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Culture is disappearing
Not all at once, but quietly, piece by piece. We’ve been taught to believe that when faced with such problems, we inevitably land on the right solutions.
I don’t buy it.
We all feel more divided than ever, yet advancements have enabled the study of our fragmented history as a unified one. It’s time we look toward the past.
The more I read, the more I saw trends in how all societies evolved. We found similar ways to build and grow our influence, even without contact, suggesting those patterns weren’t accidental. My thesis is that we can understand what matters by studying what endured. Yet, the analog artforms that got us here are now endangered. Awareness is the first step, helping us balance preservation and progress.
I’m launching Lost in Space Media to experience culture through craft, bringing you along with me.
Eventually, I hope to follow the global development of textiles, ceramics, fermentation, paper, and metalsmithing, but I’ve decided to start with the plant that changed the world like no other, Camellia sinensis, more commonly known as the tea tree.
The Tea Trail
The history of this shrub from the mountains of Southwest China is a lengthy one, and shockingly misunderstood. There are plenty of legends, tales, and debates over its true origins, but what’s undeniable is its influence: from territorial disputes, geopolitics, and global commerce, to the way it has anchored daily life for billions.
Much of this has been left out of the American understanding. This is relatively unsurprising; our most popular story about tea was when a group of anti-colonial independence seekers dumped 46 tons of it into the Boston Harbor.
Our tea consumption reflects it. As opposed to its use as medicine, stimulant, or ceremonial tool as it is in the majority of the world, Americans drink 80% of their tea black, 85% iced, and more than 50% using added sugars or sweeteners. In the West, tea is often treated as fuel or convenience; elsewhere, it remains ritual, hospitality, and attention.
In order to understand a more complete picture, I am embarking on a 6-month journey to meet the plant at its roots. There are regions, production styles, and trade routes made famous over centuries, and we will study them over the course of this project, but unlike silk and spice, there is no singular ‘tea trail’ that the commodity once followed.
This trip is in part an attempt to weave together a scattered history and find parallels we don’t realize are there. After all, it’s difficult to argue such grave differences in people across the globe when nearly all of us sit down to chat over a cup of tea. Starting in the Jingmai mountains of Yunnan, China, and ending in the Rift Valley of Kenya, this trip will trace 5,000 years of tea history.
Through a combination of short-form video on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube and long-format writing here on Substack, I’ll sit down with the farmers, blenders, merchants, historians, and everyday people from the places where the plant sprang up and continues to thrive today. We will learn about colonization and global trade. And most of all, I’ll drink a whole lot of tea.
Author’s note
For those that are new to my work, I hope to properly set expectations. While I’m a seasoned traveller, I do not have a background in anthropology or ethnography. This is not an academic paper furthering research on ancient traditions. Lost in Space Media is structured as long-format journalism, full of immersion into crafts, artisans, and communities that are threatened. But as a sucker for the details, I will aim to link source material or list primary sources at the end of each post when possible.
Some of you may be asking yourselves (and others just asking me straight away) why I would leave my career behind to embark on such a diversion. The reality is I don’t know anything for sure. But for me, it’s about reconciling a systematic failure to learn from the experiences of those that came before us. In recognizing that, I hope to be a small part of reversing the trend, looking back, listening first and acting second.
This is The Tea Trail.
Sources
Tea Fact Sheet — Tea Association of the USA
https://www.teausa.org/tea-fact-sheetTea and Health — National Institutes of Health (NCBI Bookshelf)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK589770
Ok Connor. We are ready for another adventure. Take it away.