My love of tea comes from my Grandma. Inside her home you’ll find an entire 9-foot cupboard entirely dedicated to tea. Her collection is vast and comprehensive. She has teas from all over the world and is always discovering new blends to add to her collection. When La Colombe reached out about their new tea workshop, I was excited to learn how to properly brew a cup of tea. Because if you know anything about tea, it can be a bit of a science. Each tea requires a different water temperature and brew time. Brew too long or too little, and it can really impact the taste of the tea. But this workshop simplified the process, making it much more accessible and exciting to try at home.

The workshop was led by Alexis Siemons, the tea consultant who developed La Colombe’s new tea program. She’s certified in the Foundations of Tea by the Speciality Tea Institute which is a division of the Tea Association of the USA. She teaches culinary tea classes, develops tea-infused recipes for restaurants and works as a tea consultant with tea companies, developing their tea programs and creative marketing strategies. Make sure to check out her blog!

La Colombe Tea & Tisane

Here’s a quick overview of their new tea program which launched last week:

• The collection features 8 unique teas: 5 tea sachets, 3 loose teas, and one classic black iced tea. There are 2 green teas, 1 black tea, 1 pu’erh tea, 2 tisanes, and 2 oolong teas.
• Tisane is the correct term for herbal tea. Everywhere else in the world it’s called tisane, but here in American we typically call it herbal tea.
• The tisanes are carefully blended with dried herbs, spices, fruit and natural essential oils.
• Each tea represents its origin: Japan, Thailand, Taiwan or China.
• To produce this collection La Colombe has partnered with Rishi Tea, a company known for their integrity and quality throughout the tea community. Together they share values such as organic growing, direct trade, global stories and traceability.
• The collection ranges from luscious to fresh, toasted, earthy and robust.

Click on the photo above to enlarge and read the descriptions of each tea.

Today this tea collection is available in most of their stores. My favorites were the Genmaicha Green Tea and the Golden Turmeric Tisane. To stay updated on when this collection is coming to your local La Colombe cafe, follow them on social media. Thanks for having me LC! I love seeing Philly companies doing new and exciting things.