You’ve heard of craft beer and craft coffee – now how about craft tea? Similar to its beer and coffee counterparts, craft tea blenders use their skill, expertise, imagination, creativity and intuition to create beautiful and experimental blends of tea.
Started by Vancouverites Darryl McIvor and Tegan Woo, Amoda Tea Company has sourced and curated their picks of high quality “craft” teas, all consisting of premium ingredients and mixed in small batches. Amoda’s craft tea selections are all-natural with no artificial flavourings or sweeteners and many are organic and/or fair-trade.
You may recognize Amoda Tea Company from a former post on Modern Mix Vancouver. Previously, Amoda operated on a subscription basis and postal-mailed its customers a curated selection of tea on a monthly basis. But, with a change of direction this summer, and going through a local accelerator program to find their niche, they have re-strategized and repositioned their company as a “craft tea” company, with a focus on tea discovery.
Amoda picks Craft Tea blends from around North America, known tea blenders who blend leaves in small batches and typically only make them available through their own shop, local markets and local events. Why is this a benefit? Because small-batch blending means better control and attention to detail through the process. Small-batch blending also ensures that only fresh tea makes it in your cup.
Each tea lover has their own unique experience of tea and story of discovery. Craft tea blenders are tea lovers too and their experiences are woven together in a pattern that is unlike any other tea blender on earth. So, it follows that the teas they create are individualized and special. You won’t experience that same tea anywhere else. One blender’s chai may be completely different from the next or it may just have a subtle nuance that makes all the difference for you.
Amoda Tea Company has tasted 2,000 different teas, so you don’t have to. You are left to discover and experience only the best of their curated picks. So far, they have three themed Discovery Sets for $14.95, which consists of five different single-serving sachets of teas (enough for two brewed cups of each) and accompanying paper filter bags.
Some of the ones we have tried included Heavenly Cream, which is a cream of early grey, Better Than Sex, which has notes of chocolate and mint, and my personal favourite (so far), Three Blessings, which is a light, white tea floral blend with jasmine. Once you discover a blend you like, you can go back to amodatea.com and buy the full-sized version. In the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy the variet-TEA and diversit-TEA of what Amoda has to offer.
Modern Mix Vancouver’s Top 10 Favourite Tea Puns
When Modern Mix Vancouver met up with Tegan from Amoda Tea, there were certainly tea puns tossed around in our conversation. Here 10 for you to enjoy:
- Let’s get this par-TEA started.
- Can’t we all just get oolong?
- It’s okay to steep together on the first date
- What do you call a dinosaur drinking tea? A TEA-Rex!
- Move oolong, there’s nothing to tea here.
- Good morning, brew-tea-ful.
- Caffeine-free tea brings out my inner tranquilit-TEA.
- For TEA’s a jolly good fellow.
- Hit me with your best pot.
And finally…
- These puns are bringing out my inner creativi-TEA.
