Interview with Pens and Tea

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This month we interviewed Kerry from the Pens and Tea youtube channel. Kerry is an avid tea drinker and fountain pen user as well as a proud Canadian. She shares her passions through regular videos posted to her youtube channel which can be found here. In part one of a two part interview, we sat down with Kerry to discuss her tea drinking, writing, and youtube experiences.

  1. When did you start the youtube channel?

I started the YouTube channel in January of 2016 after having the idea pop into my head while I was in the shower (aren’t all the best ideas thought of in the shower). Fun fact, I actually used to have a vlog channel as well but the videos are now all private. That channel did not last long.

  1. How did you get started drinking tea?

I started drinking tea on a regular basis back in 2009 when I was away in University. One of my house mates, who is now my best friend and travel buddy, introduced me to loose leaf tea which I had never seen or knew about before. We started having a nightly tea time as a way of getting to know one another, spend time together and relax after all the stresses that comes from being a student. I still have nightly tea time even though he lives in Newfoundland now.

  1. How did you get started using fountain pens?

My fountain pen hobby began by accident. I was buying something on Amazon (I don’t even remember what it was so it couldn’t have been that good) and a pilot metropolitan came up as a suggestion. I was about $10 away from free shipping so I figured why not? I added it to my cart and when it arrived I had no idea what it was! I googled how to use a fountain pen and like so many others, Brian Goulet came to the rescue. Watching his fountain pen 101 was a life saver. I actually didn’t like it at first until I realized how important paper was. There was a pretty steep learning curve but I’m glad I stuck with it.

  1. What led you to share your passions with the world through youtube?

As I mentioned above, I had dabbled in the YouTube world before so I kind of knew what to expect when making these video, but this time around I didn’t want to vlog; I wanted to inform. I noticed a pretty big lack of feminine presence in the fountain pen world, and a definite lack of a Canadian one. All of the video reviewers that I had seen were male and I wanted to change that. While there are definitely some strong women fountain pen reviewers, I wanted to add myself to the mix.
This was coupled with the fact that I had no one in my personal life at the time knew or cared about pens at all and I really wanted to get involved in the larger community to meet like minded individuals.

  1. Tell me what you love most about tea.

What I love most about tea is how I got started with it. I essentially got a best friend from drinking tea and I associate drinking tea with happy memories. I also feel a sense of comfort from drinking tea. I am particularly partial to black tea with a bit of sugar and milk, for whatever reason it feels like a warm hug and I love it.

  1. Tell me about your favourite way to drink tea.

My favourite way to drink tea is with a good book or a long journaling session. As stated above, tea is a comfort factor for me and so are books/journaling. I am an avid reader (just ask my overflowing book shelves) and you can often times find me sitting on a couch with a blanket, hot cup of tea and a good book. I also like to journal with a cup of tea. I got really into journaling a couple years ago as a way to process my thoughts/feelings and generally record my life. Sitting down for 30-40 minutes to do this is always better with a cup of tea (or 2).

  1. When do you like to the drink tea the most? Why?

I really like to drink tea when it rains outside. There is something extremely comforting about the idea of having a hot cup of tea inside and watching it rain.

  1. What kinds of writing do you use your fountain pens for?

I use my pens mostly for journaling and correspondence writing, yes pen pals do still exist! I try to journal for anywhere between 10-30 minutes a day and I have several pen pals that I try to keep up with. Beyond this I tend to doodle a lot with my pens and draw (even though I have no skill in the art department). I also like to hand write bullet points for my review videos and take notes on any creative projects I’m diving into. I like to write my own novels so when I am working through my brain maps and flushing out ideas I will usually do that manually with a fountain pen.

  1. Do you have a favourite location to do writing?

I don’t really have a favourite location to write, I tend to stick to my desk in my bedroom mostly. I do like to take my things with me to my cottage and write there, looking out into the forest and lake views. It isn’t really fair to say that is my favourite place to write though, because it is just my favourite place to be in general.