Growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, I remember drinking freshly-brewed iced tea with my grandmother, brewed hot and poured over ice. You could hear the ice cubes cracking as we added our slice of lemon and enjoyed this glass alongside the ripest freshly-picked tomato sandwich. 

In the fall, I’d watch autumn apples being cooked in huge cast iron vats in the mountains with cinnamon and cloves, for the freshest apple butter. I’d smell baked, malty tobacco curing in the fields of Eastern North Carolina and salt air, cedar and myrtle leaf on the coast. There’s this evocative sense of place right here in those simple memories and experiences of food, herbs and plants that has always both inspired and grounded me.

As I traveled to other parts of the world, I became fascinated by new flavors and the way that they connect us to the places we inhabit. Unique botanicals and teas in particular fully fascinate me. Like drinking Yerba Mate in Argentina, Coca tea in Peru, milky black tea in England, Australia and New Zealand and fresh fruit or cacao and chili infusions in Mexico.