1.26.2010

Tea of the Week: Boysenberry

All I can say is wow...what an end of year we had! I want to thank all our customers (new and old) for your patronage. Candie and I are unbelievably lucky in this area. We are finally back to a more normal pace. As you know we take off the week between Christmas and New Years to be with our families. Then the next week I had the flu, so we were more behind than normal. I want to thank my wonderful customers that had patience with me those two weeks... you guys rock!!!

Getting in the groove again, we have a new Tea of the Week, Boysenberry. Please leave a comment to get a 4 oz bag free. We've just put up the Valentines Teas, these are teas we only blend this time of year. We have quite a few chocolate blends, but our Chocolate Covered Strawberry and Chocolate Rose are exceptional!



In the late 1920's, George M. Darrow of the USDA began tracking down reports of a large reddish-purple berry, he enlisted the help of berry expert Walter Knott. The inventor of the boysenberry is believed to be Rudolph Boysen, who experimented with various berry crosses in Napa, California in the 1920's. In 1923 his cross of a blackberry, loganberry and raspberry successfully grew and bore fruit. Darrow and Knott learned that Boysen had abondoned his experiments and sold his farm, they went and found several frail vines in a field choked with weeds. They transplanted the berries to knotts farm and he began selling them at his farm stand in 1932. When asked what kind of berries they were, knotts said 'boysenberries' after their originator.

I've been drinking a lot of Oolong lately, trying to get off those Holiday pounds. Also got a mini trampoline called a Rebounder for exercise, it's actually a lot of fun! Just trying to make it a habit...I forget how many days does that take? Hope everyone has an awesome week!