Tea good enough to eat?

I recently visited one my ‘hidden’ tea favorites in New York, Sun’s Organic Garden. Located towards the end of a bustling street in Chinatown, most wouldn’t pick it, but the owner Lorna not only has an amazing selection of organic teas, her knowledge about the healing properties of tea is remarkable!

Lorna creates all of her unusual tea blends herself, using either tea leaves or herbs. One of her newest blends, called Five Elements tea, is created with a mix of sultana, gogi, sencha and other secret Chinese berries that have amazing health benefits for just about every part of the body, including the ability to improve eyesight after one month of use – as personally attested to by Lorna who no longer needs her glasses to drive at night!

But the trick is…you need to eat the tea after you’ve steeped it (about 1 tbsp for five minutes in 1 cup boiling water) and enjoyed many cups throughout the day. The actual taste of this tea is quite sour at first – to me, it looks and tastes a bit like pink lemonade. But since it’s said to detox and boost my immunity, I drink up and then move on to eating the tea itself - but be warned, unless you've brewed this several times, it will be very sour! Lorna’s customers swear by this tea, so much so, it’s become a best-seller.