Spring and Iced Tea

Spring stuttered there for a week or two but it has finally established itself here in the Midwest. As the weather warms our taste buds change and it seems that we prefer fruitier teas that are more suited to being iced. Did you know that 80% of all tea consumed in the USA is consumed as iced tea? Those of use who insist on a hot cup of tea are a few but growing number and even rarer are those who insist on a daily cup all year round. I personally pull out the Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker as soon as the weather warms. I love that it brews loose tea with the help of a coffee filter and makes pitcher after pitcher of perfectly brewed iced tea.

I am currently enjoying our Bohemian Raspberry Green tea iced. I have been going thru pitchers of it a day.

Spring Break & Tea Cosy Update

I just got an email from my tea cozy supplier, seems this last batch of fabrics went quick. All of the cozies except the Burgundy Brocade, Burgundy Rosebuds and Evening Lilac now have counts on them. This is probably the last you'll see of these fabrics. I will call her the end of this week to see what we have coming and give you all an update.

It's spring vacation week here and people are coming and going. I took a long weekend and went up to Lake Michigan with my family. Candie is currently away at a water park hotel with hers. Melissa is taking her daughter (age 17) and some of her friends to Chicago shopping thursday...brave woman! Jen will be taking Friday off and hopefully going up to her parents cabin in Michigan for the weekend. Weather permitting her mom says five inches of snow and black ice are what they're calling for up there. Hope everyone else has a nice spring break.

Spring with Red Tea

Spring has sprung! Spring and fall are my two favorite times of the year. Something about the change makes everything more interesting. I love wandering my yard looking for signs of new life. Spring and fall are also when I go thru and refill and refresh my stock of tea at home. My tastes tend to tilt to the fruitier side this time of the year as we move into the iced tea season. With spring comes the resurgence of my spring allergies but luckily I have a new weapon in my arsenal, Red Tea. Lately you see red tea every where including bottled in your local grocery. Many of you know that red tea also goes by the African name of Rooibos. Rooibos has many wonderful health benefits and is naturally caffeine free. I must say that bottled anything just doesn’t appeal to me so I will be sticking to my freshly brewed rooibos. Our selection of Rooibos has grown to 24 flavors including both red and green versions of this wonderful herbal. The red may not appeal to everyone but the green is very similar in flavor to green tea. I will be making a refreshing pitcher of iced Summer Punch Green Rooibos tonight and trying Tuscany Pear Rooibos tomorrow.

Mid-week update

I'm drinking Apple Spice tea this morning! Feeling kind of off kilter today, went and got new glasses yesterday. My one eye has gotten a lot worse and she warned me I might be feeling nauseous for awhile.

OK some updates on inventory. I still don't have a date for the Mulled Spice tea. Two new things this week We now have Orange Spice tea and the Orange tea in the bulk teabags. These are a much more economical option for our tea bagging people.

Hope all is well in the world and look to see what's in your cup!

Denise

Update on inventory

We've had a hard time getting a few things in from our main supplier, well today I found out why. Seems their ships are now being re-routed to their third port. They have went from Vancouver to Seattle and now to somewhere in California. They say it's definitely weather related. Things affected so far are Irish Breakfast teabags, mulled spice loose tea and the perfect cup spoons.

The deep freeze is letting up some here it will actually be around 17 degrees today! My son's car would not start all week, so we had it towed here and put it inside the warehouse last night. Guess what....it started this morning! Cold blooded I guess.

Today I'm enjoying some Formosa Oolong, I love wrapping my hands around a warm cup of tea while I'm working.

Back in Stock!

Long time no post!

We really had a time of it on the Holidays, running out of teas that is. Almost everything is back in stock or will be by the end of the week. The only tea I'm still out of is Apple Spice with no ETA as of yet.

I'm already on the prowl for new products for this year. I found an excellent source for floral and chintz teapot sets. I would love to hear feedback on interest in this or anything else you would like to see us add to our store!

Actually it was a very good Christmas season for us and I want thank our customers!

Enjoy a cuppa,
Denise

Wishing for a White Christmas

I miss the snow. It makes the holidays so much cheerful. The ground was covered for about a day and it was so beautiful. Now it is all gone and it looks so dreary outside. So don’t mind me while I sit here and wish for a nice big pile of snow before Christmas.

I have been enjoying our new holiday teas. I am currently sipping a giant mug of Cherry Cordial Tea. I need to take a bag of Candy Cane Tea home because my children are all coming down with colds and I think they would enjoy this tea. The mix of peppermint and cherry blend makes this tea a yummy holiday treat.

There is a coupon available for the store so go and check it out.

Happy Holidays!
Candie

Monday Mistakes

I must have been in a Monday morning fog yesterday. Instead of featuring our brand new Cream Earl Grey White Tea I featured our old tried and true black Cream Earl Grey. Because I have teased all of you with it, I will leave the black Cream Earl Grey on sale this week along side the new Cream Earl Grey White Tea. This fabulous new white tea has a very light cream earl grey flavor to it that does not overpower the subtle white tea flavor.

Monday mornings can be a haze of calls and flurry notes. Yesterday was no exception so I am surprised it was my only mistake. I am going to go get another cup of hot tea and see if I can get caught up with my pile of work.

Candie

No Tea for Me but Specials for You

I am not allowed to drink tea for the next couple of days. I turned up with a bladder infection and of course the doctors want me to avoid caffeine. Worse yet he suggested I drink some cranberry juice. I hate cranberry juice – Ewww. I think I am going to take home some Rooibos so I can drink something hot and soothing without the irritating caffeine.  I wish I would have thought about Rooibos when the bladder was in high gear because it might have been able to help calm it down. Rooibos has anti-inflammatory properties that sure would have been welcome at about 3 am.

If you noticed that you didn’t receive your weekly specials letter this week it is because I was to tired and sick to get it done. Today I am feeling much better so I am changing the specials but I won’t put out a newsletter until next week. This week we have Peach Apricot White Tea and all our Ceramic Teapots on sale for 20% off.

Seasonal Tea Drinking

It amazes me every year that as soon as the temperatures cool even the littlest bit people suddenly start buying more tea. I know that tea drinkers don’t just stop drinking tea but usually switch to iced during the warmer months and we do see an increase in sales for the teas that makes great iced teas but not enough to make up for the lack of sales on the normal winter teas. Do we just not drink as much tea in the summer? Or do we fall back on our grocery store teas? I for one, drink as much if not more tea as iced tea in the summer than I do hot tea in the winter. I haven’t found a tea available on the store shelf that makes even a half decent cup so it makes me wonder if people really migrate from our teas to these in the summer. Can any of you tell me how your tea drinking habits change with the seasons?

Candie

New products

Wow...it's been quite a while since I posted. I'm always so involved in what I call "grunt work" to keep things going here. I know excuses, excuses!

Anyways I just put the new Tea Cozies online that came in today! I love the way they do the bottom of these, they are flat! I used to make the tea cozies we sold, mine did not have the flat bottom...so I know how much extra work goes into making these. Also I used to make a one size fits all, these fit our 3 and 6 cup teapots perfectly! The material is gorgeous, go take a peak.

We again have new tea and goodies for this week, but I'll let Candie tell you about them. I'm still working on price increases, so you still have time to order before I'm done.

What's in your cup.......Denise

UPS Faux Paux & Pricing Changes

Every year at this time we have what I like to call “pre-holiday shipping service” from UPS. About this time each year we have all kinds of lost and damaged packages. It always makes me worry about how smoothly the holiday season will go. So far the holidays always go much smoother than we expect. Well any way UPS just managed to loose a rather large shipment to us that was supposed to have arrived last week. So if you have been contacted about a backorder within the last week your order will not be able to be filled until the end of this week at the earliest. They just lost an out going order for us not more than 2 weeks ago so we will be crossing our fingers that UPS gets thing under control soon.  

I had planned to turn on all our fall specials and add our new fall teas this week but now we don’t have those teas ready to ship so look for those next week. The site theme will be changing to Autumn this week so look for the leaves to start falling.

Another big news item is that we just found out that we our biggest supplier has just implemented a price increase so we will be implementing a price increase of around 3% over next few days. I suggest you order right away to beat the rising prices.

Candie

A Delicious Mistake

Have you ever made a mistake and ended up glad that it happened? That is how we feel about the accidental creation of our Fruit Jumble Green Tea. Some of our supplier’s bags are not labeled the best and we thought we had a bag of Pear Sencha and instead had a bag of our new Watermelon Kiwi Green tea and about 2 lbs worth got mixed together. We immediately recognized the mistake by the wonderful new smell and decided to split the batch and take it home. I iced a pitcher of this new blend for some of my family and everyone was complimenting the flavor and asking what it was. Everyone who took the tea home had the same wonderful response so I decided we should name it and offer it to our customers. Fruit Jumble was born.

Candie

White Chocolate Rooibos & Red Vs. Green

Either I am finally learning to like rooibos or our new White Chocolate Rooibos is just that good. I have been struggling to like rooibos for a very long time but I think I may have finally turned the corner. Now there are two different types of rooibos red and green. Red was the first type of rooibos that become available here in the US so most of us just know it as regular rooibos. A couple of years back Green Rooibos became available and it can still be hard to find. The difference between the two is just like regular tea. The Red rooibos is left to sit and oxidize after it is chopped. The green is immediately heated and dried. I must admit that even the green has a good bit of red color to it and is not completely green colored. The red is a dark rust color. The flavor of the green rooibos is a bit like green tea but the red has a unique flavor.

Candie

Matcha & Pear Rooibos Musings

Can you believe that Matcha is our best selling tea? “What is matcha”, you say? Matcha is green tea powder. Our matcha is Gyokuro ground to a cornstarch consistency. When brewed it makes a bright green colored beverage, with a slightly sweet and tart flavor. The key is that it can be used in so many different ways. You can brew it hot or cold, add it to smoothies, desserts, baking and used in spice blends for cooking. And with all of this it is almost impossible to get accessories for it but we will introduce a matcha whisk and spoon, sometime next month.

I am drinking our new Pear Rooibos today. I am not a big red rooibos fan but this tea has grown on me. I wouldn’t call it a favorite but it is very good for a red rooibos based herbal tea. Rooibos is a great caffeine free alternative to regular tea and it has a whole set of its own beneficial properties. It has been known to help migraine, acid reflux and arthritis sufferers.

Candie

Autumn in the Air

Can you smell it? I can already smell that sweet smell of autumn in the air. The smell is like ripe fruit and ripe leaves. It has been unusually cool for the last week and it feels like the leaves are going to start changing color any day now. I sure hope it doesn’t because I don’t want the summer to end just yet. The weather is just perfect for having the windows open and enjoying the cool breezes and that wonderful aroma in the air.

I must say that some of the teas we have gotten in to sample have just been delightful. I was shocked to try Pecan Pie Green and find that I enjoyed it tremendously. I just didn’t think green tea and pecan pie would pair well. Eventually this fall we will be adding this wonderful flavor in green and black tea and also rooibos. All I can say it that I am 100% sure these will be our best selling teas this fall.

I must admit that I am also enjoying our new Raspberry Green Tea. I thought I had a new favorite last week when we added Blackberry Green Tea but I must say that the raspberry has won the battle for my affection. Even my husband who is not all that fond of flavored greens has been won over by this one.

Candie

Finally Good Tasting Decaf Tea

There is a real dilemma for those of you who need to avoid caffeine because unlike coffee, the decaffeination process drastically changes the flavor of tea. The gentle earthy and spicy tones are missing from blacks and greens become mottled and almost muddy flavored. Now we have gone out of our way to find the best flavored decaffeinated teas but they still just don’t compare to pure unadulterated tea. But I have found the light at end of the tasteless decaf tunnel. There is a company called Decaf Co. who is developing a stirring stick which will remove the caffeine from your already brewed tea without harming the flavor. What is funny is that they are already marketing toward coffee and I think they will have a much large following in the tea market. I am going to get in contact with these folks so I can get in on some tests and hopefully we can be one of the first companies to carry these wonderful devices.

Candie

Blackberry Green tea and Sampling Fall Teas

I had a pleasant surprise the other day while tasting the pecan pie green tea that I had doubts about last week. I really didn’t think it would pair well but it was yummy. All I can say is that this tea may be our next best seller. And it should be even better paired with black tea and it is also available as a flavored rooibos, which is fabulous.

We had to make a tough decision to drop the Morish Treat scones from our product line. The prices went up dramatically and we have had some issues with them so we have discontinued them. We are going to expand the Rabbit Creek line and I am also eyeing another company that has some wonderful scones to offer.

Autumn is already my favorite time of the year but I am so looking forward to the new fall products.

Today I am enjoying a glass of our new Blackberry Green Tea which has such a light fruity flavor that still manages to be a thirst quencher.

Candie

Finally Cooling Down

What a relief the heat has finally dissipated. Of course I had a lousy nights sleep with all the lightning and thunder as that cool air pushed in but it was well worth it. At least the heat helped me to drink more iced green tea and I found that I like Genmaicha Extra Green iced. I would have never thought that Genamicha would taste good iced because it has a nutty, toasted rice flavor to it but when it is iced that flavor fades and you taste much more of the fresh green flavor. I need to take more Pear Sencha and Blackberry Green Tea home because these two have been my iced teas of choice. My guests have made numerous comments on how much they enjoy these teas and now expect some samples to take home. ;)

Also on the new teas front, we recently tried a Raspberry Green Tea that was very good. I think we will be adding this tea to our selection in the next two week. I have some great prospects for the new fall selections which include a Pecan Pie rooibos and black tea, this flavor is also available in green tea but I personally don’t feel that the flavors would meld well. There are rooibos flavors I have my eyes on, Pear, Cinnamon, Licorice and Raspberry.

I would love to hear your comments on these new flavors.

Candie

Planning for fall and Christmas Season

It is almost absurd how far ahead a retailer is encouraged to plan for a season or holiday. For instance we received a spring catalog from one of our suppliers late last October of last year. Most store switch to the next season or holiday the day after the last. Then again it takes most retailers much longer to plan ahead for marketing and store placement of the products. With us we can get in a new product, have it up on the site and announced in a newsletter on the same day. That is the nice thing about handling the web site control and marketing your self.



So today I sit here considering what we will want to add for the fall and Christmas season. Our two best selling chintz teapot sets from last season have both been discontinued so I am on the hunt for sets to replace them. I have my eye on this Vintage Christmas Set which I think has a very romantic old Christmas feel to it. The set has matching teapot, tea cups, tea bag holders and Christmas ornaments.


What do you all think? We are waiting for a list of new teas and samples from our favorite supplier. When we get that I will give you all a glimpse at our choices.

Candie