Spring Break
Essential lesson in tea, local tea shops
Allie Clark
Issue date: 2/20/09 Section: Diversions
Tas Teas
Where: 425 Madison Ave., Suite D
Hours: Mon - Sat: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Oregon Legacy Coffee
Where: 100 NW 2nd Street
Hours: Tues - Fri: 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Sat: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Tea & Herb Shop
Where: 151 NW Monroe Ave., Suite 106
Hours: Wed - Sat: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Tea is a drink that has been enjoyed for millennia, and in the past few years it's enjoyed quite the resurgence.
Tea has become so popular that Starbucks bought out Tazo brand teas and declared that, "It's tea time!" With its tea lattes and chai infusions, Starbucks has popularized varieties of teas most people have never heard of. "What's a rooibos?" you ask? "Is it pronounced 'ru-i-bos' or what?" Well, I can settle the confusion: it's pronounced "ROY-bos," and while the Starbucks version is okay, that's not real tea.
No offense to Tazo - I have several boxes of it and will always love its Passion tea - but you simply can't compare bagged tea to loose leaf tea. It's like comparing instant coffee to freshly roasted and ground espresso that is made on the finest machine.
The biggest difference between bagged and loose leaf tea is the taste. Bagged teas are often grown overseas, processed somewhere in the states, bagged somewhere else and then shipped to your local store. By contrast, loose leaf tea, though grown abroad, is shipped to local wholesalers who sell it directly to local tea shops. That's a lot fewer steps, and that means a lot less time. A lot less time means fresher tea, and fresher tea means better tasting tea.
Now, before you start complaining that you're a poor college student who can't afford these special loose leaf teas, let me tell you a secret: They're cheaper than bagged teas!
At most tea stores, you buy by the ounce or two. Prices vary by tea, but you're not going to spend more than $3.50 per ounce of tea - and if you're spending that much for an ounce of tea, that's a nice tea. Most teas run around $2 an ounce, and if you're consistent about using one teaspoon of tea leaves per six ounces of water, you're going to have about 15 cups of tea from one ounce. Take that, Stash! If you're like me and you just kind of grab whatever looks right, it's more like 10 cups, but whatever.
Where: 425 Madison Ave., Suite D
Hours: Mon - Sat: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Oregon Legacy Coffee
Where: 100 NW 2nd Street
Hours: Tues - Fri: 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Sat: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Tea & Herb Shop
Where: 151 NW Monroe Ave., Suite 106
Hours: Wed - Sat: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Tea is a drink that has been enjoyed for millennia, and in the past few years it's enjoyed quite the resurgence.
Tea has become so popular that Starbucks bought out Tazo brand teas and declared that, "It's tea time!" With its tea lattes and chai infusions, Starbucks has popularized varieties of teas most people have never heard of. "What's a rooibos?" you ask? "Is it pronounced 'ru-i-bos' or what?" Well, I can settle the confusion: it's pronounced "ROY-bos," and while the Starbucks version is okay, that's not real tea.
No offense to Tazo - I have several boxes of it and will always love its Passion tea - but you simply can't compare bagged tea to loose leaf tea. It's like comparing instant coffee to freshly roasted and ground espresso that is made on the finest machine.
The biggest difference between bagged and loose leaf tea is the taste. Bagged teas are often grown overseas, processed somewhere in the states, bagged somewhere else and then shipped to your local store. By contrast, loose leaf tea, though grown abroad, is shipped to local wholesalers who sell it directly to local tea shops. That's a lot fewer steps, and that means a lot less time. A lot less time means fresher tea, and fresher tea means better tasting tea.
Now, before you start complaining that you're a poor college student who can't afford these special loose leaf teas, let me tell you a secret: They're cheaper than bagged teas!
At most tea stores, you buy by the ounce or two. Prices vary by tea, but you're not going to spend more than $3.50 per ounce of tea - and if you're spending that much for an ounce of tea, that's a nice tea. Most teas run around $2 an ounce, and if you're consistent about using one teaspoon of tea leaves per six ounces of water, you're going to have about 15 cups of tea from one ounce. Take that, Stash! If you're like me and you just kind of grab whatever looks right, it's more like 10 cups, but whatever.
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