On an unseasonably warm afternoon in February, Leaves and Flowers founders, Anna and Emily, visited David Hoffman at his home in Lagunitas, California. Set into a forested hillside, David has spent the last 40+ years constructing and tending his property, an otherworldly fortress / sanctuary that he calls, The Last Resort. With a back-to-the-land mindset and a passion for natural materials, David designed, engineered and constructed all aspects of his property. He did this without proper permitting, and thus has been in a legal battle with the county for years. Recently though, The Last Resort was approved for landmark preservation. This designation is a testament to what David has built and all that he stands for. It is here at his home that Anna and Emily first met David more than 10 years ago as they embarked on their own tea journey. In the following conversation, you'll be introduced to a man who has never conformed to a general way of living, but who, in his simplicity, has become a radical example of how to live well and in harmony with nature. His relationship to tea is but one aspect of his story, yet an integral thread in the tapestry of his life. There is so much more to know about David, much more than we could touch upon in this interview. If you want to continue learning about David and his projects, you may find additional links at the bottom of this page.
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A David, remind us, how old are you now?
D I'll be 80 in five months! Isn't that exciting?! It's really sobered me up. 80!! I had to put a new roof on the house this summer. The roof I put on 40 years ago. I've been here so long the house and grounds maintenance is full time now. I recently came across this photograph from ages ago. That's my original wood burning stove and behind it is the original wall of the house.
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A Look at your hair!
D Yes, I had hair back then! That was a Model T Ford wood burning stove. I bought four of them when I lived in Europe. They were $6 ea. People were ashamed to have them. They were considered old fashioned. I thought they were spectacular. That was my first stove and the only stove I really used at the house until I bought the one I use now.
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A When you were a child, did you have a vision of the life you wanted to have?
D I was a loser in school, terrible at sports, tried boxing and got my ass kicked, tried wrestling and I was even worse at that. But building cars, I was good at that. I supported myself that way in high school, building old wrecks and fixing them up. I was mostly a Chevy person, corvettes. That was my dream for my life back then.
A So, how did you get into the tea business?
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D I had been living with the Tibetans in the 60s in Nepal, deep in the mountains. My claim to fame back then was that I made it to Dolpo. It was part of Tibet. 4 1/2 months of walking there and back. And of course everyone was drinking Puerh tea. They didn't call it that, they called it Zang cha (Tibetan tea). In fact, I still have the original Tibetan mushroom that I carried with me as my drinking tea, from 1971. I started my tea business because when I got back I couldn’t find good tea in the states. I was out of the country for 10 years living in Asia, drinking exquisite tea, and when I came back I couldn’t find good tea anywhere.
E Do you know Peter Mattheisson's, The Snow Leopard? I just finished that book and it made me think of you.
D Of course, yes, I knew Peter. I sent him an XRay of my foot! Not my foot but the animal foot that I acquired. I'll tell you the story. When I decided to return to the US, I was buying up art and things to bring back with me and one of my contacts had this creature up in a cabinet. I asked him what it was and supposedly it was a very mythical creature that was probably an abominable snowman. I purchased the foot and had an XRay taken of it from a local hospital and I sent it to Peter. And really, that’s how I got my start in the tea business. I set up a Tibetan tent at the Himalayan Fair at Live Oak Park in Berkeley and had a big sign out front that said, “See the Foot!”. I charged 25¢ and people would come into the tent and I'd show them the foot. But I also had Puerh tea with me, so when people came to see the foot I served them tea.
A Lure them in with a prehistoric foot then serve them tea. I'll try that!
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D When I came back to this country after living in Nepal, I was driving up I-5 and decided to have a picnic out in the fields. I stopped my car and got out and noticed a strange smell. I put my hand in the soil and it was so dry, like a desert. There was no life in it. And yet all these plants were growing. And I thought, this is the food America is eating? Right then I made a decision that I'd always grow my own food. Soon after I found this place, where I've lived now for 40+ years. I walked up the driveway and immediately realized I could do my projects here and grow food. I bought it on the spot.
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A So, this is where you started your first tea business Silk Road Tea, which you founded in 1992 and sold in 2004. Why did you sell? Did you think you were done with the tea business?
D Oh, I was just overwhelmed. There was only two of us doing everything, Nawong and myself. We were doing $1M a year selling tea out of my garage. I was sleeping 3 1/2 hrs a night for years. Somewhere I read that Mahatma Gandhi slept 3 1/2 hrs and I thought maybe I could try that. But it wasted me. My doctor said I was suffering from sleep deprivation. I'd be talking to friends and right in the middle of the conversation I'd fall asleep! So I sold the business. I had to get my life back. I signed a non-compete clause for 5 years but once that was finished I started my second tea business, The Phoenix Collection.
E You’ve been in the tea world for so long. How would you describe your relationship to tea now? What’s kept you invested in it?
D The taste, the aroma, the feel. The way tea gathers people together. There's so many aspects of tea that I deeply love.
E You often mention aroma when talking about tea...
D Well, when sourcing tea in China I had to make quick decisions on so many occasions. My nose was my most discerning tool. When you watch Les Blank’s film about me you'll notice I always have my face buried in a sack of tea. If it was a good tea and I didn’t buy it right on the spot I'd lose my chance and someone else would snatch it up. Sometimes I bought tea based solely on the smell because I had to be quick. The majority of the tea that was processed through the factory was all sprayed with chemicals, but not the ones from the small wild tea farms. I had a very good nose back then and I could easily distinguish a wild, unadulterated tea from a sprayed tea. Mostly I’d go to a tea shop, look at the teas, taste them. The ones that I liked always had an address on the package and so I would go to the factory. The factories were often surrounded by these small, family-run tea farms. So I would just go to those farms and knock on their doors. I followed my nose, I could smell the teas being made. My nose always led me to the most exceptional tea.
A When you were there in China, you became a pioneer in the industry, incentivizing tea farmers to grow organically without chemicals and sell to you directly rather than selling to the factory.
D Yes, I am very passionate about organics. It’s been my whole life. At that time in China tea cultivation with chemicals was on the rise. I made it my mission to educate farmers and teach them how much more valuable their teas were unsprayed. I would intercept the teas before they got to the factory and buy directly from the farmer, offering them a higher price than what they could sell it to the factory for. I got some very good tea that way and made life long connections.
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A Our interview series title, Medicine Bag, comes from the notion that we each have things that we’ve collected over time that we keep close to us. Objects, plants, ideas - and these things inform how we are in the world and from where we draw our clarity, strength, inspiration. David, what do you keep in your medicine bag?
D Lots of old dusty memories from 80 years of living (everyone laughs). But really, my question to you is, what gives you hope for the future? What gives me hope are the young people of your generation that have a good mind and good heart and are going forward with positivity and love, rather than negativity and fear.
A What gives me hope is the natural world. When I feel and witness the power of nature. In many ways the state of our world feels perilous but nature is the most powerful force and energy and it is regenerative, transformative even. This brings me hope.
D I think it’s our arrogance to think that we can improve on Nature. Nature is perfect.
E I think that at the core, people want to give love and receive love. I feel that when I'm out in the world. If you open your heart to people they respond in a way that even surprises themselves. Maybe my output is going to be small in who I reach but if I can show up with grace and love maybe that will shift someone, or something. People are thirsty from some sort of connection to their hearts. People are yearning for that and it makes me hopeful. I do feel hopeful.
D Hold on to that. Never lose it.
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At the time of this conversation David didn't answer the question of, "What do you keep in your Medicine Bag?" He later wrote to us by email with this response:
D As far as my medicine bag goes: there's an inner and outer bag. The inner bag holds a piece of dried drone (wild yak) and also a piece of dried fish from Mansarovar Lake near Mt. Kailash (a piece of this given to a woman in labor will bestow great benevolence to the newborn). The outer bag contains the really weird stuff like snake vertebra mala, human thigh bone trumpet, tiger testicles, and stuff like that. I’ve also added the most powerful item of all but won’t write it down.
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