Tea & Happiness

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Tea & Happiness

Celtic Shamanic Healing Arts Practitioner (trainee), Tea Ceremony Host & Healing Circle Facilitator Food is my life. It is my smile, my heart, my everything.

I am in love with being in my flow and allowing my imagination to run wild with the simplest of ingredients. I believe the magic lies in their special language: it is an invitation to visit the realm where humans and animals alike receive nourishment from plants. I am the woman in the market touching and smelling the rinds of melons, weighing the oranges like jewels and eyeing up the greens for the deepest, darkest green leaves. My food philosophy is unashamedly simple: simplicity is where the true magic happens. I grew up in Western Cape, South Africa. The wine region and fruit basket of this beautiful country. Surrounded by the best produce in a moderate climate and influenced by the cosmopolitan amalgamated Indian, Malaysian, European and Mediterranean cuisine, my style resembles homely, earthy dishes that burst with flavour and leave epic memories. Spice is life! In my early 20’s my foundation for flavour and simplicity crescendoed as a result from touring the south coast with hard core surfers to the most remote areas to catch the big waves. There was no other alternative than cooking over an open fire in the bush and on the beach. Over a period of five years I pushed my creativity around the fire pit and in the most challenging of environments, I was still able to conjure magic with just a pumpkin, cinnamon, coconut oil and salt. Later in life I swapped the wild coasts of South Africa for a small island off the coast of France, nl Jersey. Here I was able to learn more about Europe’s wild foods and foraging. Sea vegetables and hedgerow herbs became a fascination with my growing food curiosity. Daily we would forage for sea spinach and in season for elderflower, sloe berries, gorse flower and rosehip. As it was so close to France, trips to the continent sparked my learning journey with more traditional, classic French cooking and I still use some of the techniques I learnt then today. Here in NZ, my food journey started with a bang. We arrived on the back of a very stressful period and spurred on by stress related health challenges, life pushed me to go deeper with my understanding of food and this is where Tea & Happiness bloomed into what it is known for today - healthy, plant based food to heal and nurture. I became obsessed with fermentation and fermented everything and anything. The ribbon in my logo resembles the gut and I learnt to value the crucial benefits of microbiotics and enzymes. My health and my family’s health would not be the same without this profound knowledge. I steadily gained a reputation for creating cultured and aged vegan cheeses, tasty kombucha, vegan kimchi and all the other creations in between. From market stall to food truck to opening a cafe, I am nowadays in my happy self as a traveling retreat and events chef. My tag line is simple: Happy food, happy people.

03/11/2025

Summer feels! Eating breakfast underneath the ginkgo tree 🙏

What is your favourite summer delight?

26/10/2025

Small offering of my words 🙏

23/10/2025

It has taken time to get here.

04/10/2025

Dear beautiful friends,

Thank you for giving me your time to practice as a trainee Shamanic Healing Arts practitioner. 🙏 I appreciate and respect your time from the bottom of my heart.

I have an important note to add and I sat with this for a while before deciding to openly address it.

I feel compelled to write this reminder....

When, for any reason you can't make it, please let me know as soon as possible. I have a waiting list of a few volunteers who are keen to accept sessions when they become available and I have deadline submissions to complete.

How my auto booking process works:

- booking confirmation is sent to you straight after you booked a date

- a gentle reminder is sent to you of our session one day before (I m changing this to three days from today)

- details are sent to you with Zoom password 30 mins prior to our meeting to prepare

I Ve set this up on Calendly with ample automated notifications to allow for cancellations and to notify those on the waiting list immediately.

Please consider and respect my time and others' time 🙏

My Shamanic Healing Arts sessions are on a Feedback exchange only basis until March 2026. This might have created a misunderstanding.

Why do I not exchange an agreed value for sessions now?

- I am a trainee practitioner. My exchange is feedback. You, as my client agree to this exchange.

- Deep respect and reverence for this sacred work while I am training 🙏

Being a non chargeable session, is not an indication of lesser value and def not to be mistaken that if it is free it should not be respected. I say this with love and deep trust.

X

28/09/2025

Honest... I was not sure if I should put it here.

There was a slight discomfort.

The uneasiness has brought a certainty. A reflection.

I am following my heart and therefore will put this call out to each n all.

This work is to be shared. The opportunity is open to everyone, near and far.

At some point you might have met me, perhaps eaten a meal I prepared. Perhaps our interaction has stayed with you, perhaps not.

As part of my training, I require Soul Retrieval case studies 🙏

When this aligns and calls to you.....

Dear friends,

I have a few spaces available for a Shamanic Healing Session to practice Soul Retrieval.

- no cost to you, feedback is our exchange
- 90 mins on Zoom

Please follow this link to book:

https://calendly.com/karin-vincent2010

Times are Sunday & Wednesday evenings, Thursday and Friday mornings and Saturday until lunch time.

Thank you 🙏

Karin

Review & feedback:

"Each vision/image that I received via Karin was clear and relevant to the issues for which I was seeking insight. Karin took care to check out how these were landing with me and made effective use of silence, reflection and exploration to support the process of building my insights from the messages received."

25/09/2025

Update...

You might have noticed. My food journey has morphed into brewing a different kind of tea... The spiritual kind.

I followed my heart and enrolled as a trainee shaman at Centre for Shamanism in 2022.

It has been a journey of coming to terms with all that I am. That I was and can be. Old beliefs, new perspectives. Some views have changed, others have become stronger.

There always was a deeper journey of discovery and magic which lay buried in my veins. I had to undo all to become.

The calling and role of food to nourish & nurture will always be what I am passionate about. Food is love, I am love. Plants as food and medicine will always be part of my story. It is me, the person whose story has now fully mooned into a new chapter.

I advocate for a life in gentle closeness with mother earth, honouring her fruits and through my humble offerings, for her voice to be heard. I say thank you for all the years of learning and loving.

An ancient path of honouring all life, all spirit - in new beginnings and of farewells, is at the centre of this new chapter.

I started my shamanic journey first as a participant, learning more of this way of life, awakening that which I knew have always been part of me. Later I became an apprentice and since 2024, I have deepened my practice and studies to become a trainee practitioner. My graduation is set for March 2026.

The days, months and years studying and learning this way of life has been a tremendous transformational journey. I am grateful to all 🙏

05/08/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BMQesxVcL/

26/04/2025

02/03/2025

Simple desserts....

Banana icedream

- 3 frozen bananas, chopped
- 1 can of coconut cream
- 2 tbsps peanut butter
- dash of vanilla
- tiny pinch of salt

Blend

Pour into bowls, sprinkle with coconut sugar, squeeze a drizzle of molasses on top and decorate with chopped nuts.

Put in the freezer for at least 45 mins.

Eat

Yum...

My next step would be to use an ice cream maker and churn the first mixture. Then freeze and scoop. I ll let you know the results 😊

Address

Rotorua

Website

https://calendly.com/karin-vincent2010

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