Profile
of a Small Business in Mendocino County…
Mendocino
Tea Company
Tea=Love
Story
by Debbie L. Holmer
Thank
God for Tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist?
Am glad I was not born before tea. —Sydney Smith
Origins and History of Tea
Tea was first discovered in China around 2700 B.C. It originated in
the mountains around Sichuan and Yunnan, and according to earliest
legend Emperor Shen Nung first sampled the drink when some unidentified
leaves fell into his pot of hot water. Allegedly, Shen Nung used
to wander the country recording the effects of infusions made from
the leaves and berries of various plants. He discovered that tea
cured him of a stomach ache contracted as a result of drinking a
toxic herb.
Tea drinking became an elaborate art form during the Tang Dynasty
(618–907).
This was the heyday of the Chinese Empire, and traders journeyed to
China from the Middle East to obtain silk, porcelain and tea. Over
time, the practice of drinking tea spread across Asia, and later to
Europe and then America.
Mendocino Tea Company
“I always thought that I would magically find a way to retire
when I was in my sixties, but that will probably always be out of the
question for me. I like to say that I retired in the sixties, and now
I will have to work at earning a living for the rest of my life. It’s
a good thing; otherwise I might not have this great tea company,” Lee
Larsen White shares.
Mendocino Tea Company is a celebration of the world’s finest
exotic tea. As owner Lee Larsen White states on her website, “We
use Organic and Fair Trade teas in order to create well-being for all
people who have played a part in producing our tea as well as those
who drink it. We prepare our tea in small batches with love. Your tea
will come to you in foil-lined reusable packages which help us celebrate
product over packaging.”
“I want you to drink my tea. I know it’s the best tea in the world;
it’s good for you and will improve your day. Times are tough. During
tough times, people have turned to tea since it was discovered. It’s
an affordable luxury.”
“For me, there are five seasons: spring, summer, fall, holiday, and winter.
Holidays are all about cooking, family, and keeping the home fires burning,” Lee
Larsen White adds.
Lee Larsen
White—Domestic
Goddess
Lee believes that there is a goddess that lives in each of us and
she hopes to expand an appreciation for that. “In this time of
green awareness,” Lee says, “we can love being home,
growing things (even in urban environments), cooking from scratch,
seeing beauty in worn or ancient things, knitting, and above all,
laughing. I would like to take you to those places.”
Lee Larsen White was born in Bethesda, Maryland and raised in Scottsdale,
Arizona and Santa Ynez, California. After attending college in San
Francisco, Lee moved up to the Mendocino Coast in 1966, “following
my sweetheart, who later became my first husband.” She has one
son by her first husband and three stepchildren, one cat and two dogs.
She’s been married to her husband Peter White for seventeen years.
Lee has done many things to make a living since she arrived here. She
was a manager at Toad Hall for a number of years. (Toad Hall was a
fabulous place to make music where the best musicians on the Mendocino
Coast came to play. It was a large building up Comptche-Ukiah Road.)
She sold real estate for years and taught food services and peer counseling
at Mendocino High School from 1980 through June 1995. Lee made the
cafeteria lunches with the help of students. They had a daily salad
bar and used fresh vegetables and herbs.
“I loved teaching,” Lee says. “I had the opportunity to encourage
students to trust and follow their inner truth and their innate talents.
Many of my friends in their thirties and forties were students at that time.”
Since in her early twenties, Lee has loved cooking, gardening and knitting.
It was in 2003 that Lee had her first tea party and Mendocino Tea Company
was formed. She has been pouring tea ever since.
Tea Tastings
I visited the Dragon Well Tea Plantation in Hangzhou’s West Lake
district in Zhejiang province while touring China a couple of years
ago. Little did I know that two years later I would be having another
cup of Dragon Well tea on the Mendocino Coast with Lee Larsen White.
I visit Mendocino Tea Company on a Saturday in late November. It’s
located in a small white house with blue trim just east of the Albion
Store on Albion Ridge Road. The building was a community gathering
place called Touchstone for many years. Lee’s husband Peter did
the remodeling. It’s lovely. They are only open two days a week.
This month, December, Mendocino Tea Company is open for tea tastings
every Sunday and Thursday from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. until December
20. During the rest of the year their hours are Sundays and Thursdays
from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Tea tastings at Mendocino Tea Company (they are free) are really just
a way for the community to gather together; it’s a place for
people to simply “be.” It’s like having an extended
family. Friends and passersby visit, chat and talk about tea and so
many other delightful things.
While I attend the tasting, Lee’s friend Allison Gardner is arranging
her pottery display and friend Sarah Bodnar comes in to discuss a function
where Mendocino Tea Company teas are being served. Sarah designed the
Mendocino Tea Company brochure; the labels were designed by Fort Bragg
artist John Chamberlin; and Tara, a new neighbor, stops in to introduce
herself. All the while, “Cheech,” who is part Chihuahua
and part Jack Russell terrier, has fun chasing his tail when he isn’t
napping or checking out folks passing by.
I enjoy several tea tastings—Lee’s special blend Cinna-Berry
Tea (a mix of cinnamon, hibiscus and elderberry), Vanilla Black Tea,
and even a cup of organic ancient Pu-erh tea. Pu-erh teas are aged,
fermented, sun-dried and pressed into little “cakes” in
a traditional process. Lee feels that brewing loose-leaf tea is about
enjoyment—watching the tea unfold and steep, and then taking
time to savor the flavor. She and I laugh a lot and share some hugs.
In addition, we talk about knitting, writing, dreams and cooking. And,
oh yes, I definitely take some tea home with me.
Lee gets her teas from a distributor in the Midwest; some of her herbs
and flowers are supplied by Mountain Rose Herbs (a small organic herb,
spice and tea company in Oregon). Unlike the Dragon Well Tea Plantation,
she mixes her organic teas in small batches. She selects only the highest
quality organic ingredients, and uses Fair Trade products whenever
possible.
In addition to having tea tastings on Thursdays and Sundays and selling
her tea on the Web, Mendocino Tea Company teas are available for purchase
at several local stores—Harvest at the Boatyard Center, Harvest
at Mendosa’s, Down Home Foods and Frankie’s Pizza.
Lee also sells her teas at the local farmer’s market. “When
I started selling at our farmer’s market I created a mixture
of herbs and flowers that grow in my garden like lemon balm, mint,
pineapple sage, calendula, and roses that I dried and sold as tea.
Since then I have expanded our gardens, to encompass more plants to
dry and use for teas and body products.
“I love being part of our farmer’s market. It’s a place of
joy. Even in bad weather we laugh and have fun. We share stories and our wares,
and fill our larders with the best food available anywhere.”
“I think I found my muse. I hope to encourage you to follow yours. Your
muse is that voice that speaks to you from inside encouraging you to express
yourself,” Lee Larsen White notes.
Mendocino Tea Company Selections
Following are just some of the selections available at Mendocino Tea
Company through local stores, the Web, or at the shop in Albion.
Fair Trade and Organic Black Tea
Black tea is produced from the Camellia sinensis plant. The leaves
are oxidized and heated to produce the dark color and rich taste.
Black tea has the most caffeine of any tea—about half as much
as coffee. Sweet and rich, none of these teas need milk or sweetener:
Black Rose, Chai, Coastal Breakfast, Golden Yunnan, Mendocino Grey
(Earl Grey), Mendocino Sunrise, and Winter Warming Chai.
Organic Oolong Tea
Oolong tea has a unique earthy taste, between that of green and black
teas, as it is partly oxidized: Wuyi Oolong.
Organic Ancient Pu-erh Tea
Lee says she’s never met a Pu-erh that she didn’t like
and believes this is the most powerful, health-enhancing tea in the
world. Created with black or green tea from China, Pu-erh teas are
aged, fermented, sun-dried and pressed in a traditional process. The
result is a miraculous tasting beverage that seems to address all kinds
of health concerns from acidity to weight loss: Green Mini Tuo Cha
Cakes, Black Shu Mini Tuo Cha Cakes, Pu-erh Maiden, and Ginger Pu-erh.
Organic Green Tea
Heralded as a great healer, green tea has been popular in Asia for
hundreds of years. If you are new to green tea, try a few different
kinds, as each one has a distinctive taste. Brew tea with cooler
than boiling water, to avoid bitterness. Lee recommends re-infusing
green tea a number of times, to experience subtle changes in flavor:
Jade Cloud, Jasmine Green Tea, Jasmine Pearl, Peppermint Green Tea,
and Sencha Special.
Organic White Tea
White tea is made from the Camellia sinensis plant, which is the same
as black and green teas. The leaves are picked when they first emerge
and are allowed to dry in the shade and the breeze. In time this
may prove to be the most beneficial of teas because of the curing
process which involves a minimum of heat and the emerging youth of
the leaves. White tea is best brewed with water that has not yet
boiled (around 185 degrees Fahrenheit) to avoid bitterness. With
a quarter of the caffeine of black tea, white tea is a perfect afternoon
or evening tea: Ancient Moonlight White, Garden Party, Mendocino
Sunset, White Flower, and White Peppermint.
Organic Teasans
Caffeine-free herbal infusions are a perfect refreshment any time of
day. Brew a large pot whenever you make the tea, drink as much hot
tea as you want and put the rest in the refrigerator. For iced tea,
sweeten with agave syrup or make a simple sugar syrup. This is a
healthful alternative to soft drinks and will keep you hydrated throughout
the day: Farmer’s Market Blend, Fireside Blend, Ginger Lemon,
Herbal Chai, Herbal Warming Chai, Hibiscus, and Vanilla Rooibos.
Tea gives one
vigour of body, contentment of mind, and determination of purpose,
when taken over a long period of time. —from The Classic
of Tea by
Lu Yu, fifth-century Chinese poet
Recipes with Tea
Lee Larsen White has been a tea drinker for most of her life, but has
only recently discovered cooking with it. According to history the
first tea drinkers cooked the leaves and ate them like vegetables.
Once you think of tea as a vegetable, you will find yourself adding
it to food in many ways. Lee thinks of the leaves as “vegetables
and the brew as elixir. Its variety of tastes is helpful in creating
recipes.”
Tea will suppress your appetite and give a jumpstart to your metabolism,
which can result in weight loss. It adds welcome taste and richness
while stretching dollars. Lee’s recipes are usually easy on the
wallet and give the satisfaction of cooking creatively.
Tea lends itself to creative cooking. Here are some of Lee’s
favorite ways to cook with tea.
Mincemeat Filling
Here is a recipe for mincemeat filling that includes green tomatoes,
pears and apples.
3 quarts chopped green tomatoes
1 tablespoon sea salt (not iodized)
2 quarts peeled apples
1 quart peeled pears, sweet but not yet soft
1 orange rind grated first, then peeled and chopped
Grated peel from 1 lemon
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup frozen concentrated apple juice, undiluted
1 cup strong Mendocino Grey (Earl Grey) Tea
2 cups raisins
3½ cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice (fresh grated when possible)
1 teaspoon ginger
½ cup dark Jamaican rum or brandy
Chop green tomatoes into a colander, add sea salt, mix well and set
aside for at least two hours to drain. Peel and chop apples and pears,
put them in a large stock pot, add tomatoes, grate in orange and lemon
rinds, chop and add orange. Add vinegar, apple juice, tea, raisins,
sugar, cinnamon, allspice and ginger. Cook on medium heat until flavors
are well blended, about two hours. Add rum or brandy. Place in one-pint,
sterilized jars while still hot; seal jars and place in a water bath
(boiling water covering the top of the jars) for twenty minutes, or
place in jars that you can refrigerate and use within two weeks, or
freeze in one-pint bags to be used for desserts later.
If you intend to use the mixture to make pies, it is delicious added
to other fruit as you place it in the shell. Apples, pears, peaches,
and apricots all taste good with this mincemeat.
“I know it sounds labor intensive,” says Lee, “but
if you have an afternoon, this is a wonderful way to spend your time.
Once you get the mixture on the stove you can go on about your day,
just checking and stirring now and again. The cooking mincemeat fills
your home with a wonderful fragrance and once you have completed placing
it in jars you will have plenty of gifts for giving over the holidays.”
Persimmon Pudding
This recipe is a tradition with Lee’s family for the holidays.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix together:
1 cup persimmon pulp (two large) with ¼ cup milk or tea
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Set aside mixture.
Mix together:
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Add wet ingredients
to dry. Mix in ½ cup walnuts and ½ cup
raisins. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for fifty-five minutes.
“I have memorized and forgotten this recipe more times than
I care to count,” says Lee. “It lends itself to changes
well. I have used spelt flour and whole wheat flour at different times
with great success. I have used honey for sweetening or xylitol. You
can make this with no dairy, substituting canola oil for butter and
tea for milk, and you can leave out the egg and add an extra persimmon
instead. You can also leave out the nuts or the raisins.”
Lee is always trying new dieting ideas and has had this pudding, which
is more like a rich, moist cake, every year since the early sixties. “I
think of this recipe as a gift in itself.”
Easy Pear Crumble
Here’s an easy pear crumble recipe.
Inside:
Enough pears to fill a baking dish, cut into chunks
½ cup Ginger Lemon Tea
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Topping:
¾ cup walnuts or pecans
½ cup flour (Lee uses spelt flour)
¼ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
5 tablespoons butter (melted)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix pears, tea, and cornstarch
together in the baking dish. Combine nuts, flour, sugar, cinnamon,
and nutmeg in food processor and pulse five times or so (it should
still be chunky). Drizzle melted butter over flour mixture and pulse
about ten times quickly, until ingredients are mixed together only.
Crumble topping over pears and bake for twenty to thirty minutes, or
until brown on top.
Wassail
Here is a loose recipe for Wassail; feel free to improvise.
Put three or four
pints of ale or beer in a large pot. Add to it a tablespoon Mendocino
Tea Company Chai, Herbal Chai or Ginger Lemon Tea. Cut up two or
three apples and two oranges and add to the mixture. If you have
juice, add one pint (apple, pineapple, cranberry, orange or any kind).
Squeeze in juice from two lemons. Heat this all together until just
before it comes to a boil. Pour it into a big bowl. If you have whipped
cream, float it on top, but this, too, is optional. Take the Wassail
outside and pour some of it on any fruit trees you may have, or pretty
much any plant that you want to encourage. Share the rest with friends
or drink it in celebration of your plant friends. Shout “Huzzah!” three times (Lee’s
favorite part).
Slow-Cooked Chicken
1 chicken
1 pound carrots, small size or cut up
1 pound potatoes, either creamers or cut up
1 large onion, cut up
5 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into small pieces
3 stalks celery, cut in chunks
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pot Ginger Lemon Tea
Brew your Ginger Lemon Tea first, and set aside. Place all other ingredients
in a slow cooker or roaster. Pour in tea and cook slowly until vegetables
are tender. Cut chicken away from bones and remove bones. Serve and
enjoy. Any leftovers can be made into a delicious soup.
Beef Stew
1 pound stewing beef in chunks
1 pound carrots, either small size or cut up
1 pound potatoes, creamers or cut up
3 large onions, cut up
5 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into small pieces
6 stalks celery, cut up
3 turnips (optional), cut into large pieces
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 pot China Black or Wuyi Oolong Tea
Brew tea and set
aside. Sear meat in hot stew pot. Add one onion and garlic and sauté until
transparent. Add vegetables and salt and pepper. Pour in tea. Add
enough water to just cover meat and vegetables. Cook until meat and
vegetables are tender. Serve.
Come
oh come ye tea-thirsty restless ones—the kettle boils,
bubbles and sings, musically.
—Rabindranath Tagore
Tea-Brewing Instructions
Basics: Always use clear, filtered water. Any taste in the water will
affect the quality of the tea. Steeping time is a matter of personal
taste, but generally it is three minutes for black or Pu-erh tea,
two minutes for green, and five minutes for oolong, white or herbal.
• Black Tea:
Add one teaspoon tea per cup to boiling water.
• Herbal
Tea: Add one teaspoon (fine leaves) to one tablespoon (large leaves)
per cup to boiling water.
• Green Tea:
Add one teaspoon (fine leaves) to one tablespoon (large leaves) per
cup to cooler than boiling water.
• White Tea:
Add one tablespoon tea per cup to cooler than boiling water (coffee
makers have water about the right temperature).
• Oolong
Tea: Add one tablespoon tea per cup to cooler than boiling water.
Loose leaf tea is often better with a second infusion. Water can be
boiling for all second infusions and tea is best if it is steeped longer.
There
are few hours in life more agreeable than
the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. —Henry
James, The Portrait of a Lady
Teas Around the World
There are three basic types of tea. Black tea is fully oxidized and
is the most popular variety in Europe and the United States. Green
tea, a staple in the Orient, is non-oxidized and has more delicate
flavor. And, Oolong tea, which is partly oxidized and is a cross
between the other two in flavor and taste. Whatever the type of tea
they favor; different countries have their own unique history of
tea-drinking tradition and taste.
Japan
A Buddhist priest called Yeisei was the first person to bring tea seeds
from China to Japan. He had observed the beneficial use of tea in
meditation, and from this early use, tea has continued to be associated
with Zen Buddhism.
It quickly gained popularity in the imperial court and other sectors
of society, and became elevated to an art form universally known as “Japanese
Tea Ceremony.” The ceremony involves making and serving tea in
the most perfect, polite and gracious manner. And, it requires years
of training to administer at a tea ceremony.
America
The first tea was brought to the United States in the 1650s, by a Dutchman
called Peter Stuyvesant. At this time the city now known as New York
was a Dutch colony called New Amsterdam. When the British acquired
the colony they were astonished at how popular tea was with the colonial
women.
By 1720, the tea trade was centered in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
However, the colonial people were disgruntled at the tough taxes imposed
on tea by the British. Their resentment reached a fever pitch[December
16, 1773], when the men of Boston dressed up as Indians, openly purchased
smuggled tea, and threw hundreds of pounds of British tea into the
port. These events went down in history as the Boston Tea Party, and
precipitated the American Revolution.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Americans invented iced
tea, now a popular summertime beverage. At around the same time a New
Yorker named Thomas Sullivan first came up with the eminently practical
concept of tea bags. These days, tea is enjoying a revival in popularity
with health conscious Americans but is secondary to the American staple
brew of coffee.
England
By the seventeenth century, Dutch traders brought tea to Europe, where
it rapidly gained popularity. When the Portuguese infanta, Catherine
of Braganza married King Charles II in 1662, she brought with her
to England a chest of tea. It immediately became the beverage of
choice in English high society, replacing ale as the national drink.
The English serve tea with milk, and add sugar to taste. Afternoon
tea is an English institution, accompanied by sandwiches, scones or
cake.
India
India is responsible for cultivating much of the world’s tea,
and Indian varieties such as Darjeeling [thin bodied, light-colored
with floral aroma], Assam [malty bold flavor and strong bright color],
and Nilgiri [dark, intensely aromatic and fragrant] are amongst the
most popular. However the first plantations in India were only established
by the British colonizers in the nineteenth century.
Russia
The Russians first encountered tea in 1618, when the Chinese made a
gift of several chests to Tsar Alexis. By the end of the seventeenth
century, China and Russia were engaged in trade relations, but the
journey between the two countries was long and hazardous, and the
cost of tea was extortionate. It was another hundred years before
the price of tea fell sufficiently for the habit to percolate through
to all sectors of society. Tea and vodka are the Russian national
drinks these days. The Russians make tea in a samovar, a large water
heater and tea pot, and drink it strong and sweet.
If you are cold,
Tea will warm you –
If you are heated,
It will cool you –
If you are depressed,
It will cheer you –
If you are excited,
It will calm you.
—William E. Gladstone
It’s
Time for a Cup of Tea
Mendocino Tea Company is committed to bringing you the finest loose
leaf teas and herbal blends in the world. All of their organic teas
and herbal blends are Fair Trade tea whenever possible.
Lee Larsen White appreciates the “right here” and the “right
now.” She truly has gratitude for whatever is in the moment,
and she loves turning people on to tea. So go ahead, stop by Mendocino
Tea Company for a visit, or log on to the website, or give Lee a call.
Then sit down to brew a pot of the world’s finest organic loose
leaf teas—whether it is black, white, green or herbal, it will
clear your mind and enhance your day.
While
there’s tea, there’s hope. —Sir
Arthur Pinero
Ordering Information
Check out Mendocino Tea Company on the Web at www.mendocinotea.com,
or by phone at (707) 937-2700 (be sure to leave a message), or e-mail
lee@mendocinotea.com.
When it comes to the payment information part of your order, Mendocino
Tea Company asks that you please mark check/money order, and send a
check instead of using a credit card. It’s an old-fashioned way
to order things. Lee feels that, “It’s time we stepped
back to old-fashioned ways until we can reclaim our financial freedom.
“Credit card companies are destroying our culture and I’m actively
trying to find ways to function without them. Join me in this modern civil
disobedience.”
Some
days a good cup of tea is the best thing that happens all day. I
am lucky enough to have a tea company, so I can luxuriate in good
tea. On those days maybe it’s enough to watch the tea unfold
and be grateful for all I have, for my loving family and the time I
have to spend with them. In the current economic climate we have less
disposable cash, but we have lots of time. —Lee Larsen White |