Tea-related discovery #1 upon going to the Toronto Tea Festival last weekend: January is hot tea month! So I was happy to try many new teas and expand my tea knowledge at this festival, where exhibitors from the world of tea came together to celebrate the many joys of this herbaceous treat. Here are some of my favourite super-niche tea discoveries.

World Tea Podcast’s Tea Tasting Logbook

Bullet-journalling meets tea tasting in this handmade logbook, which makes it easy for tea aficionados to keep track of the teas they try and how they liked them. Blank charts for different tasting notes make it easy to see what a tea was like at a quick glance.

Basilur Tea Books

What a sweet way to gift tea. After the tea is used, this illustrated metal “tea book” tin can sit on a shelf and hold other sEcReTs.

Chaiwala Chai At-Home Chai Latte Starter Kit

Chaiwala Chai may make the tastiest latte I’ve had in years. Eleven years of experimentation went into this family-created recipe, which uses fresh ground spices and organic Canadian honey and is earthy and sweet and subtly spicy. The tea makes a mean at-home chai latte, and it’s easy to do. Just bring the tea itself and milk to drinking temperature in a pot, then strain. Get the Chaiwala Starter Kit to ensure maximum efficiency and authenticity.

Tealeaves’ Teas To Help Achieve Your Goals

If you made a new year’s resolution to manage stress better, workout more, or like me, quit goal-planning altogether, there is a Tea Leaves Tea Co. tea to help with that! Herbal blends with specific, designated functions work to soothe your nerves, stimulate your focus or clear your mind. Start your day with an elixir that will help support the action you take (or don’t take).

Algonquin Tea Co. For Lucid Dreaming

The “active ingredient” in this tea is sweet gale, a shrub that is handpicked by canoe in the Algonquin area. These plants are said to “do in the ecology what they do for us internally. Sweet gale helps the water flow clear (diuretic) and purifies it (detoxification) while building the strength of the shoreline.” Their roots, like our consciousness, are all interlaced underground and underwater.

When we dream, we are “one in the collective dream realm.” When you lie down with another and sleep, you can meet in your dreams if you drink this tea first. (If you dare!)