We had the good fortune of connecting with Bu Nan/Stephan Brown/van der Mersch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bu Nan/Stephan, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
We don’t think of Boulder Tea Hut as a business. It’s more akin to a non-denomenational church or temple than a business. We’ve studied in Global Tea Hut’s Zen-Daoist tea lineage for about eight years. For years we’ve enjoyed a serene space in the mountains (our mountain teahouse, 15 minutes from downtown). In March our teacher, Wu De, proposed we open a new space in-town in Boulder. He shared with us, that in all of his years of world travel, teaching tea, that Boulder had the best tea spirit of any place he had been too.
We were mostly excited about having a place to share tea with more people. We have seen the beauty and impact that it’s brought into our lives, and the lives of our friends. And while our space in the mountains is beautiful, its been harder to host many people there, just due toi the nature of the situation there. And having an in-town space, has let us share tea with many more people.
We have been taken aback by the level of interest. We’re mostly booked out a month in advance.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Bu Nan: I’ve had 14 years experience in a Zen Buddhist tradition, along with more exploration of other practices during that time. I’ve also been exploring the world of tea for 8 years. Along the way I became extremely interested in the world of somatic attachment repair, which deals with regulation of the nervous system, embodied safety, and healthy interpersonal connection. I’ve really seen the value that a contemplative tea practice can bring into the well-being of our bodies and minds. Being able to drop into a quiet and beautiful space, with the gentle power of tea, is a kind of medicine that many of the people I’ve shared tea with have been looking for for a long time. Tea and meditation have hundreds of years of history entwining the two practices. And there are reasons for this that can be directly explored by drinking very high quality, living teas. And this is what I love sharing most with people in our spaces.

Stephan: I’m an international man of mystery.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
They’d camp in the wall tent near the mountain tea house. We’d have epic tea at the mountain teahouse in the morning, using our spring water of course. Then we’d go to the Gold Hill General Store for brunch. After that a hike near Brainard Lake. Dinner at the Tibetan place in Nederland. And then a late night of aged teas at Boulder Tea Hut. You can guess what we’d do the next morning. And after tea, some of the hikes that are walking distance from Boulder Tea Hut.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Boulder Tea Hut exists because of the extraordinary and generous inspiration, education, and training given by Wu De, founder of Global Tea Hut.

Website: BoulderTeaHut.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boulderteahut/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boulderteahut

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/boulder-tea-hut-no-title

Other: Great content on our Google Reviews: https://maps.app.goo.gl/sN3LqsxsY1naW3nD6?g_st=ic

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