Karner Blue Lavender
Gorgeously colorful Butterfly Pea Flower and Lavender Buds brew a vibrant blue cup that tastes like summer amidst lavender fields. We recommend this blend with a touch of honey or iced and mixed with lemonade for a fun, color-changing lavender lemonade!
Named for our native endangered butterfly, the Karner Blue, we are donating a portion of profits from all sales of this tea to the Wilton Wildlife Preserve, one of the remaining habitats for this tiny, endangered butterfly! Measuring barely 1" wide, the Karner Blue relies on pine bush habitats and wild blue lupine for survival. Once seen across the northern US from Maine to Michigan and even into Canada, there are now only a few scattered habitats for this brightly colored butterfly, including some in our own back yard!
Butterfly pea flower is popular for its color-changing properties, and we couldn't resist the parallels between the Karner Blue and butterfly pea flower in creating this blend. Brewing an intensely vivid blue, butterfly pea flower changes to a gorgeously vibrant purple when you add citrus, and so the idea of Lavender Lemonade was born. On its own, butterfly pea flower does not have much flavor, so expect this tea to taste mainly of lavender or lavender and lemon if you add some citrus to enjoy the color-changing effects! We are featuring this blend as part of a Lavender Lemonade drink special at our Tea Bar all summer, and you can purchase the Lavender Lemonade kit at a discounted price to make your own delicious Lavender Lemonade at home!
We'll also take this chance to remind you to plant for pollinators like the Karner Blue and our beloved honeybees! If you're curious about how to plant for pollinators, we recommend these guides by Cornell Cooperative Extension for our Upstate NY communi·tea and Pollinator.org resources for our wider communi·tea.
About Karner Blue Lavender
Caffeine-Free Herbal Tisane
More About Herbal Tisanes
What is Herbal Tea?
Explore the history and origin of herbals with us as we talk about the different types of herbal tea and why we love these caffeine-free blends!
How to Brew Herbal Tea
Explore our in-depth guide to brewing Herbal Tisanes at home.
About Saratoga Tea & Honey Co.
Our passion for teas...
We are delighted to be able to share one of the largest and most varied collections of single origin traditional teas on the East Coast with our communi·tea. Personally curated by owner Hayley, these teas come to us from small farms and collectives and represent the best of their terroirs and production styles. While wondering our shelves in-person or online, you will discover familiar favorites like English Breakfast and Long Jing (Dragonwell) alongside rare teas like Shan Lin Xi and herbal tisanes blended for mindfulness, inflammation, and much more.
& bees...
Raw honey is one of nature's most marvelous gifts. Not only is honey a marvel of energy-giving carbohydrates fortified with antioxidants, minerals and beneficial enzymes - making it the healthiest natural sugar - honey comes in a rainbow of flavors and varieties with something for everyone to appreciate and enjoy. From dark, robust honeys like Buckwheat and Chestnut to light or amber honeys like Tupelo or Orange Blossom, the subtle and sometimes not so subtle flavor differences between varietal honeys lend themselves to extraordinary flavor combinations and experimentation in the kitchen, on the charcuterie board, or in your favorite cup of tea.
all started with our Queen Bee!
A trained chef, Hayley's vision for Saratoga Tea & Honey Co. has been her entire lifetime in the making. Though she was still drinking espresso at the time, the Tea & Honey seeds were planted in the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants with training and appreciation for food and beverage as not just sustenance, but experience and hospitality. Her time spent as a chef-instructor at Jacques Pépin's French Culinary Institute introduced her first to matcha (and its ability to enhance sustained and steady focus), then to the subtleties of single-origin traditional teas like high mountain Taiwanese oolong. As a celebrated and awarded taster and master of culinary arts, in 2015 Hayley opened the doors to Saratoga Tea & Honey Co. Since then, she has cultivated a communi·tea for discovering rare and exciting teas, extraordinary raw honeys & unique gifts produced by small farmers and artisans from around the world.