Tea is Relationship
We are creating a platform for tea culture to be explored and upheld in community.
Founder
Buckminster
Buckminster Barrett is a young student of Chinese tea culture and philosophy. As co-founder and tea manager at Soft Medicine Sanctuary, he saw the need to highlight tea more distinctively, and create a platform upon which to source and uphold artisanal tea. As such founded the Deep Creek Collective as a reflection of an undying love for this plant and the community connected to it.
His love for Chinese tea (especially Pu’er) took flight in 2014, when he stumbled across a traditional teahouse in Santa Cruz, CA. Since then, tea has been his home, serving as a focal point at every turn. He is known to serve tea at festivals, dances, parties, conferences, and essentially wherever he is sitting for more than 30 minutes.
Buckminster is based in Sebastopol, CA, where he operates Deep Creek alongside Soft Medicine Sanctuary. a multi-faceted cafe and event center.
In-person location
Soft Medicine Sanctuary
A community hub nestled in Downtown Sebastopol in Sonoma County, California. Here, you can sit with self-serve gong-fu tea service alongside Ayurvedic foods and Chinese herbal blends, in an eclectic living-room environment where all are welcome.
It's also Deep Creek's main headquarters for tea and ware retail, community events, private tastings, and educational presentations.
Sonoma County is known for its rich landscapes, and generational small-scale agriculture. With that comes excellent food and wine!
It's only natural, then, to apply the same standards to tea appreciation as one does to wine and food: for its respective capacity for craftsmanship, relationship with ecology and human culture, and capacity for nourishment.