I’m obsessed with tea! It’s certainly a miracle that my teeth don’t look like candy corn at this point. As with anything, however, the more you indulge in something, the more discerning your palette gets. With that said, this is for you tea Snobs. Hand-blended in small batches at their studio in Portland, Oregon, Plum Deluxe stocks a wide variety of tea blends all of which are organic, non-GMO, vegan, and free of chemicals and sulfites; their ingredients are sourced from the Pacific Northwest when possible. It’s always a good sign when you look at the tea and see a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. If your tea bag or loose leaf has tiny little pieces, odds are your tea is made from low-quality scraps (looking at you, Twinings and Lipton…). While you can order the teas from Plum Deluxe individually, they’ve got a cool Birchbox-like feature – their tea of the month club. For only $10/month, subscribers get a seasonal tea, monthly tea time recipes, and a monthly tea leaf reading. It’s a unique, fun gift or treat to yourself (and cheaper/healthier than a wine of the month club).
On a side note, the company was founded by entrepreneur and tea enthusiast Andy Hayes as a tribute to his mother, who “lost a 6-year battle with breast cancer but never forgot to enjoy the little things in life.” It’s a wonderful message, and I imagine a nice reminder to get in the mail every month.