Tea Talk

Wow! Can you believe it's Labor Day already? Where did our summer go? I don't know about you, but it sure flew by for me. I know we'll still have some really nice warmer weather, but many people are ready for the change of season. My husband is one of them and is ready for the cooler fall weather. I'm a warm weather fan, so I'll take more of the warm weather for as long as it holds on. Since the 1890s, our nation has had a legally designated day to honor labor and the hard-working folks who produce it...

Are you having trouble unwinding and sleeping? You're not alone. I get so many questions about what kind of teas I have to help people sleep I thought I needed to do an article about my Sleepy Time Teas. First, let me say that if you want to unwind and sleep, caffeine is not your friend. That doesn't mean you can't drink teas with caffeine; just enjoy them earlier in the day. All the teas I will tell you about are naturally caffeine-free. They all have high-quality ingredients that work together to soothe your tired body and mind. I also...

Many of you may have heard the term matcha before but aren't sure what it is. In this newsletter, I will explain how matcha is made and why I drink it daily. Matcha is a type of green tea that has gained much popularity over the last few years. It looks very different from traditional green tea; it is grown and harvested differently, too. Tea that will be made into matcha is shaded from direct sunlight during the growing season. This produces much darker, greener tea leaves than those receiving more sunlight. The lack of sunlight increases chlorophyll and amino...

I used to primarily drink black tea. I still LOVE it, but I've also gotten really good at incorporating other teas into my day, along with water. I find it to be lots of fun to sample new teas that my fabulous master tea blenders create. They put combinations together that I wouldn't even consider, and for the most part, they're wonderful. So we — my hardworking tasting crew who love their volunteer jobs — have been sampling a LOT of tea over the last 6 weeks. We narrowed our tea choices down and will be rolling out the winners...

When my kids were young, they loved popsicles. In the summer, I was forever buying boxes of multi-flavored popsicles or the Fun Pops Freeze Pops. Everyone had their favorite flavor or color, including me. As I’ve gotten a bit older and more health conscious, I’ve taken to eating cleaner and not having as much sugar in my diet. Therefore, popsicles haven’t been in my repertoire for a while now. That doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about them because my husband occasionally asks for them. So, I’ve been experimenting with using my summer-flavored fruit teas and making them into popsicles, or as...