Big Move for Friday Afternoon Tea

Hello, friends!

For the past several months I have been secretly (Well, not so secretly. I'm terrible at keeping my own secrets.) working on a huge project. Very happy to announce the great news that we have split-branded! This sub-brand means moving our medicinal teas to a new line: New Apothecary. This will serve to focus our main line (Friday Afternoon) on our unusual single origin and fandom blends, while allowing me to pursue a personal and abiding passion: developing a specialized collection of high-end, ethically-sourced medicinal teas. New Apothecary will be available on its own website, which will feature both this new collection and an herbal medicine blog. I hope you enjoy our new collection as much as I've enjoyed creating it!

Logo designed by Erika Rae Heins

Health and Happiness,
Friday

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Indigenous Sips: Pacific Madrone

Pacific Northwest local red-barked beauty Pacific Madrone, aka Arbutus Menziesii , is a sight to behold for sure. The rich hue and dramatically peeling bark, the curve of its sturdy branches and sheen of its verdant waxy leaves are all peak hiking aesthetic, but did you know this tree has long been a multipurpose source of healing tincture and tea? Various tribes of the west coast, ranging from California up through British Columbia, make use of Madrone bark and berries. Extracted as a tincture or bundled and bruised for a poultice, this plant can be used topically to treat minor wounds and sores. Brewed as a tea, the light-bodied brew has notes of cinnamon, foresty fungus and wood smoke and is used to help a stomachache or as a cold medicine. This tree serves as a very renewable source of bark, leaf and berry and can be harvested without damaging the tree. Madrones will naturally shed their leaf every two years and their bark each summer. When you approach a Madrone in midsumme...

Synesthesia And Blending As Sensory Art

I am frequently asked how I get ideas for my blends. Where does my inspiration come from? Which comes first, the blend or its name? I'm proud of how original my blends are, and how different from blends you'll find by any other company. This is largely due to the fact that I have synesthesia (meaning my senses are cross-wired and abstract concepts, personalities, colors, weather, etc. all translate to me as flavor). My dominant forms are referred to as "lexical-gustatory," "auditory-tactile," and "mirror touch." It's fascinating stuff for sure, and has made my life and relationships more complicated. On the flip side, I have discovered a practical use for my brain-strangeness! Like many synesthetes before me (Jimi Hendrix, Tori Amos, Richard Feynman, Vladimir Nabokov, etc.), I've translated my particular brand of strange into a career. Synesthesia salad. credit: jessicahagy.info/ My personal experience with synesthesia leads me...

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We get asked a LOT what the difference is between white tea and black tea, herbal tea and green tea, and so on. The world of tea is mysterious and a lot of you want to learn more, so let's start with the basics! True tea comes from the Camellia Sinensis plant. Always. Any infusion made from the leaf, stem, root or whatever other part of any other plant falls into the "tisane" category, also known as "herbal tea." Those are a whole tasty world absolutely worth your time and attention, but today we're focusing on true teas. There are six basic types of true tea, delineated by the level of oxidation allowed to occur in the leaf during processing. After picking, tea leaves frequently go through a process of bruising, withering, heating, and drying. (I say frequently because the world of tea is so vast and varied, every facet of the end product is up for flux. How much caffeine? What does it taste like? Is it smooth or brash? The answer is always "it ...

Friday Knows Tea

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