03/07/2026
Why Tea at C*SPACE? Our Tea-Manifesto
Some of you might have wondered why tea has become such an important part of C*SPACE. At the eve of the Summer Tea Festival, this is a moment to re-introduce the founders, Katja and Jan, whose connection to tea began while living in China.
For Katja, it began during her studies in Chengdu in 1994, where she fell in love with the city’s teahouse culture. She spent countless hours in outdoor teahouses — reading, studying, talking, contemplating. Endless refills of hot water, roasted pumpkin seeds, and an atmosphere of both liveliness and calm.
For Jan, tea became part of everyday life while working with his friends’ photo gallery OFOTO in Shanghai and during business trips to Fujian, where work would pause after lunch. Tea wasn’t a break from work — it was part of the work.
Years later in Berlin during the pandemic, these experiences inspired the Pop-Up Teahouse Berlin concept, helping activate C*SPACE when everything else had come to a standstill, as much a creative strategy as a stoic attitude of calm over tea.
Tea and teahouse-making became a curatorial practice. For us, tea is much more than a drink: it is a method of bringing people together beyond boundaries: a space for serendipity as much as planned content.
Over the last five years this has evolved into an open, non-dogmatic space, inviting others to create their own teahouses. It applies the principle of “co” (as in co-working) to a community of tea lovers and entrepreneurs building a livelihood around tea.
This year we wanted to go deeper into the tea as a plant and the process of production. In May, we joined a tea retreat at Casa del The, hosted by Katrin Lange — whose 40-year journey in tea culture entrepreneurship, from Länggass-Tee in Bern to Casa del Té at Monte Verità, is a true inspiration.
🍃 Tea is not just what we serve at C*SPACE. It is part of how we create space. We look forward to the 3rd Berlin Tea Summer Fest - fueled by community spirit and the wish to create an urban tea living room that makes a difference, fostering togetherness rather than polarization in society.
