Alysia Lor-Knill may be young, but she knows a thing or two about tea.
Two years ago, she opened Teassential, a tea shop in downtown Vernon, along with her husband Tyrone.
“People from all over the world drink tea,” Lor-Knill said. “No matter where you’re from, what age group. There’s just so many options with tea and it’s just so easy to find.”
Born in Iran and raised in China, Lor-Knill spent a lot of time with tea as part of her daily routine.
“Culturally, I’ve just been surrounded by tea all my life,” Lor-Knill said. “It’s just where I grew up and where I’m from. It’s always been a huge part of our life.”
The tea-whisperer says there are a lot of benefits to drinking a cup of tea regularly.
“A lot of people love green tea just because it’s really high in antioxidants,” Lor-Knill said. “Rooibos teas as well. They’re caffeine-free and also high in antioxidants.”
Lor-Knill adds there are herbs that people consume like tea that come with an array of health benefits.
“Tumeric is a pretty well-known one. It’s anti-inflammatory. For hormone-balance we have fenugreek seeds which really help with that,” Lor-Knill said. “We have certain teas that can help new mothers with morning sickness, like red raspberry leaves.”
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If insomnia is an issue, there’s even a tea for that.
“One of our teas is actually called Good Evening, which specifically has Valerian Root in it, which helps with sleeping,” said Lor-Knill.
Teassential offers several workshops which help customers learn all about the most consumed beverage, other than water, in the world.
These include tea blending, origami with tea and tea leaf readings.
“Tara Bradley comes in from Silver Creek and she does our tea leaf readings,” Lor-Knill said. “She’s really intuitive and helps you see what you want to know.”
Lor-Knill was a Vernon Chamber Business Excellence Award finalist for Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017 and also a nominee for New Business of the Year 2017.
Teassential carries about 140 varieties of black and green teas, herbals, rooibos, oolong and pu-erh teas.
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