Sara Proudlock pours steaming Bai Hao tea into a mug in her basement workshop, from which she runs her tea blending and selling business, The Tea Girl. This particular cuppa gets its sweet scent and flavour courtesy of small insects called leafhoppers, which pierce the leaves while the plant is growing to consume the sap. The plant secretes defensive compounds in response, which attract the bugs’ predators and create the characteristic flavour of the beverage. The complex lifecycle makes for a satisfying brew. “Right now, this is my favourite tea,” says Proudlock. “Well, I have so many favourite teas.” She retails her teas and blends online, and for local coffee shops.
Over at Acquired Taste Teas, a fixture on 124th Street, owner Tasha Weenk maintains tidy shelves of large decorative tea canisters. After the warm, spicy smell, variety is the first thing you notice at Acquired Taste. Some customers like to try new teas from Weenk’s large offering, she says. And the basics, like Earl Grey or relaxing herbal blends are consistent best sellers. Unlike coffee’s “third wave,” where customers want to explore beans’ terroir and taste profile, Edmonton’s tea drinkers are still a little more fixed in their tea-drinking habits.
According to Statistics Canada, Canadians drink much less tea than coffee, mostly drinking bagged, rather than looseleaf tea. In 2023, Canada imported more than 40 tonnes of tea, about one-tenth the volume of coffee imported in the same year. On average, that amounts to enough tea in Canada for every person to drink about one cup a day.
Tea’s lower consumption rates in Canada can make it hard to run a looseleaf tea shop. “We’ve been waiting for the tea bubble forever,” jokes Proudlock. “I think everyone thought that tea would explode, like coffee did here.” Weenk agrees. Tea sees a lot of trends: last year, gym-goers loved yerba mate. “A few years ago, it was oolong for weight loss,” she adds. Tea trends spike consumer interest but may not produce long-lasting customers and steady sales. But right now, there’s a new tea trend that both businesses are monitoring carefully to see if it’s a bubble or here for good.
In 2025, siblings William and Winnie Chen and their friend Wilson Wong founded Boa and Hare in Chinatown’s Pacific Mall after years in the restaurant and Vietnamese coffee import business. Boa and Hare’s part owner and barista Kelly Yu began experimenting with matcha, a vibrant green powder made of shade-grown tea, in the kitchen the same year the product took off on social media. The restaurant saw an unexpected boom of customers coming for their iced strawberry matcha latte.
Matcha is now so popular that global demand is rising faster than tea producers can keep up. Rising matcha prices, shaped by limited supply and shifting tariffs, add a further challenge to running a small tea-selling business, like Proudlock’s.
In response to supply chain volatility, Edmonton’s small tea business owners say they’re focused on building community domestically. Boa and Hare’s owners focus on Chinatown community revitalization. To avoid tariff sticker shock and support the domestic industry, Weenk and Proudlock mostly buy from Canadian wholesalers and distributors. One leading Canadian distributor is Montreal’s Camellia Sinensis. Named after the tea plant, Camellia Sinensis’ owners develop relationships with producers in tea-cultivating countries like China, India and Japan and manage rare imports, a crucial service for other small tea businesses.
Most of all, Edmonton’s tea sellers are inspired to share their love of tea with the city. Kelly Yu offers educational matcha workshops at Boa and Hare. Proudlock says that tea, a commodity entwined with colonial history, humbles people and teaches them something about the world. But she also says that tea can simply bring people joy. While Proudlock’s favourite teas include single origin rare teas like Bai Hao, she loves flavoured teas as well. “I used to be a bit of a snob,” she explains. “But if you like flavoured tea, there’s a joy to it. It’s fun and accessible.”
Weenk agrees. She says her customers tell her about the memories and emotions they associate with teas, adding: “If a tea is bringing you joy or comfort, the tea has done its job.”
Across cultures, “tea” means different things, but green, oolong, white, black and dark tea like fermented pu’er all come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. Processing styles (in addition to regional growing conditions) create distinct tastes. All Camellia sinensis teas are naturally caffeinated. But many Canadians also enjoy tisanses, caffeine-free herbal infusions made from dried flowers, spices, herbs and fruits.
European traditions favour blended teas that mix leaves from different regions, sometimes including additional flavours. (For example, Earl Grey gets its distinctive flavour from the addition of bergamot extract.) Many Asian tea cultures value single-origin leaves, reflecting regional terroir and harvest conditions.
Try something new at your local looseleaf shop or follow Hong Kong traditions by requesting pu’er or shoumei (a white tea made from mature leaves) at dim sum. Taste a few styles, notice differences and see what you like. Or continue enjoying a comforting, reliable tea. A good tea is the one you enjoy drinking!
This article appears in the April 2026 issue of Edify
