Last week I had the opportunity to visit Pipers Tea and Coffee in Paducah, Ky. Located in the beautiful Coca-Cola Bottling Plant on the outskirts of downtown Paducah, Pipers is the perfect place if you want big city vibes without all the hassle of your average coffee shop. As their name suggests, Pipers specializes in tea. They have over 20 unique handcrafted tea blends. If you’re going there for the first time and the amount of options is overwhelming, you can’t go wrong with a cup of Pipers Earl Grey.

Pipers Earl Grey is their classic blend. This is because it was actually their first tea blend ever. If you don’t like the heaviness of other Earl Grey teas then you’ll love this tea. Their Earl Grey is light but flavorful, with hints of vanilla. It’s a perfect tea regardless of weather or season. A cup of Pipers Earl Grey coupled with a spot at their large wooden table surrounded by locally curated artwork is the perfect formula for productivity and/or relaxation. And if you can’t make it into their shop, you’re in luck because they ship their tea blends too!

First off, I love how niche Pipers is. Although I enjoy a nice cup of coffee, I know that my fondness of coffee will never compare to the nostalgia a cup of piping hot tea brings (pun intended, as always).

Growing up, my mom always drank hot tea. One of the most pertinent images I have of my mom is her lounging in the recliner in our living room with a Nora Roberts novel in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. If it wasn’t the recliner, it was at the kitchen table or sometimes even outside on the back patio. And if it wasn’t a Nora Roberts novel, it meant she was watching the latest episode of NCIS on her tablet. But regardless of location, whenever I saw my mother with a cup of tea I knew that she was relaxing and should not be disturbed.

Because of this, tea became associated with relaxation and my mom. Two things that as I grow older, I find myself unfortunately having less and less time for.

I didn’t really get into drinking tea until college. Maybe it was the homesickness or the realization that tea can have caffeine too that led me to drinking tea but whatever the reason, tea is my drink of choice now. Whenever I’m stressed out, sick, can’t sleep or in any other situation that a mom would usually be able to fix with the snap of her fingers, I drink a cup of hot tea. Even if the tea doesn’t solve the source of my stress or fully rid me of an illness, it never fails to make me feel better for a little bit.

After a while of using this fail proof method, I realized that it was because everytime I drank a cup of hot tea I thought about my mom. As cheesy as it sounds, the warmth of a cup of tea reminds me of the warmth of being home. Going to college four hours away from my parents can be hard, but regardless of what problem arises I know that it’s nothing a cup of hot tea can’t fix (and if that doesn’t work, a call back home will).

That’s why I love Pipers Tea. As soon as I walked in the door I knew it was a place my mom would be over the moon to visit. Next time she’s in Western Kentucky, I can’t wait to take her there.

Piper’s Tea and Coffee is located on 3121 Broadway Street in Paducah, KY. They’re open every day of the week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.