Steven Smith Teas

Ask just about anyone who's really into tea, "which is better, loose tea or teabags?", and the answer is invariably loose tea.

And, admittedly, that's true about 99% of the time. It's hard to get big, high quality tea leaves into a little paper sack, and even harder to get a decent infusion out of it. That's why most teabags are made with "fannings", very small bits of tea leaf that play nicely with teabagging machines, and infuse quickly in water.

In recent years, however, there have been many advances in the world of teabags, including pyramid-shaped sachets made of a silk-like mesh material that allows for better infusion.

So what is this all leading up to? Well, we think we may have found just about the best tea in teabags yet. Say hello to Steven Smith Teas, a line of teabags made with lovely high-quality tea leaves (no fannings or dust here!)

Those in the tea industry will recognize the name; Steven Smith started Stash teas, and subsequently Tazo, and sold both businesses. Now he's doing his own line of teas and herbal infusions, hand packed in small batches in Portland, Oregon.

One of the really neat things about these teas is that there's a label on the bottom of each box with a batch number, and if you go to his website you can enter the number and find out when the tea was packed and by whom, which tea garden tea came from and when it was harvested.

We have 12 different types to choose from:

Tisanes:

Red Nectar- South African Rooibos and Honeybush, with light fruit flavors.
Peppermint Leaves- The highest quality peppermint from Oregon.
Meadow- Chamomile and rooibos, with other floral herbs.
Big Hibiscus- A blend of Hibiscus, Sarsparilla, ginger, elderflowers and rose.

Black:

Lord Bergamot- Ceylon and Assam, with natural oil of bergamot.
Kandy- Named for a city in Sri Lanka, a blend of Dimbulla, Uva and Nuwara Eliya Ceylon teas.
Bungalow- A blend of high grown Indian Darjeeling first and second flush teas.
Brahmin's Choice- A blend of Indian Assam, Ceylon Dimbulla, Ceylon Uva and China Keemun.

White and Green:

White Petal- China white tea, Osmanthus, Chamomile and natural flavors.
Mao Feng Shui- Spring harvested Mao Feng green tea from Zhejiang China.
Jasmine Silver Tip- Fujian China green tea, scented with jasmine.
Fez- Mao Feng China green tea, Oregon spearmint and Australian lemon myrtle.

Each box contains 15 sachets. We have them in the shop and on the website.