Flying Bird Botanicals
The aroma of spicy cinnamon and ginger dances with lemongrass and rose hip. Steam swirls around your hands clutching the cup of Bluebird Morning tea—a Flying Bird Botanicals signature.
Tea mixing is a passion-turned-career for Scout Urling, founder of Flying Bird Botanicals—a Bellingham company specializing in making organic teas and drinking chocolate. An online merchant, Flying Bird is also sold at the Bellingham Whole Foods Market, coffeeshops like Lettered Streets Coffeehouse, boutiques like Bison Bookbinding & Letterpress or online at their website. Containers of six tea bags go for around $10, and loose-leaf cost around $15.

Currently, Urling is looking to expand to a larger, 6,000-square-foot warehouse. This will be her third expansion since 2012, when she first moved the business out of her home. Needless to say, Flying Bird has long since outgrown its early days as a booth at weekly Bellingham farmers markets.
Her products, and her ethical approach to creating them, have earned her a dedicated local following. The mantra, “People and planet over profit,” is a foundation for Flying Bird, Urling says. She prioritizes local sourcing to ensure only the highest quality ingredients are packed into every container, she says, even if that entails a steeper price. The entire tea making process, from finding ingredients to packaging, receives her attention and care. And the taste, of course, is a crucial element.

“You can make a tea and it can be extremely effective, the best tea in the world, but if you don’t make it so it tastes good, then no one is going to drink it,” Urling says. From the start, she focused on making “earthy” taste delicious by harmonizing beneficial herbs with natural flavors, like blueberry and peppermint.
With the temperatures dropping and the season for warm drinks upon us, Urling suggests trying her new Golden Coconut Chai Matcha or Winter Cheer—a seasonal chocolaty, mint tea. Mix either with cream and a spoonful of honey for some added decadence.
909 Squalicum Way, Bellingham
360.366.8013 | flyingbirdbotanicals.com
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