Festive gifts, holiday drink menus and a new café on the horizon
With the holiday season upon us, Smith Teamaker would like to take a moment to share the festive offerings at their Southeast Portland tasting room, last-minute gift ideas, virtual experiences, tools to stay healthy this season, and myriad ways to spread cheer from afar this month.
Cookie Boxes and Specialty Drinks
Holiday pick-me-ups abound in Smith Teamaker’s tasting room. Culinary Director Karl Holl has created assorted freshly baked cookies infused with Smith Tea (Meadow Thumbprints, Chai Chocolate Chip, Miso Peanut butter, and Rose City Raisin). Cookies are available daily individually, as well as by the box as a grab-and-go gift. Meanwhile, Smith’s baristas are busy mulling, steeping and steaming specialty tea beverages every day, like Hot Buttered Silent Night Lattes (Silent Night herbal infusion and fresh orange, cinnamon, mace, and clove syrup, steamed with clarified butter), Mulled Hibiscus (an herbal infusion with an array of warm and aromatic spices), and Darjeeling Crème Caramel (Bungalow tea, burnt caramel sauce and a pinch of Jacoben’s sea salt).
Smith Teamaker is open daily from 10am-6pm with covered, heated outdoor seating.
Holiday Teas in New Festive Packaging
Smith Tea recently released their annual Holiday Collection in new metallic packets that evoke nostalgic ornaments — sold as a stocking stuffer trio (“Santa’s Little Helper, $9.99), assorted box, giftable loose leaf tins, or individual cartons. They’re each a delicious, perfectly balanced blend to compliment the season.
Virtual Tea 101
The Tea 101 classes that have been offered regularly in the tasting room have gone virtual this year. Held once a month, these classes are fun and educational and sell out — best to reserve a spot in advance and they make a great gift for the person who has everything! The next Tea 101 class is on Dec. 19th. To find out more, click here.
Plant-Based Lunch Bowls
Chef Karl Holl continues to prepare weekly plant based, tea-infused lunch bowls every Friday and Saturday for the Smith Tea tasting room, available for grab and go, advance order, or delivery. The weekly menus are here. Next week’s bowls are handmade Chilled Green Tea Noodles with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots, cucumber and tea-chi (tea leaf kimchi), sesame and tossed in a savory miso dressing, OR Tea Spiced Squash bowl, with hearty local grains, winter squashes, tea raisins, Asian pear, savory granola and mint in a quince vinaigrette.
Smith Teamaker Café Coming to Northwest Portland in 2021
Smith Teamaker will be opening its first standalone tea café at 500 N.W. 23rd Ave. at Glisan in spring of 2021. Passersby on N.W. 23rd will see the corner space decorated for the holidays before construction begins.
About Smith Teamaker
In 2020 Smith Teamaker celebrates 10 years of sourcing the world’s finest teas and botanicals to offer a drinking experience like nothing else in the world. The brand is beloved by uncompromising tea drinkers for steeping up uncommonly curated teas and herbal infusions, blended and packed in small batches at its Portland headquarters. Smith was founded by the late legendary teamaker Steve Smith, who was the craftsman behind two of the nation’s biggest tea brands, Stash and Tazo. Smith Teamaker’s mission is to elevate the tea experience by crafting products made with transparency, exceptional blending, and of the highest quality. Constantly innovating, the company releases new teas into its product line each year. Smith Tea is available online at smithtea.com and in select hotels, restaurants, specialty shops and grocery stores across the nation. Smith’s tasting room, located at the company’s Southeast Portland headquarters, is open daily for socially-distant shopping and exceptional cups of hot or iced tea, with an aromatic view of the production process. Find Smith Tea on Instagram @smithteamaker.