The cold is coming! The cold is coming!
Both in the form of sniffles and the brrr weather.
Posting pictures kicking it beachside as your desktop wallpaper is one way to say the shivers ain’t so. But let us recommend a more effective option: setting up an old school tea party, kettle, flowery cups, fragrant bags and all. You get the mugs, we got the goods.
Two Leaves and a Bud
While traveling through Asia and India, Richard Rosenfeld quaffed many a “good cuppa organic tea.” But in North America? Not so much. So he brought them over in the form of biodegradable sachets from Japan, India and Sri Lanka, among other exotic spots. A member of Trust Organic Small Farmers Initiative and determined to support all Fair trade Teas, these beverages warm you up with the constant do-gooding and flavors as soothing as Alpine Berry Herbal.
Tea Beyond
Without soda’s carbonation or the brute strength of coffee, it can be challenging to choose to fill our mugs with quiet, healthful tea. But when a lily or a peony may emerge from the pot? Yeah, we’re sold. That’s what happens when you dunk a Tea Beyond bag into your glass (preferably 4” tall with 2”) tea pot filled with 12-15 oz. of boiling water. The English Marigolds, a European salad topper and Sweet Olive flower, a Chinese bread and ingredient are safe to snack with your drink.
Rishi Tea
The other teas drink Rishi’s dust. After taking home 11 first place prizes at the 2009 World Tea Championship, the company decided to package ten of the golden brews (like cinnamon plumb and summer lemon) into the Award Winning Sample Set ($59.50). Since such quality can get pricey, Rishi is offering 31 days of giveaways via Twitter in support of Fair Trade Month.
SmartKetttle
Breaking away from the need to heat up on a stove was SmartKettle’s ($99.95) first hot move. This water-heater goes on to warm up faster than the microwave can, stay cool enough to sit on any surface and to be grabbed even while its contents are steaming.
Because sometimes a tea is only as sweet as its cookie, we’re dunking Late July’s green-tea infused vanilla bean sandwich cookies and Tea Aura’s all-natural shortbread cookies which are shaped like tiny tea leaves and chock full of antioxidants, in case you don’t get around to filling up your cup.
– Erica Goss
