EliTea Bar Delays Opening

EliTea Bar in Birmingham was scheduled to open after Thanksgiving Day, according to Metro Times; however, due to fire code issues, the café has delayed opening.

Eli Majid, developer of the popular local tea brand and owner of the soon to come tea bar, was profiled recently by Times reporter Michael Jackman.

The tea maker got his start through an unusual route, Jackman writes. Majid has a background in ethnobotany.

"Most of my research was here in the Midwest," he says. "I would go out and do field interviews and behind each of the plants that we would go research, there was always a story behind it, the use behind it. So it was one part science, one part culture. My research was in native Midwestern edible plants. So I was focused on anything and everything edible. And I was trying to part figure out what the medicinal uses were, too, to learn what we can grow more of. Because native plants are hardier, and better for the environment. There are lots of traditional recipes out there, and many of the recipes just happen to be used as teas: infusing it in hot water to bring out the benefits."

Majid will offer "tea tonics" at the new shop, according to the Times, brewed using special techniques that bring out the medicinal properties in different plants. The bar will offer 100 types of loose-leaf tea as well as other Michigan-made products.