Mindful Tea began in Charlottesville, VA, as a way to manifest our enlightenment — to simply sit and enjoy a cup of tea.
Founded by Elias McQuade in 2015, we created a tea and meditation supply company, built the mobile tea house The Mahāyāna, and set out to awaken to all beings.
At Mindful Tea, we aspire to create an environment that fosters mindfulness and meaningful work. By bringing together a community of people engaged in their unique crafts and skills, we are able to offer the finest tea, teaware, and meditation products. When you join the Mindful Tea community, you belong to a group of people who live life fully and authentically.
Our Story
We are a small business with the potential to grow into a positive force in this world. We believe that quiet spaces for contemplation are essential in today’s fast-paced environment.
Mindful Tea was founded in 2015 by Elias McQuade with the aspiration to create a dedicated space for drinking tea mindfully.
We specialize in sourcing the finest quality teas from around the world. We serve tea to our customers while practicing mindfulness and offering a space for meditation. In these challenging times, more and more people are discovering the benefits of both tea and meditation. While tea sales keep our doors open, the true treasures are not material. Ultimately, serving a cup of tea can heal not only ourselves but also our wider society.
Our current project is the creation of a mobile tea house — a space where people can engage with the living traditions of tea and mindfulness.
People You Support
Your patronage helps sustain talented artisans and practitioners, including:
- Ken Nagakui — Artist and potter; craftsman of our Mindful Tea Cups.
- Bill (Teido) Stephens — Abbot of the Blue Ridge Zen Group; craftsman of our meditation bells and clappers.
About Our Founder
Elias McQuade was born in Manchester, NH, in the winter of 1990. After being adopted, he grew up as an ordinary kid, affectionately nicknamed “Buddy” by family and friends. From a young age, he remembers the joy of a cup of tea — PG Tips served by his mother, the kettle roaring in the background, patiently waiting for a mug with milk and sugar.
Those early moments marked the beginning of a lifelong adventure. Elias studied International Business at Bryant University, concentrating in Finance and Entrepreneurship, where he became interested in microfinance lending. His first international trip took him to the UK — the home of PG Tips — followed shortly by a study abroad program in China, where he found himself serving tea to classmates in the National Tea Museum.
At age 24, Elias was recruited into the International Graduate Trainee Program with Delhaize, a multinational food retailer, where he developed as a future business leader. Realizing that personal growth extended beyond corporate leadership, he set out to study and master Zen “sitting meditation.”
Settling in Charlottesville, VA, he worked as a Tennis Professional, Real Estate Manager, and Wealth Manager, while dedicating himself to Zen practice. He was ordained as a lay Zen monk in 2015 and spent seven years in periods of intensive practice in England, the United States, and Japan. Today, he invites others to share in the experience of “just sitting and having tea.”
Elias now lives in Decatur, Georgia, and Auburn, NH, with his wife Elizabeth and their two children.
Please join us in working toward the well-being of our shared human community.