ATLAS FEATURE
Jennifer Malaya Ong-Cua, also known as PaizLee, is the founder of Atlas Tea + Apothecary—a living practice rooted in tea, earth medicine, and the quiet rituals that bring us a little closer.
Her work is inspired by experiences as a youth in Manila, Los Angeles , New York and Hawai`i. PaizLee has been a grateful visitor on O`ahu for three decades. These key places showcase and celebrate the beauty and diversity of culture and embrace creativity through food, nature, music, art, dance and community. Through Atlas Traveling Tea Parties (events / activations), she creates experiences through The Sipping Room (Est. 2017, HNL). This Spring + Summer 2026, she shares her first release of small-batch tea and apothecary offerings curated to deepen connections rooted in aloha + mutual respect featuring Hawai`i grown and crafted products.
Each offering is guided by a simple intention:
to encourage people to take time to stretch, listen, and remember.
As part of Atlas, artists, farmers, and community builders are invited to be Featured Movers—reflecting on tea, memory, earth medicine, and personal expression.
This feature is my offering in return.
A way of standing alongside the Atlas Featured Movers, and sharing the vision and the path that continue to shape this work.
We are so grateful for this opportunity to share space with you in the South Bay in 2026!
On Tea & Memory
Some of my earliest memories of tea were at home—sprawled out on the couch with a book, sipping genmaicha from my older sister’s Japanese tea set. It felt quiet, grounding, and peaceful.
I also found that same feeling at Kelley and Ping in Soho, a small noodle shop that made everything in-house and specialized in the best teas from Shanghai. They sold chrysanthemum tea by the ounce and packaged the flowers in white butcher paper sealed with masking tape. It was simple, unpretentious, and deeply memorable—reminding me of a Chinese acupuncture & herb shop I would later frequent in Honolulu for many years: no frills- just functional, healthy, and grounding; intended to restore.
That simplicity stayed with me.
On Earth Medicine
Nature has always been a place of return.
Whether in the ocean, hiking in a valley, or through food grown with care, there’s a quiet remembering that happens— returning to nature takes us to that place of serenity and grounding. Connecting with earth is healing.
Earth medicine lives in these small moments of connection—through people, places, products and offerings.
A way of coming back into relationship—with ourselves, and with the world around us.
On Personal Medicine
The medicine that I offer is my creative signature.
It lives and breathes in the ways across my work, inspired by what I listen to or watch, the sounds that come through me because of what I choose to consume, things I craft and the details that go into creating projects, products, music, art, events & activations. Moving across various forms, inspired by experiences and transmuted into creations, this signature reveals itself through music, flavor, design— with a memory that quietly echoes.
On Building Community
Atlas Tea + Apothecary was born from a desire to share what has been cultivated across two homes—Los Angeles and Hawai`i.
Both places have shaped this work in different, but deeply connected ways.
Atlas is a way of honoring that exchange.
Through tea, curated gatherings, and collaborations, each offering becomes a bridge—carrying stories, relationships, and aloha between two vibrant, globally influential communities; celebrating our oral traditions in ways that inspire connection.
Current Offering
HAʻA Cacao Tea
A gentle, grounding infusion made from sun-dried cacao husks—naturally caffeine-free, subtly chocolatey, and deeply nourishing. This tea carries not only the essence of the cacao fruit, but the story of friendship, the land and the hands that cultivated it.
Vision Ahead
Atlas is part of a living ecosystem—
rooted in tea, `aina based wellness products, and intentional gathering.
We look forward to savoring the connections we make, the strong relationships we have cultivated for years and the natural unfolding of each offering we share. Atlas Tea + Apothecary is a love letter to the communities that continue to shape & inspire me.