Cabina Cups Tea

See also: Tea in Acheron Rho

Cabina Cups is a brand of tea that's ubiquitous on Cabina and widely associated with the Repentant Faith sector-wide (positively or negatively, dependent on who you ask). Cabina Cups tea is artisanally grown across Cabina wherever biosphere restoration projects have advanced sufficiently for tea cultivation to prosper. Almost every city, village, and temple grows its own local variety of Cabina Cups, and the beverage serves as the planet's main cash export to the sector.

The Cabina Cups Tea Company is the nonprofit corporation behind the brand. Originally part of the institutional structure of the Church of Humanity, Repentant, overseen by its Department of Charity, following the Dissolution of the Church, the Cabina Cups Tea Company quickly rose to the forefront as one of the most prominent players in the struggle for control over the now defunct church's assets and influence. However, Cabina Cups quickly found itself challenged by a caffeine rival, the newly ascendant Ankhayat Coffee Company, and the bitter rivalry between the two would become known as the "caffeine conflict of 3200". Eventually, in part due to having weakened each other in their corporate struggle, both companies had to put aside their differences and agreed to become founding members and stakeholders of SERAPH.

Since then, Cabina Cups has become one of the pillars of SERAPH's corporate wing. Still a nonprofit corporation, Cabina Cups adheres to and works towards SERAPH's goals as a charity. However its more corporate outlook gives Cabina Cups a more competitive and economical perspective on charitable projects and revenue, which the company itself considers a necessary and vital corrective to the more economically 'naive' perspectives of some of their less enterprising fellow SERAPH stakeholders.

History

The Cult of the Plow and the Founding of Cabina Cups

Amongst the original settlers to Cabina, following its ecosystem collapse due to bombardment of the planet by the Blood Eagle fleet, was a Repentant sect made up mainly of former House Reticulum nobles and some of their serfs. Calling themselves the “Cult of the Plow” they believed themselves guilty for having supplied weapons to the Blood Eagle's forces, and wished to repent by never again producing anything that could harm or kill.

This sect was amongst the first to settle not in the newly founded capital city of Lux Gravare, but out in the desolate wastes of the Cabina Frontier. Pioneers in the restoration and re-fertilization of the polluted Cabinan soil, they honored their Reticulum heritage by choosing tea as their crop of choice.

From these humble beginnings, tea cultivation spread to be a mainstay of the Cabina Frontier and Cabina culture in general.

As the cult kept their members largely confined to those who had worked for or served in the Blood Eagle's forces, its membership steadily decreased as the generation that had lived during the Blood Eagle's reign passed away. After a hundred years, the Cult of the Plow was dissolved and its last members became part of the founding board of the Cabina Cups Tea Company, a new nondenominational enterprise overseen by the Church of Humanity Repentant, that would serve as a middleman between local Cabina tea artisans and communities and consumers in the sector at large.

The Church's Tea Company

Throughout the 31st and 32nd centuries, the Cabina Cups Tea Company was a part of the Church of Humanity, Repentant, overseen by its Department of Charity. Scrutiny of the company waxed and waned dependent on the proclivities of the High Exarch in charge of the department. Over time, the company became increasingly independent. Though its board of executives was officially appointed by the Concord, the governing body of the Church of Humanity Repentant, a considerable number of appointees became trusted hands whose continuing position was merely rubber stamped by successive High Exarchs.

During this period, the company became increasingly intertwined with the Cabina Frontier and its economy. Cabina Cups began shipping, both legally and clandestinely, passengers on its tea freighters, becoming a major component of the Vigil's Railroad. Though many in the company did this out of sincere support for the refugees thus given a new life on the frontier, it was also a fact that the questionable legal status of these refugees allowed the company to employ their talents at considerably lower salaries than they could've asked in any other situation. The increased revenue produced by this cheap labor was then, being a nonprofit corporation, reinvested into the Cabina Frontier, but often in ways that subtly or not-so-subtly favored the production of tea at the expense of any other crop.

In this manner, the company became part of a symbiotic relationship tying the Cabina Frontier, the Vigil's Railroad, and tea production together into a cohesive whole.

The Caffeine Conflict of 3200

The conflict of 3200 came as a shock to Cabina Cups and its employees. Though many in the company had enthusiastically supported the Repentant Church's alignment with the corporate powers of the Sector Trade Organization, the conflict that followed was considerably less popular, and the hope for a peaceful end to the conflict high. The cost of the conflict and its consequences left much of the board of executives in disarray, with several prominent members going into hiding as a result of their ties to the more radical Liberatory Coalition within the church.

In the chaos, the company's most prominent spokesperson, Shinkan Reticulum Shimizu Lavanya, better known under her company title of Ms. Minty Repentance, saw her opportunity to take control of the corporation. Through a series of brilliant and ambitious moves, beginning a decade ago with sponsorship of contestants in the Ms. Cabina Cups Pageant, she had been slowly rising in the ranks. Now, backed up by her elite cadre of Ms. Cabina Cups pageant winners, she consolidated control of the company under herself and her protegés.

Soon, the Cabina Cups Tea Company declared its independence (Twitter link) from the Church of Humanity, Repentant. When the church itself dissolved not long after, the company proceeded to do everything it could to absorb and take control of any former church assets it could get its hands on.

But, Cabina Cups was not the only corporate entity seeking to profit from the chaos and upheaval following the STO conflict. At the same time as Cabina Cups was establishing its independence, the Eridanus Ankhayat Family acted upon a generations-long plan to bring a second caffeinated beverage to Cabina.

A vicious corporate conflict broke out between the two would be caffeine company's, which no small part of the blame being on Ms. Minty's monopolistic ambitions and uncompromising corporate strategies. In the end, the conflict is likely to have hurt the tea company as much as help it. Unable to decisively defeat its coffee rival, other actors on Cabina intervened and forced both companies to make peace. Soon both corporations would join those same actors to become founding stakeholders of SERAPH.

A New Era

With the election of the Pyxis Emperox, a new era dawns. Though still harboring grudges towards its caffeine rivals, the Cabina Cups Tea Company is looking towards the future, and seeing the SERAPH umbrella as an opportunity to bring tea to places it's never been before.

Corporate Structure

SEE ARTICLE: SPECIAL REPORT: Who are the Ms. Cabina Cups? The Elite Pageant Winners now Running the Show! (Twitter link)

The Cabina Cups Tea Company is a non-profit organization whose profits are invested into Cabina biosphere restoration projects or other charitable projects. It is a founding member and stakeholder of SERAPH. Cabina Cups Tea Company buys the raw tea leaves from the thousands of local Cabina tea-producing communities, bags it in processing facilities in the Cabina capital of Lux Gravare, and then ships it to customers and retailers sector-wide.

Shinkan Reticulum Shimizu Lavanya, aka Ms. Minty Repentance

The company's current CEO is Shinkan Reticulum Shimizu Lavanya (better known by her current title of Ms. Minty Repentance). Through a series of brilliant and ambitious moves, beginning a decade ago with sponsorship of contestants in the Ms. Cabina Cups Pageant, she consolidated control of the company under the herself and her protegés.

The Cabina Cups Tea Company recently announced it has entered into a deal with the The Trilliant Ring to grow, produce, and sell tea in the Expanse. The Coalition for Expanding Tea Trade and Luxury into the Expanse (or C.E.T.T.L.E) also involves the joint development of a new line of tea: Trilliante Thé-Cháá.

Though the bitter rivalry between Cabina Cups and Ankhayat Coffee theoretically resolved itself in their contentious compromise under SERAPH, the Cabina Cups Tea Company still nurses a grudge, and routinely devises plans to remove the coffee's threat to its monopolistic ambitions. When the two are forced to work together under the SERAPH umbrella, it is generally begrudgingly, at least on the tea company's part.

Any official records of the company are kept spotless and clean, but a fundamental part of Cabina Cups Tea Company's employment and business model is its involvement in various highly questionable "smuggling" operations. Its merchant fleets are often used to ferry refugees (particularly of the synthetic variety) either as cargo, unlisted passengers, or temporary hires (listed or unlisted). Many such refugees find resettlement and more permanent employment on its tea plantations and in its manufactories. Due to the recent contracts signed regarding tea growth and shipment in the Trilliant Expanse, the reach of its network has vastly increased. Ms. Minty Repentance of course completely denies all such rumors as sheer slander, and has multiple teams of highly litigatious lawyers to prevent employees from being charged with anything so much as littering.

Ms. Cabina Cups Pageant

The Ms. Cabina Cups

The Ms. Cabina Cups Pageant is used to select the individual who will be that year's "Ms. Cabina Cups" and public face of the company.

The pre-auditions are carried out by human judges, but, starting from the auditions and onward, alien Cah-Binn judges are added to the process. For the final run of liveshows leading up to the crowning of that year's Ms. Cabina Cups, all judges are Cah-Binn.

Cabina Cups markets the pageants in a way that indicates that what Cah-Binn are looking for is creativity and uniqueness. However, Professor Elric Sheersan of the Maajid Memorial Foundation for the Education of Humanity, who made his life's study out of understanding Cah-Binn psychology, has argued that misses the mark.

You can’t really translate Cah-Binn concepts into human language. It’s not really about that, you see. What the Cah-Binn care about is the autonomy of the subject as objectified in the performance. It’s not just about saying ‘I am special’, it’s about saying ‘I am, and that is special.'

Once crowned, the winners only stay the Ms. Cabina Cups for one year. However, a company tradition is that they remain a Ms. Cabina Cups for as long as they want. After the end of their yearly term as the Ms. Cabina Cups, they crown their successor with the famous Cabina Cups Tiara. But the day after that, their successor then crowns them as with a name taken from one of the company’s many flavors. Though officially the name chosen is based on the matching of person’s personality and the flavors’ unique properties, it is an open secret that those winners considered most exceptional by the company are given the names of their most popular flavors.

Flavors

Cabina Cups comes in hundreds of flavors, most of which are produced only in very small batches. As a result, a box of Cabina Cups will generally have a random assortment of flavors. As they say on Cabina: "Life is like a box of Cabina Cups, you never know what flavor you're going to get!"

Some particularly well-known flavors are:

1/11

Minty Repentance

The original Cabina Cups flavor, developed by the company’s founders, the Cult of the Plow. Made up of Reticulum who felt intense guilt at having supplied the Blood Eagle's forces, they came to the Cabina Frontier with a vow to repent by never again producing anything that could harm or kill. Pioneers in the restoration and re-fertilization of the polluted Cabinan soil, they choose tea as their crop of choice, and followed traditional Reticulum customs in rolling the tea leaves into tight pellets. Blending the pellets with peppermint leaves, the cult dubbed them their “pearls of peace.”

Minty Repentance is a modern take on this old classic. As the pearls unfurl with a golden liquor, a crisp green tea emerges, infused with a hint of mint to make a refreshing and clean taste. Whether one needs to clear one's pallet, or one's conscience, Minty Repentance is the mint tea for any occasion.

Governor's Delight

In the Lux Gravare Greenbelt, just a short hike from the Cabinan planetary capital, stands a two hundred year old cinnamon grove planted by the fifth Cabinan governor. Once a year, members from dozens of frontier communities near the capital gather at the grove to commemorate the fifth governor, and harvest the cinnamon used to make these communities' distinctive Cabina Cups' flavor.

A refined black tea, mixed with cinnamon and just a dash of anise. Governor's delight is perfect for the high functioning functionary or noble who takes their delights as serious as their duties.

Alyssa's Bloom

The Humble High Exarch Alyssa (3025-3112), also known as Alyssa the Humble, was a High Exarch of the Concord of the Church of Humanity, Repentant from the year 3095 up to 3110, when she abdicated to spend the remainder of her life in holy contemplation. During her years as High Exarch, she did much to promote repentance through poverty. The Vow of the Humble Soul, still taken by many Repentant faithful to this day, refers to her.

Alyssa's Bloom is a sublime chamomile herbal tea mixed with orange, anise and just a hint of sage. The perfect brew for those moments of quiet reflection and contemplation. Perhaps before setting upon a great task, or that first meeting with your arranged fiancé.

Tai Mo's Rosemary

A strong Rosemary tea with hints of parsley and thyme, a blend fit for the true sage.

Kordun's Charm

Rethinker Lyra Jirad Kordun, a philosopher of House Lyra before leaving their house for the Repentant faith, was the first person to openly raise the question of Cygnus synthetics' soulhood. Though the High Church of Messiah-as-Emperox has since ruled on the matter, at the time it became a topic of intense philosophical debate. Kordun's seminal work was titled "Synths and the Soul: A question of consciousness." Nowadays, it is only available in limited runs with prefaces by the High Church, preparing the  reader for the doctrinal errors they are about to encounter.

Kordun’s Charm is based on a light black tea, to which is added sweet orange peel, fragrant bergamot, and just a touch of the locally bred Cabina vanilla bean. The result is a beautifully balanced flavor, subtle, refined, and delicious. No brew is better suited to accompany weighty discussions on topics that matter.

Cabina Starset

Constructed in the early 32nd century, the Flying Saucer is an elegantly furnished space station shaped like a teacup and saucer positioned in low orbit around Cabina. It serves as a permanent orbital teahouse, offering those lucky enough to get a reservation a soothing and peaceful environment where they may relax, drink tea, and converse to the backdrop of the slowly moving panorama of the planet.

Cabina Starset is a special blend of Cabina Cups’ finest teas, originally created as a limited edition commemorative flavor for the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Flying Saucer teahouse. Due to popular demand, Cabina Starset became part of the permanent catalogue. It is a rich tea with hints of subtle, fresh flavors that, because each bag is blend by hand, are ever so slightly different for every cup.

Honey Temple

It is a strange irony of the Cabina Frontier that the most deadly non-human creatures on the planet, the swarming Bumbumast insects, also produce a sweet milk that is the planet's healthiest and most nutritious native product. Bumbumast sweet milk is rich in B vitamins, minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron, and contains ample carbo-hydrates. It both nurtures and energizes your body! Research has shown sweet milk to be beneficial to any number of ailments from sore throats to the flu.

Honey Temple is made by the monks of the Order of the Mother, whose temples dot the Cabina Frontier. With considerable risk to their own wellbeing, they practice Bumbumast apiculture so that people across the planet may benefit from the health effects of the sweet milk. Each package is hand-wrapped by a monk of the order, and comes with a pouch of sweet milk powder. Please be advised to give the powder ample time to incorporate for optimum taste experience!

Cah-Binn Bravery

Kriix-aalkrik-voon was a Cah-Binn alien, the last of the great capital-ship-sized gestalt-exoframes to be shot down by Blood Eagle forces in the Battle over Cabina. Repentant legends say that Kriix-aalkrik-voon fought so bravely in defense of their homeworld, that even some of their Aquilan enemies came to view them with respect, alien or not. To this day, the remains of the Cah-Binn and their exoframe still rest at their crash site, not far from the Cabina capital of Lux Gravare.

Cah-Binn Bravery is a concentrated ginger root tea. The root's active volatile oils and pungent phenol compounds give a myriad of health effects, from relieving stress to aiding digestion. Real bravery comes from within, but with everything else, this tea will help!

Mugenjishi Caravan

Every year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims make their way to the temple city of Mugenjishi on Cabina. Some make arduous journeys across hundreds of miles of arctic ice; others make more leisurely journeys in first class shuttles chartered from orbit to port. Built in a crater carved from the ice by the Blood Eagle’s orbital bombardment and famed for both its many temples and its many religious academies and universities, to many faithful Mugenjishi serves as a spiritual capital of the Repentant faith.

Mugenjishi Caravan is a blend of black and apple fruit tea. The fruits' antioxidants strengthen your immune system, which helps against catching colds, while the caffeine and sugar keep you awake and energized. Whether on a pilgrimage of the body, or of the mind, Mugenjishi Caravan will keep headaches away and thoughts clear.

Chrates Chai

Chrates is a cold world, inhabited by a cold people. Ruled by the so-called ‘Frostnax’, estranged relatives of House Fornax, it is a harsh world both in- and outside of its bubble cities. Over the centuries, many thousands of Chrates natives have made the journey to emigrate to the Cabina Frontier which, if no less harsh, is certainly a warmer place to live. The majority settled in the town of Varmborg, which has over the centuries grown into one of the largest towns of the frontier, the center of a thriving Chrates-Cabinan community numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Chrates Chai is a unique variety of Chai tea based on tea drunk on Chrates to keep warm when working outside the bubbles. Chrates-Cabinans developed the habit of drinking it iced, as well as hot, to remind them of home. It is a powerful blend of black tea mixed with cardamom and a fine selection of spices. The inclusion of black peppers gives it an extra kick and long-lasting flavor. Cabina Cups recommends drinking it with just a whiff of Bumbumast sweet milk to add some sugar to your spice!

Smoky Sunburn

Since time immemorial, humanity has looked to the stars in wonder. Bright and beautiful, they produce the light that brings life, and for millennia holy days and rituals have been created around the stellar cycles of people’s respective main stars. On Haqani, during the Dark Age following the Scream, this ancient worship of the stars found new form in that of the Soul ex Sol sect. The Velan star-charters and pilots, whose daily lives were always at the whims of the stars, knew better than anyone their terrible and awesome power. Since that period, the sect has spread, and to this day remains prominent amongst certain spacer communities. The Soul ex Sol practices a ritual meditation at midday, basking in the light of the nearest star, and amongst some of them grew the habit of brewing a particular dark tea to go along with the meditations, on which Smoky Sunburn is based.

Smoky Sunburn is a strong dark tea with a smoky aroma that almost tastes of hearth fire, but lacks the bitterness of most other dark teas. Whether worshipping the stars, or just seeking some inner warmth and light, Smokey Sunburn is an excellent meditative focus like few teas are.

Synthetic Perfection (Defunct)

Up till recently, Cabina Cups' most popular flavor was 'Synthetic Perfection', however that flavor was discontinued during the War Against the Artificials. Some say that at the time of discontinuing, Cabina Cups still had a huge stock of Synthetic Perfection left, and in order to save money has been surreptitiously packaging these leaves as Minty Repentance flavor. The company has called such rumors ridiculous, and attributes the exquisite taste of its flavors to Cabina tea artisans' meticulous care of the tea plant from seed to harvest, and their rigorous selection process so that only the finest leaves get packaged for shipping.

Trilliante Thé-Cháá

A combination of the Cabina Cups’ brand of artisanal delicacy, with the Trilliant brand of perfect luxury. It is, like all Trilliant products, unique, magnificent, and sublime.

The Flying Saucer

For main article, see The Flying Saucer

The Flying Saucer is an elegantly furnished space station shaped like a teacup and saucer in low orbit around Cabina, constructed in the early 32nd century. Originally intended to be an exhibition piece for Cabina Cups’ popular new flavour Synthetic Perfection, the station quickly became so popular that the company decided to renovate and reopen it as a permanent orbital teahouse. The Saucer offers a soothing peaceful environment where visitors may relax, drink tea, and converse to the backdrop of the slowly moving panorama of the planet Cabina.

Cabina Cups Charity Cat Cafés

“10% of income goes to charity schools for the education of the disenfranchised! Drink and Repent!”

The Cabina Cups Charity Cat Cafés, C5 for short, are a chain of cafés all-over the Empire, that mostly sell Cabina Cups. These cafés also provide other services, such as professional companionship (for clarification, sex work included), and have people with cat-maid costumes or catlike bodymods employed by them "in solidarity with our Al-Dost siblings", who serve customers with reverence. They also function as regular cat cafés, with cats frolicking around freely begging customer's attention.

Before the dissolution of the Church of Humanity Repentant, they helped to fund CHR Charity Schools. Since the collapse of the CHR, organizations including the Maajid Memorial Foundation for the Education of Humanity and AIDSERFS have taken over the running of any Charity Schools, and both Cabina Cups Tea Company as part of its arrangement with SERAPH continues to provide additional funding.

Mentions in the News

• BREAKING NEWS: Cabina Cups Goes Rogue??! (Twitter link)
  • Cabina Cups Tea Company declares its independence from the CHR. It takes control of various assets and starts hiring individuals from the CHR bureaucracy who had formerly overseen it.
• BREAKING NEWS: The Future Coffee Quantess of Cabina? (Twitter link)
  • A coffee competitor appears on the scene, making deals with the Cabinan government and using its connections in the CHR bureaucracy take control land formerly overseen by the CHR.
• BREAKING NEWS: Caffine Wars Hit Their Boiling Point?! (Twitter link)
  • Cabina Cups Tea Company and Ankhayat Coffee unify many settlements and homesteads on the Cabina Frontier into power blocs that will support their respective interests.
• BREAKING NEWS: Psi-ball Team Seeks New Sponsor (Twitter link)
  • Ms. Minty makes a bid for Cabina Fever and the Vardome, announcing plans to send the Lux Gravare Stadium into space to join the Flying Saucer.
• BREAKING NEWS: Welcome Center Wars! (Twitter link)
  • Charitable and corporate entities fight for control over the CHR Welcome and Outreach Centers sectorwide.
• SPECIAL REPORT: Who are the Ms. Cabina Cups? The Elite Pageant Winners now Running the Show! (Twitter link)
  • Ms. Minty Repentance's biography and the continued takeover of CHR assets by Cabina Cups.
• BREAKING NEWS: Trilliant Ring Announces Joint Venture with Cabina Cups! (Twitter link)
  • C.E.T.T.L.E. formed, as Cabina Cups makes a move to expand into the Trillian Expanse.
• BREAKING NEWS: Final Candidates for Cabina Governor Present Themselves! (Twitter link)
  • Cabina Cups Tea Company supports the Aquilan Candidate for governor, who has pledged to outlaw coffee.
• BREAKING NEWS: Caffeine Wars About to Burst? Conflict Boils Over into Street Brawls! (Twitter link)
  • Cabina Cups blockades coffee shipments! Ankhayat Coffee seizes marketing drones! Riots in the streets!
• BREAKING NEWS: Piping Hot Love?? (Twitter link)
  • The lead negotiators for Cabina Cups Tea Company and the Ankhayat's Cabina Coffee Company have been making love, not war. Their respective companies are less than pleased.
• ELECTION REPORT: Results of the Election for Cabina Governor! (Twitter link)
  • The Grand Chemex is elected, and sets about restoring some order to things (especially things related to caffeine and aliens).
• BREAKING NEWS: Caffeine Conflict Concluded! (Twitter link)
  • Cabinan charities, the new Cabinan governor, and the caffeinated lovebirds force Cabina Cups Tea and Cabina Coffee to sit down and reach a resolution. Locked in a room together, the founding entities of SERAPH eventually devise and sign the agreements and compromises that create SERAPH.
• BREAKING NEWS: Grand Gathering on Cabina? (Twitter link)
  • Cabina Cups Tea Company and Cabina Coffee Company grudgingly serve beverages together, as they work to unite additional charities and corporations under the SERAPH banner.
• SERAPH Founding Press Release (Twitter link)
  • Consortium of Charities, Cabina Cups Tea Company, Cabina Coffee Company, with Support of Cabinan
    Government, Announce they are Uniting to Form a New Charitable Society.