Chapel Hill tea house takes farm-to-table to new level
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina (WTVD) -- May is the season for finals, graduations, Mother's Day, gardening, and other springtime activities. A unique Tea House in Chapel Hill called the Honeysuckle Tea House fits the bill for all the typical May activities.
Students flock to Honeysuckle Tea House this time of year seeking a peaceful environment to study. And, for a unique Mother's Day tea, it has all the ingredients.
Located in Chapel Hill on a 100-acre farm, the tea house uses five acres. It opened in 2014 with crowdsourced funding. The main room sits one floor above the ground, allowing visitors to overlook acres of organic plants. All of the locally grown teas and herbs are grown on-site.
Honeysuckle Tea House is open Thursday through Sunday from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. from March-November, mainly due to the open air building. General Manager Jon Ackley says they hope to add some sort of retractable windows down the road to extend the months they are open.
"We open seasonally," Ackley said. "Because, you can see, we are natural - no windows. We provide a whole bunch of different teas, some of which the herbs are grown on the site. The farm manager is out there picking some tea leaves."
Aside from just tea, Honeysuckle Tea House sells beer, wine, pastries, smoothies, smoothie bowls, and cheeses. Some evenings there is live music, speakers, local artists, and yoga classes on the small stage located on the grounds. There is also a playground and sandbox for the kids.
