Isabel Teixeira

 

Isabel Teixeira grows herbs and edible flowers on her farm in the village of Arnoia de Basto, which is located near the town of Celorico de Basto in the Braga District of Portugal. She is a huge supporter of healthy eating and sustainable agriculture and in particular, she likes to use the wild flowers from her farm. She has been farming to according organic principles for several years.

Isabel surprised us with a special rose, which she has bred herself, that not only has a delightful scent but also is especially rich in essential oils. She very carefully collects the whole flowers to enable her to dry them outside, in a slow and gentle way in order to retain the essential oils.

After many inspiring conversations with Isabel, we have created two blends, Sencha Rosa (Japanese green tea from the Morimoto family combined with rose petals and a touch of lemon balm) and Sencha Limão (Japanese green tea from the Morimoto family combined with a touch of verbena). The lemon balm and verbena come from Isabel’s neighbours, Rita and Miguel Bastos, who recently started producing organic herbs on a larger scale. While Rita and Miguel are dedicated solely to the production of herbs, Isabel produces a wide variety of herbs, edible flowers, floral waters and essential oils but in more limited quantities.

 

 

Recently, with Isabel, we created a customised tea for the creative thinking project Mindshake. The base of the Mindshake Tea is a green tea with toasted rice (which is a traditional Japanese mixture) to which we added a Portuguese innovative touch of yarrow and elderflower, which adds a slight sweetness and a floral note to the tea. Another innovative product is the Rosa Rosa box which contains 10 buds of Isabel’s roses that can be used to make a rose tea. These buds can also be mixed with green tea or be used for cooking.

On Saturdays, Isabel and her products can be found at the organic products fair at the City Park in Porto, details of which can be found at the following site: Parque da Cidade.

 

Mimos d'Arnoia