About

Hello! I'm Alex Zorach; I'm the mastermind behind RateTea, and this is my personal blog, where I put forth unofficial opinions, musings, and writings that are a bit too off-topic for the official RateTea articles.

I do want to emphasize, I put a lot more effort into RateTea than I do into this blog, so if you have not yet visited that site, I would encourage you to check it out, and also to sign up for an account and begin rating and reviewing teas, if you feel so inclined.  RateTea is both an informational website, and an interactive community where anyone can rate and review teas, and we have an editorial team with two administrators besides me, so you can expect a slightly higher level of rigor in the scholarship there.

What do I write about here?

On this blog you will find a smattering of topics, some of which are directly related to tea, and others which are only tangentially related. Many of the posts here are directly inspired by what I read on other people's blogs, and when I am aware of my sources of inspiration, I do my best to credit them.  I write a lot more about herbs and herbal teas than most bloggers do, and I often write extensively about ecology and science, and sometimes about culture and language.

What is my philosophy?

If you read this blog for even a brief period of time, you will soon start to see that I have an integrated approach to life: I see few boundaries between different topics, and one of my favorite things to do is to draw connections between areas that most people may not see as being as clearly related.  I like to think holistically.

I also am very committed to sustainability, and I tend to interpret sustainability more broadly than most people, not just as environmental and economic sustainability, but also in terms of cultural aspects of sustainability. I care deeply about people, but I can be rather opionated, and am unafraid to be controversial or step on toes.  I see sustainability as related to holism, so I actively encourage a holistic way of looking at things.  As part of this philosophy, I like to promote tea culture as one facet of slow food culture.

If you want to understand more about my philosophy, please read more of my blog!

If you'd like to connect with me:

I would encourage you to subscribe to and/or comment on this blog, and also to contact me on twitter, both as RateTea for more official or objective tea-related dialogue, and at cazort for my personal opinions or anything off the topic of tea.  You can also reach me through the contact form on the RateTea website, or find me on Google plus.

I like to list people who tweet about tea on RateTea's twitter lists, and I also like to draw attention to people who are writing interesting things about tea, or about any of the topics I am interested in, so if you have resources to share, please share them with me, and if I like them, I will be glad to link to them and help get the word out about them!