Having trouble sleeping or sticking to a diet? Short on energy and focus at work or looking to spice up your love life? Sheena Brady has a tea for whatever ails you.
The 28-year-old founder of Tease Tea, an online boutique specializing in all-natural, loose-leaf blends, is a certified tea sommelier who caters to “the modern tea drinker.” Like a wine sommelier who pairs fine wines with food, the Ottawa native prescribes and blends teas to soothe and satisfy every “mood, feeling, desire and goal.”
Just call her Doctor Tea.
“I do thera-tea,” quips the savvy entrepreneur, who started her e-commerce business two years ago after working for more than a decade in the hospitality industry, managing hotels and restaurants in New York City, California and Toronto. In October, she opened her first pop-up store in Gansevoort Market in
Manhattan after raising $22,000 in just 26 days through crowdfunding. The Four Seasons Hotel in Silicon Valley and Westlake Village in California also carry her brand exclusively.
Made from premium tea leaves grown in “sustainably managed gardens around the world from places that practise ethical working standards,” Tease Tea offers 35 different green, oolong, black, herbal and organic tea blends. Each is given a cheeky name such as When Berry Met Sally, Tongue Thai’d and Show Me the Honey.
Chai Love You is a decadent blend of chai spice laced with rose petals, dark chocolate and lavender.
Brady, who works two days a week at Shopify on Elgin Street to build her web-based business and is a media darling appearing regularly on television to talk tea, personally blends, packages and ships each order from her basement in Orléans.
Although she admits to kickstarting her morning with half a cup of coffee — “it’s the sexiest smell” — she sips about two litres of tea throughout the day to help her stay focused and energized. “I have a passion for tea.”
Prices: 50-gram packs (makes 25 cups) starting at $6.50; 100-g tins (50 cups) from $12. Teasetea.com
Top 3 holiday teas
1. Chai Love You: Sheena Brady describes this as a “decadent blend of chai spice laced with rose petals, dark chocolate and lavender.” Besides smelling divine, it is said to have a calming effect and help boost the libido. From $9.50
2. Shake It Off: Named after a Taylor Swift song, this high-grade Japanese green tea is “loaded with antioxidants intertwined with ginger, lemongrass and medicinal spices,” perfect for fighting colds, relieving congestion. From $9.50
3. Triple TeaTox: 15- or 30-day detox program designed to kickstart your metabolism, burn calories, reduce bloating and boost energy. “It’s a holiday must-have,” says Brady of the blend of senna leaves, ginger, lemongrass, licorice root and yerba mate. “It’s perfect to get back on track.” From $49
Sheena Brady of Tease Tea is the founder of an online boutique specializing in all-natural, loose-leaf blends.
The perfect cuppa
1. Don’t use boiling water. “If you find your tea has a bitter taste, it’s because you’re actually burning the tea leaves.” Brady says the ideal water temperature is 180 F to 190 F.
2. Don’t overstuff the infuser. All you need is 1/2 teaspoon of loose-leaf tea to make a cup of tea. “It gives the tea leaves a chance to expand and release their true flavour.”
3. Let it steep. Brady recommends four to five minutes for black tea and two to three minutes for green.
