Tea for Every Grade: Your Back-to-School Sipping Guide
Mom’s favorite ‘cuppa might diverge distinctly from the brew grandpa steeps to begin his day. Aunt Amy’s love for an afternoon oolong doesn’t register with cousin Kenji—he prefers matcha.
You name the demographic; chances are the diversity of tea preferences swings widely and wildly. The dynamic certainly applies to students, who often begin school while still toddlers and don’t step away from the world of tests and essays for at least 15 years—closer to 20 if they go to college. And then, of course, there’s graduate school.
They could all use tea, in our opinion! For some, the decision may hinge on a pure flavor play. Other tea-cisions might depend in part on factors like caffeine, L-theanine and other botanical compounds for mental acuity and energy.
No matter the variables, we know we’ve got teas for everybody in the extended family—our inventory surpasses 200 teas!
Finding favorite teas for scholars of every age
Just as we step into August tomorrow—the month that means back to school for most students—it’s time to get squared away on everybody’s tea preferences. Start introducing new ones. Stock up on old favorites. Get that tea train rolling. By the time they begin tackling their first homework assignment of the new school year, they’ll at least find comfort in their daily beverage line-up.
We’ve organized recommendations for each category of K-12, plus college. No matter if they’re making turkey decorations using their hands, or digging into knotty calculus challenges, we trust your charges will appreciate these teas across the busy year of scholarship ahead.
Each of these teas, as with all of the products we sell, tastes wonderful without sweetener. However, many people adore tea with at least a little bit of the sweet stuff. Here’s our recommendation: our rock sugar, which is made of raw cane sugar crystals. They convey a smooth, clean sweetness that whispers sweet nothings to your tea without overpowering delicate flavors.
School Teas: Elementary—Toasted Almond
Parents in parts of Asia start kids on traditional Camellia sinensis teas—meaning they contain caffeine—during elementary school. But they often water them down, or introduce teas that contain less caffeine, like hojicha. We think teas with light caffeine are fine for many kids, but we can’t resist our caffeine-free Toasted Almond tea—a favorite among Ku Cha-shopping families. This treasure of a tea combines real apple pieces with almonds, hunks of cinnamon and knobs of actual beetroot—it’s simple, natural and absolutely scrumptious.
Before school, while they’re slurping down bowls of cereal. In a thermos, for mid-day refreshment. After-school treat. Before bed, as a reward for completing that grueling second-grade homework assignment about the map of the United States. Toasted Almond suits every elementary school student, any time of the day.
School Teas: Middle—Sakura Cherry Green
By the age of 11, as they’re entering middle school, kids’ caffeine consumption can be more in alignment with how adults engage with tea. In part, we think teas’ benefits for the younger set rests with its punch of the amino acid L-theanine. This natural compound, which now is trending (in a big way) within the sprawling wellness beverage category, delivers a combination of calm and mental clarity to sippers. And the vast majority of it can be naturally found in just one plant: tea. The new drinks lining grocery refrigerated shelves and broadcasting their L-theanine content rhapsodize over its superpowers—but in fact tea lovers have understood its benefits for hundreds of years. L-theanine mitigates the jitteriness that can follow caffeine consumption, transforming wallops of energy that crest and fall quickly—think classic energy drinks, coffee, etc.—into a long-lasting, more steady and fruitful boost.
Enter our Sakura Cherry Green tea. This beaut contains sencha green tea, the most popular style of green tea in Japan—more commonplace than matcha by far. Like many Japanese green teas, it spends time shrouded in shade. The purposeful process gives the tea more umami, and it also ups the L-theanine content. Perfect for any scholar, including middle schoolers. To this we add hibiscus, rose hips, rose petals and real cherry—it’s a flavor sensation.
School Teas: High—Serenitea Blend
You might think high school is the age to encourage kids to start going deep with caffeine content, especially if they seem tired from too many early mornings, late nights and activities in between. But let’s face it—by high school they’re already downing plenty of caffeine from sodas, energy drinks, iced tea and coffee. We think the more interesting pivot here is to offer a “juggling five things at once” tea, one framed around steadiness rather than energy. This is the age where stress starts showing up for real.
Just in the nick of time—Serenitea.
It’s a calming, soothing rooibos blend containing pomegranate, pomelo, orange, carrot, sage and lavender, all of which promote peace and calm. It also leads with rooibos, a tea made from the rooibos shrub in South Africa. People in that country, and now around the world, brew and sip bazillions of gallons of the healthy tea, which contains a healthy wallop of electrolytes and antioxidants.
Impress this tea upon the 11th grader who flirts with burnout, as he strives for acceptance into his favorite colleges. Bestow it upon a high schooler working hard to navigate what can be a trying four years. They need more serenity—and Serenitea delivers the goods.
School Teas: College—Rocky Mountain Breakfast
OK, back to caffeine we go! College can be even more challenging for students. They’ve fled the family coop. Nobody stands over them, prodding them to work harder to nail good grades. Responsibility falls on their shoulders. Chances are they’ve slugged back oceans of coffee and energy drinks to power through long days. That’s fine. But we think tea serves them better—see above, for L-theanine. And while we know they would take to our complex oolongs, whites, greens and pu-erhs, we trust that they might desire something more full-throated in flavor, at least in the morning.
So we suggest our Rocky Mountain Breakfast, which incorporates two black teas: Assam from India, and Keemun from China. The tea, reminiscent of other classic “breakfast” teas from the United Kingdom (English Breakfast, Scottish Breakfast, etc.) brings rich depth to the taste experience, along with admirable jolts of caffeine—complemented, of course, with L-theanine.
