Welcome to Via Tiempo!
Wandering the seasons is better with tea! We offer excellent, energetic, resourcing teas to match with the season, and give guidance for the sojourn.
Check out our Via Tiempo Tea Subscription, with three options listed below—our best teas shared in the season when they are most sparky and satisfying, along with guidance and glimpses into the fascinating world of tea-appreciation.
Or check out our current seasonal teas, our selection of pottery, or our other teas, deep in the peddler's bag.
The peddler is referring to me, Michael Busby, the Tea Peddler. Welcome to Via Tiempo! I hope we can share a pot of tea soon.
Three lightly oxidized oolongs with expansive leaves, each with their own character, express the expanding brightening flavor of the season. Alishan is a classic Taiwanese High Mountain, floral and ephemeral. The Milk Oolong is thick, milky, and soothing. The Tieguanyin is an absolutely spectacular variety of flavors and feels packed into one unassuming leaf.
The Jinmudan is stable and sturdy—a roasted rock tea with a fruity countenance, a dark tea on the lighter side, is a match for the cooler days. The Old Tree Yashi is just a big punch of energy and taste for the the explosion of activity, light and daylight that is happening. The jinjunmei is so amazing in the afternoon this time of year. I've been taking it on walks with me wherever I go.
Featured Set: Lizella Gaiwan with Old Tree Lapsang
I'm pairing this beautifully crafted gaiwan by Mark Mohler with an amazing and rare tea, as a way to show my appreciation for the many good fortunes, and contributors seen and unseen, that make my life as a Tea Peddler possible. This is a tea that I have loved for years, and it is one that I always brew in a gaiwan.
Teaware
Via Tiempo weaves teaware and tea together in the practice of gift economy (the celebration of abundance and connection) that tea-kin are always participating in—and which we love cultivating. To anyone who purchases a beautiful teapot, we are delighted to give you the tea of your choice from our seasonal menu as a gift. Everyone who signs up for a Via Tiempo Tea Subscription also receive a gift—and often that gift is one of our handmade seasonal teacups. If one of the below teacups stands out, please feel free to request it as the subscription gift.
Gift Subscriptions
The Tea Peddler harkens back to an age when merchants brightened the marketplace with goods that were cherished, while sharing illuminating stories of life from beyond great boundaries. The characters in the Peddler's Guild—the minstrels, bards, fortune-tellers, and mystics of all sorts—gathered crowds and pulled back the veil to open a sightline beyond the usual ways of being together.
The tea in the Peddler's bag is itself a traveler with stories of far off lands, mountains and rivers, cultures ancient, contemporary, and yet to be seen. A gift of nature and a remarkable cultural practice, tea holds this (all but) lost power of bringing people together around the hearth, sharing stories, and opening the sense perceptions—and the heart too.
Be in touch
You can catch Michael Busby, the Tea Peddler of Via Tiempo, on their journey across the three realms, to delight in tea and the world around in person.
You can also schedule a drop-in to the virtual tea house. Call, message, email, or use the contact page to schedule a time to meet online.
If you want to support the movement of wander, linger, loiter—or if you have something to make, share, or sing—let's connect and collaborate together in a mutual wandering. The Peddlers Guild welcomes all.
