Huntsville Made is a regular series on iHeartHsv.com highlighting locally-made products we think visitors to the Rocket City should know about. You're welcome!
By Heather Smith
The South has long been known for sweet tea. It’s the secret to the sweet southern hospitality and charm that everyone who comes for a visit just can’t seem to get enough of.
There are few places better in Huntsville, Alabama, to get your sweet tea fix than Piper & Leaf Artisan Tea Co.
Piper & Leaf blends delicious teas made with flavors grown organically by local farmers — flavors like peaches and cream, strawberry sassafras and lavender.
Local flavor offers a freshness that is unmatched, giving tea lovers the richest tastes to ever cross your lips.
Something truly special is their Front Porch Special, a black tea with Earl Grey, jasmine and spearmint. It’s the kind of tea that makes you want to slow down, relax on an old front porch swing and just sip a while.
In fact, the flavor was invented pretty much just like the name says. Piper & Leaf brew master and co-founder Caleb Christopher recalls a time when he and his family were relaxing in front porch rocking chairs on a nice summer day, drinking Earl Gray tea, enjoying a light summer breeze and taking in the scents of jasmine flowers and fresh mint growing nearby. The scents all blended into an aromatic concoction. They made it into a tea that tastes as good as it smells.
“The secret is in the blending,” said Caleb, a Huntsville native.
Even sweeter is that when your visit to Piper & Leaf draws to a close, you can take a little bit of the South back home with you. The souvenir Piper & Leaf Mason jar is a collectible, and the family offers a selection of tea blends, ready for you to take home and brew whenever you like, iced or hot. The signature Piper & Leaf jars are also refillable, and fans keep bringing them back for more — more than 100,000 jars have been branded and sold since the company first opened less than two years ago.
Visitors and locals looking for a tea fix don’t usually have to go too far, as Piper & Leaf can be found at many of the local farmers markets in Huntsville, Madison, Bailey Cove and Merdianville, on the sidewalks of Bridge Street Town Centre and at most of the downtown Huntsville street food gatherings. If you don’t run across them at any of those places, go straight to the source at their main location at Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment. You can also savor the Piper & Leaf flavor at Lowe Mill Concerts on the Dock every Friday night throughout the spring and fall concert series.
