The Way of Tea and Justice: Rescuing the World's Favorite Beverage from Its Violent History

by Becca Stevens

Overview

What started as an impossible dream-to build a café that employs women recovering from prostitution and addiction-is helping to fuel an astonishing movement to bring freedom and fair wages to women producers worldwide where tea and trafficking are linked by oppression and the opiate wars.

Becca Stevens started the Thistle Stop Café to empower women survivors. But when she discovered a connection between café workers and tea laborers overseas, she embarked on a global mission called "Shared Trade" to increase the value of women survivors and producers across the globe.

As she recounts the victories and unexpected challenges of building the café, Becca also sweeps the reader into the world of tea, where timeless rituals transport to an era of beauty and the challenging truths about tea's darker, more violent history. She offers moving reflections of the meaning of tea in our lives, plus recipes for tea blends that readers can make themselves.

In this journey of triumph for impoverished tea laborers, hope for café workers, and insight into the history of tea, Becca sets out to defy the odds and prove that love is the most powerful force for transformation on earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455519033
Publisher:	FaithWords
Publication date:	11/04/2014
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	542,381
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest serving as chaplain at St. Augustine's at Vanderbilt University. She is the founder of Magdalene and Thistle Farms, social enterprises for women recovering from violence, prostitution, and addiction. The White House named her a Champion of Change in 2011. The Small Business Council of America named her the Humanitarian of the Year in 2014.
Learn more: BeccaStevens.org

Table of Contents

A Brief Introduction to the World Of Tea 1

Chapter 1 Reading Tea Leaves 9

Chapter 2 Dreaming a Cup of Tea 23

Chapter 3 Drinking Tea in Community 41

Chapter 4 Tea Rituals 55

Chapter 5 Tea's Mysterious Calling 69

Chapter 6 Aromatic Sweet Cups 87

Chapter 7 The Paradise of Tea 99

Chapter 8 Medicinal Tea 113

Chapter 9 A Cup of Understanding 125

Chapter 10 Tea For Two 141

Chapter 11 Tea Resolutions 155

Chapter 12 Tea Retreats 169

Chapter 13 Pouring Out 179

Chapter 14 The Haloed Light of Tea 193

Chapter 15 The Last Drop 205

Notes 221

Bibliography 225

Editorial Reviews

10/15/2014
Stevens (founder, Magdalene and Thistle Farms; Snake Oil) shares the dreams, efforts, and challenges that led to the opening of her Thistle Stop Café in Nashville, TN—a vehicle for social justice that employs women recovering from abuse, addiction, and prostitution and which seeks to support healing, community, and an appreciation for "the way of tea." The history, global impact, and rituals of tea are briefly discussed alongside some potential applications of social justice, fair and direct trade, and sustainability within the tea community. The majority of this book reads like a devotional—highly spiritual, metaphor-laden, and often introspective discussions of the beverage's connection to love, hope, and faith. Anecdotes, recipes, notes, a bibliography, and photos are useful additions to the narrative. VERDICT While readers may find themselves wishing for deeper discussions of social justice and the efforts of Stevens's organizations, the book's positive and inspiring message make it a recommended choice for those who are interested in a hopeful story about tea and an admirable effort to improve the lives of victimized and often marginalized women.—Jennifer Harris, Southern New Hampshire Univ. Lib., Manchester

Library Journal

10/20/2014
Episcopal priest and social entrepreneur Stevens (Snake Oil) blends theological reflection, social commentary, and personal narrative as she recounts the story of her journey to open the Thistle Stop Café. The founder of Magdalene and Thistle Farms, social enterprises that serve women recovering from trafficking and addiction, Stevens envisioned a café that would provide economic independence for employees and help tea workers earn fair wages in good conditions. She examines ethical issues in the production and trade of tea and tries to understand the role tea plays in fostering healing and community, drawing the reader into the world of tea and providing insight into its history, production, and rituals. While she finds much beauty in tea, she also explores how tea intersects with violence, colonialism, economic exploitation, and gender oppression. Throughout the book, she uses tea as a vehicle to reflect on theology and social justice. She weaves into her narrative personal stories from women she has worked with in her programs, and begins each chapter with recipes for tea so that readers can create their own blends at home. Stevens’s paeans to the significance of tea can get repetitive, but many readers will find her ruminations inspirational. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Accompanied throughout by deliciously unique recipes for homemade tea blends and brews, Stevens' narrative is a softly delivered meditation on the power of faith and love to make a difference in the lives of those who need it most."—Kirkus

"With her characteristic warmth, wisdom, and insight, Becca Stevens opens up the strange and fascinating world of tea, masterfully stitching together stories about mindfulness, justice, healing, and community. Few writers exhibit such a remarkable ability to bring faith to life in the very world we can see, touch, taste, smell and feel. Every word of this delightful, instructive book tastes like sacrament."—Rachel Held Evans, author, A Year of Biblical Womanhood

"[Women served by Thistle Farms] would be dead by now if it weren't for a remarkable initiative by the Rev. Becca Stevens..to help women escape trafficking and prostitution."—Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

"If you have not already met Becca Stevens of Thistle Farms fame, it's time you had the pleasure, and here's your chance. Just look how she shares tea and happiness-isn't she wonderful?"—James Norwood Pratt, America's Tea Sage, author of JNP's Tea Dictionary, etc.

"Becca Stevens is a force of nature-both as a speaker and with her words on the page. Her message always gets right to the heart of the matter."—John Prine, songwriter

From the Publisher

"Some old-timey snake-oil salesmen offered the Gospel and then sold their products. Becca Stevens does it the other way around. This book helps explain why her way works better."

Grammy Award-winning songwriter Don Schlitz

"This book is a fascinating life story of a woman who took the evil done to her and used it for the motivation to do good for abused women around the world. She has been God's instrument for healing and hope for countless numbers of broken women across America."

Tony Campolo

"Only Becca Stevens can write a book extolling the virtues of being a snake oil salesman, and have us believe it. After reading this, I'm ready to be anointed!"

Marshall Chapman

"I always think of Becca Stevens as a sort of extraordinary, down-to-earth angel--conscience, guide, inspiration and girlfriend all rolled into one. I will treasure this book."

author of Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger Lee Smith

"With her signature poetic simplicity, Becca Stevens leads us bravely through her healing journey and along the path she has forged for so many wounded women-so that we can find our own way as both healed and healer. Reading this book is like being anointed with the very oils she writes about."

Nancy Rue

"In her new book, Becca Stevens does more than reclaim the term Snake Oil, she tells a personal story of reclaiming life, hope, and grace. A truly inspiring read of painful hardships, enduring faith and seizing hope."

M.D. Senator Bill Frist

"Rich and insightful."

Booklist

"SNAKE OIL, Becca Stevens' profound and sensual autobiography, carries a weight of joy in every syllable. Stevens' greatest gift--as a writer and as an Episcopal priest--is an ability to make falling in love with God an inevitable, sacred, and necessary reality."

author of The Wind Done Gone and Ada's Rules Alice Randall

"SNAKE OIL is one of the best reads I have had in a very long time. Stevens is a consummate storyteller...poignant, persuasive, witty, wise and, ultimately, a passionate lover of God."

Phyllis Tickle

2014-08-27
A socially conscious Episcopalian priest's account of how and why she started the Thistle Stop Café, a Nashville teahouse that employs females recovering from violence and drug abuse. In 2001, Stevens (Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling, 2013, etc.) founded two programs dedicated to helping women who had survived "lives of trafficking, addiction and prostitution." The first, Magdalene, offered shelter. The second, Thistle Farms, offered Magdalene residents the opportunity to earn a living by selling all-natural bath and body products. A little over a decade later, Stevens decided to open the Thistle Stop Café, a business that would use tea to globally expand her vision of social justice. Not only would the cafe be able to offer more work—and personal healing—to Magdalene women by allowing them to serve a healthful drink; it would also encourage international fair-trade practices by dealing directly with tea farms, many of which employed women. The more involved Stevens became in her project—which at times struggled for its very life before finding the financial support it needed to continue—the more she began to see how tea defined the nature of her work in more ways than she imagined. Its association with ritual inspired her to see the way tea-drinking could offer "peace and clarity" in a troubled world. While many teas could be light, others could, like the history of tea itself, also be bitter. But those more biting teas reminded the author of the importance of learning how to sweeten "the cup we have before us" and learn to practice gratitude—like the Magdalene women whose stories she also includes in the book—for all things received. Accompanied throughout by deliciously unique recipes for homemade tea blends and brews, Stevens' narrative is a softly delivered meditation on the power of faith and love to make a difference in the lives of those who need it most. Quietly uplifting reading.

Kirkus Reviews