Reflections on a Decade of Tea Blogging

Happy Blogiversary to me! The Cup of Life turns TEN YEARS OLD today! Wow, that was so weird to type. I can’t believe it has been a decade since I started a blog devoted to tea. Blogging is a lot of fun, but that doesn’t mean it is always easy. Throughout the years I have created a lot of tea content. However, there were also lots of moments I felt burnt out and no longer inspired. So, overall I’m really proud of my blogging career and definitely believe pushing through the hard days was worth it. Grab yourself a cup of tea because we’re taking a trip down memory lane to celebrate.

I started this tea blog on June 3, 2011. I remember that day so well.

It was a Friday and I had just finished working a long shift. At the time I was home from college and working a summer job. The job was packing tomatoes and cucumbers 6 days a week, 10-15 hours a day.

Needless to say, I really needed a creative outlet.

I have always loved blogging. I’ve gone through a few before this one actually! So, my mind went back to blogs and to make a long story short, The Cup of Life was born.

But… I’m not really going to make a long story short. It’s a big day/year! I’m going to share more 🙂

How I Started My Tea Blog

The Cup of Life wasn’t always meant to be a tea blog. Let me explain…

In elementary school I was already very into writing and web designing. I would teach myself how to code for fun. I was quite obsessed with making text and images fly all over a website page haha.

Then in high school I was introduced to blogs. Marry my love for web designing and writing and you have a blog!

My past blogs were always a place where I just shared random creative writing pieces I was working on at the time. Blogs started as an online journal and I guess you could say that’s how I used my previous blogs.

But, I didn’t stick with them for long because there was no structure or theme. 

I remembered this when I started The Cup of Life as I wanted it to be different. I didn’t want it to fade away. 

So, I initially started The Cup of Life as a place to still share my writing but as a self proclaimed teaaholic since 7 years old, I decided to incorporate tea, too. 

I always found tea to be an inspiration in a cup. It was rare for me to write without it by my side. So, I decided it would be neat to share a bit about the tea I was drinking when writing certain entries. 

This led me to research all the current teas in my collection for more information that I could share.

And then….

I fell down that tea rabbit hole. 

I was beginning to realize as a lifelong tea drinker I really didn’t know much about tea! The amount I was learning in just a few minutes of searching was unbelievable.

There were how many types of teas?

That herbal tea I loved technically isn’t tea? 

One plant is responsible for my favourite beverage? 

What!!!

The more I learned the more I wrote about tea and The Cup of Life became a tea blog. 

I began to share what I was learning, write tea reviews, highlight fun tea related products I came across and connect with fellow tea bloggers.

Yes, fellow tea bloggers! Tea blogging was already a thing.

In fact, the first tea blog I ever came across and connected with was Teaspoons & Petals. Alexis Siemons started her blog back in 2008 I believe. I interviewed her before too! Read it here.

The Meaning Behind My Blog Name

Why did you name your blog what you named it is a question every blogger receives every now and then. The Cup of Life is a name I had with me for more than a decade actually. 

When I was younger I dreamed of owning a bakery/tea shop. If you ever watched the show What I Like About You the main character eventually owns a bakery and I wanted something just like that. 

Of course when you dream of something at a young age you think of all the details. So, I already had my bakery + tea shop named. I was going to call it The Cup of Life. 

And no, this name wasn’t inspired by the Ricky Martin song. 

The Cup of Life is simply how I view tea. Therefore, when it came time to name my blog it was an easy decision since I decided to incorporate tea!

A Few of the Many Tea Blogging Highlights

– 10 years, 120 months, 3650+ days
– Over 500 blog posts (unfortunately this doesn’t include some early blog posts that got lost when transferring to self-hosting)
– Started as a hobby, continued as a job
– A tea article I wrote got picked as a featured story in a magazine
– Signed a publishing contract and published a book
– Released an audiobook
– and an annual tea calendar
– Several speaking events and tea workshops hosted
– Interviewed and chatted with one of my favourite Canadian actresses about tea
– Met so many great friends through the blog!

The Cup of Life Tea Blog History

I started my blog on the Blogspot platform. Free and fairly simple to use but there were limitations. My blog domain used to be www.theteacupoflife.blogspot.com At the time, The Cup of Life was already claimed. So, “tea” was added to the domain name. 

A lot of writing was done during that first summer of blogging. I reviewed some teas (this one was a favourite back then), I shared creative tea inspired products I found (still love this one!), and of course, I just wrote about my tea dreams.

But, when I went back to school for the next semester there were a few months of no posts. 

2012 and Beyond

I graduated the year after! I had a bit more free time, but not really because…work. However, it was easier to fill my evenings with tea blogging when I didn’t need to have my nose in a textbook. 

I began to reach out to other platforms that I could write about tea.

I did some guest posting for other bloggers outside of tea and in 2014 I had my first tea article published in a magazine.

Biggest Turning Point – 2015

When I look back on the 10 years of blogging, 2015 comes up a lot.

2015 was a big turning point in my blogging career. It’s actually when I started to tell people I write a tea blog!

I didn’t always share this with others outside of the community because I felt like no one truly understood. People hear about full-time food bloggers or lifestyle bloggers but when I share that I write about just tea… I’m left with some confused looks haha.

But, I felt more confident in 2015 when I decided to take tea blogging a bit more seriously and invested more than just time, but money. I made the big switch and moved my blog from a free platform to self-hosting!

As mentioned earlier, the platform I started my blog on was great but I found it very limiting to grow as a blogger. If there is one thing I regret during this decade it’s that I didn’t move to self-hosting sooner. Once I did, I started to treat my blog more like a business.

That was when I revamped my logo and branding! It was definitely time for a change.

I also decided to challenge myself more. I interviewed and wrote about Canada’s first tea farm. It got published in a magazine and even made the cover story!

I even attended my first tea festival this year!

And…to top it all off 2015 was the year I signed a publishing contract and began writing my book!

Top 5 Tea Blog Posts Over the Decade

Based on pageviews, these are the current most popular posts on my tea blog!

1. 5 of the Best Matcha Green Tea Brands Out There
2. How to Cold Steep Tea (and why!)
3. 5 Chai Brands You Should Try
4. Classic English Scones
5. 38 Tea Quotes That Will Inspire Every Tea Drinker

Thank YOU!

It was fun to write this post and look back on the 10 years of tea blogging. It is really neat to see where my blog started and where I’m at in my blogging career now.

Sometimes I cringe at old blog posts though, the photos I took or the way I knew nothing about SEO. I learned so much over the years!

I used to hit publish on a blog post and wait to see the 20 something views it got. It’s crazy to see those numbers in the thousands now!

Thank you so much to everyone and anyone who has ever stumbled on my blog. Reading my blog posts and sharing them means the absolute world to me.

If you’ve been here for a long time thank you so much for sticking with me!

If you’re more of a newcomer…welcome! I’m so glad you’re here. Don’t worry, we still have lots to look forward to.

Raising my teacup to the next 10 years… I can’t wait to see what they will bring!

happy steeping & sipping,

P.S. The blogiversary celebration isn’t over. I have another post coming later this month…stay tuned!