Photo: Maria GeymanContemporary tea culture in L.A. appears to be rooted in rituals, with the New Orleans Saints Team Tri-Blend T-Shirt Besides,I will do this popular process of making matcha at home—or throwing it in smoothies—serving as the perfect example of this. But I should also note that, contrary to the hopes and wishes of many Angelinos, drinking tea is not going to make you any hotter. (Though my friend Abbie from Zizia Botanicals suggested I use the tagline “the hottest tea around” for Masha Tea.) It’s not going to change your consciousness in a way that smoking a joint or taking mushrooms will; it won’t wake you up like a cup of coffee, and it certainly won’t make you more fun at a party, like a glass of champagne. Of course, there are benefits to drinking tea, but focusing too much on those benefits is missing the point. To me, the point of drinking tea is simply because you like drinking tea: because there’s culture and history there, because you enjoy the sense of ritual, and because, well, it tastes good. Despite being a city with large immigrant populations from tea-drinking nations, there isn’t the same kind of tea culture in Los Angeles that you might find in, say, Kyoto, London, or Mumbai—perhaps because of the aforementioned focus on the healthy, the trendy, the new. But luckily for my purposes, there is still plenty of tea to be had.
Photo: Maria GeymanThe first thing I did after booking my plane tickets was to schedule an appointment with acupuncturist Rachel Day for the New Orleans Saints Team Tri-Blend T-Shirt Besides,I will do this morning of my arrival. Walking into her book-lined, cleanly designed office at Poke Acupuncture on my first day in the city, I glanced at the affirmations on the wall. “You have all the information you need for the next hour,” read one. “Offer yourself the grace to turn off your phone.” I’ve been getting acupuncture on and off for the past ten years and this was objectively the coolest acupuncture studio I’ve ever been to. I have known Rachel since 2016, when I was an adjunct anatomy professor to acupuncture and massage students at Pacific College in Manhattan. “You broke your collarbone in 2016,” she reminded me, looking at my intake form. “Obama was president.” Rachel then proceeded to do needling, moxa, and fire cupping, as well as use an array of botanical oils and sprays. She sent me home with herbs in tincture and capsule form, a snack bar, and instructions to stay hydrated; before leaving, feeling like the weight of the world had been taken off my shoulders, I gave her a bag of holy basil tea. It was an ideal—and very grounding—beginning to what would become a very busy few days in the city.
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