Brewing

We are not "recipe people" and truly believe that tea is best however you intuitively want to make it.

However, for those of you that want a bit more direction.. a serving is typically three grams per cup which is about two teaspoons depending on the density.

GREEN TEA

This is the one category that I would suggest being cautious of time and temperature. Our green teas are all grown in Japan, where tea leaves are steamed rather than roasted creating a more delicate tea. (Roasting is typical in other tea growing regions of the world). For that reason, our Japanese teas should be brewed for no more than a minute. Overbrewing leads to acrid bitterness.

BLACK TEA

I grew up drinking over brewed black tea and this is still how I like it. Having said that, 3-5 minutes is best! Our black teas are the DARJEELING (from North India) and the one just called BLACK, which is from Japan. The Japanese tea is a touch more delicate, though both are pretty delicate. I sometimes drink these with honey and milk or lemon, but usually just have them black. The EARLY is a take on earl gray which uses local Vermont grown lemon balm in place of bergamot blended with our darjeeling. For a more classic earl grey, we have fair trade earl grey tea bags. The longer you brew black tea, the more tannic it becomes - which is not necessarily a bad thing.

HERBAL

Herbal teas can be so forgiving. You can brew them for 3-5 minutes like black tea or you can infuse them for hours to get more of the effects of the herbs. For the most part, they don't get tannic when overbrewed, though some can get bitter. If you're drinking our CALM TEA at night for example, you can definitely just make it in a few minutes, but if you're wanting to get some of the calming properties of the herbs outside of just the tea ritual itself, I would let it sit for longer. More like ten or fifteen minutes. Herbal infusions can sometimes sit for hours. Personally, that's not my preference - I would rather make myself 5 cups of tea throughout the day, impatiently brewed in just a few minutes, rather than make a large batch to drink throughout the day. However, from my days as a naturopathic doctor, I know that for a lot people, making infusions is a really effective and easy way to incorporate tea.

COLD BREW ICED TEA

Brewing herbs with cold water brings out different properties than hot water; green teas for example are typically less tannic and bitter when cold-brewed.

Ingredients

  • Half-gallon mason jar (or whatever you have)
  • 3 tablespoons of herbs for half a mason jar
  • Water
  • Strainer

Steps

  1. To make, put the herbs in a jar and cover with room temperature or cold water. Let sit for at least 6 hours in the fridge. You can shake the jar every few hours to move the herbs around (and to enjoy the snow globe effect.)
  2. After that time, strain it into a cup over a kitchen strainer. And voila - no ice involved, and very minimal effort. This is great to prepare before bed and let sit in the fridge overnight to strain in the morning.

TEA OVER ICE

Ingredients

  • Two teaspoons of tea
  • Boiled water - 1 cup
  • Ice

Steps

  1. Make a concentrate of two teaspoons of tea per cup of hot water. Let this sit for about 7 minutes for herbal or black tea or 3-5 minutes for green tea.
  2. Fill a cup with ice.
  3. Strain your mixture over the ice.

MATCHA

Heat water and then transfer this water to another cup to cool it down. Then place teaspoon of matcha (3g) into a tea bowl. Pour a bit of water over it. WHISK! You can then pour this over some more hot water or warm milk for a latte.

ICED MATCHA

A realization that I just had about myself is that I’m the kind of person that buys American Party Ice at the bodega for her daily iced oat milk matcha lattes!

Ingredients

  • Ice - enough to fill your cup (Please don’t let my dedication to bodega ice deter you from the more sustainable option of an ice tray.)
  • 3 scoops (1/2 teaspoon) of matcha powder
  • A cup of oat milk from the fridge (any kind of milk will do!)
  • Hot water

Steps

  1. Fill the cup with ice then fill 3/4 of the cup with oat milk.
  2. In a separate cup - if you have a matcha whisk, chawan (tea bowl), and tea scoop, sift three scoops of matcha into a bowl, pour enough hot water to cover, and then whisk the matcha for 30 seconds. If you don’t have a whisk, pour just enough hot water to cover the matcha and whisk vigorously with a fork.
  3. Pour the matcha mixture over the ice and oat milk. You can top off with oat milk.

COOKING WITH TEA

People have made cakes using our red sour, darjeeling, and matcha teas. Chefs have cooked fish dishes using our green tea. The dedicated have made matcha icecream.