Page 43 - The Valley Table - Winter 2022

Although our experts highly recommend making tea with loose, fresh leaves, there are a number of excellent bagged brands you can buy online or at your local grocery store.
A few of our high-quality favorites: Mighty Leaf, Pukka, The Republic of Tea, Rishi, Tazo, and Yogi. Although
a trip to the Valley’s own Harney & Sons tea house in Millerton is a treat, you can shop for their teas at Target, Walmart, and harney.com.
What you may not know about Harney & Sons is
that the company has an impressive line of CBD teas and other products including tinctures, sparkling elixirs, and bath balls. The Hemp Division features tea sachets like Boom (chocolate and coconut), Calm (turmeric ginger), Chill (chamomile), Focus (yerba mate, yaupon, and mint), and Sleep (holy basil and coconut).
A new brand worth trying is Bonne Maman’s line
of herbal teas. Beloved
for their flavor-packed preserves and jams, the French company recently branched out into organic tea and introduced five varieties this holiday season including: Contentment
(star anise, black currant, and lemon balm); Dream (verbena, Damask rose, and lavender); Serenity (lemon balm, lemongrass, yarrow, and chamomile); Sweet Delights (apple, cinnamon, and elderflower); and Vitality (peppermint, hibiscus, and rose hip). Buy online at bonnemaman.us.
But interest in tea is brewing,
right along with many consumers’ new-found focus on wellness, clean eating, and a plant-based diet. “We’re seeing new tea drinkers who want
an alternative to coffee. Some want less caffeine, and others are opting to remove sugar and creamer from their diet,” says Matt Zacharewicz who, along with wife Joyce, owns Short and Stout Tea Company in Albany. Founded online in 2011 (the couple opened their tea house on Western Avenue
in 2013), Short and Stout focuses on farm-sourced, loose-leaf tea (over 60 varieties) with the goal of expanding customers’ palates and educating them on the many ways that tea does a
body good—from aiding digestion to easing anxiety.
What exactly is tea?
You may be surprised to learn that not everything that’s labeled tea is actually tea. Only leaves from the camellia sinensis plant are technically tea, which includes white, green, oolong, and black tea. Everything else falls under the spectrum of tisanes, which are teas made from an infusion of herbs. “Tisanes are almost always naturally caffeine-free, except yerba mate. The ingredients vary from leaves, roots, spices, flowers, mushrooms, and even bark,” explains Zacharewicz.
So, an apple-cinnamon tea is really a tisane. Teas and tisanes are cousins, and although no one uses the word tisane, at least now you know the difference.
Get it fresh
The best place to buy high-quality teas is a local shop such as Short and Stout, or The Ridge Tea & Spice Shop in New Paltz, which offers over 65
teas and blends. Some of their most popular selections are herbs they blend in house, like Purple Dreams (butterfly pea flower, lavender, and sage), Spicy Hibiscus, and Secret Garden (a white tea blend).
Supporting Valley tea shops is
good for local businesses and for the environment. Grocery store bagged tea isn’t nearly as flavorful as loose leaf, but those bags can contain harmful micro-plastics. Purchasing tea leaves in bulk with reusable containers will save you money, too.
Smart storage
Fresh, loose-leaf tea can last for upwards of six months if you store it properly. According to Zacharewicz, you want to avoid exposing tea to light, heat, moisture, odor, and air. Choose an opaque, airtight canister and place it in a cool, dry spot away from foods or spices that have strong odors. Also, keep your delicate teas away from your strongly scented ones. Brewing 101
All you really need to brew tea is
a sturdy mug, some hot water, and a strainer of some kind. But, if you’re looking to up your tea game, Chris Galeano, co-owner of The Ridge, recommends a thermometer and timer. Go even bigger with a tea infuser—a steeping vessel with holes that can be
as small as a tea ball or as large as a tea pot. Infusers with larger diameters “hold loose tea and tisanes during the steeping process... it’s big enough for the material to circulate in hot water and allow the tea to expand,” explains Zacharewicz. He recommends 1 teaspoon of tea per 8 oz. of water, but types with bigger leaves (like white tea) might need a
bit more water. Both Galeano and Zacharewicz note that temperature and time are the biggest factors when making tea because of tannins, natural compounds that cause bitterness when infused. Black tea can be steeped in boiling water (212°F for five minutes), but green, white, and oolong can’t (170°F for three minutes). All tisanes are unaffected by boiling water,
so steep for as long as you like— Zacharewicz uses boiling water and brews for 7–10 minutes.
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IN THE BAG