The story below is an excerpt from our Jan./Feb. 2016 issue. For the rest of this story and more like it subscribe today, view our digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
On your 2016 mountain travels, keep in mind the flavors and health benefits of simple, timeless, tasty tea.
Tea is one of my travel essentials. No matter where I go, I bring some of my tea stash with me, but I’m always on the lookout for places to find a good cuppa.
Around the Blue Ridge Mountains region, you might be more likely to find a coffee shop than a tea room, but if you know where to look, you’ll find a few tea rooms, restaurants, and cafes that offer a wide variety of teas, from blacks, whites, and greens to oolongs, pu-erhs, fruit and herbal blends, and even bubble tea. So whether you prefer your tea hot or iced, you’re sure to find something to suit your taste buds.
North Carolina
Located in a farmhouse built in the 1920s in Sylva, North Carolina, Soul Infusion Tea House & Bistro offers 65 kinds of loose-leaf tea and also makes tea cocktails using wine.
What to Drink: Fiji green tea
Soul Infusion Tea House & Bistro
628 E. Main St., Sylva, North Carolina
828-586-1717; soulinfusion.com
Virginia
Housed in a historic log home in Winchester, Virginia, The Coach & Horses Tea Room has a selection of more than 55 kinds of tea including pu-erhs and oolongs.
What to Drink: Caramel chai pu-erh tea
The Coach & Horses Tea Room
949 Cedar Creek Grade, Winchester, Virginia
540-323-7390; of-tea-i-sing.com
West Virginia
Decorated with a Middle Eastern theme, Shaharazade’s Restaurant & Tea Room in historic Shepherdstown, West Virginia, serves 70 varieties of tea including flowering teas that bloom as they steep.
What to Drink: Russian Firebird black tea
Shaharazade’s Restaurant & Tea Room
141 W. German St., Shepherdstown, West Virginia
304-876-8100; facebook.com/Shaharazades