Posts Tagged with Tea

Tiesta Tea – Blending the best

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Walk by our shelves and you’ll notice a new row of brightly colored bags – bright blue, green, purple, yellow, and red. The bag is modern and clean but holds a plethora of information. Turn the bag over and that is where the real magic is tea like you’ve never seen it. Tiesta Tea makes you rethink tea.

What kind of tea?

This isn’t your grandmother’s three year old tea bags at the bottom of her purse. This is delicious blends – of all sorts. Turning over any of Tiesta Tea’s packages will reveal things you never thought about tea. Starting with the Nutty Almond Cream – it’s actually full of real chopped up almonds, tiny cubes of apples, knobs of cinnamon, and squares of beet root. It smells unbelievable too, like cinnamon giving almonds a lifetime love hug, one whiff starts your mouth drooling; smells good enough to be a snack food! Maui Mango has real whole chunks of orange, mango, and pineapple and reminds you of warm vacations in the tropics. The banana split has slices – yes, slices – of dehydrated banana, Pomegranatoia: whole pomegranate arils. Sure any tea company can have ‘fruit’ flavoring, but how many teas have whole rose petals? That may be surprising enough, but the actual tea leaves and herbs are hand picked perfection – the Sencha in Fruity Pebbles is bright green perfection – full of flavor when brewed. Tiesta Tea brings tea to us that few have had here in the states. It’s their hand blended teas with the best they could find all natural ingredients.

Who makes it?

The company is headed up by a couple of guys that found this amazing tea studying abroad. Bumping to such amazing teas, they had to bring it back state side – blends like they had never seen, tasted, or dreamed of having. They brought it back to the city that could foster their dreams – Chicago. The tea is great, they are super nice and have a real passion for what they do, and it shows in the amazingly flavorful tea.

Where to get it?

Right here at Southport Grocery, we’re one of the few in Chicago with Tiesta Tea. We are honored for them to seek us out as one of their starter retailers. This is truly tea you’ve got to taste to believe.

Serendipitea – Sip into relaxation

Friday, September 24th, 2010
In the vast swaths of boxes and cans of tea out there, there sits a collection of indiscriminate brown boxes full of some of the best loose leaf tea, packaged in post-consumer waste paper and filled with hand picked tea and herbs – this tea is Serendipitea.

Why do I need a new tea? What is loose leaf?

As far as loose leaf goes, it’s exactly as it sounds – unbagged, usually full leaf tea. As far as your first question; Serendipitea pulls in their worldly knowledge and combines great tea with a good price – something hard to pass on. Taste the sweet flavor of their De-Caff ChocolaTea, sink into your evening with real chocolate bits, vanilla, rooibos, and decaf black tea. We carry four other flavors in their large array, honing in flavors we loved and wanted to share with you all. From Mango Magnus to the famous Ruby Sipper, there is a kind of tea for all tastes and senses of adventure.

Who makes it?

The ladies over at Serendipitea put together the wonderful flavors and send it our way, but we cannot forget to thank those who work so hard to pull together such great tea from the fields from the distant lands where tea is grown. Serindipitea doesn’t forget this either being a large purchaser of fair trade tea – supporter of those who bring the tasty treat to their door in NYC. It’s good to see a company follow from source to shelf, and were happy we’re one of those shelves.

Where can I get it?

Why, here! Stacked on our shelves and ready to be taken home to be sipped, slurped and guzzled. Looking for a kind we don’t have? Let us know, we can always order it for you.

Rishi Tea, the meticulously brood over tea

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Jasmine PearlIn the current landscape of tea there are a near infinite number of choices out there.  We have scoured and found some of the finest tea we’ve had – Rishi Tea. Luckily they weren’t far and were based less than 100 miles away in Milwaukee – Lisa Santos’, the owner of Southport Grocery, hometown.  From green to black to herbal and beyond, there is a tea for any palette.

Like a cup of tea you had with in the cafe?  We carry all of the tea from the cafe on the shelf – and some that aren’t.  One of our favorites is the Organic Jasmine Pearl tea (pictured left) – it’s light and has a smooth earthiness unlike many over-bearing green teas; an ideal soft pick-me-up tea for those long winter days that never seem to end.

Joshua Kaiser, founder of Rishi Tea, wanted to bring what had flourished in wine for years to tea -  exceptional, hand picked, organic, and made with the best possible leaves.  The midwest based Rishi Tea has grown, but their quality hasn’t been compromised – still visiting the tea fields and hand selecting just the right ingredients.

One of the greatest things about tea is sharing, and we want to share with you some of the best tea out there.