Rev. Bu Nan Brown, co-founder of Boulder Tea Hut, likes a mug of Earl Grey now and again. “That's what we call tea with a small ‘t’ rather than Tea with a big ‘T,’” he says.
Boulder Tea Hut, co-founded by Brown and Stephan van der Mersch, offers Zen Buddhist tea ceremonies and education at spaces near Chautauqua Park and up Sunshine Canyon.
The capital “T” teas Brown steeps for attendees are far removed from the powdered leaves found in supermarket tea bags and even the exotic teas brewed properly in pots at Boulder’s cafes.
“The teas we use come from wild trees, not plantation bushes treated with fertilizers and pesticides and harvested and processed in ways that are very damaging to the leaves,” van der Mersch says. “These tea trees are up to 200 feet tall with leaves bigger than your hand.”
Some of the teas Boulder Tea Hut uses come from trees in Taiwan that are more than 1,000 years old. Some teas were harvested in the 1940s and every decade onwards. Like Bordeaux wines, these vintage teas exhibit terroir. They taste the way they do because of where the tree grows.
“We have more than 200 teas stored here. It is certainly among the largest collections of aged and antique oolong teas in the United States,” van der Mersch says. “The best teas in the world are already all spoken for. The only way we get access is through our teacher.”
The project was inspired by the centuries-old contemplative Zen Buddhist tradition taught by the Taiwan-based monk, Wu De.
Boulder Tea Hut began quietly in 2016 when Brown began crafting a traditional, 120-square-foot tea house in Sunshine Canyon located near a natural spring. The opening of Sunshine Springs Teahouse was delayed by the pandemic.
The mountain tea house is small, remote and only used for private ceremonies. “Our teacher asked us to open a space in Boulder more accessible to the public,” van der Mersch says. “We remodeled the carriage house next to my home and opened in 2023.”
The nonprofit Boulder Tea Hut is not like most tea houses.
“You can’t come in off the street and we have tea ready for you,” Bu Nan Brown says. “You sign up for anywhere from an hour to a three-hour tea ceremony. We are going to sit down and have this experience together.”
“There's a way in which we're more of a church than we are a store or cafe,” van der Mersch adds.
Every detail matters
Tea ceremonies at Boulder Tea Hut focus on critical details in making and serving the beverage. Beyond the leaves themselves, it starts with water.
“Tea is 99% water,” Brown says. “If you want to improve the quality of your tea, improve the quality of your water. The best water you can get for tea is fresh mountain spring water.”
Classes at the Boulder Hut often involve tasting tap water, spring water, distilled and reverse osmosis water that has been stored in ceramic, glass and plastic containers, and then the teas made with them.
“If you try them side by side, the teas are completely different,” van der Mersch says. “I was completely blown away.”
When heating the water, traditional hardwood charcoal is preferred, but is unsafe indoors. Other radiant heat sources are acceptable; microwaving and using induction stoves are not.
“If we have to use a microwave to make tea,” Brown says, “we just don’t have tea.”
The vessel you boil in matters, too. Stainless steel is OK, as is glass, but aluminum pans should never be used. In tea ceremonies, the tea is always sipped from handmade ceramic bowls.
“I’ve been practicing for eight years, and I still find brewing oolong teas to be incredibly challenging,” van der Mersh says.
Boulder has been "Tea Town” since some of the first white settlers arrived. Herbal teas were prescribed at Boulder’s Sanitarium starting in 1896.
Today in Boulder, you can go out for a cup at Ku Cha House of Tea or Old Barrel Tea Company, sip Korean tea at A Cup of Tea, sample herb tea on the Celestial Seasonings tea factory tour and afternoon Earl Grey at the new Alice & Rose tea house on the Hill. You can have afternoon tea at Boulder’s Dushanbe, a traditional Tajik tea house. More than four varieties of popular spiced chai are made here, and a Chinese tea cafe, Day Day Up, recently opened in Lafayette.
Those locations don’t include many other cafes offering boba tea, mushroom infusions, green tea lattes and kava.
Despite this crowded market and no marketing efforts, more than 800 people have already participated in tea ceremonies at Boulder Tea Hut.
“Our teacher has traveled around the world and taught in all sorts of different places,” Brown says. “After we brought him here a number of times, he said that Boulder has the best tea spirit that he's ever seen.”
Road Food: Omakase Bliss in Littleton
Working in Littleton one recent afternoon, hunger had me Googling “sushi near me.” Low expectations led instead to serious Japanese fare at Makizushico. Tucked away inconspicuously in a strip mall at 5950 S. Platte Canyon Road, this pleasant place specializes in omakase, a chef-chosen multi-course tasting menu of the best seafood in the place. The coolest taste is sashimi served under a glass bell filled with cherrywood smoke. Locals love this place, so reservations are highly recommended.
Local Food News: Just BE Kitchen Opens
Just BE Kitchen is open at 2500 30th St. #101 in Boulder. The Colorado-born eatery dishes fare that is free of gluten, refined sugars, soy, corn, peanuts and seed oils, and is 99% free of grains, dairy and legumes.
John's Table Kitchen and Bar — formerly Redgarden Restaurant — is open at 1700 Dogwood St. in Louisville. Menu includes pan-seared salmon with polenta and broccolini.
Lafayette’s Tandoori Kitchen ranks No. 41 on Yelp's new list of the Top 100 U.S. Restaurants.
Coming soon: Busaba Thai Restaurant, 2343 Clover Basin Drive in Longmont.
Tickets for six summer dinners at Lafayette's Three Leaf Farm are on sale: threeleaffarm.com/farm-dinners
Words to Chew On: Peeling away joy
“You can see everything in the universe in one tangerine. When you peel it and smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a tangerine and be very happy.” — Thích Nhất Hạnh
John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles and Kitchen Table Talk on KGNU. Comments: [email protected]