We've been getting lots of exciting feedback about our signature drinks, including the famous Dirty Bird! So we're here to do a little explaining, and a little story telling.
It all started with the idea to make a Chai Tea recipe, as all of us here at RBP are such fans of the spicy warm peppery drink, but were often let down by box brand concentrates, and chai tea lattes that just fell flat. We came up with a recipe that includes Lavender, a very welcomed ingredient here in the RBP kitchen. After tweaking for over a month, we were happy with the result and were ready to debut her. We thought serving it with Oat Milk gave the drink a friendly edge (making it vegan), and we began serving it at our Saturday Pastry Pop-ups December 2019.
Side by side we began serving our Lavender Chai and Red Arrow Roasters drip coffee, as additional offerings to our pastries. One cold sunny morning, Em (you've seen her curly hair & big smile running the shop, and she's also the face behind our digital content(instagram/newsletters/blogs)...hi it's me) mixed our Chai and coffee together, a spin on a "Dirty Chai"....the mix caught on between the shop staff, and we all fell in love, deeming it a "Dirty Bird".
Fast forward a few months plus a global pandemic & lots of question marks in the wake of running a small business, plus "new normals"...we shifted our beverage menu to meet some new safety standards--no longer pouring drinks in the shop to bottling them in our commercial kitchen. Jess from Red Arrow Roasters took a special trip down to Oak Park in June 2020 and taught us how to make cold brew, and we continued to test Dirty Bird recipes using our Chai concentrate and cold brew coffee. Still using Oatly (sponsor us!!) as our milk choice, this drink is buzzy with all the things you love about chai, plus herbal lavender and the cold brew kick!
If you haven't tried it, we urge you not to wait! Come to the shop and grab a bottle (or 3 we won't judge) and find your happy place with the Dirty Bird. Let us warn you, this baby packs a caffeine punch, so enjoy and then get stuff done.
Dirty Birds and fresh madeleines are available everyday in the shop! Hours are 8am-12pm so stop by and say hello. We'd love to see you!
