Pantry in Bloom: Floral Teas

 

Ah spring – what can we say, it brings out our inner poet! It’s like the world has been hitting the snooze button for months, but at long last has finally decided to wake up. It’s a time of renewal and feeling reenergized – just in time for spring cleaning and updating your tea pantry!

A great way to celebrate spring is to fill your pantry with floral teas. We’ve put together a list of caffeinated floral teas and caffeine-free floral teas for your shopping and sipping pleasure. If fans of The Devil Wears Prada are channeling their inner Miranda Priestly and thinking “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.”...well, we beg to differ. Floral teas along with a few lovely treats are just what the doctor ordered to put a spring in your pantry’s step. Enjoy this sampling of teas for spring, including classics like chamomile tea, butterfly pea flower tea, jasmine teas, and rose-scented teas.

Caffeinated

Think floral teas are always herbal teas or tisanes? Fortunately for caffeine lovers, floral teas come in a variety of caffeinated versions … because why should herbals get to have all the fun?

• A Midsummer Night’s Tea. A black tea packed with flavor, including rose petals and blue cornflowers. We daresay the Bard himself would give it a standing ovation.
• Chinese Flower. A colorful, springtime blend of green tea, lemon flavor, orange peel, marigold, cornflower and rosebuds. As tasty as it is pretty.
• Disney’s Jasmine. When you’re ready to explore new teas, start with Disney’s Princess Jasmine blend. Who knew something as simple as green tea and chamomile could take you to wonderful new places?
• Disney’s Minnie Mouse. When it came to blending a tea for Disney’s Minnie Mouse, roses had to be involved! So we added both rose petals and rose flavor to this black tea, along with some honey and caramel to round out Minnie Mouse’s sweet personalitea!
• Dragon Pearl Jasmine. Just because you don’t see flowers in this tea doesn’t mean you won’t taste them! This tea is pure joy all balled up in delicious hand-rolled pearls.
• Osmanthus Oolong. Elegant yellow osmanthus flowers grace this wonderful oolong tea from Fujian, well-known for being a staple at Taiwanese weddings.
• Garden Party. The winner of our 2021 Endless Possibilities contest, this customer-crafted blend features all the flavors of a lovely summer garden party: green tea with rhubarb, cornflowers, raspberry, elderflower and lemon flavors. 

Caffeine Free

Floral herbals or tisanes are a natural combo, since flowers have no caffeine (although some of them grow like they do!). We love blending flowers, herbs and flavors together to make some capteavating caffeine-free floral teas.

• Butterfly Pea Flower. Butterfly pea flower tea has become incredibly popular, thanks to its Ayurvedic properties and beautiful blue hue, which changes to purple when you add something acidic, like lemon juice.
• Chamomile. Chamomile tea is like the Superman of teas – at turns seemingly mild mannered and yet capable of achieving great feats, like helping you get a good night’s rest. We source our chamomile flowers from Egypt for a premium, cape-worthy blend.
• Death on the Nile. Granting another nod to Egypt is our Death on the Nile tea, inspired by the adventures of Hercule Poirot in the Agatha Christie novel and the 2022 20th Century film. Chamomile once again takes center stage along with other mystery ingredients. Well, they’re listed on the description, but we’ll let you have fun sleuthing them out!
• French Super Blue Lavender. My mom Brigitte, who is French, absolutely loves this blue lavender tea sourced from the French Riviera. The color, fragrance and floral taste – très bien!
• Honeysuckle Flower. Honeysuckle flower tea? That’s what we thought at first too, and then we thought “Why not?” Sourced from the Hunan province, it has a light, floral flavor with vegetal notes.
• Indigo Punch. Butterfly pea flower brought some friends to this Indigo Punch tea party: apple, rose hips, lemon, lemongrass, raspberry and honey. Makes a wonderful iced tea, too.
• Mother’s Day. It wouldn’t be Mother’s Day without flowers, so when we created this blend we made sure floral notes were front and center. This Mom-favorite tea starts with rose petals, chamomile flowers and cornflowers, complemented by orange peel and orange flavor.
• Tilleul Herbal Tea. Another traditional French tea, Tilleul is a blend of the linden tree’s flowers and leaves. Customers enjoy its sleep benefits and report that it makes a wonderful evening cuppa.
• Wild Chrysanthemum. Grown wild in the Chinese countryside, these dried chrysanthemum buds are almost too pretty to drink. Almost.

Spring Sides for Your Sips

Round out your blooming pantry with some spring-friendly treats to pair with your floral sips.

• Cherry Blossom Shortbread. We partner with Allen’s Scottish Shortbread to make delicious tea-infused treats. This Cherry Blossom version is perfect for spring.
• Gooseberry With Elderflower Marmalade. Made by a family owned business in Vermont, this gooseberry with elderflower marmalade has a slightly floral and lemony flavor.
• Lavender Shortbread. Another offering from Allen’s Scottish Shortbread, this time infused with heavenly lavender.
• Lemon Curd. Okay, it’s not floral, but just look at it! It’s so springy and wonderful, like sunshine in a glass jar.
• Rose Petals and Hibiscus Chocolate Bars. Don’t worry, chocolate fans, we didn’t forget you! This white chocolate bar with rose petals and hibiscus passes the chocolate, floral and delicious tests with flying colors.
• Strawberry Paris Tea Jam. Tea Jams was created by a local chef and inspired by the heavenly smells of Harney & Sons tea blends. Each of the three jams is infused with one of our teas. In addition to Strawberry Paris, try Orange Cinnamon Spice and Blueberry Earl Grey.
• Sugarfina Tea Bento Box. Gummy tea bears? Yes, please! Each box contains matcha, peach tea and pink citrus ginger bears.
• Vanilla Scone Mix. In the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff, it begins with: “If you give a moose a muffin, he’ll want some jam to go with it.” That’s why, with all these jams and marmalades we’ve been showing you, we figured “If you give a tea drinker some jams, they’ll want some scones to go with it.” So go make some scones.

Wild Rose Infused Strawberry Marmalade. Hope you’ve made those scones…here’s another jam, this one a strawberry confection infused with rose petals.