How did this get started?

I've operated a tea bar in my small town for a few years now and I get asked a lot, "How did you get into tea?" 

I've never been able to stand the taste of coffee. And for a long time I was like that with tea also. Growing up, I'd never had a tea I liked. It was always way to bitter because I would leave the bag in way too long. At one point I tried mixing orange juice with over steeped hot tea and, well, that was a huge mistake. But I got to a point in my life when I wanted something nice and warm to drink in the cold, autumn mornings. There's always hot chocolate, but I felt that drinking that every morning was a little much and I wanted something a little less sweet. As the days got colder I decided I should reapproach tea. After some research online I quickly found that I had been doing tea all wrong.

The internet (shout-out to the subreddit r/tea) taught me how to brew tea correctly and it was not long before I was trying any tea I could find locally. Took some time to get it right, but it was an unassuming tea bag of Earl Grey that brought about a tea epiphany. Like a lightning bolt hit me, this stuff was good, I was in love, and I wanted to share this type of experience with other people. 

I was lucky in that I had a family member that operated a bakery & bistro in my small town. I approached her about opening a tea bar inside and she agreed. I still needed my day job to pay the bills though, so I wasn't able to work there during the week. The staff of the bistro thankfully helped me out with it, and I kept it stocked.

I also have a lifelong fondness of games. I watch a few Dungeons and Dragons streams and one day, I got the idea to mix some blends inspired by the characters on one of my favorite shows, Dice, Camera, Action! They turned out better than I could have hoped and so this new idea quickly grew to making blends inspired by other characters, games, or even books that I adore and I wanted to share these with all the other fans too.

Special thanks to my friends on the Dice, Camera, Action! discord channel. I spend a lot of time there and they've become like a family (#wafflefam!). It was with their encouragement that I took the leap to leave my full time office job and focus more of my time on my dream.

So here we are :)

I hope you found something that looked delicious, maybe to keep you warm when it's cold, to enjoy while watching your favorite tabletop gaming stream, or to share with friends around your gaming table. Thanks for stopping by.