Oolong Time, So Long Blood Orange.

Teas are sometimes overlooked in many coffee establishments and often not represented very well, leaving the palate dry and bitter. This is quite sad, because not only does tea have many health benefits, but each tea has unique flavors and characteristics. Tea is unfortunately another product that's been tainted by big industries, and what you find in the supermarkets is often time a powder like substance or something that looks like left-overs of what real tea leaves should look like. If you think you're drinking tea when you buy Lipton, think again. There are different types of tea, but all come from one species of plant called Camellia sinensis. The difference between all is quite similar to coffee, in such that it is based on the tree varietal, the region it's grown and the way it's processed. White teas are the least processed out of all, and also contain the least caffeine and some say they also contain the most anti-oxidants (cancer fighting cells), after being picked, the leaves are air dried. Green teas are pan fried or steamed after being picked, sealing the flavors inside. Oolong Teas are usually rolled, which is a process of rolling to bruise the leaf to release some of the oils. Black teas on the other hand are the most processed. The leaves are left to wilt, than rolled to release the oils, but unlike Oolongs, they are left to oxidize much longer, and then are heated, this gives the black teas their bold-like flavor. Much like coffee, tea is seasonal, and the process of picking the leaf and the afterward processing is time consuming. 49th Parallel has done a fine job in sourcing some of the best teas available out there, and they've just recently added some new teas to their offering, but they've also taken a few away. Our tea menu is going to change slightly over the next few weeks to reflect some of these new offerings. We will now only carry one herbal (Apricot/Cinnamon), since the African Summer and Blood Orange will no longer be available from our roaster,however, we will now have an Organic White Silver Needle, which has a very low caffeine content. We will also add a Reserve List Milk Oolong, An Organic Lu An Melon Seed ( Green) and an Organic Buddha's Eyebrow (Green). With these new additions, the tea prices are going to change. When we first opened, we priced our tea menu like many other coffee houses, all one price for a 16oz teapot. We averaged out the tea prices and found the median. Not knowing which teas were going to be popular, it made sense at the time...After being opened for almost a year, we've learned ALOT and we've gathered that the pricier teas are the most popular, and it no longer makes sense to offer them at an averaged price. An Herbal shouldn't be the same price as a reserve oolong and so we've made the decision to price each tea accordingly, and honestly, it didin't make sense from the beginning. All will still be served the same way, in a 16oz teapot on a platter, and our re-steep policy will remain the same. Some of you will notice a small decrease in your favorite tea and some of you will have a small increase. We think it's more sustainable, and we will be representing the Teas accordingly. We certainly hope that all of you will understand the rationale behind our move. We also will no longer allow any teas to be iced. We charge $2.75 for Iced Tea, and if we're going to be pricing each tea individually, a Jasmine Pearl Iced for example would cost almost 6 dollars ( we use double the amount of loose leaf for iced). Until spring, we may purchase some loose black tea that would be suitable to be iced to order and that would fit in the $2.75 price range. As usual, in spring and summer, we will continue to feature an iced tea that we steep and press ahead of time. In our quest to offer Pittsburgh the best coffee and tea, we hope that you will continue to support us.