The Bucktown DavidsTea location

I’m cheating a little for this post; my Wednesday ramblings are supposed to be about booze, and tea is—well, not booze. However, like most nonalcoholic beverages, it can be mixed with booze. Actually, I think tea is underutilized as a cocktail ingredient. Aside from hot toddies, I can’t think of many alcoholic drinks I’ve had that involve tea, which is a shame—it’s a flavorful, inexpensive ingredient that’s easy to come by and keeps well.

So when I started tasting through some tea samples I recently received from DavidsTea (hereafter referred to as DT because the styling of the name annoys me), I immediately began trying to decide what liquors would go best with each. The Montreal-based chain just opened its first store in Chicago (at 1645 N. Damen, with a couple more in the works) and offers a fairly overwhelming assortment of teas. Below, some notes on the teas themselves and possible alcohol pairings for cocktails. I didn’t actually try making cocktails with them, so this is all speculation.