Calgary Corporate Photography

Sarjesa | Delicious, Socially Conscious Tea

“The kids are alright”

These days we hear and talk so much about, “The Millennials”. The millenials are often typecast, stereotyped and negatively labeled as being: sheltered, self-entitled, lazy and miserable. However, what we know about stereotyping is that while convient, it is most often wrong. When I look at the kids of today, I think: “Hey, the kids are alright!” And by that I mean that I look at the millennials similarly as I do any other generation: 1) they are the products of their environment and 2) they are human beings. The world changed dramatically with the invention of the personal computer and then, shortly after, there was the earth shattering change of the internet. Both of which were things that: a) the millennials grew up with and b) were inventions that we didn’t accurately predict how it would change us as a culture/species. Besides the multitude of negative health aspects, it also had the positive ability to connect us. To connect us to information, to connect us together with other like-minded individuals, to realize that you didn’t have to fit-in or conform to one, dominant “mass-culture” and that you could be who you are. In short, technology granted us the opportunity to be free.

Sarjesa

When I met Alex Daignault, I was referred to her by the great design team over at Trout & Taylor to do Calgary corporate photography. We arranged to meet at a coffee shop in downtown Calgary and when I approached her, I was struck by two things: 1) how young she was (she was finishing up her University degree at the time) and 2) how motivated and inspirational she was.

Alex, like many people around the world, is very passionate about tea and as such, she began a tea company at a very young age. What makes this story even more extraordinary is that she was determined to donate part of the proceeds from her tea company to the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada. For every box of tea sold, Sarjesa gives $2 to local shelters, which support women in crisis.

This honourable idea was birthed as her final project for a Indigenous Studies course she was taking. While visiting a local coffee shop on her way to school, Alex noticed that there were coffee and tea products that had a social-justice cause associate with them. However, these products were aimed at supporting noble social-justice causes abroad. And that’s when Alex realized that there are important social-justice causes that need our attention right here in this country – namely the cause of missing and murdered indigenous women, whose voices are often marginalized due to the effects of systemic oppression and racist attitudes. Alex works with community members and elders to help try to create a product that is respectful and socially/environmentally conscious.

I, for one, am deeply inspired and uplifted by this exceptional young woman and wish her all the best with her future endeavours. If you’d like more information about where to find Sarjesa teas, please visit her website: Sarjesa Loose Leaf Tea