A customer walks into Lucas Teas in downtown Squamish.
“I need a fix of cream of earl grey. It’s basically my coffee now,” she says, having already decided which of the 100-plus teas to buy before entering the store.
The tea store’s owner, Matthew Lucas, takes the jar off the shelf and scoops the loose leaf tea into his largest bag.
As he seals the bag, the distinct scent of earl grey, created by bergamot oil, fills the air. It’s Lucas’ most popular tea, along with Squamish Sunset, a blend of caffeine-free rooibos, coconut, lemon grass, cardamom, cinnamon, apple and orange peel.
“It’s so colourful. I named it that because it reminds me of Squamish,” says Lucas, standing in front of dozens of clear glass jars containing teas from around the world that were shipped to his small shop on Cleveland Avenue.
After narrowing down what customers are searching for, he lifts the lids so they can smell each one before making a decision.
“That amazing,” remarks a customer after smelling Organic Very Berry, a juicy combination of currents, rose hips, hibiscus and blueberries.
She is on a daytrip from Port Coquitlam with her mom, who orders a cup of jasmine pearls – two leafs and a bud wrapped around a jasmine blossom.
Lucas set up shop nearly six years ago after leaving a stressful job in Vancouver.
“I always loved Squamish and I wanted to find a way to move here. I would go to tea shops to relax after working all day and saw a market here,” he said.
Lucas is now a wealth of knowledge on everything to do with tea.
“I try to find the best organic and natural tea, and also the best tasting. If I hit all three, then people are sure to enjoy it,” he says, adding that he has whittled down the tens of thousands of teas that are available into the 101 that he sells.
There are, for instance, 10,000 kinds of oolong – a traditional Chinese tea – not including the flavoured varieties.
Lucas hand blends some of his teas and creates others based on customer requests.
The jars are filled with everything from traditional English Breakfast to Organic Third Trimester Tea, a raspberry leaf tea that pregnant women drink to prepare for labour.
“Not all tea is created the same or prepared the same,” says Lucas as another customer leaves the store with tea in hand. Among his many tips is the rule that more isn’t necessarily better.
“Just use one flattened teaspoon per cup and you’ll enjoy it much more.”
The perfect cup of tea
Creating loose leaf blends, which are said to be fresher than many available in tea bags, is a delicate art form of experimenting with hundreds of natural ingredients. The result is tea, which is measured into a strainer before brewing, being enjoyed more and more by people in Squamish and throughout the Lower Mainland.
Thanks to mega-chains like Davids Tea and Teavana, people are more aware of loose leaf tea culture and are turning to their local, independent shops for that perfect cup of piping-hot tea.
“The demand for good tea has almost tripled. The gardens producing it haven’t kept up and finding certified organic tea is difficult. You need to have really good, long-standing relationships with organic producers,” said Brendan Waye who moved his business, The Tea Guy, from North Vancouver to Second Avenue in downtown Squamish late last year.
Before opening in 1999, he founded Steeps Tea, Canada’s first chain of teahouses, and, after smuggling a traditional Chai recipe back from the famed mountains of Karakoram, he began The Chai Company.
Most of the tea, which he usually sells wholesale, is procured from the traditional growing regions – India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, China and Japan, as well as newer countries like Argentina. Ninety per cent of what he sells is organic and in the top of what is produced in terms of quality.
“I want my tea to be fresh, organic and healthy. There’s no room for anything less,” says Waye, sitting at the computer where he fills online orders from customers worldwide.
On his wall are two tea sommelier certificates – one from Canada and the other from the U.S.
“Very few people have both,” he says.
His best sellers are Vanilla Bourbon Rooibos, made with Madagascar bourbon vanilla, a tea used specifically for making London Fogs, earl grey and, of course, cream of earl grey.
His favourite cup of tea?
Phoenix Mountain oolong, made in China from bushes that are 100 to 800 years old.
Another favourite is yerba mate, which is made from naturally caffeinated leaves of the holly tree in Argentina. Waye was recently on Global TV for a segment on the benefits of yerba mate, which contains vitamins, amino acids, abundant antioxidants and acts as an appetite suppressant.
“I completely sold out of yerba mate after it aired on TV. We’re still filling orders,” he says as two employees fill bags to be shipped off to customers.
Nothing finer
Before Stephanie Lovas and Leanna Moorman bought Nothing Finer Tea in 2011, they were known as “the tea ladies” at Zephyr Café in downtown Squamish.
Now the pair have their own home-based online business that supplies loose leaf tea to cafés and individual customers.
“We recently made a rose tea. It has rose petals and rose hips, lemon balm, raspberry leafs and a pinch of stevia for sweetness,” says Moorman, holding up a bag full of delicate pink rose petals and other ingredients. “It’s a very pretty combination.”
Their top sellers are Lavender Dream, the perfect tea for before bedtime, and, once again, cream of earl grey.
They try to stay away from artificial flavouring and focus on ethical, fair-trade specialty and organic tea, which has numerous health benefits.
“A lot of times when our friends and family have something wrong, they’ll tell us and we’ll recommend a tea,” says Lovas, adding their rose tea is used to alleviate cramps and bergamot in earl grey helps with anxiety.
“One lady, whenever she has dairy, she swears by drinking Digestive Comfort.”
Spices are ground and added right away so the oils are released into each small batch.
Since taking over the business from a woman in Squamish six years ago, at just 19 and 20 years old, Lovas and Moormin have seen the loose leaf tea market grow in Squamish and B.C. in general. The soaring popularity is among men, women and children.
“We were at an elementary school craft fair and the kids were asking ‘what’s in this loose leaf tea?’ It was great to see they knew so much about it,” says Moormin.
To sample Nothing Finer Teas, stop by Zephyr Café, Oryzae Japanese Cuisine and Timber Wolf Restaurant
