Tea vendors at San Pedro Square Farmers' Market!

Teagre Teas booth at the Farmer's Market, San Jose CA.
Farmers’ markets have been increasing in popularity over the years, and in no place more than the Santa Clara Valley. These wonderful weekly assemblies are one of the last remnants of our area’s agricultural past, reminding us that some of the world’s most fertile farmland is currently underneath the sprawling metropolis of San Jose.

Aside from a great place to get wonderfully fresh and ripe fruits and vegetables, our farmers’ markets are a source of local and handmade goods from bread and flowers, to jewelry and clothing. A new product to join my local farmers’ market at San Pedro Square, downtown San Jose, is gourmet blended tea!

I first noticed the Tea Fancy booth in 2008, at the edge of the food section. The owner, Liuba Bejerano, was giving out samples of her custom-blended teas, and I bought a tin of her Black Currant flavored black tea, which I have enjoyed very much. She sold her own tea blends as well as teas from other companies, like Republic of Tea. When I first met Liuba, she told me that she worked as a real estate agent most of the time, but that tea was one of her passions. The website on her card, www.teafancystore.com, is currently not in operation, and since I haven’t seen her at the market yet this year, I don’t know if she’s still in business. I encourage all tea lovers in San Jose to send Liuba an e-mail and ask her what’s up!

A more established San Jose tea business, Chic Chateau sells local designer jewelry and clothing at the farmers’ market, in addition to the tea and merchandise at her shop and tea room at 3rd and San Fernando. The owner, Luvi, puts a lot of effort into choosing the loose teas that she serves in the tea room and sells in the boutique, and she has both flavored and unflavored teas, black, oolong, green and white teas, as well as rooibos and other herbal tisanes. A fun business with a personable owner, Chic Chateau has become my go-to tea room in San Jose, when I want to celebrate a special occasion, and my tea guild has met there multiple times. I have never seen tea being sold from the Chic Chateau farmer’s market booth, but that may be in the works for the future. We’ll have to wait and see!

A new vendor for 2009, Teagre Tea has an interesting booth with their loose teas displayed in clear glass vials, in special rotating holders. They always have several blends already brewed and ready for sampling, which is fun. Teagre Tea specializes in gourmet organic loose teas, both flavored and unflavored. They have 9 black tea blends, 5 oolongs, 13 greens, 3 whites, 9 rooibos blends, 5 tisanes, a flavored pu-erh, and what they call Discovery Packs and Master Bags. They also have two children’s flavored teas, and two spice blends. Last Friday I stopped by and tried their Tropical Fire black tea, which I remember as a tasty citrusy, coconutty brew. It was nice as a hot tea but I bet it would be even better iced! They are in the process of putting up a website, so the web address is www.teagre.com, but there is no information on it yet. The owner’s daughter, Victoria, recommended that everyone e-mail or call them for more information until the website is up and running.

It is so exciting for me to see tea vendors at the farmers’ market! I try to get my fresh fruit and vegetables at the San Pedro Square farmers’ market, while it’s open (May through December), and my Fridays will be extra fun since I can sample and look at so many wonderful teas at the same venue. I encourage everyone in San Jose to come down to San Pedro Square on Fridays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and check out the tea!

Contact information:
Chic Chateau: website www.chicchateau.com
E-mail info@chicchateau.com
Phone (408)280-7323

Liuba’s Tea Fancy: www.teafancystore.com
e-mail info@teafancystore.com or referliuba@sbcglobal.net
Phone (415) 812-8519

Teagre Tea: website www.teagre.com (not yet up).
E-mail tamaramalave@yahoo.com or vboyert@gmail.com
Phone (408) 772-4500 or (408) 564-7362