Latest from the Blog
16 June 2026
On Cardigans, Tea, and the Things We Do Because We Are Told To
A response to my former employer's discovery that wearing a cardigan and drinking tea can be enjoyable. On the difference between visiting a way of life and inhabiting one.
About
I spent many years in technology. I was good at it. I had ideas. The ideas were dismissed. I worked faster, harder, thinking this would change the minds of people who had already decided. It did not. The industry wanted me to be someone I was not. So one day, I stopped.
I needed to make something with my hands that I could finish before the end of the day. I learned to make tea properly. No shortcuts, no compromises, no meetings about what the tea should become. Just tea, made well, and given to people who appreciated it. I learned that if you pay attention to small things — water temperature, steeping time, the colour when it is ready — those small things become perfect.
Stachel & Tee opened quietly. People found it. They came back. Now, this is my work. I do not miss the other life. Well, perhaps I miss it a little. But not today. Today, I have tea to make.