Tea Talk

Oh, the wonderful smells of holiday baking! I love walking into a house when someone has been baking. It always smells heavenly! The scents make my mouth start watering for the cakes, cookies, candy, and goodies loaded with cinnamon and other spices that are part of many family holiday traditions. But did you know that cinnamon is also one of those amazing spices that is so good for you? People have been using cinnamon in cooking and baking for hundreds of years. It has also been used as one of the most popular medicinal spices since ancient times. In fact,...

It’s official. The holiday shopping season is now well and truly underway, with Black Friday and Shop Small Saturday behind us. A tip that a good friend gave me years ago and that I have since adopted is to watch for gift items all year long. She is much better at this than me and is already done with all her holiday shopping. Annoying, right? Plus, she keeps reminding me how many days till Christmas...and so you can be in the loop with me, the count is now at 28 days. I’m never completely done early and always find I...

Tis the season for colds, flu, and other yucky things. There are lots of nasty bugs going around right now, and this is the time of year I start upping my game to try and help prevent catching something. On a daily basis, I drink a lot of tea with a lot of antioxidants, which in turn help boost my immune system. I rotate through the Power House Teas of green, white, rooibos, honey bush, and a few herbals, which are proven to have higher concentrations of antioxidants. The flavors depend on my mood and what my taste buds say...

Only 6 Saturdays till Christmas or 41 days, but who’s counting? I was reminded this week how close Christmas and the holidays really are by one of my customers who was just finishing her Christmas shopping. I’m impressed she’s ahead of the game, but I think I’m like most of you who are just starting to think about the gift-giving season. I enjoy giving the gift of tea to all my tea-loving family and friends — I know, a big surprise there, right? I get to think about all the special people in my life and then select the teas...

Can you believe we're already into November? This year is just flying by! As I looked at the calendar and saw that we've only got 17 days until Thanksgiving, I had a moment of panic. My daughter and her family are coming from out of state this year, and I would like to be ahead of the game as far as the food and drink I have on hand. I'm sure you natural planners out there will just laugh and say it's called "menu planning." I'm trying to avoid the last-minute panic run to the store because I forgot something....