Here's me in a nutshell...

My name is Katrina and I'm obsessed with tea. I read about it, attend classes about it, drink huge quantities of it, and read tea catalogs like they are novels.

Tea was not a big part of my childhood. My grandmother was the only one who used to drink tea often. She had a beautiful collection of china tea cups. However, the tea was always Lipton tea bags and she would dry the bags and use them over and over and over. (She was nothing if not thrifty.) My dad assures me that when he was a kid she used loose tea, but never in my memory. Otherwise, the only time I saw tea was Red Rose or Lipton with lots of sugar and milk when I was sick.

I grew up in central Maine, a great place to grow up. (Great place to grow up but not a big tea center. When I just did a search on "Great Tearooms of America" for Bangor the closest tearoom was 54 miles away.) I moved to Massachusetts to study Biology at Tufts University and then I got my Masters in Public Health at Boston University. I worked in non-profit administration in organizations ranging from a residential treatment center for girls to a social support program for GLBT youth to a contemporary art museum! (In my life I have also worked for the MA Department of Public Health; the US Department of Agriculture - where I actually harvested potatoes as part of my job; and the University of Maine - where I spent one summer raking blueberries in fields all over the state of Maine.)

My husband and I have been married since 1999. These days I'm home raising our three awesome kids while cultivating my freelance writing career. My first book, a collection of non-fiction essays by people throughout the tea world tentatively called "A Tea Reader," will be released by Tuttle Publishing in the Fall of 2011.

    

 

Tea is not my only interest. Actually, my bigger problem is that I'm interested in a little bit of everything. I mentioned to someone that my profile definitely does not belie my age as my favorites at the moment are tea, knitting, and British mysteries...Not exactly typical for someone in their 30's. Seriously though, I am an avid knitter and crafter. I devour books of all kinds and have pretty eclectic tastes in music (although no one will ever top Paul Simon, in my opinion). And one of my best friends is NPR. I also spend time advocating for better policies for people with food allergies.

I'll keep working on this site and adding to it. Definitely let me know if you have any questions, corrections, or suggestions. You can reach me at teapages@gmail.com.

For more regular reading, be sure to check out my blog at http://teapages.blogspot.com or check out our Facebook or Twitter pages.