Teas from the Native American Tea Company

Recently I was contacted by the Native American Tea Company with an offer to sample some of its teas. I was unfamiliar with this company, and I learned that its founding family "would listen to the old ones tell stories of herbs, flowers and roots — where they came from and how they came to be put on the earth." The company was started in 1987 and began formulating herbs into tea one tea bag at a time. My sample package arrived this week and contained four different varieties of tea. The first two I tried were the Warrior's Brew and the Teepee Dreams.

The Warrior's Brew contains Orange Pekoe tea, orange peel, rose hips, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, rosemary and star anise. This spice tea reminded me of Constant Comment but was lighter and with a softer, almost creamy quality to it. There's a real art to crafting a spice blend of tea that's exactly right — not too spicy, not too weak — and I think this tea gets it just right.

The other tea I tried is the Teepee Dreams, a caffeine-free herbal tea which contains peppermint, chamomile, catnip, strawberry leaf, linden, passion flower, scullcap, licorice root, Valerian root and natural flavor. I do enjoy chamomile tea, but sometimes the chamomile flavor is overpowering. This one is blended well with the peppermint, and I was pleased that I could taste both peppermint and chamomile in equal measure.

I also think it's noteworthy that this company donates a portion of its profits toward scholarships at Sitting Bull College. If you'd like to learn more about the Native American Tea Company, just click here.