Food
Soft cheese on warm bread. Fresh figs in late summer. Dark chocolate (70% and up). Anything roasted slowly. The tea is gentle; let your food be the louder voice.
N° 01Our signature tea
Olive Elixir Élixir d'Olive
Olive leaves, sun, time.
Hand-harvested organic olive leaves, cured slowly under sun and air. Never machine-dried. Brewed for a tea that's quietly tannic, faintly sweet, and naturally without caffeine. Made for the long hour after dinner, or the slow morning before anyone else is awake.
EarthyFloralMediterranean breeze
0 sachets0gCAD
1
- Caffeine-free
- Certified organic
- Vegan
Ships from Toronto via Chit Chats · 2 business days · Free shipping on orders over $40 CAD
A tea that asks nothing of you, except that you sit down.
Origin
From a careful producer, abroad.
The leaves come to us from a single producer who hand-harvests organic olive leaves and cures them slowly under sun and air, never machine-dried. We work with one supplier and vet every batch before it ships.
Olive leaf tea is older than most of recorded medicine. The trees are pruned each spring, and what would otherwise be discarded, the tender new leaves, is collected by hand, one branch at a time. Nothing about the process is fast, and nothing about it is industrial.
We import in small lots and only what we can move with care. We are still learning the full story of where this leaf has lived; what we are willing to tell you is what we have verified ourselves.
The leaf
Why olive leaf.
Olive trees have been part of Mediterranean life for over six thousand years. The leaves, long overlooked in favor of the fruit and the oil, were brewed into a quiet daily tea long before tea leaves arrived from the East.
The flavor is unlike anything in the camellia family. Faintly bitter at first, then rounding into something gentler, almost faintly sweet. There is no astringency, no caffeine, and no need to time the steep with a stopwatch.
The leaves contain oleuropein, the compound that gives olive oil its peppery edge. We don’t make claims about what it does for you. We only know it makes a remarkable cup of tea.
If you’ve never had it before: drink it once with an open mind, and once more two days later. The second cup is the one that decides.
Tasting notes
Aroma
Sun-warmed leaves, dried hay, distant sea.
Palate
Earthy entry, gentle tannin, a long softly sweet finish.
Mood
Slow afternoon. Quiet evening. The hour before sleep.
The ritualLe rituel
How to brew the elixir.
- I.
The water.
Bring fresh, soft water just under boil. About 95°C. Hard water dulls the leaf; if your tap is heavy, use filtered.
- II.
The pour.
One sachet, one cup. Pour over and let it settle on its own. Do not plunge or stir.
- III.
The wait.
Six minutes. Eight if you like it stronger. The leaves want time. They will not give themselves up in three.
- IV.
The cup.
Lift the sachet without squeezing. Drink slowly, near a window if one is open. The cup will tell you when.
Pairings
Drink it with.
Hours
The half-hour after a long meal. The slow morning before a difficult day. The quiet between dinner and sleep. We do not recommend it before exercise, or with anything cold.
Questions
Quietly asked.
What’s next
The next harvest is sleeping.
One tea, for now. A second is in the grove, drying. We send a quiet note when it’s ready.