Our first winner is Kelly!

Our first winner is Kelly! Kelly I will be emailing you for your snail mail address today. I want to thank bell-dragon, Beth, Lisa, Melissa, Polly and Kelly for entering. The kids had a day off school today, so Miss Morgan got the honors of picking the first winner.

It was such a beautiful weekend here, we got lots of yard work done! It was so nice relaxing on the deck with a glass of tea when it was all done.

Let's do a little teaser for tomorrows newsletter. Mothers Day is fast approaching and I found a set of Porcelain called Raffles to feature this week. Wanted to give you guys a sneak peak, it won't be online until sometime tomorrow. We will start another tea drawing tomorrow, Tea of the Week will be Blue Lady.

New Contest - Free Tea

Good morning fellow tea lovers! This week we will kick off a new weekly contest. I will be giving away a four ounce package of our Tea of the Week....every week! You need to comment here with your first name and email address. Drawings will be held on Mondays and I will contact winners via email.

The weekly newsletter comes out on Tuesdays. I will also post a write up on the new Tea of the Week here on Tuesdays. I love talking about tea, if you have any questions please contact me (Denise) at 866-799-4005. I'm in the office from 9:am to 2:30 pm EST.

This week we will be featuring Bourbon Street Vanilla Rooibos. Rooibos has been getting an amazing amount of press recently. As people begin searching for healthy alternatives to soft drinks; rooibos with its polyphenols, iron, zinc, fluoride, calcium and magnesium fits the bill. Enjoyed in South Africa for centuries, rooibos was first made available to Westerners by a Russian named Benjamin Ginsberg. He recognized that its benefical properties and wonderful taste made it an excellent caffeine free alternative to traditional caffeinated teas.

Our all natural flavored Rooibos is excellent on its own, but why not try making Red Lattes or Red Cappuccinos? These cutting edge options are the hippest new things in South Africa's coffee shops and cafes. For the kids try half Rooibos and half fruit juice, my grandson loves it. If you google Rooibos recipes you can find a lot of great ideas for this wonderful leaf!

Denise

Green Tea - The Springtime Cure All

Spring is officially here but it can't make up its mind if it wants to be spring or not. In the same week we had 60 degree temperatures and then had 3 inches of snow. Right now outside it is sunny and beautiful but it is only 49 chilly degrees. I have this urge to go out and enjoy the sun but the temperature and frigid breeze forces me back inside pretty quickly. I have brought a bit of the outside in by starting a bunch of my seeds for my garden. Watching those little sprout grow are just making crave some fresh spring greens. I think I will start some lettuce next. I am also thinking about the upcoming shorts weather. Time to trim off a few pounds. That goodness that is easy as brewing up my favorite green tea and replacing my soda and water with nothing but green tea. Sounds simple but it never fails to help me trim away the pounds. And the energy I get from it helps give me the nudge to spend some time with the Wii Fit. So far I have been able to trim off 2lbs a week with very little effort. Both green teas and oolongs give the same energy and metabolism boost. I am sure many of you heard of the Wu-long craze and there was some truth to it but they tried to fool you into thinking you had to buy their tea. The truth was any green or oolong tea would have done the trick but they can't make money off you if you can just run to the grocery store and buy it so they renamed it Wu-long. If you are looking even more results you can blend in some Matcha green tea powder and hope you can sleep that night.

Off to make more tea....

Back in Stock 1-16-09

We are finally getting things back in stock after the Holiday rush.

• 618B Indian Spiced Chai
• 618B Cinnamon
• TB500 Passion Fruit
• TB500 Cranberry Orange
• TB500 Cream Earl Grey
• TB500 Vanilla
• TB500 Green Tea
• TB500 Buckingham Palace
• TB500 Monks Blend

• Stevia Sweetener

I will say our tea bag sales have been great this year.

Hope everyone had a great Holiday season and is staying warm through this artic blast.

Tea to Soothe All Woes

I absolutely hate it when my kids go back to school because they bring home every sickness known to man and of course I catch it all. Today I have a scratchy throat and that weird warm feeling like your under a non-existent sun lamp. Time to pull out my favorite "feeling under-the-weather tea" Hojicha. I don't care if it is the flu or a hang-over this tea soothes my stomach and head better than all others. The best part maybe that I cannot make a mistake while brewing this tea and make it taste bad. You can brew it at any temp for any time period and still still tastes wonderful. What is Hojicha? It is Japanese tea made by roasting green tea. The flavor is very toasty and mellow. If you like green teas but would be willing to try something new I suggest giving this one a try.

Calm During the Storm

When things get really hectic a hot cup of tea is such a soothing balm for my nerves. The rocky economy effects us all in one way or another. Sitting there mulling over your budget is much less nerve racking when you have that cup of tea to sip and hold. At least it is for me. Sure it doesn't magically make everything better but for me it helps me keep a level head get through the ordeal. When I hear about deaths or sickness in my family the first thing I do is send tea and a card because I think the tea provides comfort. If someone you know is having a hard time right now, invite them over for a cup of tea and conversation. You will be amazed how much that person will appreciate it.

Morning Tea Rituals and Hello Again

I must not be the only person already longing for my morning tea ritual. Sure I could drink hot tea every morning year round but a cool dewy morning makes it so much more enjoyable. Our chat about my favorite hot teas last week, reminded a lot of you to check your stocks. It is funny how my tastes change so dramatically with the weather. In the summer I love fruity flavored teas, fall I like strong full bodied teas and smoky teas, in the winter I tend toward the spicy flavored black teas and in the spring I enjoy greens. You can imagine how cluttered my tea counter is at my house. I miss the days when we shipped the teas out of my garage because I never kept any tea in the house I just ran out and got what I wanted so I had access to all 400+ tea at all times. Now I have to limit myself a bit so my kitchen isn't one big tea storage cabinet. Picking the teas I will drink for he season can be a bit agonizing but then I come into the office and I can still drink any tea I want at any time. What am I drinking right now? I have a big cup of Jasmine Dragon Tears sitting beside me. I love this tea because some how it is calming yet energizing at the same time.

Chocolate Mint Tea

Tea of the week is Chocolate Mint, like dessert in a cup. Right after surgery there were lots of things I could not eat or drink. This tea made it possible for me to get my guilt free chocolate fix.

More clearance sale items are filtering in, some are not tea related and are from the tea room. Gone through about half the boxes, so there is still more to come.

Speaking of going through boxes, the girls found some Red Hat stuff and mugged for the camera before they took it home for the wee ones.

Amy is down in Florida this week and next to help her mother-in-law through knee replacement surgery. Jen is enjoying the extra hours on her paycheck.

School starts next Tuesday, which is a welcome change since we all have kids that age.

Picture of New Storefront

I actually have a window to look out of now. This was such a good move for us. We appreciate the patience of our great customers during the move.

Indian Mocha Chai and Clearance Sales

Clearance Sales

Wow, we're still unpacking boxes from moving. I found a lot of sachets and chests that were discontinued are and now in the Clearance section. I also have about 8 large boxes of clearance items to be unpacked yet, that will keep the deals coming.

Tea of the Week -Indian Mocha Chai

Country of Origin: Sri Lanka
Region: Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula, and Uva
Shipping Port: Colombo
Grade: OP - Orange Pekoe
Altitude: 5600 - 6400 feet above sea level
Cup Characteristics: Good body with strong Indian spice notes.

Infusion: Coppery bright - especially enticing with milk

Ingredients: Premium Black Tea, Cardamom, Cloves, Coriander, Cumin Seed, Sweet cumin seeds, Curry leaves, Lemon Grass, Rampe leaves, Natural flavors - Cherry and Chocolate

Chai is so prevalent in India and Sri Lanka that it could be called the ‘National drink’. It is very common to see the ‘tea wadis’ serving their chai to the walk-by street traffic.

Chai is brewed with milk and a mixture of spices. Each recipe can be different depending upon the spices used. Indian spiced chai is often referred to as Masala Chai. The word ‘chai’ literally means tea (different languages use various forms of this word - for example Portuguese call it ‘cha’, Hindus call it chai, and in Chinese the sound of the symbol for tea sounds very much like cha.) and ‘masala’ is the word for the mixture of the various spices - hence Masala Chai.

I love iced Chai in the morning, here's a great recipe.

Iced Indian Mocha Chai

6 cups of water
8 teaspoons of Indian Mocha Chai
1 cup milk
4 tbsp sugar
Ice, crushed

Boil the water and steep tea for 5 minutes. Strain tea and let cool. Put ice into 4 glasses and add tea. Leave about a quarter of the glass empty. To each glass add, 1 tbsp sugar, and 1/4 cup of milk.

Anyone else have good Chai recipes? I'm always looking to try new things!

A few things that are back in stock

Here are a few things that are back in stock.

• Amaretto softwood chests
• Artic Raspberry softwood chests
• Family size Henley Stainless Steel Teapots
• Large Green Tea Bricks
• Small Black Tea Bricks
• Caramel enveloped teabags
• Sunflower Mesh Ball Infusers

Well I'm going home, hopefully my grandson has been good for the sitter. Have a great night.

Moving in

What a weekend, I'm definitely too old for this. So lucky we had young strong people to help! We've got all the shelves set up in the new building, Amy and I have been unpacking boxes as fast as we can! By the way, Amy is taking some time off she's getting married Saturday. We hope you and Shaun have a great life!

I put in an order with our supplier today. I should be able to do the back orders Friday. So if your waiting, it's coming. I want to thank all our customers for being patient while we are relocating.

I'm jones-ing for tea, I need to find the kettles!

Good morning! After a couple of sleepless nights I finally got a good nights sleep. I sure can't take the lack of sleep like I used to, everyone thought I was cranky. Glad to be back to semi-normal. I'm sipping on a cuppa Brandied Apple this morning. I've been on a chocolate kick all week. Since I can no longer have the real thing it is a great substitute.

Things are finally started to come back in stock. The 25 teabag softwood chests should all be back in stock, if I missed any please let me know. All of the enveloped teabags are back except for the Caramel. Some of the ceramics are back (teapots, ect...) the rest should be back in stock by June 6th.

I did add a new tea this week, Bora Bora Mango Rooibos. If you're a rooibos fan, this one is a must try. I had it iced and loved it.

We started packing for our move this week. The girls made a lot of progress, but there are a lot of things that can't be packed until the last minute. Everything in the tea room is 50% off right now, so if you're close to Syracuse, Indiana please stop and see us.

Have a great weekend,
Denise

Busy day today. Stuff is flying off the clearance racks and I have more to put on next week. We have been very busy going through inventory and pulling stuff up to the tea room that we don't want to move. And any overstock I find will go on clearance. If you are anywhere near Syracuse in the next few weeks you should come check out the sales.

Miss Hailey came to work with mom this morning, so it's been 3 year old cuteness all morning. I need to go pick up the dog from the groomer, go to Goshen and get some more protein and pick up the kid from school yet today.

I'm also working on being available on the computer in the evenings. You can IM me at rooibos_lady on Yahoo Messenger right now. I'm working on a FaceBook and Twitter account. Love Twitter!

Have a great day!

Moving and discounts

Good morning,

Well it sure has cooled off here, so I have my hands wrapped around a cup of Cream Earl Grey White tea. Two big things going on here in the next couple of months. We will be moving to a new building June 20th...Yah! So I've been busy going through inventory seeing what we don't want to move and planning to update some things.

My supplier came out with a new catalog, so some things are going and new stuff will be coming in all summer. Keep an eye on the clearance section, you'll never know what will be there.

This weeks tea is Menage A Tea (formally Abundant Berry) and is 20% off. Since we had 70's and 80's here last week, we've kicked off the iced tea sale early. All Flavored Black teas in the 8 oz and 16 oz bags are now 10% off.

Personally, I've lost 50 pounds so far. So much more energy! I want to thank everyone for their support.

Have a great day,
Denise

No excuses

Wow! Long time ... no blog. So much to catch up on.

First let's get down to business. Some of you may have noticed all the out of stock items. The teas are mostly international shipping problems. The ceramics are only ordered once a year by my supplier (something I just learned too). All I have is tentative dates when these will be back in stock. Teas 3-15 and ceramics 4-15. As they come back in stock I will post them here.

We are very close to getting some of the decafs back in stock. Long story short, they were not up to our standards and new suppliers had to be found.

On a personal note, I had Bariatric (gastric bypass) surgery on the 20th of this month. I'm doing fine and back to work on a limited basis right now. I'm looking forward to getting back to my old thin, healthy self this year. Last year was full of a lot of soul searching and therapy to figure out why I let myself get so big. It will definitely be a year of changes for me and Culinary Teas. Stay tuned.....

Long Live Queen Mary Tea

When Twinings discontinued Queen Mary they left so many of you dis-heartened that they had just lost their favorite tea. Recently we have had so many people trying to find a replacement for dwindling stock. Luckily for us we carry our own Queen Mary blend and it is very close to the original from Twinnings. So far all the Queen Mary lovers have proclaimed it an almost seamless replacement for their old tea. I hope that all of you who have lost your old love will give us a try.

~Candie

Back To School

My children started school today. I have this image of Autumn in my mind when I think about going back to school but we still have a little more than a month until Autumn officially arrives. My tea choices change as dramatically as the weather when Autumn arrives. During the summer my favorites are the flavored greens because they make such refreshing iced teas but when Autumn arrives I crave a stronger brew to help me wake up on those dreary Autumn mornings. I must admit that Autumn is my favorite season of the year so I always look forward to it no matter how wet and dreary it gets. I am already planning which teas I need to restock so that I am ready for that first chilly morning. The tea I can't live without at this time of the year is our Scottish Breakfast Tea, a blend of many different blacks that's resulting brew is rich, malty and smooth. Lapsang Souchong or Russian Caravan are two teas that have a rich smoky aroma that can sometimes be a bit over powering but the flavor is much more smooth and refined. I left the best for last, Chai, a tea that warms you with its blend of aromatic spices. The chai I will be reaching for is our White Chocolate Spiced Chai. Oh my! All this talk about these teas has made me crave then even more. I guess I will just have to break down and get me a cup right now.

~Candie

Big Mark Down in Clearance!

I spent most of the day yesterday marking down prices in the clearance section. All loose teas are 30% off, everything else is 40% or more off. We have some really good deals on some higher end stuff, it would be a great time to do some early Christmas shopping. I know I did! Everyone have a great weekend.

Clearance, clearance, clearance!

Boy have we really cleaned house around here! I wish my house was this uncluttered. Keep your eye on the Clearance section, I will keep marking things down until they're gone! We did get a new tea in this week Strawberry Tingle Rooibos...yummy. You all have a great weekend!