A Short History of the Tea-bike

J-TEA’s vision, a bicycle built by CAT, and a cart transformation by GORM

What was the original vision for the tea bike cart? The vision for the bike came around the idea of having fun in the moment, or working in a way that allows us the most enjoyment of life. By being at the festivals, and street fairs, we are living our dream as a college student. The vision was really about being able to participate in the fun of working by working in the places that are fun to be. That way, at least if we want to have a good time, we are already at the party, and tea at a party is... well, a party. At J-TEA, we bring tea to the party.

And in the name of “Party!” we are now parking the tea-bike in The Healthy Pet parking lot, former home to Party Cart. However, we will not have the same geographic footprint as the iconic and legendary food cart that was the best thing that happened to the neighborhood since it was named after the iconic and brilliant Sam H. Friendly, Eugene's 12^th mayor (1893-1895). A little bit close to home, you might gripe. Well I tell you, loading and riding that tea-bike all over town is no joke. Talk about ultimate fitness! You work the legs and cardio on the way to and from the selling location, and you get an upper arm workout from shaking iced tea. It's basically the entrepreneur’s workout plan. No time to leave the office and take care of your general level of fitness... thank you tea bike! Problem solved.

“CAT” stands for Center for Appropriate Transport and their method of transport is appropriate. CAT is known for their hand-built Tri-hauler cargo bikes that you will see from time to time blocking the streets as you are innocently stuck behind a slow moving bike as it works its way from point A to point B. CAT is world famous and a great place to learn everything there is to know about bikes. They offer a unique membership which allows you full reign over their bicycle work stations, providing access to enough tools to build an entire bicycle from the ground up. When it comes to specialized cargo bikes, CAT builds each bike by order. For J-Tea, they built a yellow Tri-hauler. Once I had the bike, I knew I had a start, but to get to the tea-bike, there was a long way to go.

Enter GORM, the husband and wife design team established in 2007. Jon Arndt and Won Hee came up with the name for their company as part of an inside joke. Won Hee had a copy of Matilda from Rauld Dahl. Won Hee asked John about the meaning of a word used by Rauld. "What is gormless?" John didn't know, so they turned to Won Hee's electronic Korean / English translator. It meant slow; dim witted; not bright. And so to them gorm was incorporated into their lexicon as the opposite of gormless. They started to use the word to describe things that they saw which were sharp. Their style is minimal and their focus is utilitarian, and so we got a custom made dream tea-bike. More of Studio Gorm's objects can be found here: Studio Gorm's Object Page.

So far, the bike has sold its frosty frothy iced tea at the Bite of Eugene, Whiteaker Block Party, UO Street Faire, and Eugene Sunday Streets. As we mentioned, we will soon act as a beacon to the parched as they follow the flow of West 28^th Avenue as it curves around Healthy Pet's parking lot in the foothills of South Eugene.