Coffeecakes.com- Retails The Tea Spot teas and Steepware!

Hello Tea Spot fans!

This year I would like to focus on all of the wonderful retailers, e-tailers and food service customers who sell and serve our teas. All of these shops have unique and wonderful traits with one thing in common, selling The Tea Spot products. Follow me each week to read about another one of our retailers.

I will start this series with Coffeecakes.com!

Coffeecakes.com and The Tea Spot became partners in what seemed to be a whirlwind of serendipidous connections. Literally a day after I had contacted Coffeecakes.com to see if they would be interested in trying our products, I received a contact form that someone from Coffeecakes had filled out on our website, requesting wholesale information! It couldn't be that easy right?

It was!!! Shortly after I sent samples out for them to try, we were in business and hit the ground running. Let me give you a bit of background on the company.

The incredible ladies who started Coffeecakes.com, have been running the business for 15 years. Not only are their products amazing, but the wonderful way they treat everyone, from customers to vendors, makes you want to keep in touch and keep coming back for more. Coffeecakes.com sells not only coffee cakes, but entire lines of mouthwatering desserts and sweets. Seriously, just check out their homepage http://www.coffeecakes.com/. Three words: To Die For. Fortunately their sales in the coffee and tea realm led them to us and I to them. Shortly after I sent samples out for them to try, we partnered up and it has been a blast working with them ever since. Our loose leaf teas compliment sweet desserts very well, and their customers seem LOVE our teaware.

If you're looking to find some amazing sweets to pair with tea this Valentine's Day, look no further than Coffeecakes.com . And if you're interested in putting together a gift basket that pairs their sweets with our teas, e.g. Bolder Breakfast with Chocolate Walnut Coffee Cake or Red Rocks with their Chocolate Surprise Squares, contact them here to and ask for their Personal Gift Basket Specialist!

It has been a pleasure working with Coffeecakes so far, and I'm looking forward to what we can do together in the future!

My cup of tea was somewhat weak :( evoking further memories of “Tea”…

Last night, we were at Santa Fe Opera’s production of Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love”, one of the funnest and most melodic operas ever. If you’ve never been to the opera before, this would be a fine place to start… The production was stellar: original, aesthetically beautiful, and superbly executed. But the soloists’ singing left me a bit wanting… which brought back memories of the last time I left the opera here wanting for more – Tan Dun’s Tea opera 2 years ago.

Needless to say, as both an opera and tea lover, and a great admirer of Chinese culture, I had expectations for Tea… Tea, the opera, is set in ancient Japan and China, and tells a tale based on historic facts of erotic love, mystery and intrigue surrounding the chase for the legendary tea master Lu Yu’s Book of Tea. This too, was a superbly professional production by Santa Fe Opera, but the only things that remain in my memory 2 years later are a shrieking E-flat clarinet, great banners of paper being rustled and ripped, and the sound of water being poured in and out of uplit glass bowls.

Like with all artistic endeavors, the outcomes are mixed – from production to production, even from night to night. But with a house having the stature and legacy of Santa Fe Opera, we’ve been thrilled here enough times to know that the outcomes can be world class. With the exception of the amazingly lovely bassoon solo last night in the tenor’s aria, this production left me wanting for more than the warm personality and solid performance of the two male leads. So onwards and upwards to Don Giovanni tonight and La Traviata tomorrow… we’ll be sure to hydrate plenty and caffeinate ourselves before the long evening shows here at 7000 ft altitude with Bolder Breakfast and Earl of Grey Puerh. And here’s to hoping our next “cup of tea” in Santa Fe is stronger! (Image courtesy Santafeopera.org)

Foiled!

In my last post I vowed to force my visiting family (all from central PA) to put down the teabag and pick up a mug of perfectly steeped loose-leaf tea. Enter the Celestial Seasonings Tent Sale. What started out as a guided tour through a popular tea factory turned into a teabag feeding frenzy. Never have I been so bamboozled in my entire life. It was a crushing blow this tent sale. Boxes of any flavor you want for a buck. One dollar. I wasn't there, but I heard some little kids were trampled. Even my mother, who appreciates a good bargain, had to step aside while the rest of the family filled shopping bag after shopping bag with flavors of tea they've never even heard of. I didn't stand a chance. It was over before it began.

What this frustrating experience did help me remember was that converting the mainstream tea-drinking public into loose-leaf connoisseurs isn't going to happen over night. Certainly not over night in my apartment where my youngest visitor built a three-room fort out of all the Celestial Seasonings tea boxes. The first thing you must do when changing someone's habit is to grab their attention and the aftermath of this tent sale was like herding cats. So I decided to flee and live to fight another day. Soon they will tire of all that bagged tea and the excitement will wear off. Enter Bolder Breakfast, Iced Mango Tango and Green Roasted Mint.

photo from www.cbc.ca

Simply Shocking! A week without drinking tea and only ...da da dum...COFFEE!

Yes, it's true. Last week (spanning both weekends) I switched gears from running and was involved in Ride the Rockies which is a 380 mile bike tour for 6 days going from one Colorado town to the next all on your bike. I will get into further details about the trip on my next blog once I've downloaded pictures, but for the time being what you need to know is that while we biked from town to town, we didn't have to carry anything while biking.We were allowed one huge bag (thank you Tea Spot Chef) and then we set up camp at each town's elementary or high schools, were able to use their facilities (as well as all the lovely outdoor porta johns) and the local vendors set up stations for us to get food from.

And each morning, there was "the coffee guy". The coffee station was set up as a portable coffee stand that also drove from town to town to provide us with our early morning drinks. So, every morning I had a glorious cup of coffee to get me energized at 5:30 in the morning, to keep me warm when waking up in 30 degree weather in the mountains and to get me started on my 60-80mile a day ride!


"Didn't the coffee man have tea?" you ask. To this I reply, "yes, he did", but I knew it was only bagged tea and quite honestly that didn't get me all revved up to start on my morning ride.

You need something, scratch that ANYTHING, to help you get up these hills!















So there you have it, a week with no tea. Quite honestly, now that I'm sitting here with my cup of Bolder Breakfast, no longer on a bike saddle, I realize that I have missed my tea and I appreciate it maybe even a little more for the amazing quality that it is. You know what they say "Absence makes the heart grow fonder!"


Photos found at http://www.ridetherockies.com/media-room/photo-archives/

Simply Irresistable : Three black teas that are so good it's hard to choose which one to have as my first tea of the morning!

Some of you may sing in the shower (it's ok to admit it, I catch myself singing in the shower, not very well mind you, every once in a while), but this morning I caught myself singing in front of my tea options. "Simply Irresistible!"

Why was I singing this song? Because every morning I encounter the same conundrum " Which amazing tea will I have this morning?" Being that I work in at a tea company I get the pleasure of deciding which teas out of a multitude of options to have throughout the day, but it also makes the decision that much more difficult. To the outside observer it might look like I am standing in the kitchen just staring at the teas, but inside I'm having an internal battle choosing between three different teas: Bolder Breakfast Blend, Earl of Grey and New Moon Darjeeling.

I'll give you a little insight as to why I have such a hard time choosing, and you can decide for yourself which one you would prefer.

Bolder Breakfast Blend has opened a new world of breakfast blends for me. It is smooth and rich and the best part is it has a hint of a chocolate undertone. Now for all of those out there like myself who always prefer a Mocha to any other coffee drink, then you'll understand why I not only prefer this tea to coffee (containing 0 calories over the average mocha containing at least 200 calories) but why I have a hard time not choosing a tea with a slight chocolate flavoring. It is a nice and bold blend and because it contains Pu'erh a highly coveted slightly smoky black tea, it gives me enough of a kick to get me started in the morning.

Earl of Grey on the other hand, has me by my heart strings. I grew up really disliking Earl Grey, but ours is so incredibly smooth, flavorful, and not bitter, that I have now grown to adore it. I feel like I'm in a Folgers Commercial when I open the tin of Earl of Grey...one big sniff and I'm hooked. I have smelled and tasted many an Earl Grey in my day and most of them smell stale, taste bitter, and have an odd unnatural aroma. Our is incredible. While you can pick out the bergamot smell that all Earl Grey tea has, the additional combined flavors of licorice root, citrus and vanilla make this tea an all day addiction. Add a little sweetener and/or milk...to die for. Where's my biscotti?

And then there's New Moon Darjeeling that makes me feel like a queen. Before this job I had never tasted Darjeeling (at least, not that I know of) and it wasn't till our new organic Darjeeling was launched that I cared to try some. Darjeeling is called the Champagne of teas because like Champagne, it is only produced in the Darjeeling region and the tea growing and processing is unique to that tea. Darjeeling is less fermented than most black teas, so has slightly less caffeine, but it still retains has that creamy and smooth black tea flavoring that I desire in the morning. Darjeeling makes me feel like a queen because while it is a tea that is at anyone's disposal, I feel like a prize has been given to just me when I make a cup of it.

I think you can see why my decision is a difficult one...

So what did I pick this morning you ask?

This morning I chose Bolder Breakfast Blend and it was PERFECT.

Tomorrow morning...who knows!? Will I be in a rich and chocolate mood? A vibrant and smooth mood? or do I want to be queen of the morning? Decisions, decisions.

But they're all..."Simply Irresistible"
(don't blame me if this song gets stuck in your head)


Sunrise Image from: www.flickr.com/photos/52756285@N00/95230597/

Haute Couture of Tea (part deux)

The previous post reminds me of some serious tea couture - the Red Dress created a few years ago by designer Brett Cooper. After being commissioned by Celestial Seasonings to make a red gown from their tea packaging, Cooper transformed nearly 700 packets of tea into this red gown and matching hat, purse, and heels. Celestial Seasonings donated a portion of sales of this brilliant Red Dress to WomenHeart, the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. Kudos to our Boulder neighbors for fundraising in such a fun & whimsical way! Their goal was to also help raise awareness that black tea may actually help lower cholesterol, a major factor of heart disease. The link between black tea and heart health has been supported by numerous scientific studies. You can find our current list of black teas here: Organic Blue Mountain Nilgiri (the one I'm happily sipping currently), Organic New Moon Darjeeling, Bolder Breakfast, Earl of Grey, Creme Caramel, and Mango Tango.

Daily Rituals

Everybody seems to have some kind of daily ritual. Whether it is working out, eating dinner with the family, kissing a loved one goodnight or taking a bath; a daily ritual is something you do everyday that is a part of you. I know I have few daily rituals and when I don’t do them I feel incomplete that day. My favorite daily ritual is more of luxury then a routine and I do it every morning, mid-morning, noon, mid-afternoon and night. A luxury done at least 5 times a day everyday, your probably asking yourself how could I afford to that, especially in these economical times…Well, on my journey for a healthy living I began to incorporate tea in my daily lifestyle. After awhile I began to recognize how taking time to enjoy a simple and flavorful cup of tea is not only not only healthy but affordable.

Every morning I wake up and steep a big cup of Bolder Breakfast. It has a generous amount of caffeine, about 1/3 the amount of a cup of coffee without the mood swings, jitters and stomach cramps. After teaching an aerobics class, another one of my daily routines, I drink an oolong tea because it helps to increase the metabolic rate and has a little let caffeine then black tea. After lunch I usually make myself a cup of the Green Roasted Mint because the peppermint helps with digestion and the green tea has a little less caffeine then oolong and is a good source of anti-oxidants. My happy hour tea is usually the Meditative Mind, a white with jasmine pearls and rosebuds, this tea not only helps me to unwind but also gives me just a little boost caffeine to help me get through the rest of day. My sleepy-time tea is usually the Red Rocks, a herbal tea blended with vanilla and almonds, this tea not only helps hydrate by body but also quenches my sweet tooth, especially if I add a little soy milk and a touch of agave.

Needless to say, although I drink tea all day long I usually only drink about 120 milligrams of caffeine, which is the equivalent to 1-8oz cup of coffee. And more importantly, I feel so much better. Are you trying to replace your daily cup of coffee with a daily cup of tea? If so, I would like to hear about it and help you with your transition…

How I changed a bad habit into a daily healthy luxury (Part 2)

In order to change a so-called ‘bad’ habit I knew I needed to replace it with a ‘good’ habit. I also knew I needed it to taste great, feel good and be fun. Although it took some time and effort we decided to blend a tea specifically for me, a coffee drinker. The blend needed to be bold in flavor, strong in caffeine and aromatic. We started with a Pu-erh (a fully fermented earthy black tea high in caffeine) and blended it with Yunnan Gold, Ceylon, Assam, and added subtle hints of dark chocolate essences to give it a creamy sweet finish. Although the blend (aka BOLDER BREAKFAST blend) was absolutely amazing, I had a real hard time waking up to a cup of tea in the morning instead of my cup of Jo. After I struggled for a few days, I realized I didn’t have to quit cold turkey. I decided to replace my 16 oz cup of coffee with soy milk for an 8 oz cup of coffee and an 8 oz cup of tea (aka BOLDER BREAFAST blend) both with soy milk. After a few weeks, I started to feel better. I noticed I wasn’t crashing or I didn’t feel the jitters but I still felt bloated, dehydrated and a little irritable. The research shows that drinking a cup of coffee and/or tea will stimulate the beta waves in your brain but only tea will also stimulate your alpha waves thus keeping you alert and preventing you from crashing. So, drinking a cup of tea immediately after my cup of coffee kept me going. After about a month of waking up to both coffee and tea, I decided to take the next step and began drinking a full 16 oz cup of tea with soy milk and dropped the coffee. After awhile I realized that brewing a cup of coffee in the morning takes just as much time as steeping a cup of tea but I began to thoroughly appreciate the ritual of making tea and enjoy the health benefits of taking tea. Tune in next week to see how I take tea daily.