The Best Locally Made Teas Have No Tea in Them

People tend to regard tea as this foreign thing, something that is only synonymous with places like China, Japan, or Morocco, but in fact you can create a very beautiful, modern ritual of tea for yourself at home wherever you live. In your own backyard, in your own neighborhood, there is not a single botanical that does not have medicinal and flavor properties.

When speaking in statistics, 80 percent of the world's population in countries like Asia and Africa depend on herbs as primary medicine. It is only a matter of developing an intelligence of your landscape; the world really is our grocery store, whether you're living in West Hollywood or Connecticut.

Let's take Earl Grey tea, for example. The main flavor and aroma component comes from citron fruit peels, and Meyer lemons, which grow abundantly here in California, make for a perfect citrus sub-in for this tea. All have to do is remove the sweet peel, let it dry out for two days in an air-conditioned environment, and then mix in with some black tea. Meyer lemon is also really good to enjoy during flu season, along with dried lemongrass and a little mint—this combination helps to open up the lungs.

Sage is another amazing leaf that grows in abundance in California, you'll get a really amazing, bright, and beautiful infusion out of this plant. However, it is important to note that it will not technically be considered a tea if there are no tea leaves in your mixture. In such case, the correct terminology for strictly herb-based hot beverages are infusions.

As a rule of thumb when blending your own infusions, consider fulfilling the following attributes: beauty, brains, and depth. Tea blending is part-art, and part-science. I am the Master Tea Blender for the Art of Tea, a craft tea business that supplies tea to all the best restaurants in town; think Bestia, Trois Mec, Broken Spanish, Redbird, Sotto, Son of a Gun, and many more. The lauded chefs at all of these establishments take a lot of pride and respect with their food menu, so I do the same with the custom teas that I craft for each of them.

I take into consideration where the establishment is located and its menu. For example, when I made my custom blend for The Getty Villa's cafe in Malibu, I used local French lavender in combination with full-bodied, slightly smoky black teas from India since these flavors are aligned with the California coast. This kind of awareness is what I am talking about when I say that you have to develop an intelligence to know your landscape.

I was so obsessed with developing this intelligence that I used to fast for one day a week and only have the botanical that I was studying to truly understand the flavor and medicinal properties of the plant. When you do this, your senses are enlivened and it is amazing. I studied each herb beforehand though, and unless you are equally obsessed with foraging for tea, I don't recommend you do the same.

If you live anywhere near Los Angeles, I occasionally teach workshops on how to forage for tea infusions at the Natural History Museum. Pink peppercorn skin is another amazing ingredient for tea, and peppercorn trees are all around LA. The red skin on these peppercorns contain an oil that makes it naturally sweet. They fetch a pretty penny as well.

You don't have to live in Southern California, either. Yarrow and mint grow practically everywhere in the US. These two weeds alone offer so much in flavor depth, and they play really nicely with each other.

My background is in Ayurveda and I learned by getting my hands dirty and just experimenting. This means messing up, a lot. It is all trial and error. There is this very organic process and style behind foraging and blending tea infusions. If you have a knack for this kind of thing, it is beautiful when you finally find your organic sweet spot. It's all about exploring.

That being said, it's important to have a guide to help you see which leaves and herbs out there are grown without pesticides and insecticides. There are local foraging groups that meet up and discuss foraging too, if you look for them. These are good starting points. I'm a firm believer of oral teachings, and when you learn even a little bit, it is like learning to ride a bike—you will get better every day that goes by.

As told to Javier Cabral