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Interview with the founder of JOJO tea, Mike Ortiz


Mike Ortiz is the founder of JOJO tea, based in Miami. We love his style and passion for tea, so we took some time to sit down, and have some tea talks.

What kind of tea are you drinking at the moment, like right now?

Today I’m drinking one of those little tangerines that are stuffed with pu-erh. Actually, I’m drinking one that I started yesterday at 7 PM with some friends, then we went out for some wine and then we came back and drank even more of it!

We were drinking it until about 01.30am in the morning, we wrapped up but when I came back here I still had that pot going, so I just wanted to have even more of that to start off with… but otherwise usually I’ve been having this green tea in the morning from Sichuan: Mao Feng green tea.

Mao Feng is from Meng Ding Mountain. I like that it’s just really great, really beautiful, high quality tea for an affordable price. Over the years at Jojo Tea I always drank the most expensive tea because I was the most excited about it, but lately, that green tea, I love it man, so I’ve been starting my days with that.

So that’s how I start my day, then I’ll usually go into the office and I’ll have an espresso on my way in. Then once I’m settled I’ll continue with some rocky oolong tea. 

If I’m feeling fancy, I have some 2009 pu-erh, that I really like, but I don’t have a lot of it left, so I save it for very special occasions… Then as we get into the later afternoon and evening I start going into the pu-erh but I like to judge which pu-erh I’m going to have based on who’s around me and how old they are.  If I’m with younger people, I’ll tend to have younger pu-erh. If I’m with older folks, I’ll tend to have an older pu-erh. 

I don’t really drink too much ripe pu-erh, honestly, except for when I was in Hong Kong in March and I found this pu-erh, like a ripe pour from 2018. That one was blended with chunks of aloe wood. Wow……

You have filtered water I guess? Do you filter the water yourself? Do you use a certain style of water? 

At home I just use a Brita filter right now, but in the tea room we have some really exceptional water.

There’s a company called Alive Water that pulls the water from a spring in Alabama down here. It’s just a really nice, really clean spring with really well structured water that I love. I love its mouthfeel and I love the guys that bring it. We get a delivery from them usually like once every two or three weeks of about 20 gallons.

I’ve heard you guys also throw tea parties at the tea room?

We have tea parties at our tea room every Saturday night. It’s 27$ at the door and that gives you a cup. There’s no menu, we are selecting the teas and we’re brewing the teas back to back to back in a gongfu style. And it’s just if you have a cup, then you have it. We use gaiwans and Yixing and then if you have a cup, you can sip whatever’s being poured, and we’re just curating the music and curating the tea and sipping them together throughout the whole night, sometimes we like to pair it so that it’s like a mellow tea with mellow music, but then sometimes we like to do more dynamics and play some really mellow music while playing like a really vibrant red tea, for example, we like to play with like harmony and dissonance.

When did tea get into your life at first? What was there for a moment or somebody poured you a cup and you’re like wow?

Like honestly, I remember like I was never into tea growing up. I never had tea. I never had access to it. I grew up in Miami from a Cuban family. Tea was never a part of our culture. 

I remember one of my friends when I played high school football, American football. One of my buddies had this big tin of Lipton iced tea with lemon and sugar. Yeah. And it was like a powder, and whenever I would go to his house, I would just take that powder and mix it with water and ice and drink it and drink it and I was like, damn, I really love this, but it was like, I didn’t even think of it as tea. And then when I was in college I studied acting and we would do a lot of yoga and a lot of breath work, I became very fascinated with with yoga and breath work because growing up along with football I was an amateur boxer, so like this method of exercise where like you use every breath like with intention, I found it to be very fascinating.

From there I wanted to learn more about meditation.  I found a little Buddhist temple and there I met this teacher whose name was Master Chou Fei Tsai. Tsai Chou Fei. I ended up studying meditation there with her for three years. Wow. She was a Taiwanese Taoist and Buddhist tea master. And I didn’t know that there was such a thing, but she was like a real gong fu cha master, yeah. I didn’t know anything about gong fu tea or anything, but I noticed that, like, whenever she made tea, It reminded me of hanging out with Rasta’s in New York. Because like, whenever she made tea, there was this like, real gravity. Like a spiritual gravity to the moment. Yeah. Whenever she made tea, it felt like the whole city would get quiet when she made tea.  Then people, whoever was drinking tea would get high as fuck!!  With her, I was like, what’s up with this? Like, how come? Whenever anybody else makes tea, it’s just a beverage, but whenever this lady makes tea, it’s like a spiritual moment and I became VERY curious about it.

I became more and more curious about it, and then one day, bro, she made Oriental Beauty, Dongfang Meiren. Dude, she made Dongfang Meiren one day and we never spoke about the names of any teas or anything, she would just make a tea and we would drink it.

I had tasted a lot of Pu Erh, White tea and Taiwanese high mountain oolongs. And then one day, one day she made Dongfang Meiren. And as soon as I tasted that tea, I was like, I need to dedicate the rest of my life to tea. Like a hundred percent.

And just as soon as I tasted that, I was like, this is magic, and then I started really learning about Gong Fu tea and practicing on my own. And then after I had been practicing for a year, she was like, bro, let me teach you how to make tea. And then she taught me about her method of Gong Fu tea.

Then after that, it was like, I never want to run out of tea. Like I need to start a tea company. I need to find a way to just, the only friends that I have that never run out of weed are the ones that sell weed. So I guess I gotta start selling tea so that I never run out of tea.

How did you start selling the first bags of tea?

I started selling tea to friends of mine in a Ziploc bag!!  I would print out the name of the tea and then tape it to the Ziploc bag and close it. Yeah. And then I would sell it to my friends like that. Yeah. And then when I started trying to sell to restaurants, I would take them the tea in Ziploc bags and they were like, what the fuck is this? LOL

They were like, you can’t do this man. Yeah. So then I started researching new packaging and we started using bags with a tin tie and then eventually we got a sealer and like that, and from there the rest is history.

Yeah. Before we wrap up. Can you tell me why the company is named Jojo Tea? 

My name is Mike and my family is Cuban. And when I was living in New York, I was studying acting in college. My oldest sister had a baby, I wasn’t there much, so I would come in for a weekend and see him when he was a baby and then leave. And then one day, they showed him a picture of everybody in the family. And they were like, who’s this? And he wasn’t even 1 year old, when they pointed me out, he goes “Jojo”. And the family’s yeah, that’s Jojo. And they all started calling me Jojo. Just because they were like, that’s cute. 

And then four years later, I was like, man, I really want to start a tea company. And I was like, I guess I’ll name it Jojo Tea. I liked the way it sounds. Then like five months after that, I was having dinner with a friend of mine who’s Chinese. And he was like, Hey man, why’d you name it Jojo Tea?  And I was like, oh, it’s meaningless. It’s a nickname that my nephew gave me. And he’s oh man, that’s so cool, bro. You’re teaching your nephew Chinese so young, huh? And I was like, Chinese? What are you talking about? No, I’m not teaching him Chinese. I don’t know, I don’t know Chinese. He’s 1 year old. He doesn’t have a tutor. What are you talking about? And he looks at me and he says, dude, you know what jojo means in Mandarin? It means maternal uncle!!  

Interview with the founder of JOJO tea, Mike Ortiz


Mike Ortiz is the founder of JOJO tea, based in Miami. We love his style and passion for tea, so we took some time to sit down, and have some tea talks.

What kind of tea are you drinking at the moment, like right now?

Today I’m drinking one of those little tangerines that are stuffed with pu-erh. Actually, I’m drinking one that I started yesterday at 7 PM with some friends, then we went out for some wine and then we came back and drank even more of it!

We were drinking it until about 01.30am in the morning, we wrapped up but when I came back here I still had that pot going, so I just wanted to have even more of that to start off with… but otherwise usually I’ve been having this green tea in the morning from Sichuan: Mao Feng green tea.

Mao Feng is from Meng Ding Mountain. I like that it’s just really great, really beautiful, high quality tea for an affordable price. Over the years at Jojo Tea I always drank the most expensive tea because I was the most excited about it, but lately, that green tea, I love it man, so I’ve been starting my days with that.

So that’s how I start my day, then I’ll usually go into the office and I’ll have an espresso on my way in. Then once I’m settled I’ll continue with some rocky oolong tea. 

If I’m feeling fancy, I have some 2009 pu-erh, that I really like, but I don’t have a lot of it left, so I save it for very special occasions… Then as we get into the later afternoon and evening I start going into the pu-erh but I like to judge which pu-erh I’m going to have based on who’s around me and how old they are.  If I’m with younger people, I’ll tend to have younger pu-erh. If I’m with older folks, I’ll tend to have an older pu-erh. 

I don’t really drink too much ripe pu-erh, honestly, except for when I was in Hong Kong in March and I found this pu-erh, like a ripe pour from 2018. That one was blended with chunks of aloe wood. Wow……

You have filtered water I guess? Do you filter the water yourself? Do you use a certain style of water? 

At home I just use a Brita filter right now, but in the tea room we have some really exceptional water.

There’s a company called Alive Water that pulls the water from a spring in Alabama down here. It’s just a really nice, really clean spring with really well structured water that I love. I love its mouthfeel and I love the guys that bring it. We get a delivery from them usually like once every two or three weeks of about 20 gallons.

I’ve heard you guys also throw tea parties at the tea room?

We have tea parties at our tea room every Saturday night. It’s 27$ at the door and that gives you a cup. There’s no menu, we are selecting the teas and we’re brewing the teas back to back to back in a gongfu style. And it’s just if you have a cup, then you have it. We use gaiwans and Yixing and then if you have a cup, you can sip whatever’s being poured, and we’re just curating the music and curating the tea and sipping them together throughout the whole night, sometimes we like to pair it so that it’s like a mellow tea with mellow music, but then sometimes we like to do more dynamics and play some really mellow music while playing like a really vibrant red tea, for example, we like to play with like harmony and dissonance.

When did tea get into your life at first? What was there for a moment or somebody poured you a cup and you’re like wow?

Like honestly, I remember like I was never into tea growing up. I never had tea. I never had access to it. I grew up in Miami from a Cuban family. Tea was never a part of our culture. 

I remember one of my friends when I played high school football, American football. One of my buddies had this big tin of Lipton iced tea with lemon and sugar. Yeah. And it was like a powder, and whenever I would go to his house, I would just take that powder and mix it with water and ice and drink it and drink it and I was like, damn, I really love this, but it was like, I didn’t even think of it as tea. And then when I was in college I studied acting and we would do a lot of yoga and a lot of breath work, I became very fascinated with with yoga and breath work because growing up along with football I was an amateur boxer, so like this method of exercise where like you use every breath like with intention, I found it to be very fascinating.

From there I wanted to learn more about meditation.  I found a little Buddhist temple and there I met this teacher whose name was Master Chou Fei Tsai. Tsai Chou Fei. I ended up studying meditation there with her for three years. Wow. She was a Taiwanese Taoist and Buddhist tea master. And I didn’t know that there was such a thing, but she was like a real gong fu cha master, yeah. I didn’t know anything about gong fu tea or anything, but I noticed that, like, whenever she made tea, It reminded me of hanging out with Rasta’s in New York. Because like, whenever she made tea, there was this like, real gravity. Like a spiritual gravity to the moment. Yeah. Whenever she made tea, it felt like the whole city would get quiet when she made tea.  Then people, whoever was drinking tea would get high as fuck!!  With her, I was like, what’s up with this? Like, how come? Whenever anybody else makes tea, it’s just a beverage, but whenever this lady makes tea, it’s like a spiritual moment and I became VERY curious about it.

I became more and more curious about it, and then one day, bro, she made Oriental Beauty, Dongfang Meiren. Dude, she made Dongfang Meiren one day and we never spoke about the names of any teas or anything, she would just make a tea and we would drink it.

I had tasted a lot of Pu Erh, White tea and Taiwanese high mountain oolongs. And then one day, one day she made Dongfang Meiren. And as soon as I tasted that tea, I was like, I need to dedicate the rest of my life to tea. Like a hundred percent.

And just as soon as I tasted that, I was like, this is magic, and then I started really learning about Gong Fu tea and practicing on my own. And then after I had been practicing for a year, she was like, bro, let me teach you how to make tea. And then she taught me about her method of Gong Fu tea.

Then after that, it was like, I never want to run out of tea. Like I need to start a tea company. I need to find a way to just, the only friends that I have that never run out of weed are the ones that sell weed. So I guess I gotta start selling tea so that I never run out of tea.

How did you start selling the first bags of tea?

I started selling tea to friends of mine in a Ziploc bag!!  I would print out the name of the tea and then tape it to the Ziploc bag and close it. Yeah. And then I would sell it to my friends like that. Yeah. And then when I started trying to sell to restaurants, I would take them the tea in Ziploc bags and they were like, what the fuck is this? LOL

They were like, you can’t do this man. Yeah. So then I started researching new packaging and we started using bags with a tin tie and then eventually we got a sealer and like that, and from there the rest is history.

Yeah. Before we wrap up. Can you tell me why the company is named Jojo Tea? 

My name is Mike and my family is Cuban. And when I was living in New York, I was studying acting in college. My oldest sister had a baby, I wasn’t there much, so I would come in for a weekend and see him when he was a baby and then leave. And then one day, they showed him a picture of everybody in the family. And they were like, who’s this? And he wasn’t even 1 year old, when they pointed me out, he goes “Jojo”. And the family’s yeah, that’s Jojo. And they all started calling me Jojo. Just because they were like, that’s cute. 

And then four years later, I was like, man, I really want to start a tea company. And I was like, I guess I’ll name it Jojo Tea. I liked the way it sounds. Then like five months after that, I was having dinner with a friend of mine who’s Chinese. And he was like, Hey man, why’d you name it Jojo Tea?  And I was like, oh, it’s meaningless. It’s a nickname that my nephew gave me. And he’s oh man, that’s so cool, bro. You’re teaching your nephew Chinese so young, huh? And I was like, Chinese? What are you talking about? No, I’m not teaching him Chinese. I don’t know, I don’t know Chinese. He’s 1 year old. He doesn’t have a tutor. What are you talking about? And he looks at me and he says, dude, you know what jojo means in Mandarin? It means maternal uncle!!  

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