Farmers Market Showcases Local Businessess Evy Tea And Minus The Moo

Minus the Moo – Minus the Moo traces its roots back to the dorm rooms of Villanova University.

Katy Flannery and Gwen Burlingame were both roommates and ice cream lovers, but one was lactose intolerant.

“I love ice cream and wanted to have real dairy lactose, but I couldn’t find anything out there that was satisfying on the market—so I started making it myself,” Flannery said. “I’m lactose intolerant, and Gwen is overly sympathetic.”

Flannery and Burlingame launched Minus the Moo this past May to bring equal enjoyment to all ice cream lovers. Minus the Moo makes its lactose-free ice cream from scratch, with locally sourced ingredients and New England dairy, free of harmful chemicals or additives.

Minus the Moo is based out of Boston, and sells all of its ice cream out of an incubator kitchen, Commonwealth Kitchen in Dorchester, Mass. The duo also sells its product at the newly opened Dates and Olives restaurant on Chestnut Hill Ave. in Brighton. Throughout the summer, Flannery and Burlingame have been selling cones to customers at the South End Open Market at SoWa.

“I think one of the great things for us as a new business—this is our first time ever working in the food industry—is that it’s been nice to have other businesses here around us,” Burlingame said. “There’s a great community here at SoWa.”

This Fall, Minus the Moo will begin a partnership with BC Enactus, a social entrepreneurship organization on campus, in order to promote the business. Flannery and Burlingame are currently in the process of determining the details of the year-long project. In the future, the duo has big plans to expand Minus the Moo nationwide. “We knew the market was there for us,” Flannery said. “Our goal is to be a national brand, because we have found is that it’s really hard to find lactose-free ice cream that is not a dairy alternative.”

Evy Tea – Evy Chen was upset one day with her cup of tea. She found that many bottled tea beverages are made with artificial concentrates and ingredients, and Chen never understood why anyone would want to drink a beverage full of chemicals and artificial flavors.

So, she decided to make her own.

Chen founded her own company, called Evy Tea, which specializes in cold-brew tea. For the past three years, Evy Tea has been making natural, cold-brew tea directly out of South Boston. “We are the first cold brew tea company in the country,” Chen said.

Cold-brew tea is very different from other iced teas because of its complex brewing method: Whole leaves are mixed in small batches with cold, filtered water and left to brew for 16-20 hours. The process results in a stronger flavor without the typical bitter tea taste.

For Chen, tea runs in the family. Her family is from the Fujian province of southeast China, which is known for its production of some of the world’s best tea. Her grandfather was a tea trader, and her grandmother owned a garden, which inspired Chen to use tea with hints of herbs and distinctive fruits.

She spent a year tasting more than 100 teas from across the globe, zeroing in on cold-brewed blends to seep out bitterness. Then she combined them with fruits, herbs, and spices for exotic flavors. The White Tea Mojito, and Cold-brew Black Tea with Peaches are the most popular beverages at her stand at the South End Open Market at SoWa.

“This year we’re selling Evy Tea on tap and mixing up funky, cool drinks every week,” Chen said. “It’s great because it gets people coming and talking about our tea.”