When I started writing this blog, all I wanted was somewhere I could place some of the knowledge I had started to accumulate on the subject of Tea. But, recently I have begun to travel to tea tasting events, share my views on some of the teas that I have sampled, as well as open an online tea store. Which is more than I thought possible at the start of this journey, and I thank everyone that has helped me get here.

So who am I? My name is Sophia Mulvany, born in 1998 and a tea lover from the Garden of England, Kent. As far as a future career is concerned, the path I wish to take is that of a tea taster/buyer, whilst, unfortunately, there is no set path so I am slowly making my own. This includes a week of work experience with Taylors of Harrogate with their tea buying team and now University, in fact, I have just completed my first year studying ‘Human Nutrition’. One reason I would love to be a tea taster/buyer is the travel involved, so to sate my wanderlust I am inter-railing, going to Paris, Venice, Prague and Amsterdam so excited!

How it started? Well, I think everyone loves tea, they just might have not found the right one yet. But the British seem to have taken their fascination with tea to a whole new level, especially black tea. So I was brought up with a whole cupboard stacked full of different tisanes and teas, threatening to fall on top of me as soon as the door opens. This has led to a passion that’s grown from the warm feeling when you’re curled up on the sofa with a hot mug in your hand and a blanket draped across your lap, to a curious need to poke my nose into every aspect of how the tea tastes so good! Eventually, it was suggested that I would benefit from putting down on paper some, or most, of the tea facts I had accumulated.

The name I choose for my blog and business, Shennong, came from one of the legends surrounding tea. Stating it was discovered nearly 5,000 years ago by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung, who was the second of the legendary three emperors referred to as the ‘Three Sovereigns’ or ‘Three Emperors’ after a single leaf got blown into the emperor’s pot of boiling water. The emperor found that not only did the leaf improve the taste of the water, but it seemed to have a stimulative effect on the body. Shen Nung supposedly was the father of Chinese Herbal Medicine, who is said to have classified over 365 species of herbs or medicinal plants which were later the basis of herbological studies. Also, according to some versions of the myths about Shen Nung, he eventually died as a result  of his researches into the properties of plants by experimenting upon his own body, after, in one of his tests, he ate the yellow flower of a weed that caused his intestines to rupture before he had time to swallow his antidotal tea.

If you have any questions, blog requests or cannot find the right tea in my store do not hesitate to Contact Me.

Don’t forget to have some tea on me.