All North Alabamians know and love Piper & Leaf and now there is a second location in Madison!!
You can’t pop into a local farmer’s market without seeing the long lines of smiling faces coming from the Piper & Leaf tent and for good reason. Their tea is, in a word, divine.
With flavors like Apple Cart Blossom, Pumpkin Moonshine and Strawberry Shindig there is a tea for everyone. 
The new location is in the Sprout’s shopping center, tucked nicely against The Juicery, allowing you to get all of your healthy treats in one area. To kick of the grand opening Piper & Leaf threw one of their Splendid Shindigs, which included morning yoga, henna painting, contests, raffles and much more. 
Olivier and I arrived to the new location, which is light and modern. I’m so hesitant to use the term hip, as the hipster movement has such a bad rap, but the new location was all the good parts of hip. Clean, interesting, local, fresh and energizing. It was also very inclusive, accepting of all with judgement of none, which is very unhipster. 
There are lots of comfy sitting options throughout. You can enjoy your tea and nosh at the bar and watch the masterful tea artists at their best or in the overstuffed sofas in the back.
The Piper and Leaf has amazing french cookies and house made pastries, so Olivier and I each got a savory pastry to pair with iced Piper Mint Blue at half sweetness (my favorite). 
My french husband said the pastries were the best he’d had.. outside of France of course, but still that is a huge compliment. 
Unfortunately, I went into complete glutton mode and forgot to find out what the names of the pastries were. They were delicious and I’d guess you really can’t go wrong. I will say they were presented on the most stunning wooden trays and I recommended eating them in-house for just that reason. The trays are created but the ultra talented artist Joshua Arney from locally produced Alabama hardwoods. Each one is a unique masterpiece so make sure you follow him at The Irish Crafter.
Piper & Leaf also has dry tea and brewing accoutrement for the homebody and if you don’t need an entire jar they sell smaller bags. There are also samples if you can’t decide!
Pop over today and enjoy the new location. It’s comfortably close to my house so I think I’ll be spending a lot more of my money on tea! You can also stick with the tried-and-true and visit the original Piper & Leaf at Lowe Mill Arts in Huntsville. 
Tag Archives: sweet tea
Blog Tour: LawLer’s Barbecue #DineHSV
One of the main perks of being a food blogger, if not the main perk, is getting invited to restaurants to sample the fare and write about it. Sweet! Last weekend I was in food blogger heaven when I got to participate in the 2015 Food Blogger Tour with the Huntsville Visitor’s Bureau in preparation for Huntsville’s 5th Annual Restaurant Week.
This year’s restaurant week is bigger than ever, with over 60 restaurants participating. Foodies can sample some of Huntsville’s best dishes at special prices. It will take place from August 14th to the 23rd, so make sure you mark your calendars.
Since the Alabama Tourism Department dubbed 2015 the Year of Alabama Barbecue, we appropriately started the blog tour at LawLers Barbecue in Madison. 
I’ve actually been to LawLers numerous times and always enjoy it, so I was very happy to see that it was part of the blog tour. 
Upon arrival, I got to meet my fellow bloggers: half of whom I knew and half of who were new. (see what I did with the word play, knew vs new. ha ha! I’m Shakespeare reincarnated!)
Anyways, I got to meet:
Clint Cantwell with Grillocracy
Phillip Fryman with Southern FATTY
Christy Jordan with Southern Plate
Stephenie Walker with Rocket City Mom
Constance Smith with Cosmopolitan Cornbread
Katie Wright with Katie Actually
All of them are incredibly talented, so I was quite honored to be a part of the group.
LawLers is a decently sized restaurant that is always buzzing with customers. It has a drive through window for the customer on-the-go, but I recommend eating inside as the restaurant is filled with fun, rustic decor and has a friendly, neighborly atmosphere. 
The staff is super friendly and quick. In fact, I ordered my food and it was brought to me so quickly I thought that it was someone else’s order, so I kept trying to give it to people standing nearby thinking it was theirs.
I ordered one of LawLers Restaurant Week Specials, which was tender pulled pork, two sides (I went with green beans and mac & cheese), a roll, a large sweet tea (or unsweet for heathens) and a piece of Sara Lee pecan pie, all for only $10! It was a ton of food and it was all delicious! As a former Yankee, I am prohibited from commenting on the authenticity of the sweet tea, but several born and raised Southerner’s assured me that it was authentic and delicious.
LawLers also offers the Stuffie Tater, which is a “huge baked potato stuffed with butter, a dollop of sour cream, a layer of shredded cheese…then a hefty portion of tender juicy pork barbecue, followed by a sprinkling of more shredded cheese and some chives!” It was listed as one of the top 100 Alabama dishes to try before you die.
LawLers also caters and has freeze-packed barbecue for customers that want the deliciousness available to them 24/7.
After you eat at LawLers, go vote for them to win the Alabama Barbecue Battle. They are neck and neck for first place so let’s help push them over the edge.
Website: Check it out, just to see the dancing pig!
http://www.lawlersbarbecue.com
Location:
544 Hughes Road Madison, AL 35758
Phone:
256-772-0590
Hours:
10:30 am to 8:00 pm Mon-Sat
Closed Sunday
Sweet Tea Snow Cream
We don’t often get snow in Alabama, so it is an epic event when we eventually get some. Everyone is outside, making snowmen and forts, sledding on sheet pans and cardboard, having snowball fights, and of course making snow cream. But rather than make the tradition snow cream, I made snow cream with a southern twist: sweet tea! I used Peaches and Cream Tea from the amazing Piper & Leaf and it was delicious. You can purchase it at the link above and I highly recommend that you do!
The only snag I ran into was placing a bowl outside to catch clean snow and then forgetting about it. At first I thought someone had stolen my bowl, but then I realized I just had to dig it out from the snow. At least I had plenty to work with!
My bowl 5 minutes after putting it out vs my bowl 2 hours after putting it out.
To make the Sweet Tea Snow Cream I just added cold tea, heavy cream, and raw sugar to fresh snow. It was so tasted I made a second batch as soon as I ate the first one.
Also check out my post for traditional Snow Cream. Includes photos of gnomes!
The Jealous Crumpet