If you are familiar with Piper & Leaf at all, you know that we love sourcing locally grown ingredients to base our blends on.  

Our process for developing a new blend begins with exploring the local produce available to us in North Alabama. Oftentimes, the ingredients that are easy to find are used in a variety of familiar blends: peaches, apples, strawberries, which are delicious in so many combinations. Sometimes though, we come across a local ingredient that grows excellently in our area but is less commonly found in tea blends or herbal infusions.  

Rosemary is one of those ingredients.  

Rosemary grows great in North Alabama and so we have an abundance of it! I [Caleb] love rosemary for lots of things, but the idea of drinking it kind of took me back to those miserable days when my mom would make me breathe in a steaming pot of saltwater, apple cider vinegar, and rosemary for congestion. (Not exactly what I would like people to think of as they are sipping their tea!) (Anyone else's Mom recommend this?)  

When we blend a tea, we aren’t normally looking to use a specific ingredient to address specific health concerns. We mostly select an ingredient based on taste compatibility with the other pre-selected ingredients for the blend. But that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate all the natural health benefits an ingredient provides! Numerous studies have been conducted to affirm the positive health benefits of Rosemary. It has long been used as a natural decongestant and antihistamine remedy. In more recent news, Rosemary has been attributed to helping with depression, anxiety, and even sleep! To learn more about rosemary it’s therapeutic effects, check out this article by Mahboobeh Ghasemzadeh Rahbardar and Hossein Hosseinzadeh.

Please hear us when we say, this tea is NOT an instant cure for all of our aches and ailments (both physical and mental). We just get excited about using natural ingredients and are amazed at the health benefits each one brings to a brew! 

Putting It All Together

Being wary of using rosemary as a star ingredient in a blend, I, reluctantly, dried some of our rosemary and steeped it for a while in some hot water. While sipping it, I started to imagine it pairing well with a punch of lemon, and maybe the grassiness of a sencha green tea.  

While this blend isn’t intended to be a replacement for your Mom’s congestion solution, each ingredient still carries the lovely benefits your body will thank you for.  

MaryClaire & I started playing with different combinations and testing them out. I remember we were getting close, but it just wasn’t quite right. We got excited after adding Cardamom and a touch of vanilla – it made it pop and was so delicious! It was finally ready to share with the world...  

We launched Springdrop Spritzer in March of 2020, which unfortunately turned out to be a complicated time to announce or release anything exciting. So, while it was officially available, very few people found out about it that first year. In 2021 and 2022, it started to gain popularity.   

This year, we are thrilled to announce that it will be available year-round, starting now! We hope this becomes a staple in your home, as it has in ours. 

More Ways To Enjoy

Looking for more ways to enjoy Springdrop Spritzer? Try out this recipe of Sparkling Springdrop Spritz! Also check out our brewing guide for brew tips no matter what method you choose to use as well as our recipe guide for concentrate ratios.

Sparkling Springdrop Spritz 

This fizzy delight is a sparkling citrus & herb treat. The Sparkling Springdrop Spritz is the perfect, non-alcoholic alternative to champagne for sipping during a toast. Or make a whole punch bowl with a little sugar added and some round slices of lemon and lime floating around. 

For this recipe, you will need to brew up Concentrated Tea of Springdrop Spritzer, one of our spring seasonal blends! For instructions on brewing Concentrated Tea, check out our Brewing 101 page.

• Add 1 oz of Springdrop Spritzer concentrate to your glass 
• Add a splash of lime juice (1 tsp is about right, if you prefer to measure) 
• Pour 4 oz (1/2 cup) of unflavored sparkling water into your glasss 
• Stir gently until it's all mixed! Don't stir too much or you'll lose some of the carbonation 
• Add a few ice cubes to keep it chilled and garnish with a twist or a slice of lime 

Enjoy the wonderful combination of this rosemary, green tea, and lime sparkling beverage! 

Additional Notes: For a sweeter drink, add about 1/2 ounce of simple syrup before you add the sparkling water and ice! Make sure the simple sugar is mixed in before you start drinking, since it tends to sink to the bottom of your glass. If you want to add a little twist to your drink, you can always try using a flavored sparkling water! We recommend cucumber or lemon, but there are so many options that would be delicious, so have fun! 

Have you experimented with Springdrop before? We’d love to hear about it! Shoot us an email to info@piperandleaf.com or tag us in a picture with @piperandleaf 

Do you have extra herbs? 

When we say we love using local ingredients we really mean it! Email us at info@piperandleaf.com for a list of accepted herbs and our growing requirements.