Beloved by chefs, Chicago’s rare tea mastermind Rod Markus makes his retail move

WBEZ Chicago / by Maggie Hennessey / March 19, 2025

Master tea-blender Rod Markus will pour hot water over just about anything edible. I learned this within moments of sitting down at Rare Tea Cellar, his Ravenswood laboratory stocked with unusual and hard-to-find ingredients.

Markus steeped a Mallorca Melon tea blend of Spanish melon, pineapple, hibiscus and Seville orange with a few paper-thin slices of nutty cured jamón ibérico de Bellota, or acorn-fed ham from free-roaming Spanish pigs. The ham lent a salty, almost floral earthy note to the juicy and lush fruit flavors. Read More Here.