Her Cup of Tea

Tea will overtake coffee as the American beverage of choice.

This is the grand prediction of Brenda Hedrick, owner of Anna Marie’s Specialty Tea Shoppe in Liberty. Her claim may seem outlandish. But, she reminds us, tea has been around for 5,000 years, during which much of the world has been guzzling it religiously.

“In America, we kind of dropped it. But now we’re rediscovering it,” she says. Recent jumps in the country’s tea consumption began as a fad but will endure, Hedrick says, in part because of the brew’s health benefits, which the coffee camp misses. In fact, we’re on the verge of a huge movement, she says, pointing to the fact that Starbucks has added bagged teas to its menu.

But those wanting to enjoy a real tea experience should look beyond prepackaged convenience, Hedrick warns. “Most teas in bags are the crushed particles left after the leaves are dried and packaged in bulk. Their flavor can’t possibly be what a full tea leaf gives.” She goes on about the refined tea palette. Tea, she says, “can be like the finest wine.” She adds, “At one tea expo, I even sampled a tea leaf that cost more that $2,000 an ounce.” She gets a little giddy: “It was fabulous!”

Hedrick tried all sorts of crazy potions as she was studying to become a certified tea consultant. The program involved a concentrated business school and a lot of expos, where Hedrick learned about the types, benefits, creation, geography and social import of tea. She sought such mastery because she didn’t want to open the average tearoom, devoted to “eating a lot of sugary stuff and drinking a little tea on the side.”

Instead, she now offers 60 flavors in her shop and seasonal tea parties in her Liberty home (which doubles as Anna Marie’s Bed and Breakfast). Hedrick hopes to eventually offer 200 flavors of tea — all the more choices to lure coffee drinkers away from the dark side. — Sarah Smarsh