Hi, I'm Gus. 
Welcome to Rivers & Lakes Tea.
I love sharing remarkable teas made by talented people with the stories and conditions that led to their creation as intact as possible.  Inspired by the role the tea table holds in eastern societies, I hope our teas complement a sense of community.  Occupied by the dance between simplicity and nuance needed to brew the fine cup, I also hope these teas incite presence through intuition and experimentation as you brew them if you're having tea just with yourself.  You may know me through my work at Dobrá Tea in North Carolina, at Visionary Magnets, or through my interests as a lifelong musician, photographer, and wannabe botanist.
Let's have tea soon.

I began working in the tea industry in 2012 and have learned that tea is much more than just an intake of caffeine, but rather a medium that fosters cultural communication and a practical way for humans to connect with one another. In 2015, I had my first experience traveling to Taiwan, the first "tea country" I had ever been to. While there, I learned about the intricacies involved in the processing of tea. After we came back with teas directly from the farm and were able to share them with our community, it has been an obsession of mine to discover and share the teas that I fell in love with on that first trip. Though drinking tea itself is a love of mine, my mission in searching for teas is the experience of being able to share it with as many people as possible. My hope through understanding and learning more about tea is that we can then offer a better tea experience to those around us.