About

What is Via Tiempo?

Via Tiempo is a Taoist-inspired approach to seasonal tea appreciation. Tea is a beautiful teacher, and a bridge between inner an outer, human and elemental, domestic and magical.

Via Tiempo was the name of the street where Michael, the Tea Peddler, grew up. The name is an invocation of time, weather, and the Way. It is the Tempo of tea, slowing down and connecting with a the pace of leaves unfurling and steam rising, which unlocks the magic of having tea whether alone or with friends.

As Zhuangzi says, "Only when you can renew yourself with the cycles of the seasons will you understand what it means to not be bound by time." 

Via Tiempo Teas

We source organic teas where we can, and teas that are farmed with minimal use of EU approved pesticides where necessary, from farmers that care for the longterm wellbeing of the plants, water, and soil. You can taste the quality of each tea we carry. We specialize in oolongs from Taiwan, Wuyi, and Phoenix Mountain—as well as red, green, and white teas. We search for quality teas that are enlivening and leave you feeling good. Each tea carries a story, and we select teas that have a lot to say. The site, and particularly the subscription, is heavily curated to only the favorites of the favorites of each season. 

Packaging

Packaging matters more each day. As part of our love of being together on this planet, we're happy to say the tea pouches and labels we use are fully industrially compostable, and we use shipping boxes that are 100% recycled, 95% post-consumer paper.

The Tea Peddler!

Michael Busby, the Tea Peddler of Via Tiempo, has been studying tea since 2012. This journey has been concurrent with their Taoist training in the Limitless Gate Lineage of Taoism—the source of the seasonal way of drinking tea that Via Tiempo shares. 

The Tea Peddler moniker 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.

 Local Events

You can find me with Jem Wheaten of Hidden Jem sharing a table at the Occidental Community Farmer's Market, Thursdays from 4 to 8!

I also do various pop-ups and other events, which you can follow on my IG @via-tiempo or at my patreon.