Americans are drinking more tea than ever. The U.S. tea market hit roughly $12 billion in 2024, with 159 million Americans drinking tea daily. Four out of five households now keep tea on hand, and millennials, 87% of whom drink tea, are driving a surge in the premium end of the market.
Much of the growth is happening at the artisan end of the market. While mass-market tea products still dominate grocery shelves, the loose-leaf segment is projected to grow at 6% annually through 2030, as consumers discover what tea enthusiasts have long known: there’s a world of difference between off-the-shelf tea bags and craft-blended, carefully sourced tea.
Heather Marston knows that difference well. As owner of Pureblend Tea, she hand-blends every variety herself: adding bergamot oil to black tea for Earl Grey, mixing the spices for chai, crafting seasonal creations that don’t exist anywhere else.
“We’re family-owned, so that’s a big piece of it. We’re local, so that’s another piece of it. And we’re craft blended,” Marston says. “If you cut open a tea bag you get from the grocery store, it’s basically powder. We have full-leaf tea. It’s an entirely different product.”
A Business Born Backward
After a career as a school teacher, Marston found herself looking for a new challenge. She’d been helping a friend who owned Pureblend for several years. When that friend decided she didn’t want to rebuild after COVID, Marston and her husband, Rich, bought the company. They now sell their tea through the Pureblend website and at a wide range of local stores and restaurants.
“We got into this kind of backwards, but it works, and it’s great, and I love what I’m doing,” she says.
The previous owner had also run a tea bar at Lancaster Central Market, which she sold separately to her manager. That business is now Lauren’s Tea Bar.
Going Deeper Into The World of Tea
Sitting down to talk with Marston opened up a whole new world of tea.
“Tea all comes from the same plant,” Marston says. “Green tea, white tea, oolong, black tea, pu-erh, all from Camellia sinensis. It depends on where it is grown and when it is harvested, how it is harvested, and then most importantly, how it is processed after.”
What about herbal “tea”? Technically, it’s not tea at all. Drinks made from herbs, honeybush, or rooibos are properly called tisanes or infusions, though, as Marston acknowledges, “We call everything except for coffee that we steep in water tea.”
She also notes that tea, like wine, is regional. Assam can only come from the Assam province in India. Darjeeling from the Darjeeling region. Ceylon, from Sri Lanka, which was called Ceylon in colonial times, hence the name.
If you’d like to learn about tea directly from Marston and sample some of the blends, her tasting room and retail sales are open Wednesdays and Fridays, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Learning to Blend Your Own
For those interested in going deeper, Pureblend offers blending classes at the Ephrata shop. The $30 sessions run about an hour and a half to two hours and are scheduled on evenings and weekends by arrangement.
Participants learn about tea varieties and sample the plain, unblended teas that serve as the foundation. Then they get access to all the ingredients Marston uses: cinnamon, ginger, caramel, dried flowers, and natural (mostly organic) flavorings to create their own custom blend.
“You get an ounce of tea, blend your tea, and then you get another ounce,” she says. “So you walk out with over two ounces of tea to take home and enjoy. I’ve gotten great reviews. It’s a lot of fun.”
You can see a full list of the upcoming classes on the Pureblend website.
If You’re New to Tea
Marston recommends two paths for beginners looking to expand beyond basic Earl Grey or chamomile.
Stop by the shop. “We can look at all the teas and smell them and do a little tasting,” she says. “If you come to my shop, I let people taste two or three teas.”
As for Marston’s personal favorite? She won’t commit.
“Everyone asks me what’s my favorite, and my answer is always: What day of the week is it? Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is it sunny? Am I tired?”
On a cold, rainy winter afternoon, though? “I’m going to brew something a little more spicy. I might do our cinnamon vanilla, or I might do our London Fog, which is an Earl Grey and vanilla blend.”
Pureblend Tea is located at 1501 West Main Street in Ephrata, one block west of the Lincoln House Tavern. The tasting room and retail sales are open Wednesdays and Fridays, 1–4 p.m.
