Katie and I were attending a wedding in Traverse City, Michigan last fall and while heading to Sleeping Bear Dunes, we made an awesome discovery. We happened upon a small tea shop called “Light of Day Organics” – we were surprised to learn that the owner, Angela Macke not only grows 240 different ingredients for her tea blends, but also has been growing Camellia sinensis since 2005! We were able to see the several varieties plants that she had in the greenhouse adjacent to her tea shop, unfortunately we did not have enough time to see her plants in the ground that have been growing since 2005. Here’s a few shots of what we saw:
While Angela currently only processes her tea into white tea to be used in her many blends, we were able to get a few leaves from her to try. I described the liquor as a delicate white tea, tasting sweet but not floral, reminiscent of pears, closest to a Yunnan Bai Hao Yinzhen. Here are what the leaves looked like:
If you are in the Northern Michigan area, be sure to meet up with Angela, she’s got a lot of good things happening on her farm!
