Yet, they built community steeped in song and rich in history. Many of us carried bundles of spices, plant cuttings, and ways of knowing on the ships with us — as we traveled to the Caribbean.
My community, and so many many many others, were exploited in the industrialization of commodities like tea, spice, and sugar. Listening to the stories my Nani (grandmother) told me about her life instilled in me a deep curiosity. Who is it that makes the sugar I use, the tea I drink, the food that fills my belly?
These are questions that can be hard to answer for most people, and they really shouldn’t be. We should know who grows our food, and how it’s grown. These are questions I try to answer in our supply chain work. I read a lot of post colonial theory books, and try to implement as best I can.
The knowledge we ingest about the brands we love is just important as the product we digest 👩🏻🌾
