Meet me in the park for a free cup of tea
The Tea Stand does the hard work of building community.
Miles was nervous the first time he set up a folding table in a Brooklyn park to serve free tea to strangers. “I didn't know if two or a hundred people would show up,” they said. “It felt so vulnerable.”
Some friends came to give moral support. Then one by one, passersby stopped and asked to join in. A small crowd formed, and after six hours, Miles had poured 50 cups of tea, asking nothing in return but a chance at conversation. “I left with this overwhelming sense of fulfillment and positivity,” he said. That was in December 2022. Miles plans to celebrate the three-year anniversary of The Tea Stand this December on the winter solstice, gathering the volunteers, artists, neighbors, and new friends that have contributed to the community-building endeavor.
Miles (who’d rather stick to their first name, and who goes by he and they pronouns, so I’m using both here) organizes eight free tea events a month in New York City parks, mutual aid distributions, event spaces, and private homes. The project is now his full-time job; Miles runs it while living off savings, supported by donations from community members. In the spirit of The Tea Stand, I’m making this story free for all Leafhopper readers.
The idea for The Tea Stand began in 2019 when Miles was traveling through North Africa and the Middle East. He hopped from teahouse to teahouse, sipping strong cups of Morrocan mint while watching the world go by. “The teahouse served as this perfect refuge to be surrounded by people,” he said. “It was a casual, convivial place where you could just exist or start conversations without having to pay a lot of money. Those spaces don't really exist in a lot of places in the US.” Later that year, Miles spent four months bopping around Singapore, where he learned about local brews like puer that tasted nothing like the teabags of his childhood.
Then the pandemic hit. Miles graduated from college in 2020—the commencement ceremony was hosted on the online game Roblox—and found a job in biotech. They moved from Boston to New York in 2022 with the sneaking suspicion that remote work in for-profit healthcare wasn’t scratching their itch for a life well lived. While walking through a Brooklyn park on a frigid winter day, they felt a flickering wish that someone nearby might offer a cup of tea to share. Of course there isn’t, they thought, why would there be? Then, they wondered, why couldn’t they be that person?
“Free” is a short word with a long list of qualifiers in the United States. When I first heard about some guy serving free tea to strangers, I figured it was an art installation or stealth marketing for a startup. “We need to look out for each other,” Miles replied, “to trust rather than fear each other. That's the catch, that's the agenda. It’s getting you to talk to your neighbors and recognize that strangers aren't scary, they're your fellow humans.” Miles has certainly succeeded on a personal level; neighbors of all ages and backgrounds shout out “hey tea guy” when he rides past on his bicycle.
Tea Stand events take many forms, all of them free. Service in parks remains the core of the project. Miles and other volunteers host talks, sound meditations, silent tea drinking, and other gatherings around the city. Twice a month, The Tea Stand serves tea to people waiting on line for food at mutual aid distributions. “It’s a way to meet people where they are,” they said. “Waiting on line in the cold can be a shitty experience. Can that be made better?” They serve as many as 150 cups of tea depending on the event. Miles travels with cups, decorations, teaware, and a camping stove to heat fresh water that’s efficiently packed onto a bike rack. Earlier this year, they ran a series called Perpetual Brew where they served tea in a Brooklyn park every day for the month of April. They just built a semi-permanent tea table on the roof of telos.haus, a studio where they host gong fu tea experiences.
Miles wants to keep the project sustainable long-term. That includes covering his own expenses so he can go all-in on The Tea Stand without burning out. All the tea is donated by friends, neighbors, and tea freaks, representing everything from butterfly pea flower brews to boutique oolongs. Miles receives around $800 a month in Tea Stand membership contributions from 85 people and counting. Members can vote on where free tea services will pop up and higher donation tiers get perks like seasonal tea boxes delivered by mail or bicycle.
There’s a lot of talk about “building community” in 2025. Our forests are burning and our infrastructure is crumbling and the only way we’ll survive is by relying on one another. That’s the sales pitch, anyway. The initiatives that get the most recognition are usually commercial in nature. But customers aren’t community. Event sponsors aren’t social leaders. The key to grassroots organizing is to break through the demographic barriers that segment us by identities and limit our collective strength. That’s where something as simple as tea comes in. “What fills the void when you finish ordering and there’s no screen with a tip amount flipping over to you,” Miles asked me. “Instead, we're talking about our actual human experiences.”
So far, in small ways, it’s working. Spontaneous connections are hard to quantify, though Miles has seen people from all walks of life share cups at Tea Stand events around the city. “It’s a weird place you can go where you don't know what could appear, but you can trust that it will always have this positive energy and that something beautiful might happen,” he said. “The Tea Stand is not in the business of engineering serendipity, but it’s a pretty reliable place for that to happen.”
View The Tea Stand’s calendar to see upcoming events. If you’re interested in donating to the project, you can do so here.
Thanks so much for the story, Max <3
FREE TEA FOR ALL!!!
Miles - thank you - have long dreamt of serving free tea for hours to strangers in public spaces. Got as far as bringing bottles of cold brew to LAFC tailgates and paper dixie shot cups - you’re doing it for real for real and are an inspiration rippling worldwide.
Much love from Japan. 🙌