Centre County tea company has new name, new vision, new story to tell

Local tea connoisseurs may be familiar with Spectral Tea, which launched in 2017 with Joyce Yong at the helm and in collaboration with Rothrock Coffee. Now, Yong is reinventing Spectral Tea with a new name, new vision and more personal connection.

Thunder Thunder Tea taps into Yong’s heritage in a way, she said, that Spectral Tea didn’t. The new name is derived from Yong’s Hakka ancestral culture and the Hakka tradition of Lei Cha, or thunder or pounded tea. The brand’s intentional approach to tea similarly finds inspiration in Yong’s memories of her grandmother and childhood in Brunei.

Yong, who also works as a multimedia journalist, said, “What I’m realizing is that, as good as I am with telling other people’s stories, a good storyteller also tells their own story. ... I’ve been closed off to that side of my storytelling for a while, keeping it very private, but this is a part I feel ready to share. The relaunch is a celebration of my personal journey with storytelling, food, love, my sense of community and identity...”

Thunder Thunder Tea also takes advantage of Yong’s wealth of experience in the coffee industry. She has worked for years in the specialty coffee business and knows its history and culture. Just as specialty coffee has become more accessible to the average consumer, she sees similar potential growth for the tea industry.

“One of the (ideas) that I started to build Spectral Tea on is that tea is not just an afterthought,” Yong said. “In a restaurant or in a cafe space, people ask for teas if they want a decaf option or if they’re sick. That’s kind of how people buy teas for themselves, too. I hope to change that. It’s a really easy pivot for a lot of people, because tea is so enjoyable once (you know) what you’re actually buying and what you’re contributing to.”

Additionally, much like the coffee industry has become intertwined with climate and labor activism and issues, Yong foresees Thunder Thunder Tea as following in those footsteps.

“Climate is hugely affecting tea, just as it is coffee,” she said. “Tea producers’ livelihoods are being threatened. In aligning with my values, I’m trying to consider how my company can be part of activism, in terms of climate justice … If there’s, for example, a producer really struggling with their harvests because of drought and frost, (I might) buy a small lot from them to tell that story of what happened and the difference in the tea. ... That’s an important story to tell in your teacup.”

However, while Yong hopes to change up consumers’ conceptions of tea, she also promised Thunder Thunder Tea will offer an accessible experience, particularly when shopping in the brand’s online store.

“If all you want to do is buy a green tea, for example, you can click on the green tea option and then you can look through and see what excites you,” she said. “There will be tasting notes as a guide, or recommendations such as ‘great as a morning tea’ or ‘great with sweets’ or ‘great with savory’.”

In addition to more familiar teas, like green tea, Yong also plans unique offerings related to her heritage.

“The unique thing with Thunder Thunder is my family story, so I’m going to be offering a mix for making thunder tea and indigenous blends from my family’s story,” she said. She’ll likewise still offer favorites from Spectral Tea’s years in business.

Thunder Thunder Tea launched last month with just over a dozen tea selections. Thunder Thunder Tea is available at thunderthundertea.com, as well as at Rothrock Coffee. You can also follow Thunder Thunder Tea on Instagram at @brewthunderthunder. In the future, Yong hopes to host events under the Thunder Thunder Tea brand, including tea popups, as well as tea classes and tastings.