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Heidi Samuel’s love of tea started at an early age. Her great-grandmother collected porcelain tea sets and often let Samuel and her sister use them. “Our childhood tea parties consisted of Gram’s homemade bread and butter, molasses cookies, or sometimes homemade doughnuts, and the tea was mostly milk with a spoonful or two of Gram’s tea. It was not fancy, but a special farmhouse tea. It taught us good manners,” says Samuel, sipping a steaming brew from one of her own collected teacups.
After attending the culinary arts program at what is now known as Southern Maine Community College and working as a caterer, the Caribou native moved to Australia with her military husband. She spent three years down under enjoying the hospitality of the country’s European-style teahouses.
“At all the teahouses, and even in the homes, they always have a nice china cup, silverware, and good food,” says Samuel.
After returning stateside, Samuel missed the tea culture and decided to work toward opening a teahouse in Presque Isle. “I had a vision of a tearoom with baked goods and homemade food,” she says. Through self-study and a tea business course with Metropolitan Tea Company in Canada, Samuel opened Heidi’s Tea Shop three years ago and reigned supreme as the area tea expert. Today Heidi’s Tea Shop has closed but the local tea-savvy can still find her tea products at Merchants on the Corner in Presque Isle.
Today Samuel enjoys her tea at home. A clean aroma of spice and herbs infuses the air from her warm cup of tea. She only uses the best blends and cuts of loose leaf tea rather than teabags. She keeps the tea sealed in airtight containers in a cupboard away from the light as sunlight can drain the flavor from the tea.
“The whole thing about tea bags is they have to cut the tea leaves fine enough to go through a processor, and when they chop it really fine it loses a lot of flavor because the essential oils evaporate,” explains Samuel.
The brewing method and time also affect the taste. Samuel advises using a teakettle and strainer.
Samuel brews black tea for two minutes and green tea for one minute. For one eight-ounce cup of tea, Samuel uses one teaspoon of leaves. Those whose taste buds prefer a stronger bite should use two scoops. Herbal tea drinkers can extend the brewing time as long as they like to enhance the flavor of the blend.
Samuel buys most of her tea blends from the Metropolitan Tea Company, but also mixes her own concoctions, including Heidi’s Own, a blend of chai and a strong black tea. Samuel also suggests rooibos (pronounced roy-bus) to her customers, a red tea blend picked from South Africa’s red bush plant.
Reaching the bottom of her cup, the talk turns to scones, which pair perfectly with tea. Unlike a muffin or cookie, scone dough is more like a biscuit in flavor and texture and very low in sugar. In fact, a whole batch of scones calls for only one-third cup of sugar—a good snack for those who watch their sugar intake.
Samuel’s culinary creativity created one of her shop’s most popular baked goods: a raspberry chocolate chunk scone.
“It was going to be just a special one-week thing for Valentine’s Day two years ago but customers were disappointed when we stopped offering it,” says Samuel as she coats the raspberries with flour. Customers who tasted the teatime treat continued to come back for more and ask for the recipe.
Although her teashop has closed, Samuel hasn’t given up her passion for tea and treats. Her future plans include offering cooking lessons and writing her own cookbook. “I will always be a foodie,” she says.
