On my recent trip to the Raleigh, North Carolina area my son Aaron surprised me one morning with a trip to Honeysuckle Tea House located in a beautiful country setting only about 15 minutes from downtown Chapel Hill. He told me the night before to be ready to go on an adventure in the morning so I was excited to see where he was going to take me. Once we started on our way he told me we were going to a tea house so you can imagine how excited I was. I mean it was a tea house after all.
We drove the short distance from his home and wound our way on a few country roads past some farms and lush landscape to 8871 Pickards Meadow Rd. where we entered the complex that holds the unique tea house and gardens. When we arrived it was before 10 am and we were the only ones there with the exception of the waitress. We found our way up the ramp to the open and airy restaurant and admired all of the teas and food selections before we made our choices.
I chose one of my favorite varieties – a black tea specifically a Third Flush Darjeeling and Aaron chose Genmaicha which was a combination of roasted rice with powdered green tea. Of course we had to get a nibble to go with the tea so he chose a chocolate chip brownie while I had a dense ball that was a chocolate chip cookie with all kinds of healthy things added into it. I loved my tea and brewed up a small pot while Aaron had a handmade tea bag to use in his cup. I am not a huge fan of all green teas and he and I both agreed it tasted a little like grass but I loved mine and drank the entire pot.
We decided to take our tea outside at one of the tables below as it was a bit too breezy in the open air structure to sit comfortably given our attire and we found a table in the sun in the amphitheater area and sat and enjoyed some conversation while we admired the surroundings. Before long things started to get busy as moms and dads with little ones arrived for some sort of organized gathering. The people at Honeysuckle Teahouse have a wonderful play area with a fun wooden play structure so the kids happily played while the adults chatted and the atmosphere changed dramatically from when we arrived.
The structure itself is open air upstairs and is built on a foundation of repurposed shipping containers. Chris is such a fan of using shipping containers and used them as office space in one place he worked. There was also a yert on the property that intrigued me.
After reading a bit on their website here I learned that the open air structure and grounds was built to become a community gathering area as a joint effort in conjunction with Pickards Mountain Eco Institute and The Abundance Foundation. The place is becoming known not just for its teas and plants but for healing and they offer a pretty full line of products that are almost all produced and packaged on site for customers to purchase. They have a very nice selection of essential oils, teas and other items on site as well as for sale on their website here.
Aaron and I took plenty of time walking around the 72 raised beds with herbs and lovely plants, as well as walking amongst the labyrinth (which we did not realize was a labyrinth until I read about it on the website). At the end of our visit we walked up and down the rows of the many elderberry, heritage grain, hop and Camellia Sinensis plants.
The Honeysuckle Tea House provides all kinds of interesting concerts, yoga and other events throughout the open season. If you are in the area you definitely need to make a trip to experience some tranquility and a cup of tea or two. Their hours are:
Sun – Thurs 9am – 9pm
Fri & Sat 9am – 10pm
You can also connect with them on these social media outlets.
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