Fit to a Tea All Winter Long Story and Photos by Gail Greco
The wind whirs across the ridge and I think I see the bejeweled wings of a departing Indigo Bunting flash my window, or maybe it was the steely blue neck of a Blowing Rock barn swallow. I doubt it was a mirage in the sky. The heavens are not azure today, but a soft beige-gray, the multigrain shade of my fave sourdough bread from Stick Boy bakery in Boone that I’m pressing into an applewoodsmoked bacon and caramelized-onion panini for lunch. Cicadas are past their months-long mating cacophony, eclipsed by a wintry ‘silence’ I’m hearing through the leafless trees. I’m also feeling something—cold—so I gather leaves—the brewing kind—bound for a whistling tea kettle. There’s only one thing to do to balance cold-weather sensitivities. Have a cup of hot tea!
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t wouldn’t be hard to find someone eager to join me. Tea is continually ranked as the most consumed beverage in the world. From ‘whole’ leaf loose teas to crushed herbs, or so-called ‘tea dust’ teabags, tea is widely accessible and affordable to all, and with unlimited choices, there’s something for every taste. Tea, with its naturally occurring amino acids, lifts melancholy moods, releasing
energy slowly without a caffeine crash, just one of many reasons it’s so desired. Buddhist Priest Eisai, who brought tea to Japan in the 12th century, summed it up this way: “Tea has the ability to make one’s life more full and complete.” Traditional teas (black, green, oolong, white, pu-erh) are from the Camellia sinensis plant, but taste different depending on how they are harvested, cured and processed. Today though, also under the heading of what is tea, are beverages steeped in hot water with dried botanicals and other earthy ingredients. Tea-riffic Places to Tea Off The High Country has many places to buy packaged or grab-and-go teas, including at coffee shops like Kovu’s, where they whisk Matcha tea and whip up chai tea lattes in their cozy cafe rooms in Boone. A charming wood-shed cafe at The Lavender House in Valle Crucis serves hot teas beginning in spring, brewed with herbs from their garden. A dedicated tea truck, BobaBing, at 626 NC Highway 105 Bypass in Boone, offers the wildly popular bubble tea, of black or green tea and cassava tapioca pearls.
A sensual experience greets shoppers at The Spice & Tea Exchange in West Jefferson and Blowing Rock. Aromatherapy scents of baking bread, toasting muffins, and musky burning pine drift from some 90 tea blends, hand-scooped by weight. Winter comfort teas have arrived, including: Warm Bread Pudding, Red Hot Toddy, and for winter ailment woes there’s Honeybee Ginger Elixir Tea. At Banner Elk Cafe and Lodge, an Earl Grey caramel latte is served with gourmet flavors such as African Solstice or Raspberry Nectar. It’s a full tea menu that many restaurants are now adopting in response to a public reportedly no longer wanting just one or two tea options when dining out. Steep Thoughts at a Mountain Tea Room Tucked into the shadow of Grandfather Mountain in Foscoe is a distinctive Britishinspired cafe, the Appalachian Apothekary and Tea Room. Tea-goers are pampered at linen-topped tables with crust-less tea sandwiches, fruity scones, petit fours, biscuits, buns, and cakes. A tea-of-the-day is blended by Anne Whitton-Bolyea, who Continued on next page CAROLINA MOUNTAIN LIFE Winter 2022/23 —
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