Over the years, Kursten has served tea at festivals, retreats, intimate gatherings, and transformational events around the world, from the Oregon Eclipse Festival to Envision Festival in Costa Rica, as well as retreats and contemplative gatherings throughout the United States and Europe.

His relationship with tea developed alongside his study of the Gene Keys, a contemplative body of wisdom exploring the patterns of human experience and the possibility of transforming life’s challenges into greater awareness, compassion, and freedom. Tea naturally found its place within this work.

Gene Keys founder Richard Rudd, himself a longtime lover of fine tea, has woven tea into the Art of Contemplation at the heart of the Gene Keys. Kursten became a close student and friend of Richard, and in 2017 traveled with him and a small circle of companions through Europe on a unique contemplative retreat journey. In the years that followed, Kursten and Richard began exploring the creation of an online tea offering together.

Then life changed course.

Kursten was diagnosed with Stage IV multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, and at one point was told that his remaining time might be short. What followed became an entirely different kind of pilgrimage. Through illness, uncertainty, treatment, and recovery, Kursten’s relationship with tea, Buddhism, contemplation, and the Gene Keys deepened. Teachings that had once been studied and reflected upon became something to be lived.

Surrender. Impermanence. Gratitude. Presence.

And perhaps most importantly, an intimate understanding of a phrase that had long lived within the Gene Keys: Suffering is grace. Not because suffering is something to seek or romanticize, but because even the most difficult passages of a human life can reveal something unexpected when they are met deeply. They can soften us, open us, and return us to what matters. Jade Frog Tea emerged from this journey.

Today, Kursten shares what tea has continually offered him: a reason to slow down, a place to listen, and a simple ritual through which people can meet one another—and themselves—with a little more presence. At Jade Frog, tea is more than something to drink. Brewing becomes a ritual of devotion, and each cup an offering to the ancient relationship between humanity and nature.

There is nothing to achieve in a cup of tea.

Only something to enter.

Alongside its living library of aged puerh, Liu Bao, traditional Chinese teas, botanicals, and herbs, Jade Frog offers a carefully curated collection of distinctive teaware and one-of-a-kind objects chosen for their craftsmanship, beauty, history, and character.

A former master electrician and lifelong collector, Kursten brings a craftsman’s relationship to the objects he encounters. A well-made kettle, an old clay pot, a weathered piece of iron, or a remarkable tea can carry something that cannot always be explained by age, rarity, or price. Some things simply invite us to spend time with them.

From its intimate tea space in Hawaiʻi Kai, Jade Frog Tea offers private and group tea experiences, tea education, contemplative gatherings, and explorations of tea alongside the Gene Keys and the Art of Contemplation. Some people arrive looking for an extraordinary tea. Others come to learn how to brew, to sit quietly, to explore contemplation, or simply to share a cup and a conversation. Jade Frog Tea makes room for all of these.

With tea, we remember.