So let the countdown begin!
#3 M21 Luxury Tea
Metropolitan Tea is a Canadian company with 100% trackable packaged tea. Their M21 Luxury Teas feature functional, ethically sourced tea blends. They have a huge range of teas and tisanes that cover all seasons and styles of tea. There’s so many to choose from!
Metz Teas win big with us based on their commitment to the environment and people. Their factory in Ontario is 100% solar powered, and produces 5x the energy they annually use. Their teabags are plant based material, and the bags are packed in nitrogen to preserve the freshness of the teas. In 2011, Metropolitan partnered with the UN Billion Tree program and the Ontario 50 Million Tree program to plant 15,000 trees.
M21 Luxury Tea’s stylish tube/boxes are very attractive on the shelf, and you can’t beat the flavours of their amazing teas. Their tea bags are pyramidal, so the contents have room to expand during the steep for the best flavour. Knowing M21 Teas make a difference for people and the environment makes their tea taste even better.
Our Favourite M21 Tea: M21 Apple Spice Black Tea
The M21 Apple Spice Black Tea is a wonderful, warming tea. It has sweet apple notes, punctuated by the hint of cinnamon. This tea would also make an amazing sun tea in the hot summer months. Very refreshing with ice and a cinnamon stick!
#2 Numi Organic Tea
Under their leadership, Numi seeks to ethically produce and source all their tea. They also ensure it’s all organic, fair-trade, and fair labour tea. Numi also is a Founding B-Certified Corporation, which focuses on benefiting the environment, employees, and the community. Numi is a great company to support, and we’re happy to have a large selection of Numi’s premium tea brands at Cupper’s.
Every Numi box has 18 bags of tea, each individually wrapped in a colourful sachet. The bags are of compostable, plastic-free mesh. Each bag is specially folded so there’s lots of room for the tea to spread out for better steeping.
Our Favourite Numi Tea: Rooibos Chai
#1 Rishi Tea & Botanicals
Our Favourite Rishi Tea: Rishi Earl Grey
Rishi Earl Grey is a true British classic. Robust, fruity Thai black tea blended with mellow, caramel sweet Yunnan Dian Hong tea. That blend is then infused with Italian bergamot, a type of sour orange. The result? Simply the best Earl Grey ever. Enjoy!
How to Prepare Tea
Tea has many different methods to prepare it, each developed by their own region. The most common western method is steeping tea in hot water, then removing the tea leaves once the desired taste has developed. The quality of the tea leaves is clearly very important. However the water quality and temperature and length of steeping also have a strong effect on the end result.
Water Quality and Temperature
Start with clean, cold, filtered water for the best flavour outcome. The ideal end water temperature for most teas is just below the boiling point. This state is described as “string of pearls”, as there is a steady stream of small bubbles flowing in the water.
Water that is too hot scalds the tea, and results in poor quality of flavours. Exact water temperature is dependent on the type of tea that you are steeping, so make sure to check in advance.
