BTS: Creating a new tea blend for The Ranch Laguna Beach

Summer Tea Cocktail

Some of the best parts about being a tea sommelier is bringing people together or pairing good food with fine teas. Today, we’re bridging the gap between a cocktail and a mocktail. This Summer, Jadetiger Tea® began a collaborative venture wtih Harvest Restaurant at The Ranch Laguna Beach to highlight the bounty of their biodynamic garden by creating a tea’liciously, pretty, quenching cup of goodness. Warning, one sip will likely lead to a 2nd and 3rd.

Before pulling my sleeves up to gather tea ingredients, I took a moment to be in that magical feeling when I’m at The Ranch (BTW if you haven’t been, it’s a MUST GO, MUST SEE, MUST FEEL kind of place). Most come to Laguna Beach to experience the ocean and the beachy vibes. Well, newsflash, unless you time it right, you will be overwhelmed by the waves of people along with lots of frustrating traffic! Instead, venture just hundreds of yards north of Pacific Coast Highway to find what I call a '“mini-Yosemite”. The Ranch, home to the old Ben Brown’s as long time Lagunans know it, is a boutique golf resort and home to an ethereal woodsy, peaceful landscape of trees and local fauna that immediately brings the blood pressure down. The fields boast a resident herd of deer who casually saunter about the 9-hole golf course. Instead of granite, hues of red overhanging sandstone cliffs frame the perfect Ansel Adams image of nature at it’s best. So I digress, but my mind conjures these thoughts: peace, quiet, beauty of the place I call home: Laguna Beach.

So I snap back to reality, roll my sleeves up and start gathering ingredients to blend. First, I gravitate towards the gently floral, organic green jasmine tea as a base. Then I build on the jasmine notes and find the lavender. Next, a pivot towards a citrus profile to bring out the lemon balm from The Ranch’s farm, and add a sprinkling of organic orange peel. As a final touch, I needed something special to set this blend apart from just any other tea… butterly pea flower petals!! These flower petals impart a bluish hue to each cup, and when acid of a lemon or lime are added, the anthocyanin in the pea flower is activated and voilà!!!! The infusion immediately levels up to a a brighter purplish pink

One more visual addition for aesthetics… make it pretty with garden-grown borage flowers from the garden’s flower beds. After a few tweaks to balance the floral and earthy tones are made, the blend is handed off to Harvest’s mixologist and master bartender to start creating a botanical elixir to consummate the blending of their garden’s harvest and Jadetiger’s full leaf organic tea.

The resulting cocktail is pictured above… The remaining questions are: would you order their cocktail or mocktail, and how many would you drink??

You decide, these gorgeous cocktails and mocktails are being served at Harvest Laguna a few more short weeks!

Stay tuned for the announcement of the next collaborative Fall spiced tea blend!!

Cheers!

Fall is in the Air

Can you feel it? Finally, this week, an Autumnal breeze blew through, cooling the sweltering late-Summer heat wave here in SoCal. This means the subtle pivot from iced teas back to hot teas begins, sweater weather, here we come! Jadetiger’s seasonal teas are on deck: CinnaFig™, a subtle black tea scented with essence of fig, vanilla sprinkled with organic cinnamon bark and dried orange peel & (soon-to-be-released) CacaoMint™ for the holidays.

In the tea lab, some R & D going on with a Sage-Lavender-Lemon trio… would you try?? Also a few new teas may make the holiday roster - Sugar Maple black tea, and a Christmas Spice tea!

Summer Fruit Teas

What to do with extra hot tea that you didn’t finish?? Don’t waste it, refrigerate, and transform your tea into a refreshing seasonal fruit iced drink! I just started “Tea Time Tuesday” where I’ll jump on Instagram live or share a reel of whatever tea I’m working on or drinking at that moment. Nothing scripted or planned, just me on the fly, sharing tea facts, making bloopers and creating communitea.

This week, I got fresh watermelon from the UC South Coast farm right here in Irvine. They asked if there’s anything I can make with it, and it was an instant “Heck yeah!” So I’ve never made a watermelon tea before… it turned out pretty darn refreshing! I cut & muddled fresh watermelon flesh with mint, honey and lemon juice. Top with cold tea, ice, garnish and voila!

There are so many types of Summery fruit teas to make, I’m thinking about a peach or fresh mango tea for Tea Time next Tuesday… which one sounds yummier??

Here’s the 12 minute video: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgw_weNpTmG/ ENJOY!

SPRING IS HERE!

Can you feel it? Painted Lady butterflies are migrating, California poppies are super blooming, nature’s internal clock is changing, daylight is saving….! However, I’m not ready to make the jump from hot to iced tea yet. The exciting Spring feeling is welling up in me , so I decided to set a few pastel-inspired tea tables to share.

We will be camping in Anza Borrego in a couple weeks. I can’t wait to share how I tea outdoors - there’s nothing like sipping an amazing cup of tea while taking in fresh skies, greenery, and clean, organic solitude. Later in April we’ve got a Peruvian adventure planned that includes a medicinal and herbal hike. I definitely see a cup of maté de coca in my future (which Is banned from the states for it’s minuscule cocaine content). I am so excited to learn about indigenous remedies. The kids have native Andean blood running through their veins, so we will be literally and figuratively getting back to our roots. What do you have planned this Spring?

Be cool and Tea with Me this Saturday at Poler

Summer is unofficially here!  Come by this weekend for some vegan matcha latte, and LemonTox tea!  9 hand-picked vendors and Jadetiger Tea will take over old Laguna Nursery's Atrium at Poler 1360 S. Coast Hwy. 2 pm: LIVE {TEA OUTDOORS} demo with a high grade oolong from April's Taiwan trek. Now that I'm officially out of the corporate world and working more in the creative realm, all I want to do is be around other creators and makers.  I am thirsty to seek out positive, forward-rolling energy.  One outlet for expressing this vibe is by organizing maker's events.  My first event last holiday, Shop + Nibble at Five Crowns was hugely successful and more than anything, I enjoyed meeting the vendors and making productive connections.  I wanted to build on that - but take a more salt of the earth approach with a outdoorsy, summer, camp vibe theme.

This Saturday, you can sample honey comb from a LIVE bee hive, find upcycled wood work, soy candles, mini-cactus gardens, original macrame work... and of course since it's my event, there will be mini-donuts, glow make overs, cool jewelry, pressed juices, all in a beautiful space, with lost of GOOD VIBES!

Maker'sMarket

I'm a picky girl who appreciates heart, craftsmanship, and hustle. Come out and see what SoCal's best girl bosses have been up to #shopsmall #summerfestlaguna

#GIRLboss

Rosie the Riveter Sips Tea on International Women's Day!

I'm so glad to be a Woman entrepreneur.  15-years ago I left the corporate world to start my own business in real estate & I have no regrets.  My brokerage thrived & I worked my tail off... However, a cancer diagnosis a few years ago made me re-think my career path & stress level... So while Momming, Wifing, Friending, Working, & Volunteering {in that order, LOL} - I slowly started building a tea brand - pouring all my creative might & love into this life project.  If I weren't a Woman, I feel like wouldn't be as detailed, thoughtful, and inclusive as I could be.  Cheers to International Women's Day, and a BIG shout to to being proud to be American to have the freedom and privilege to make these free decisions.