I used the Star-Support-Splash steps to blend my way to a solid foundation.

When I was creating what is now our Ground Work blend, I wasn’t blending a floral tea infusion.  I was solving a problem. 

When we design tastings, workshops, or celebrations, we aren’t just creating flavor experiences. We’re intentionally building environments where awe can emerge—through light, flavor, ritual, and place. Because awe is what makes a moment memorable, and what makes a group more generous with itself.

When was the last time you paused before interpreting?

Not just paused to rest—but paused to observe. To name what’s actually in front of you before jumping to meaning.

At A Matter of Taste, we help teams do exactly that—using tea as both metaphor and method.

Navigating what we need to thrive—individually and together—is no small feat. It never was. And in 2025, it feels like the rules have changed again. So where do we turn when we need direction, hope, or simply a place to catch our breath?

Experiences have layers, and learning—true collaboration—thrives on layers. When Joanna and I designed the A Matter of Taste leadership coaching approach, we reflected on past “bad meals” of learning: too much or too little information, pacing that felt off, content that lacked relevance or cohesion. Learning should be transformational—a dopamine rush of accomplishment and discovery.

What if, instead of planning a company event during a tight schedule of conflicting personal events and celebrations over the winter break, your organization’s celebrations were focused on dates of meaning for the organization? 

Instead, think of a meaningful cadence for YOUR organization to come together and create memories. Rethink what coming together means.

How do you know you are in the right place, with the right people, at the right moment?  You can just feel it!  We had that experience as part of a Seattle Creates agenda of amazing artists living in the intersections of design, architecture, culinary arts, and passionate engagement with our living and integrated world.  A Matter of Taste opened a deep design-thinking agenda that challenged ideas of space, experience, emotion, and engagement across the community of those who envision.

We believe that food is more than just sustenance—it’s a bridge to connection, collaboration, and creativity. By engaging in a multi-sensory approach to tasting, we create experiences that go beyond the plate, bringing teams together through intentional, shared moments.

A sense of place is a critical part of human existence, a feeling of home, relationships and connections that lays foundations for new learning and pride in performance.  Going specifically local with our ingredient choices and experience partners embeds community into our workshops and events.  We believe that collaborating better requires real experiences and real relationships to make positive memories that connect us.

We’re proud to be able to feature a wide variety of foods, tastes, and flavors in our public workshops and events- read on for our shortlist of experience partners and local artisans!

Taste is personal, specific, and informed not just by how your mouth works but also by how your life has informed how you experience flavor.  The unique circumstances of your existence on this planet have guided how much you enjoy hot chocolate, or pasta with marinara, or a spicy iced chai.

But there are things to learn and apply when you taste specific flavors or foods that can give you insight to WHY your mouth does what it does, and WHY your brain makes the associations that it does. Different types of acids do different things to the foods we eat.  Different steps in chocolate making impact exactly what texture, taste, and lingering flavors we can expect from a lovely piece of regional artisanal chocolate made by a local maker from plants grown in specific climates.

Chocolate has a unique way of bringing people together. Whether it’s a shared appreciation for fine dark chocolate or a collective moment of delight over an unexpected flavor pairing, chocolate tasting fosters connection.

We believe in sharing joy! In the past month, our team has worked with three different teams to do essentially that, share joy. Joy of discovery, joy of connection, joy of communication, joy of shared achievement, that’s what we’re actually doing. It’s not the vocabulary of the business world to put it that way, but that joy, earned that way, unlocks a team to resilience in good times, bad times, and times so turbulent they defy categorization.

It’s intuitive to a certain extent; when we are happy we get more done.  Digging deeper though, relationships formed in good times by definition share good memories.  That's the foundation for future collaboration and trust, empowering creativity and innovation. It’s a pretty direct route.  Maintaining the energy from joy takes work and opportunities- we provide those opportunities for teams.

“I thought umami only came from meat!”  In one of our workshops on umami, we witnessed a vegetarian tasting her way into the umami joy that can be found in so many vegetables and vegetarian dishes.  

Resilience isn’t built overnight—it’s developed through shared experiences and meaningful interactions.

A pickle.  Lemon.  Vinegar.  That’s what we think of when we think of sour.  Your mouth just watered, didn’t it? When we taste sour, our mouth signals the brain to pay attention! Sour is also a conversation about preservation.  Most of the ways we preserve food involve acids, creating that pickle, sauerkraut, sourdough, using those acids to transform and preserve (even enhance) the value from the ingredient.  

Have you ever noticed how a great meal or a perfectly brewed cup of tea can spark inspiration? It's because our senses are deeply connected to our creativity and ability to connect with others.

We have moved! A major milestone for any business, we are celebrating our progress in new digs at the Labour Temple, a historic building in the heart of Belltown that opened in 1948 as a home for the unions that helped grow Seattle to what it is today. Beautifully and respectfully redone and opened in 2022, it’s now a welcoming space for businesses like ours and the client teams we welcome. We are so grateful to Seattle Restored for the learning that our Pioneer Square storefront enabled. In our new location, we have access to so many different ways to host friends and teams in an elegant location that holds respect and dignity for Seattle history.

Collaboration is more than just working together; it's about building meaningful relationships. And what better way to connect than through a shared experience that engages the senses and sparks meaningful conversation?

Highlighting Origins: The Language of Scent and Flavor held on May 9, was a sensory experience carnival! Our primary goal for the evening was to close the distance between “expert” and participant- to remove the perceived barriers between the professional taster or “nose” and the layperson through first-hand experience on a level playing field. We invited our frequent collaborators The NA Sommelier and Filigree & Shadow to help us tell a sensory story through fragrance, tea, beverage, and chocolate to demystify the tasting experience and turn participants into makers, blenders, and chocolatiers for the night.

A pickle. Lemon. Vinegar. Just thinking about sour can make your mouth water. But beyond taste, sourness is a lesson in transformation, balance, and preservation—concepts that apply to both food and team dynamics.