Last summer Omar Hernandez-Tena ’28 posted his first TikTok on @tea.with.omar. The video received about 80,000 views in 24 hours, Hernandez-Tena told The Herald. Within a week he had amassed 10,000 followers, and now has over 200,000 followers — a milestone he celebrated on his recent 21st birthday.
The Herald sat down with Hernandez-Tena to discuss his viral Tiktok account and his passion for tea.
Hernandez-Tena’s content is characterized by a generally calm ambience, often accompanied by a soundtrack of soft jazz or piano music. He said his content is “kinda lazy, but in a good way.” He tries to avoid over-edited content and clickbait. “I need something calm,” he added. “I find that in tea.”
For Hernandez-Tena, “tea is very intentional.” He has found the “gongfu cha” tea-making technique, a Chinese method which is often translated as “tea made with skill,” to be particularly calming.
Hernandez-Tena started using the technique this past February, which involves adding a smaller amount of water to a larger amount of tea leaves. Hernandez-Tena created his TikTok account in part to spread more information about the technique.
Hernandez-Tena first became interested in technique due to his “chronic procrastination.” He would start studying with a large pot of tea, “and as one procrastinates, I would look at my teapot and just think more about tea.”
“Throughout time, I just slowly figured out how tea can be made to something much more personal, on your level … It’s very much catered to how you want your tea to taste,” Hernandez-Tena said. Making tea the gongfu cha way, “was just something that has made me grounded in my life a lot.”
Hernandez-Tena does not sweeten his tea — “my tea leaves speak for themselves.”
Timing is also integral to the tea-making process, which Hernandez-Tena describes as a “sensory experience.”
“I love seeing the water move throughout the tea leaves,” he said.
Hernandez-Tena films many of his videos outside. He said he enjoys drinking his tea in outdoor spaces on campus, especially during the fall: “It’s something beautiful in being able to appreciate the surroundings around you.”
Eventually, Hernandez-Tena hopes to introduce an interview format to his content. “I think tea is really good to talk to people with,” Hernandez-Tena said. He also wants to visit China soon to explore and, hopefully, see a tea plant in real life. “There's something so beautiful in being able to see the leaves up close,” he added.
Hernandez-Tena’s love for tea extends beyond what’s documented on his channel.
As an electrical engineering concentrator who is “always behind some computer screen,” Hernandez-Tena finds the absence of technology in tea-making especially grounding. “That feeling of feeling real, and not like a bot. It’s really nice,” he said.
And through his TikToks and his friendships, Hernandez-Tena hopes to spread those feelings of connection and calm. When exam grades came back for one of his friends’ classes, he suggested they have some tea to cheer up. “It was so nice, seeing his smile come back,” he said.
“There’s more to life than exams and everything,” Hernandez-Tena added. “You’re meant to experience your senses. You’re meant to be a human and you’re meant to drink tea.”
