Long before roads cut across the grasslands and long before the plow changed the horizon, fire moved across the prairie.
Sometimes it began with lightning. Sometimes it began with people. Either way, prairie plants lived with fire for thousands of years, and the landscape adapted around it.
Flame moves quickly through dry grass and old litter. Aboveground growth can disappear in minutes while deep-rooted grasses survive below the surface. Fire returns nutrients, removes accumulated plant material and helps hold back the woody vegetation that would otherwise begin closing the prairie.
Today, land managers still use prescribed fire as one of the tools for maintaining grassland ecosystems. At Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, the National Park Service combines fire and grazing as part of prairie management. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also uses prescribed fire to restore and maintain grassland habitat, while conservation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy work with partners to bring fire back to native grasslands across the northern Great Plains.
The black ground is not necessarily the end of anything.
Before long, green begins pushing through. Smoke lingers low over the land. Charred stems stand beneath an open sky. The prairie starts rebuilding itself almost immediately.
That is the place behind Prairie Haze.
Its naturally smoked tea carries the first impression of the burn. Roasted cassina, cacao and chicory bring the darker earth beneath it. Juniper and birch pull the cup back toward the open landscape.
But the blend is about what comes after the flame.
It is about black earth giving way to green.
It is about disturbance becoming renewal.
And it is about a landscape that has lived with fire for thousands of years—and still knows exactly what to do when the smoke clears.
Find it in Nature™.