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FoodiePath provides a platform for locals to showcase their passions and share them with others.
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A tea-blending class at CaryTown Teas offered through FoodiePath
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All the events through FoodiePath are hosted by locals, many of them in home settings.
When I asked Dan and Tamara how they ended up in Carytown blending tea on a Friday night, they ribbed each other good-naturedly. “I asked my husband to take me on a date that wasn’t dinner,” Tamara says. Dan replies with a laugh, “She doesn’t like live music, so all that was left was tea.”
Tamara says she’s never had a cup of coffee, not a single one, in her life. She’s a tea drinker. “I’m an OB/GYN, so I figure if I got through medical school without coffee, I don’t need it.”
Sitting in CaryTown Teas for an after-hours event offered by FoodiePath, the couple and an assortment of strangers spent the evening learning how to blend their own teas.
Joining them at the table was Mars, an aspiring muralist and current welder, and Michelle, a semiretired Richmond native who returned to the area after 30 years. “Mom is here,” she tells me. I joined them, too. Though I’ve been living in Richmond for three years, much of that has been spent in lockdown, so I feel like I’m just now meeting the city.
Mars is a longtime tea disciple — he drinks green tea daily — interested in perfecting a personal blend that he can pass down to younger generations in his family. Michelle, who loves jasmine, came to make a sleep-aid blend. My belief is that if it’s not Twinings Earl Grey, it’s not tea, so I came for an education.
The five of us arrived at the tea shop after signing up for “Tea Blending Class & Treats With Andrea,” an experience offered through FoodiePath. Launched over the summer, the platform connects food lovers with interactive food events in Richmond that are hosted by locals with an equal passion for the culinary world.
Think of FoodiePath like Airbnb for food and food-adjacent experiences. All the events are hosted by locals, many of them in a home setting. Users can sign up to barbecue in the backyard with Hank, design a charcuterie box with Jacqui, picnic at Libby Hill Park with Jessica or, like the five of us, create our own tea blends with Andrea.
The co-owner and managing partner of CaryTown Teas, Andrea Post worked with FoodiePath founder Christina Chen to design the tea-blending experience, which begins with a tea mocktail and a brief lesson on the health benefits of botanicals such as hibiscus, rose hips, lemongrass and red raspberry leaf, followed by the making of two blends. At the end of the night, the newly minted tea blenders take home their concoctions.
Post has hosted a handful of tea-blending experiences through FoodiePath. She says that she likes to keep the groups small and intimate so that attendees get the opportunity to connect with each other. “I love the experience of meeting people from different demographics you would never otherwise meet,” she says.
Post and Chen originally formed a friendship over a shared affection for the community experience. “I love community building, so when Christina approached me with her idea and what she was creating, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I would love to be a part of that.’ ”
Chen, a recent University of Richmond graduate, was inspired to create FoodiePath by her first few years in the United States. When she arrived in Rhode Island from Chengdu, China, for boarding school at age 13, she recalls feeling isolated and out of place.
“I felt very disconnected from the community until one of my friends invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner, and I learned how to make turkey. It was astounding for me,” Chen says. “From that point, I felt I really connected to the community, and I began to cook dishes at my teacher’s home, at my friend’s house. The whole idea originated from that point.”
FoodiePath morphed from private dinners Chen hosted at her house dubbed “Let’s Eat, Let’s Meet,” where she would teach a handful of local strangers how to make dumplings and other favorite dishes from her home country.
Hosting a FoodiePath experience isn’t reserved for chefs or business owners. Anyone with something food-related to share can apply to lead an event. FoodiePath vets its hosts through multiple interviews and, prior to launching, tests experiences with a full run-through and rehearsal. Hosts choose their availability on a calendar, and guests register to attend through the FoodiePath website.
FoodiePath experiences range from $35 per person to an in-home (in the participant’s home, that is) seafood tasting with a private chef that runs $65 or more.
For now, Chen will be running and growing the business from New York City, where she will start graduate school in the spring. She plans to launch FoodiePath NYC this fall.
Chen says she’s been able to book more in-home experiences in the New York market and hopes she can drum up the same interest in Richmond. “Our vision is that instead of going to a restaurant, you could just go to your neighbor to have a cheaper but better dinner or brunch,” she says. “What we are trying to do is to create a platform that people eventually could use every day, like Google Reviews and Yelp. All our current guests are locals.”
