Tea Cookies

Infusing shortbread cookies with tea leaves was an obvious choice for Susan Ho, owner and creator of Tea Aura, a Toronto-based specialty food manufacturer. Her Chinese background translated into a kitchen stocked with products like soy sauce and tea. “In my culture, we use tea in a lot of foods,” she says. “When I want to make something, it’s part of my ingredients.”

It’s only natural that Ho, who says experimenting with different food combinations is “pretty much my life,” looked to these ingredients when she recently found herself at a professional crossroads. Her work at a hospital-based breast cancer study just ended. She considered opening a tea shop but had no capital. The next best thing? Selling tea cookies.

So Ho started tinkering with teas in her kitchen and before she knew it, she had developed her first line of products: gourmet shortbread cookies baked with premium teas.

The leaf-shaped cookies come in five flavors: Matcha Green Tea, Chocolate Mint, Rooibos Chai, Earl Grey and Lavender Currant. They have no artificial colors or flavors and are made with premium loose-leaf teas and pure butter. “We use the freshest ingredients possible,” Ho says. The cookies are made in small batches, which Ho believes retains the quality and integrity of the product. “We do it so it tastes just as fresh and maintains that just-out-of-the-oven taste.” They’re sold at specialty food stores throughout Canada and the northeastern U.S.

Ho and her husband, Charles Wu, who brings an MBA and business acumen to Tea Aura, have plans to expand. “We’d like to do something savory, maybe even some other sort of dessert items,” she says. “Tea blends well with sweetness.” Then again, she says, the next product could be crackers made with a blend of tofu and soy. With her natural desire to experiment, interesting combinations are likely to pop up.

Tea Aura Shortbread Cookies are available for $2.99 for a 1.3-ounce package (6 pieces), $6.99 for a 5.4-ounce box (18 pieces) and $8.99 for a 3-ounce tin (10 pieces). —Kara Mayer Robinson

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