Tea-infused Cocktails at Urban Tea Merchant

This evening, I attended Y.E.S! Vancouver‘s Garden Tea Party at the Urban Tea Merchant, which is located on Alberni St, between Bute and Burrard. The event cost $15, which included 1 free tea-infused cocktail and 4 appetiser samples. There was also a special gift with purchase offer (goodie bag with instructions on making tea-infused cocktails and a bag of Lucky Tea) and 15% off the entire store. Proceeds went to Dress For Success, a Canadian charity that benefits low and no income women who are reentering the workforce.

When we entered, we were offered a Moroccan Mint Mojito ($9), which is a concoction of rum, lime and Moroccan Mint Tea (not to be confused with Royal Moroccan Mint Tea, as I had been) by TWG. It tasted like plum and mint, which was very refreshing. We were then given 4 appetisers to sample (sadly, I cannot recall the names or all the ingredients from each appetiser). 😦

Moroccan Mint Mojito

As we were enjoying our mojitos and appetisers, we learned how to make tea-infused cocktails from UTM’s tea sommelier and a mixologist (Ben Lambie from Ensemble, I believe). Basically, what you’ll need to know is that you must seep your tea in alcohol (vodka or rum, for example) for 1-2 days. 😉

When the demos were over, I sniffed about 10 or more giant tins of tea before settling for 50g of French Earl Grey (highly recommend this!) and Valentine Breakfast (another one of my favourites!). As soon as I smelt the Bain de Roses tea, I decided to order another cocktail: Bain de Roses Martini ($11), which contains gin, coconut, lychee, lime and TWG’s Bain de Roses Tea. I’m really glad I ordered it because the lychee and roses together smelt like heaven!