Why We Carry Tea

Fork in the Road Coffee is a coffee roastery first. But the same customers who care about where their coffee comes from care about what's in their tea. Grocery store tea bags are typically filled with tea dust and fannings, the lowest grade of leaf left over after the good stuff gets sorted out. They brew fast and stale fast, and the flavor ceiling is low.

We carry tea for the same reason we roast coffee: because sourcing matters, quality is verifiable, and most people have never tasted what the category is actually capable of. If your tea experience is limited to the paper-tagged bags in the hotel room, this collection will change your mind.

Our Tea Collection — What to Expect

Our tea lineup is built around everyday drinkability and functional purpose, not novelty. Here's how to navigate it:

• Black tea: Bold, malty, and energizing. Our black teas are sourced from single-region estates, Assam for body and malt, Darjeeling for floral brightness, and Ceylon for a clean citrus finish. Brew strong with boiling water for 3–5 minutes. Excellent with milk.
• Green tea: Light, grassy, and antioxidant-rich. Japanese greens like sencha and gyokuro reward lower water temperatures around 170°F and shorter steep times of 1–2 minutes. Chinese greens like Dragon Well are more forgiving and slightly sweeter.
• Oolong: The middle ground between black and green. Partially oxidized, complex, and endlessly interesting. Floral, fruity, or toasty, depending on the oxidation level. Best brewed multiple times with short steeps.
• White tea: The most delicate category. Minimal processing, subtle flavor, and naturally low caffeine. Silver Needle and White Peony are the benchmarks, sweet, light, and almost silky in the cup.
• Herbal and caffeine-free: Chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus, rooibos, and more. No caffeine, full flavor. Perfect for evenings or anyone avoiding stimulants entirely.
• Functional and wellness blends: Teas blended with adaptogens, herbs, and botanicals for specific wellness purposes. See our functional coffees and teas collection for the full lineup.

Caffeine in Tea — What You Actually Need to Know

Caffeine content in tea is widely misunderstood. Here's the honest breakdown by type, from highest to lowest:

• Black tea: 40–70mg per cup, depending on steep time and leaf grade
• Oolong: 30–50mg per cup
• Green tea: 20–45mg per cup
• White tea: 15–30mg per cup
• Herbal: 0mg — naturally caffeine-free

Steep time matters more than most people realize. A 5-minute steep pulls significantly more caffeine than a 2-minute steep from the same leaves. If you're caffeine-sensitive but love black tea, try a shorter steep and discard the first 30-second rinse, it removes a significant portion of the caffeine without sacrificing much flavor.

How to Brew Better Tea

The single biggest upgrade most tea drinkers can make is water temperature control. Boiling water at 212°F is correct for black tea and herbal infusions. It's wrong for green, white, and oolong, where it scorches the leaf and produces bitterness. A simple variable-temperature kettle fixes this entirely.

Beyond temperature, the basics are:

• Use filtered water. Chlorine and minerals in tap water flatten tea flavor noticeably.
• Measure your leaf. One teaspoon per 8oz for most teas. More leaf, shorter steep, not longer steep for stronger flavor.
• Don't overbrew. Bitterness in tea almost always comes from steeping too long, not from the tea itself. Set a timer.
• Re-steep quality leaf. Good loose leaf tea yields 2–4 steeps. Each infusion reveals something different.

Tea and Coffee — A Natural Pairing

Many of our customers keep both in rotation, coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon. Our coffee subscription pairs well with a standing tea order if you want to keep both stocked without thinking about it. Subscribers save on every order and get early access to new arrivals in both categories.

If you're a committed coffee drinker curious about expanding your morning ritual, our functional coffees and teas collection is the natural bridge, mushroom coffees, adaptogen blends, and wellness-forward drinks that fit the same ritual without requiring you to give anything up.

Explore More of Our Shop

• Coffee Blends — multi-origin specialty coffees crafted for balance and everyday drinking
• Single Origin Coffee — traceable, farm-specific coffees for pour-over enthusiasts
• Flavored Coffee — naturally flavored specialty-grade roasts, including seasonal favorites
• Decaf Coffee — Swiss Water Process decaf that actually tastes like coffee
• Functional Coffees and Teas — adaptogens, mushroom blends, and wellness botanicals
• Sample Packs — not sure where to start? Try a curated variety pack across coffee and tea

Veteran-Owned. Small Batch. No Shortcuts.

Fork in the Road Coffee was founded by a veteran with one mission: at every fork in the road, always choose great coffee — and great tea. Every order supports a U.S. veteran-owned small business doing what we love, one small batch at a time.