The "Corporation" of Eighty Degrees Magazine - The Birth of a Speciality Tea Magazine
Looking into the future… (photo by Filipa Lindmark)
Everyone has an origin story and I love hearing how others came to tea. The more serious type of tea.
The preface to my story takes me back to when I was about 10 and still lived in Slovakia. Strangely, I recall this memory with high precision. I was on a school trip, it was a rainy and cold day, and my whole class ended up in a tea shop. There were not many around at that time and they were mostly a kind of esoteric places where one would discover various spiritual bits of Far-Eastern cultures. Blends were a common choice there, but one could also find a few gems.
Being very fond of the unknown and exotic, I chose the strangest tea name of the menu: Japan sencha something something. Probably only because the name was long and hard to pronounce. Needless to say, I had a sip and bitterly regretted my choice. Don’t judge me! What would you expect when you give an umami and grassy masterpiece to an uninitiated child raised on sugared herbal infusions?
Around the age of 15 I became more serious about tea. Yes, I only drank tea bags then, but with intention. Mindfully, you could say. As a young lover of all things British, I naturally reached for Earl Grey every day at 4pm while Hercule Poirot was on. I don’t blame me, it was a wonderful time.
Once I reached the shores of England at the age of 19, I was being slowly and unwittingly lured into the wider world of tea. Jasmine green (and sometimes white) popped out of nowhere and took me by storm. This was also the breaking point when I started to spend serious cash on tea. But only jasmine. Other grand teas were still some 10 years away in the future.
Then nothing happened. My interest plateaued. I was still getting infused daily, but my choices very limited. It was only about 2 years ago, while thinking of moving to Portugal, that I somehow took the plunge and went on a marathon of tea discovery. It’s all fuzzy now, I don’t know exactly how it happened, but it led me to currently having a stash of about 100 types of tea and two published issues of a print magazine.
So no, there is no large team or a company behind this humble publication. Of course, it would not be what it is without the contributions of all the writers, illustrators, photographers and others who help me put the magazine together. I am just the person not sleeping at night worrying about deadlines and panicking under the pressure of Instagram and lost packages.
But I am also the one who gets to read all your encouraging messages of how you love this project. It’s one of the best feelings when you readers tell me that this is your favourite magazine and how thrilled you are it exists. I am very grateful for that.
Enough rambling, for now. I hope to keep in touch with you this way to make this mag even better.
Martin