Well it has been a tricky few years for ATTIC, as it has for most small businesses. Having always been a face-2-face business, we started with our own tea shop in Bristol, then we began regularly exhibiting at health and wellbeing shows around the country before creating and running a series of workshops for corporate clients. Our avenues for reaching and introducing tea to new people were through tastings, talks and conversations where we could flexibly move to meet the needs of the person before us.
Whether looking for a digestion aid, a contemplative cuppa to help manage stress or something to help reengage with the invisible world of plant spirit, our teas offer a solution, so we would match the relevant aspect to suit what was needed. I imagine that we have met most of you reading this newsletter in person somewhere, sometime and what a joyful way to share our work, create a lasting relationship with you and meet many of the practitioners who form our community too.
That is now old school business because….
Then lockdown came along and all these avenues shut down. So for 2 years, we struggled to meet new people and we thank you all dearly for supporting us through that time. Then China went into lockdown which meant no tea for 6 months. It's hard to run a tea business without tea! So by the middle of last year things felt fairly broken. But like all decent butterflies, to rise again you have to go through the painful goopy transitional bit.
So now we become an online business, needing a much more focused message and a leap into the world of social media (yikes). The shift has asked Ric and I to delve deep into the heart of what we hold sacred about working with tea and why despite the obvious easy route to abandon ATTIC and do something else, we refuse to let it go.
The perception we just sell tea (even though in reality that is what we do!) has always jarred because our ever-evolving relationships with these 5 teas, now edging into 18 years, has only brought us closer to the source of who we are. Such a simple daily act of engaging with the world through the gifted lens of another being (for plants are clearly incredibly sentient), even if you just trust in their health and healing potential, only feels like a truly beneficial thing.
So our site now reflects our gratitude for these 5 teas, as everyday soul medicine.
To experience the fullness of our work, we have created a Soul Medicine Set with guidance cards for those days when you would like the greater universal forces to steer you closer to the source of who you are.
Everything is still available as it was, but for new visitors our site speaks more directly to the relational support we can gain from sacred plants, tea the plant choice for supporting humanity for a fair chunk of our existence. It also dovetails into our own mycelium network, where our wonderful practitioner community share sacred tea circles around the country and can offer the face-to-face experiences on our behalf.