Traveling Tea’s fictitious name renewal is this month. Whenever we talk about how long we’ve been open we say “since 2009” as that was our first Full/Real year in business, however the legal origin is November 2008, and we had our First Farmers’ Market event at the St Louis Community Farmer’s Market in December of 2008 at St John’s Episcopal Church on Arsenal.
That makes this month the beginning of my 15th year Sharing Good Tea in St. Louis (and beyond)! I hope to soon add a slide show here with various shots through the years
Remember those days?
Then, in May 2013 we opened the shop in Maplewood, so we are in the midst of our 10th year here!
Then – and Now
In celebration of our years with you, rather than trying to throw a party (that I’m really rubbish at), for the entire next 12 months, we are gifting you with a discount code good for 15% off most teas (any tea that is in the Black, Green, White, Oolong, and Farm Direct categories). Does not apply to teaware, drinks, or the Tea Calendar.
For online ordering, there will be 10 active coupons each month for 15% off – when ordering online: enter YEAR15 at checkout. After the 10th coupon has been redeemed code will be inactive until the beginning of the following month.
For in store shoppers – Tell us Happy Anniversary and we will apply the coupon code! (Also remind us during checkout, because you know how we get chatty with you and might forget!)
If you are like me, black tea is your primary Go-To beverage. Even so, sometimes my stomach says “too much” – needing something less acidic, more alkaline.
All tea has various health benefits, that vary due to harvesting and processing – it is a plant, after all. Green tea, being dried more quickly after harvest, has been most researched and found to have many more benefits. I can feel the difference in my stomach and in my body when I drink more (properly brewed) green tea.
It can be a challenge to drink more when the palate is more used to black. Black tea is more widely consumed in this country. The trick for me, is to blend them.
For a 16oz mug of tea, use 1 teaspoon black of choice, and 1 teaspoon of green (or adjust the ratio to suit your taste). Try starting with a Darjeeling or Assam green, or our Decaf Green (lower your caffeine intake at the same time). Use the same boiling water as for black (not a rolling boil though) and steep it for no more than 3 minutes, maybe even a little less. If using any of our teas, you will definitely be able to get a 2nd steep out of your cup (maybe even a third).
Darjeeling Green, Yanki Farms
It will still have enough of the black tea flavor to satisfy your palate, but will have less acidity. You may even be able to gradually shift it so that you are drinking more green in your cup than black. Note: If you do not like bitter tea, you usually cannot leave green tea to steep more than 3 or 4 minutes (even on 2nd or 3rd steeps). There are some green teas that are more forgiving. You will have to experiment to find them. [Our Baozhong Green, that is processed as an Oolong, and our new Mao Jian are both forgiving of forgetfulness]
A friend emailed a link to an article/posting by another tea company and asked “Your thoughts?” She did not realize all that goes into my reasons for doing what I do, and primarily offering organically raised teas. Many of you might also appreciate hearing “my thoughts”, since we rarely get time to talk in-depth (and sometimes we don’t even know what questions to ask, when we have the opportunity).
KM: Same as with produce from the farmers market – good to know your farmer. Many small farmers cannot afford the organic certification bells and whistles. So, whether it is certified organic or raised organic without certifications, in my experience, the quality is better and I feel more assured that the workers are not exposed to as much in the way of dangerous chemicals and it is gentler on the earth. It is not my experience that organic teas taste weaker – In cases of some flavored teas I would agree (green tea mango, and primarily peach (w/o other flavors) and apricot teas are hard for me to find good quality in organic versions). In the case of unflavored teas, if the tea tastes weaker it is inferior quality leaf and has nothing to do with being organic or not.
Alternately – the vendor I had been buying my organic earl grey from ran out and I had to reach out to other vendors to try their versions of “organic” earl grey. One did not have any organic earl grey in their online catalog but could get it from Germany if I ordered a huge amount (which is do-able for me due to the popularity of Earl Grey). So, I got samples from them – 1) organic leaf with “natural flavoring” and 2) 100% organic with organic bergamot. [A change went into effect Dec 2019 wherein tea blenders used to be able to label teas as organic even with natural flavoring because of the 95% rule. They can no longer do this.] I got samples of both – they did not label them – so I did not know which was which and did a blind taste test. Turns out the one that had the best flavor is the 100% organic (I should have it in shop by end of the month).
To me it is a matter of ethics and relationship with the world we live in. It is not healthy or sustainable to keep trying to get more for less out of the earth any more than it is to get more for less from people. Yes, there are many farmers (tea and otherwise) who are doing an amazing job and care about the earth and the relationship with the plants and the earth and do not need to go for certifications as they have built reputations and are appropriately valued.
Big businesses that can afford the certifications may or may not be “green washing”. Elyse, from Tealet, has visited many farms (as has one of my other vendors) and they tell me that it is obvious when farms are using chemicals because the soil is dead and hard and dry vs. vibrant soil with lots of loam and bugs, butterflies and birds. Personally, when I have a choice I will choose a tea I know has been grown with organic principles, certified or not.
There are very few unflavored teas that I would offer that are not organically grown. For flavored teas, I am super picky – I will carry teas with “natural” flavoring only – no artificial flavors. I know many customers do not care whether a tea is organic or not, only about the flavor. There are lots of options out there when you don’t care about quality and origin (and the people behind the tea). The company that wrote this article is trying to educate the public on the differences and what to look for – I agree with their premise, and many of their comments. Yet, there are several statements that simply sound to me like justifications for their position as a vendor.
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I also shared This, article I wrote that was published in The Healthy Planet magazine last year after I returned from India:
“Our best-selling Iced Tea Blend leaf is from Heritage Tea Farms – a group of small tea farms, with relationships and good practices cultivated by Rajen Baruah for the ultimate purpose of giving back – to the planet, and the Spirit of Tea, which has provided for his family. Due to climate change and the age of many tea gardens it is becoming challenging to provide sustainable income based on old factory methods.
Rajen has worked in tea his entire adult life. When he got to retirement age he wanted to do more to help the farmers and the Assam tea industry. With the support of his family he runs Heritage Tea Farms and is training his sons to carry on his philosophy: “You love the plant, you care for the soil that nurtures it, and it will care for you.” [sic]
Rajen inspires loyalty and a vision for the future – many of his current farmers knew him and worked for him when he worked as manager at large factories. He teaches them how to properly care for the soil and the plants and to create fine hand-crafted teas from their leaf, rather than only being able to supply leaf at low prices for large factories to create machine made CTC (cut-tear-curl) leaf and tea-bag quality leaf.
My Assam tea country week started at a vermicompost facility, where Jayanta and his brother use earthworms to convert plant waste and cow dung into rich, vibrant compost used to feed the soil in their tea gardens. Additionally, I met farmers, tea pluckers and tea makers, and visited lush gardens full of birds & butterflies. I saw how tea is made from start to finish – both at Heritage and in a conventional factory, and got my own experience at rolling tea leaf – it takes a great deal of time and care to make a flavorful hand-crafted tea.
Many large Indian tea factories focus on quantity over quality, using chemicals without adequate protections for workers, and providing barely adequate housing. Some large factories do care and provide for their workers. If the tea you buy is super cheap, you can guess where it probably came from.
Oil and other manufacturing also provide jobs in this area; many young people get education and move away. Heritage strives to provide sustainable income so families can maintain connection to the land and to each other. Our goal is to share more tea from these type of sustainable farms. Please drink and Share only Good Tea.“
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Consumer knowledge is key. Getting to know your suppliers is key.
