Launch & The End of 2024
Cha Dodo launched on 9 December 2024. It's incredible to think that a year has passed already.
Our first order came from family who insisted on paying for our home stock of tea. Maman Mellor of the Cha Dodo family wouldn't take no for an answer! That same week Cha Dodo was shared with the Slow Movers ice skating group and set up a thank-you discount code in perpetuity. To our regulars from that group - thank you for enjoying the teas as much as you have. We wouldn't be where we are now without you.
13-14 December brought my brother-in-law's Christmas at the Cathedral show with Peter Corry Productions - 10 litres of Sumudu Chai per show for 30 litres total brewed in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. Smelling like mulled wine and Christmas in a bag, it set the stage for it to become Cha Dodo's current best seller - and an early lesson: customers often choose what feels familiar over the unfamiliar, even when the better value and quality is right there. Not as much brewed tea was bought, but every customer who tried it ended up buying bags of it at the end. A huge thanks to BSPA and the Trait Coffee staff for their support during the shows and for buying a good amount of tea. December ended with a handful of gift orders from local communities, then a quiet spell into year’s end.
Winter 2025: Prague Tea Fest
The next major turning point was the 22nd and 23rd of February 2025 - Prague Tea Fest. The Cha Dodo family were there to attend and meet up with friends and try out lots of delicious tea. Our daily breakfast haunt was Eska not far from the tea fest venue. There by chance we met Marjolein of Nagasaki Ikedoki Tea for the first time, one of our providers of exquisite Japanese tea. She was in Prague as an exhibitor for Nagasaki's Sonogicha. It wouldn't be the first time we would meet Marjolein this year.
There we also met up with dear friend and sister Phyu Thwé of Mogok Tea/Five Trees Estate, producer of our Myanmar range of teas. We would also meet up with Donna from Unravel Tea, Nina from Cha Camellia, Anna from the Global Japanese Tea Association and many other incredible retailers and tea producers.
Notably this would also be the first in-person encounter of our family and the Yoshida family of Yoshida Chaen - Leafies award winner one of Japan's most prominent black tea (and Sashimacha) producers renowned for their use of the Izumi cultivar.
We were first introduced to them at their Wakocha tasting event hosted by Marjolein at MeeTea, then later at the tea festival where the matriarchs of both families became very close friends. My mother's generosity in keeping busy and exhausted exhibitors fed led her to being dubbed "Mama-san", and with that the Yoshida family insisted that we make sure we visit them the next time we are in Japan. A promise we had to keep.
Prague itself is a phenomenal city and was well worth the visit to see one of the better tea scenes in all of Europe. There we enjoyed the hospitality Lao Tea House and of Martin at Tea Mountain.
Spring 2025: Mandalay & Southern China
Spring of this year would see a devastating earthquake hit the region of Mandalay in Myanmar - nearby to Mogok where the Five Trees Estate is found. Many friends and family members perished in the devastation and even now there are difficulties in establishing stable supply lines for food and water, as well as the challenges in rebuilding all of the homes lost be it from the earthquakes or the perpetual bombings from the ongoing civil war. Even with it no longer being in the current news zeitgeist, this still remains an ongoing issue for the people of Mandalay.
In support of Phyu we helped set up the fundraiser "Hope Beyond The Earthquake For Mogok - Rebuilding Mandalay" and have since raised £4688 with the combined contributions from members of the tea community and industry. As a continued pledge, all of our proceeds from Phyu's tea will be going to this fundraiser for the foreseeable future.
April would see myself travelling to China for the first time as part of an exclusive tea tour courtesy of the UK Tea Academy. Alas, days before the trip I was admitted to urgent care in hospital for several days and almost was unable to make the trip! Thankfully within a few days my health improved and I was given the go ahead to fly.
Flying to Shanghai, I would first meet up with my dear friend Poonam of Holy Cow Tea - a welcome familiar face in a new country. There we would also meet up with Natasha of Tea Life Sanctuary in Curacao, Elena of The VarieTea Shop and the owners of The Rose Tea Room in Bogota, Colombia.
The trip saw is travel to throughout the southern provinces of China where we would meet with several renowned Chinese tea masters, their tea mountains and estates. Every day was such an adventure thanks to the care of Min Hua and Bei Ni who meticulously organised every stop of the trip and all of the wonderful meals.
The China trip deserves its own retrospective post in the future. Thank you everyone who was present for making that such a great trip, especially right after my hospital recovery.
Summer-Autumn 2025: UK & Japan
July would see me travelling to London for London Tea Friends Summer Fest and to begin learning Urasenke Sado with Yamaguchi-sensei. There I would stay with my dear friend Phyu as we would go to the summer fest together to partake and share in tea with fellow tea nerds.
Not only would I encounter Oscar Woolley from Suki Tea, but would be surprised a visit from Boris and Nayan from LaKyrsiew in Meghalaya, India - right as I was serving and praising their exquisite organic tea (that we happen to sell!). While they were in England for a wedding, it was such a delight to meet them in person. Thank you Boris and Nayan for making the effort to say hello.
Following this we would have our first wholesaler stockist Rachel McIlgorm of Storybox NI - a social enterprise that puts together gifts, both for individuals and corporate events, with stories featuring products from producers all over Northern Ireland.
Some of our teas can also now be found featured in the Newtownards Visitor's Information Centre.
Less than two months later would be the trip to Japan. Six weeks in one of my favourite countries and three separate planned trips merged into one. Two weeks for the Global Japanese Tea Association master course, travelling Japan for two weeks with the Cha Dodo family, and two weeks travelling with my university friends. This also deserves its own separate post in the future covering the tea travels that took place.
The GJTA is a membership-driven, non-profit, non-governmental organisation that aims to expand the Japanese tea world through global collaboration. Founded by Matsu-san, Simona and Anna, they promote the greater Japanese tea industry and offer excellent courses to further one's appreciation and understanding of Japanese tea. The Master course in particular can only be attended after having completed the Foundation and Intermediate courses either in person or online. Having completed both, I decided to attend this year's course in Kyoto in September.
The course took us to visit Wazuka, Uji and Shiga where we would meet up with incredible tea and tea ware producers, visiting a large matcha factory, the Kyoto tea auction house as well as experiencing Sado and Senchado ceremonies. The materials were also very educational and taught well by the numerous teachers and guests. Thanks in particular to Simona and Matsu-san/
While this was one of my most anticipated events of the year, I must be candid and mention that it was not the most enjoyable experience socially, which was quite disappointing. I want to thank Holly and Xinyuan in particular for being so lovely. I look forward to our future encounters.
At the end of the course for the awards ceremony, my parents joined me for two weeks of exploring Kyoto, Kurume, Yame, Ureshino, Sonogi, Tokyo, Koga, Nikko, Nara and Osaka.
Throughout those travels we would meet up with Kazumi-san of Oboro Yume Sabo/Yamecha Kumaen in the mountains of Yame. In Higashisonogi we would meet up with Marjolein, Ikeda-san of Ikeda Chaen and Tōzaka-san of Tōzaka Chaen. Followed by two days to visit, as promised, the Yoshida family of Yoshida Chaen over in Koga, Ibaraki.
Truly it was a special delight to share tea with such incredible producers - memories etched in my mind that I will cherish forever. I cannot wait to meet you all again be it in Japan or elsewhere in the world at tea events.
Concluding my time in Japan I would visit the Japan Tea Expo in Asakusa where I would once again meet Tōzaka-san and the Yoshida family. Hiroki Yoshida in particular is the president of the Japan Tea Expo and was running the show along. It had an impressive showing as Kansai's largest tea festival in Japan with many producers from all over offering not only Japanese tea, but teas from other world regions.
I would return back from Japan with a restock of our Japanese teas, but also with two new products - Tōzaka-san's much requested Winter Hōjicha and another exciting product that we will be releasing in the near future!
Winter 2025: UK & Mauritius
Since launching last year we have grown from 5 teas to almost 20 and counting. We now feature tea from China, India, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka. There are many more regions I would love to feature and share with you all and I hope business continues to do well.
Alas, December would prove challenging with the recent poor weather, in particular storms. This resulted in property damage to where Cha Dodo is located with the tea room being adversely affected. It caused a leak that resulted in having to destroy quite a bit of stock - in particular our brand new delicious Vanilla Tea Rods from Sri Lanka's Forest Hill. Buddhika is kindly working with us to replenish our stock and we hope to get them back online as soon as possible.
As for the future? The year is not yet over. The Cha Dodo family will be travelling together, for the first time in many years, back to Mauritius to see family, but also to visit the tea estates. My goal? To return with Mauritian tea for all the Mauritians outside of the island who would love a taste of home.
If you got down to here - thanks for taking the time to read about Cha Dodo's first year in business and for your continued support of this small business. Enjoy a good brew on me.
Your tea friend,
Jean-Pierre