San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

Ted Lasso is the hero we need and America’s de facto life coach, but he needs to fix himself when it comes to tea. It is finally taking off in U.S. culture, at least partially because consumers are looking for healthier drinks and are increasingly sober-curious. Sure it took a while. Ever since they threw the king’s stash into the Boston Harbor, coffee seized power and has served a few thousand consecutive terms in the part of our hearts where we keep the love for hot beverages. But now specialty tea—sourced from very specific, often family-owned tea gardens across the world—is ascending our love charts in U.S. culture. It seems like it took matcha—a tea the color of Instagram—to open our hearts to coffee’s low-key cousin, but we’re here for it. San Diego’s Paru Tea Bar—the good-tea concept by married couple, Amy Truong and Lani Gobaleza—is proof. On this podcast, Truong explains their humble beginnings in 2017 (she would collect rideshare scooters and charge them to earn extra money while they launched their