From tea to imago – a history steeped in passion

Tea culture and imago, how do they go together? You might be surprised… It all started with tea! The idea to found imago (that’s what imago was called back then) was born in a tea house while planning a LARP event.

Since the late nineties, we’ve been active in the LARP scene, founding the Dargorath association, under whose banner we organized various events in Northern Moravia – battles and LARPs. We created an event calendar, tried to unify rules for weapon crafting, and were quite busy. A large part of our discussions and planning took place in various Ostrava tea houses, which provided a quiet and pleasant environment. And it was in one of these tea houses that the idea to start an online shop was born.

The intense beginnings of tea culture in the Ostrava region left a strong mark on us. Most of us drink tea regularly; we appreciate quality and careful preparation. We have different preferences and different standards, which is reflected to some extent in the imago tea selection.

Teas at imago

We added tea to the imago range quite early, around 2010. We originally planned to launch a separate tea shop called Cajtea, but that fell through for various reasons. So we thought, fantasy and tea, they go together perfectly! And it turned out we weren't the only fantasy fans who appreciate a good cup of tea…

Currently, you will find a cross-section of various tea types in our offer with a good price/performance ratio. We don't have the ambition to become a specialized tea shop, but we know that life is too short to drink low-quality tea. 🙂 Tea seeps into imago from all sides. We asked our tea lovers about their tea history and preferences, and here is the result.

Tomáš and his classics

The current CEO, Tomáš, opened and ran his own tea house, Na Větrném kopci, back in 1997. It was the second oldest tea house in Ostrava, a renowned place where people often played Dračí doupě (Dragon's Lair) and where LARPers like us used to meet. 🙂

Tomáš is the classic example of the shoemaker's children going barefoot, so his tea tip is the classic, heavily sweetened Touareg tea with fragrant Moroccan mint.

Skaven's favorite dragon

Tomáš's brother, Jiří, also known by the nickname Skaven, the owner of imago, being 6 years younger, jumped into the tea business a bit later as a "tea-man" – someone who prepares tea and serves guests in a tea house. It was a great side job during his studies, a place for great meetings, and above all, a portal to the world of teas and oriental cultures, which were very popular at the turn of the millennium.

Jiří tried to connect tea and the fantasy subculture as early as the beginning of the millennium through a mobile tea house project, which he realized at one of the Battle of the Five Armies events, inspired by the battle from Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Jiří is a universal drinker, so to speak; he prefers black teas and dark oolongs. His tip is a tea called Black Dragon, which is also excellent served iced.

Hrůza's tea trip

The Na Větrném kopci tea house hid other imago employees in its depths for many years. For example, our newest programmer, Michal, worked there as a tea-man for a long time. What is his tea recommendation?

Pu-erh, Pu-erh, Pu-erh, and more Pu-erh, dark and pressed into a "diamond" and macerated to the color of a dark side of the Force cave on the planet Dagobah, specifically this one. Drink it from morning till night, from winter to autumn, always and under all circumstances. As soon as the days start getting significantly shorter than the nights, don't be afraid to spoil yourself by adding some honest honey to the macerate. And that (almost) says it all.

But if anyone keeps asking… I associate spring and summer with Chinese green teas and Oolongs with a fermentation level of up to 50%. Pour yourself some Dragon Well and you'll instantly become a spring tree with budding shoots. Treat your taste buds to almost anything with Formosa in the name, and your mind will be a summer meadow full of life and scents.

If I set aside the poetry – an ice cream cake with Kukicha, an iced Matcha shake, or any green tea left overnight in mineral water in the fridge will show you that joy transcends the boundaries of simple tea asceticism.

And then, when the weavers weave their flying webs and the leaves of the trees slowly start changing from green to all sorts of colors… well, increase that fermentation a bit. For those moments of slightly pensive contemplation at the end of Indian summer, or even an atmosphere full of late autumn with a view somewhere between a crimson sky and the infinite landscape, there is no better company than the Iron Goddess of Mercy, Tie Guan Yin.

In times when the landscape is covered in a white sleep, it's time for the journey of a proper hardened samurai. Anyone who hasn't poured Sencha down their throat after a bath in an icy river is only living at half speed.

Pajda and her games with fire

Our marketer Pajda also worked as a tea-woman in the Na Větrném kopci Tea House. Pajda is, among other things, the illustrator of the book duo Tea Sprite Fairy Tales. What would she recommend?

Tea over a fire, in nature or in the garden. If you haven't tried it, you haven't really lived!

Sipping tea nicely in nature from a favorite bowl and staring into the fire, I could do that all the time, but I have to earn money for those teas somewhere, right! So imago, that's where I go to earn and then spend – on teas and board games. :)

For joy, all you need is a few sticks for a small fire, a cast iron teapot, and tea. Which one? The classic is pu-erh - the best are, of course, cakes (no work needed), for extra moments a more fermented oolong (like Gaba) or a milk oolong (like Golden Lily) and the black tea Golden Nepal (it doesn't burn, it's honest).

Smoke from the fire also adds its own aroma to the tea, so I save the more delicate teas for home. But definitely don't miss the chance to experiment! After all, where would tea culture be today without experiments? Definitely try everything you drink at home, and you'll see what suits you best. I admit that sometimes at the cottage, I grab a few herbs and throw them into the tea.

A gentle tea barbarian is a guarantee of joyful and carefree sipping.

Radek's seasonal tastes

In another famous Ostrava tea house, U Sýkorova mostu, our operations manager Radek worked as a "tea-man" – he perfected his tea art for nearly 10 years in this tea house, which is renowned for its excellent tea. What are his tea preferences?

Radek is a seasonal drinker - in spring and summer he prefers green teas of all kinds, with autumn he darkens into Darjeelings and darker roasted oolongs. And when he can't take it anymore, green pu-erh covers everything.

What do Gilgalad, Asterion, and the Dalai Lama's socks have in common?

Gilgalad (Zbyněk Kučera Holub), our long-time collaborator in copywriting, succumbed to the magic of tea during his introductory tea party with the creators of the Asterion fantasy world long ago in the Brno Dobra Cajovna… Since then, he has tasted many teas, but he formed the strongest bond with pu-erh (perhaps thanks to the essence of the earth element, also called the Dalai Lama's socks), which he has been drinking every day for years – in liter doses.

The influence of pu-erh can be seen in Zbyněk's stories, not only from Asterion, Mesoamerica, and the Wild West, but also in Cat Kostička's Adventures – in the České Budějovice Dobra Cajovna, the beautiful Tea Sprite Fairy Tales were born, whose heroes are the siblings Pu-erh and Jasmine, raised by Grandpa Assam.

During a tea session in a tea house in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, Zbyněk's long-term collaboration with Skaven (Jirka Reiter) began, when Gilgalad started as a virtual warehouseman filling the shelves of the Fantasyobchod (later imago) with product descriptions.

What unusual tea experiences does Zbyněk recommend? Besides a well-aged and properly steeped pu-erh, there is, for example, Odin's tea (Lapsang Souchong from the Swedish island of Birka), iced pu-erh sipped on a tropical evening in front of a local monastery in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (careful, it causes goosebumps), or herbal tea from the American Navajo. So – long live pu-erh!

Japanese specialties and tips from tea product manager Kuba

Our product manager Kuba, whose great passion is Japan and who worked in the Frenštát tea house, is also very close to tea and tea culture. Kuba is also in charge of our product tea selection at imago - he is therefore the most qualified advisor.

Kuba is a standard tea drinker, he doesn't have a particularly refined palate, but every year he looks forward to May, when the first Shincha arrives – the freshest thing Japanese tea has to offer. However, he is always satisfied with just a sample prepared in his kyusu with a strainer from his travels in Japan. So when he's not having Shincha or specialties like Gyokuro on ice (the ice slowly melts in the kyusu, which is hung vertically, and the green liquid slowly but surely drips into the prepared bowl), in his free time he is mainly a fan of Sencha, Darjeeling of all harvests, and his guilty pleasure, Yogi with honey and cream. However, if he had to recommend something from the current offer, our Yunnan OP has an excellent price-performance ratio.

A final word, the last infusion

Tea culture has always been a part of imago, and our history is closely linked to it. From the tea houses where we planned our first LARPs to today's offer of quality teas that you can find at imago.

Whether you indulge in a delicate oolong or a strong pu-erh, I believe that in tea, just like in fantasy, the rule applies: quality and passion go hand in hand.

author Jiří Reiter and other tea lovers