Tea of the Week: Huckleberry Tea Bags

Wow, I can't believe we don't have a winner for last weeks Jasmine with Flowers Tea! Looks like I need to try harder to tempt your taste buds. This week we are trying something different...tea bags! Our fruit teas are summer favorites, and Huckleberry Tea is a customer favorite and hard to find. Just leave a comment on this post to win 50 tea bags. If it goes well we will feature tea bags again soon.

First a bit of huckleberry history. When European settlers arrived in the New World, they found several plants that provided small, dark-colored sweet berries. The berries reminded them of the English bilberry and similar fruits and they gave them the dialect term, hurtleberry, whose origin is unknown (though some say it has something to do with hurt, from the bruised color of the berries; a related British dialect form is whortleberry). Very early on — at the latest 1670 — this was corrupted to huckleberry. The berries are small and round, usually less than 5 mm in diameter, and contain 10 relatively large seeds. Berries range in color according to species from bright red, through dark purple, and into the blues. In taste the berries range from tart to sweet, with a flavor similar to that of a blueberry especially in blue/purple colored varieties.

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July this weekend! We will all be at the annual Yoder fish fry. Sat on the deck last evening watching the humming birds and knitting with a cuppa Segovia Muffin Rooibos, does not get any better than that. Have a great week!

Tea of the Week: Jasmine with Flowers Green Tea

I want to congratulate Tameka on winning 4 ounces of Raspberry Tea! To win 4 ounces of our wonderful Jasmine with Flowers Tea this week, leave a comment on this post. More about this tea. An extra added goodie this week, Candie has extended the 10% off coupon until 6/30/09. Use coupon code J16F09 for 10% off your order!

I don't usually care for floral teas, but any Jasmine green tea I love. Jasmine production is quite interesting. Spring fresh green tea is layered between early spring jasmine blossoms (these blossoms have the most aroma). Air that is slightly warmer than ambient temperature air is passed through the layers of blossoms and tea. The fragrance of the blossoms permeates the new fresh tea resulting in a concentrated heady bouquet of a garden in full bloom. Following this process, some of the jasmine flowers and petals are blended into the tea to enhance the flavor and visual appeal.

I hope everyone had a great Fathers Day weekend. We had a little excitement at my house on Friday and a weekend of cleaning up! About 5:30am Friday morning a storm came through and took down half of a maple tree in the yard. Nobody was hurt thank goodness! It did get the corner of the house, the garage roof and my car. Everyone thought the car was totaled, but it is just really dented up on top and has a cracked windshield. We spent the weekend raking leaves and sawing logs! Could have been worse, we were blessed no one was hurt. Everyone have a great week.

Coupon this Week

This week we have a coupon available to use that will save you 10% off your order. We don't post coupons that often so you should make sure you take advantage of it.

Coupon Code: J16F09
Expires: 6/22/09

Tea of the Week: Raspberry

I want to congratulate Kristin for winning 4 ounces of Mango Tea. I will be emailing you today to get your snail mail address. To win 4 ounces of Raspberry Tea leave a comment on this post! If you would like to learn more about this tea, click on the link.

When my son was young, we did not have a lot of money for extra activities. We spent a lot of time just walking down the country roads and exploring, one of the things we discovered was wild berries! Raspberries were my favorite. Sometimes there were not many left by the time we got home Shane ate so many. I love adding sparkling water to my tea, and I also came across a recipe for raspberry ice cubes that I think I will try. Sometimes we need to be reminded to try something different.

Recently there has been new research looking at raspberries as an antioxidant. Couple this with the known natural goodness of the antioxidants in tea and you have a healthy winner! This tea is particularly refreshing with ice – another reason to try raspberry tea. (Add a pinch of sugar as the sugar binds with the raspberry flavor molecules, intensifying the distinctive taste.) A favorite summer iced tea.

Everyone have a fantastic week!

Tea of the Week: Mango (naturally flavored black tea)

I want to congratulate Katrina for winning 4 ounces of Canadian Ice Wine Tea! I will be emailing you today to get your snail mail address. To win 4 ounces of Mango Tea leave a comment on this post! If you would like to learn more about this tea, click on the link.

Mangos originated in Southeast Asia and India, where references to the fruit are documented in Hindu writings dating back to 4000 B.C. Buddhist monks cultivated the fruit and in fact, the mango is considered to be a sacred fruit in the region because it is said that Buddha himself meditated under a mango tree. The mango belongs to the same family as the cashew and the pistachio nut.

Mango seeds traveled with humans from Asia to the Middle East, East Africa and South America beginning around 300 or 400 A.D. Mango trees need a tropical climate to thrive, and today a majority of the mangos sold in the U.S. are grown near the equator in countries like Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala and Haiti.

The fruitiness of the mango blends well with the black tea resulting in a cup that is refreshing iced or hot. Here is a great recipe to try! This has gone over great at some of our family gatherings.

Ingredients
1 1/2 quarts cold water
6 heaping teaspoons Mango Tea or 6 teabags
Sugar
1/4 cup mint leaves
Thinly sliced mango
Directions
Bring water to a boil, put tea leaves in an infuser or tea sac and steep until tea is dark, about 5 minutes. Remove tea. Add sugar to taste and stir until sugar is dissolved. Place in pitcher and add mint leaves. Pour over ice and garnish with mango slices.

Hope everyone had a great week! Our new babysitter is working out great, Kaitlyn is 12 and lives across the street...this is her first sitting job away from home. Ethan is thrilled she plays video games with him and is helping on his reading this summer. I don't know what the weather is like where you live but it's been a pretty cool summer here so far. There's been a black lab puppy mix running the neighborhood for a couple of days and Ethan found him yesterday, made for an interesting afternoon. He got along great with our dogs and you know what comes next....of course Ethan wants to keep him. We were very lucky though the neighbors son came and got him for their kids, they live in the country and the puppy will have a very good home. Have a great week!

Tea of the Week: Canadian Ice Wine

I want to congratulate Polly for winning 4 ounces of Strawberry Tingle Rooibos! I will be emailing you today to get your snail mail address. To win 4 ounces of Canadian Ice Wine Tea, leave a comment on this post!

This weeks tea is Canadian Ice Wine, I've been having a glass of wine after dinner lately and a cup of Ice Wine tea before bedtime. I encourage you to try this unique tea. Ice wine is produced when the grape is frozen solid on the vine and harvested at a maximum temperature of -10 deg Celsius. The frozen grapes that make up ice wine are then pressed and the resultant nectar exudes aromas of apricot and honey with a fine overall balance between fruit flavors, sweetness and acidity. Ice wine ends up a golden color, or deep rich amber and has a very sweet taste. The flavor is a combination of apricot, peach, mango, melon or other sweet fruits. The rules of true ice wine (governed by VQA) state that the grapes must be naturally frozen – no artificial freezing allowed. Ice Wine is typically made of Vidal (a cross between European and North American white grapes). Normally used to produce a table wine, Vidal yields well. It also has a relatively thick skin enabling the grape clusters to withstand the elements better. Ice wine is difficult to produce – not only do the grapes have to withstand the elements – but crows and other birds find Vidal grapes particularly tasty. After the ‘fight’ with the elements and birds, the grapes go through weeks of fermentation followed by a few months of barrel aging. More about this tea.

Hope everyone had a wonderful week! The kids get out of school on Thursday, then I think summer will officially begin for us. I started getting things ready for the yard sale this summer, time to make more room in the house....of course it's been 15 years since I did one, so there is quite a bit to do. My hubby is busy fishing for his annual Yoder fish fry on the 4th of July, so we're not seeing a lot of him these days. See you next week!