Boston Tea Party Event Cancelled

Due to a winter storm warning, the Sunday, December 16th Boston Tea Party event has been canceled. Please check back soon for an update in regards to our next event (or a possible reschedule). To receive the latest White Heron Tea news and info, add your email address to our newsletter signup (underneath blog link).

Stay warm. Drink tea ~

Leaves and Clouds Shop Hours

Thanks to everyone who has visited our new Leaves and Clouds tea shop. Due to a great increase in general wholesale business, our new shop hours will be from 10am-5pm, Tues-Fri or by appointment. Sometimes late in the day we have to run deliveries, but in many cases we still may be available for shopping post-5pm. If you are interested in catching us, call tel# 603-743-6900 to let us know you are coming.

Please Note: Leaving a message or sending an email does not necessarily mean that we will be available when you want to stop by. If you leave a message or send a note, we will contact you to let you know that we can accommodate you at that time or can work out another arrangement.

Thanks again for all of your support through this busy season......we wish you warm holidays and happiness :)

White Heron TEAM

Leaves and Clouds Opens November 17th !

We are excited to open our new tea shop, Leaves and Clouds, at 3 Front Street, Lower Mill # 6C in Rollinsford, NH. Leaves and Clouds will offer bulk loose tea for folks that would like to try a couple of ounces of exceptional tea, our classic tins, and new mini tins. Mini tins are the perfect size for holiday gift giving and gift baskets. They are super-portable, have a great seal to keep your tea fresh, and a convenient screw-top to keep the tin lid on tight if you throw one in your bag to bring to the office. (yes, you can drink great tea even at the office... (: We will also offer a variety of teapot styles, cups, handmade pottery, infusers and accessories.

The shop will open on Saturday, November 17th from 11am - 5pm in conjunction with the Open Studios at Salmon Falls. Open Studios continues on Sunday, November 18th, and our shop will be open the same hours. Starting Monday, November 20th, the tea shop will be open Tues - Fri 10am - 6pm or by appointment. Feel free to call anytime you think you may be heading in our direction. Despite the hours mentioned, one of us may be here late or on a weekend, so feel free to try us by phone to make sure that we are around. (tel# 603-743-6900)

Join our email list on the White Heron Tea website homepage to stay informed about upcoming events. On Sunday, December 16th, Leaves and Clouds will be open to celebrate the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Stay tuned ~

Website Update and Tea Shop Opening..

The White Heron Tea website will be getting a fresh new look sometime in the next week. We changed our logo and even some of our thinking recently. It just felt like time to freshen up a bit. Soon to come....our new Mini Tins and Gift Samplers will show up on the site. Give them to your best friend, partner, family members. Heck, give em' to YOU.

This will coincide with the Grand Opening of our Leaves and Clouds Tea Shop. The White Heron TEAM has been putting in overtime between autumn events, and preparation for the new shop. We're just waiting for an addition to our sign, then it will gleam from above the doorway to our entrance in the Lower Mill in Rollinsford, NH. Leaves and Clouds will offer loose tea by the ounce, packaged classic and mini tea tins, gift packages, teapots and accessories and a tea book or two. See you soon~

World Fair Trade Day

Celebrate World Fair Trade Day at the Boston Fair Trade Festival this Saturday, May 12, at River of Life Church in Jamaica Plain (440 Centre Street - near the intersection of S. Huntington and Centre Sts., across from the 7-11).

Fair Trade Market from 10am-5:30pm, including vendor tables, information tables, and speakers/musicians including: City Councilor Felix Arroyo, Daniel Steinberg from Equal Exchange, Juan Ramon from a fair trade coffee cooperative, and Tim Newman from International Labor Rights Fund.

Enter a raffle to benefit United Students for Fair Trade, get free bananas and chocolate fondue by Oke USA!, free fair trade coffee from Equal Exchange, and fair trade tea samples from White Heron Tea.

Community potluck and movie, Black Gold at 6:00pm. Black Gold showed in select indie theaters, and is not available from video stores, so if you haven't seen it yet, now is your chance! For more information on the movie, see http://www.blackgoldmovie.com/

For a full list of event participants, more information on the potluck, etc. see:
http://bostonfairtradeday.org

Sponsored by www.coolpeoplecare.org and www.offyourbackshirts.com

All In This Tea

All In This Tea is a short documentary that follows tea connoisseur David Hoffman on a foraging trip in China. David emphasizes the importance of organic tea, the support of artisanal tea production and offers a glimpse at traditional Chinese "Gongfu Cha" - an ancient approach to drinking tea.

Summer Means Iced Tea

(Makes 1 Gallon)

Cold Brewed

Cold brewed tea is a method that produces a very smooth cup without bitterness. The best teas for this method are ones that have very small leaves or broken leaves. Obtain two 1 gallon containers, preferably glass. Add measured tea leaves to the 1^st gallon container (see quantities below.) Fill the container with 1 gallon of cold water, replace the lid, and store in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. Cold brewed tea needs a lot of time to extract the most flavor from tea leaves. When 12 or more hours have passed, place a wide, fine mesh strainer over the mouth of the 2^nd gallon container. Pour the cold brewed tea through the strainer.
Pour over ice, sip, smile :)

Sun Tea

Sun tea is made in a nearly identical way to cold brewed tea. The major differences are sun and time. Obtain two 1 gallon containers, preferably glass. Add measured tea leaves to the 1^st gallon container (see quantities below.) Fill the container with 1 gallon of cold or room temperature water. Screw the lid on top of the jar, and set in the sun. Let the sun tea brew for 2-4 hours depending on the strength you prefer. When you are ready to drink iced tea, place a wide, fine mesh strainer over the mouth of the 2^nd gallon container. Pour the sun tea through the strainer. Pour over ice, sip, smile :)

Coffee Brewer Method (12 cup machine)

Use your regular coffee filters as you would with coffee. Your iced tea will taste best if your coffee filter basket is cleaned regularly. Pour measured tea leaves (see quantities below) into a standard coffee filter. Run a brewing cycle, and when the tea stops dripping into the glass pot, pour the brewed tea into a 1 gallon container. Run a second brewing cycle using the same tea leaves, add to the 1^st batch in your gallon container and let the tea cool.
Pour over ice, sip, smile :)

Stovetop Iced Tea

This is a method that we frequently use. This is the best method for making iced chai. Assemble 2 pots of roughly equal size (1-2 gallon capacity), a gallon jar/container, and a fine mesh strainer. Add 1 gallon of water to the pot. Heat the water until it just reaches a boil. Shut off the heat and add measured tea leaves (see quantities below.) Let the tea infuse in the hot water for 8-10 minutes. Place a wide mouth fine mesh strainer over the second pot and carefully pour hot tea through the strainer into the 2^nd pot. Remember to use pot holders….steam can burn you! Let the tea cool until close to room temperature before pouring the tea into a 1 gallon jar/container. Pour over ice, sip, smile :)

With all of the above methods remember that if you like stronger tea, you can use more tea leaves or infuse the tea for a longer time. Iced chai is best made with the stovetop method to extract the most flavor. After brewing your chai, sweeten to taste and add milk or soymilk if desired.

White Heron TEA Top 10 – Measurements correspond to each grouping

¼ cup of loose tea leaves/herbals makes 1 gallon (16 cups)
American Breakfast
Earl Grey
Daybreak Masala Chai
Jasmine Green
Moroccan Hyson Mint

½ cup of loose tea leaves/herbals makes 1 gallon (16 cups)
Spicy Licorice Mint
Red Bush Herbal Chai / Ginger Mate Chai

1 cup of loose tea leaves/herbals makes 1 gallon (16 cups)
White Melon
White Pomegranate

1 ½ cups loose tea leaves/herbals makes 1 gallon (16 cups)
Cranberry Apple Ginger

New Tastes In Green Tea

This is a great little book I picked up a year ago at Powell's Books in Portland, OR. It has tons of quintessentially Japanese photo styling, and good information about Japanese green tea. I am a foodie at heart and spent years in restaurant kitchens, so the collection of green tea recipes for both food and tea beverages is particularly of interest.

This book is highly recommended for someone who wants a quick primer on Japanese green tea, and a glimpse at many contemporary uses for the beloved leaf of camellia sinensis.

Farmer's Market 2007

Today I felt a little jealous of my farmer comrades that were vending on the first day of the local Farmer's Market season here in the Seacoast New Hampshire area. The weather was gorgeous, with warm sun and moderate wind, as opposed to the torrential first markets of last years season.

Walking up the hill near the close of the first day's market, the harshness of winter's memory fell away and I felt as if the 2006 market had never broken for winter. Bright tents with flapping canopies shone atop the hill at Portsmouth City Hall. The city hall building was the old Portsmouth Hospital. Last year I remember one of our market customers stopped by for a cup of iced chai, and asked if White Heron Tea was a local company. I pointed to the former hospital, and explained that I was born in that building.

Later last year, we were set up for the Strawberry Festival in South Berwick, Maine. The festival site is on the grounds of Central School, where I attended grades 1-6. Again I got the question if my company was local. I pointed to the school, and explained that I won the 5th grade spelling bee in the building to my right…………! (If I make a spelling error, please let me know :)

We start the market season in three weeks, as I will be in attendance next weekend at Boston Fair Trade Day in Cambridge, MA. The following weekend I will be in Brooklyn, NY to celebrate my 38th birthday and visit Vox Pop, which is a rockin' Fair Trade coffee shop that was recently featured in the NY Times.

I am feeling ready to fire up my propane burners at 6am to make multiple 5 gallon batches of iced teas and iced chai. This year I am planning on breaking a few new teas at market. We have a fantastic Ginger Mate Chai. It doesn't look or taste anything like a traditional chai, but the combination of organic Yerba Mate, ginger, fennel seed and spices is SOOOOO tasty. I am drinking it right now :) This year we also have White Pomegranate, which is great hot or cold. Everyone is crazy about iced Cranberry Apple Ginger, made with organic Massachusetts dried cranberries.

Anyways….I love being a market vendor. After 7years of living on the west coast, it felt great coming home and mingling with such a fantatsic bunch of people. It is also quite humbling to be setting up next to a farmer who in some cases may have risen at 4am to pick vegetables for the day.

Please, please, please support your local farmers. They are so hardworking, and REALLY deserve much thanks for their dedication to providing fresh and tasty food. I count myself lucky to be a SGA member. I get great deals on veggies!

Boston Fair Trade Day

On May 12, White Heron TEA will participate in Boston Fair Trade Day. This Boston event is the local place to celebrate World Fair Trade Day.

Fair Trade makes sense.

By choosing Fair Trade certified products, you are directly supporting a better life for farming families through fair prices, direct trade, community development, and environmental stewardship.

White Heron TEA is strongly committed to both missions of organic and Fair Trade farming. We currently offer over 40 organic certified teas and herbals. 13 of our teas are Fair Trade certfied.

Boston Fair Trade Day

World Fair Trade Day

Fair Trade Info

White Heron Fair Trade Teas