String Town Tea
A couple of weeks ago I got a call from a friend during my lunch hour at work. They were at String Town, and wanted to know if I wanted them to pick up any tea for me. While I don't really go for bagged tea, I also know that you never know what you will find at String Town - even though I've never been there. I think the store actually goes by a different name, and I know that it is in "Amish Country" (I don't think that they use that exact term around here, but that's the term we used where I grew up). Anyway, it's a store that has a lot of food in various size packages for sale cheap. I also know that you have to watch expiration dates when you get food there because a lot of it is near or past its expiration date. My friends listed off some of the teas they saw, then said that they would send me pictures. There were the standard boxes of bagged tea, but then there was this.
A big box of Indian tea. It contains chocolate vanilla herbal tea, cardamom spice masala chai, blooming rose black tea, and turmeric ashwagandha herbal tea. The whole box was $2.29. I had to try it. Even if the tea was horrible, it looked fun! My friends left the box tied in a bag on my doorknob for when I got home from work. It was big, and surprisingly heavy. The expiration date is 7/23, so I was safe on that front. I was totally surprised when I opened the box.
A strong fragrance of cardamom wafted out to greet me as I looked at 4 tins of loose leaf tea. Oh this is going to be fun!
Vahdam teas (according to the paper in the box) was founded by a 28 year old 4th generation tea businessman. All their teas are procured directly from plantations and farmers within days of harvest for ultimate freshness. Their goal is to eliminate time spent sitting with middlemen. How this tea ended up in an Amish dry goods store in the Midwest I will never know. I'm also amused that it is an anniversary themed box. I have nobody to toast being together with, but I can make a monthly toast to the day I bought my home.
In addition to eliminating middlemen, the company info sheet also says that they contribute money to the education of the farmers' children and that they are climate and plastic neutral. Stay tuned for some authentic Indian tea tastings.
Since the holidays are approaching, also enjoy some pictures of my most recent tats.
The snowflakes look nice. Also, worrying about expiration dates is overrated. For shelf-stable food, I consider anything that has expired within the past two years fair game as long as there is nothing visibly wrong with it. Have fun with the new teas!
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've heard, 2+ years past expiration is a possibility, but yeah, expiration dates are often overrated.
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