Ancient Herbal Wisdom & Community Love: Flying Bird Botanicals

How do you take your tea? Piping hot with a drizzle of honey? Cooled down with cream and some raw sugar? Or maybe you like a squeeze of a lemon, just enough to make your face scrunch up and lips pucker, in the best way possible.

Scout Urling - Founder of Flying Bird Botanicals

As for us, we take our tea the Co-op way: sustainably sourced, organic, and made with love and thoughtfulness. We’re so pleased to introduce a local tea brand that checks all those boxes. Meet Bellingham’s own Flying Bird Botanicals and founder Scout Urling!

Launched in 2006, Flying Bird Botanicals Tea was initially sold online and at local farmers markets. But for Scout, the love of wild edibles and plant foods started much earlier. As a kid, Scout recounts the many “foods” she made out of plants in the garden. Between foraging activities and the creative spirit instilled in her by her mother, Scout always knew she loved creating, simply for the sake of creating. But nowadays, it’s translated into a career and a small business with employees, too!

Not Your Average Cuppa

With a bird’s eye focus on community, sustainability, and quality products, Flying Bird Botanicals tea blends are made with intention, and attention to small details like the biodegradable silken tea bags and organically-grown herbs. And like the Co-op, Flying Bird has a deep care for the community, too.

While tea leaves themselves can’t be grown in our climate, many of the herbs used in Flying Bird blends do. So, Scout sources local ingredients whenever she can. And when she can’t, she has a slate of other organic farms she works with directly in Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Vermont as well as exotic herbs and spices from Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, and Africa. She also works with a women-owned cooperative in Nepal, which Scout is especially proud of.

As far as the blends are concerned, Scout strives to create teas that are medicinal, but flavor is always in the forefront of her mind. Scout puts it simply, “You could make anything medicinal, but no one is going to drink it if it doesn’t taste good.” All of the tea blends are mixed by hand at their Bellingham shop. Even tea bound for bound to Seattle for bagging and packaging is hand mixed before being sent down the interstate.

Birds of a Feather

And we just can’t wrap up this article without giving a nod to the wonderfully whimsical bright and botanical illustrations that grace Flying Bird’s tea tins.

If it weren’t for a chance encounter with an event poster, Flying Bird’s gorgeous logo and packaging might look very different. Scout came across said poster promoting a local music gig in Bellingham and was immediately struck by the art style. She found the designer’s name scribbled on the poster, tracked them down, and the rest is history.

When tea time comes ringing next, swing by the Co-op and pick up some Flying Bird Botanicals for a sip of something extra special, and extra local. And make sure to snag a fresh-baked Co-op scone while you’re at it.