I was one of those difficult brides. I spent hours working with a designer on custom wedding invitations. I wanted a swaying palm in the background, and we made sure every spiky leaf looked perfect.
I get the feeling that Peter Hewitt, designer and tea connoisseur, is a bit of a stickler himself. Hewitt created Tea Forté, and totally reinvented the way we steep tea in the process. Instead of a stapled paper tea bag with its dangling string, Hewitt invented a pyramid-shaped “Silken Tea Infuser” that you can lift by its graceful stem and leaf. Inspired by a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, Hewitt’s packaging is beautiful and unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Then there’s the tea itself. Hewitt fixated on getting his leaves right, too. Tea Forté offers high quality whole-leaf tea and rough cut herbs that give each sip incredible flavor.
Oddly enough, when my invitations finally arrived, the designer attached a little something to the top. It was an individually-wrapped, pyramid-shaped package of Tea Forté. These weren’t my grandma’s invites, and this wasn’t my grandma’s tea. She got it, I loved the gesture, and most importantly, I got to take a timeout to sip and relax.
—Emily
