Fall is in the air
What tea are you steeping there?
Mine’s a fav Pu’erh ☺

Puerh tea in cup

TAGS: Pu'erh, tea
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Tea lovers, rejoice! The holiday season is just around the bend, and we’re preparing ourselves by bringing in the season’s finest flavors: cinnamon, orange, and a whole host of wintery spices. Our Holiday Spice black tea blend is back for the season, but we’re also adding a new blend to the line up: Red Hot Chai. Nothing serves to remind us of the holidays quite like the aroma and flavor of these teas. They both take incredibly well to milk, brew strong and compliment the season’s charm with every sip. When I brewed myself a cup of this season’s first batch of Holiday Spice, it felt as though the holidays had really begun out here. More below on these delicious seasonal blends:

HOLIDAY SPICE TEA

This limited-edition spiced tea blend soothes the body and excites the taste buds with its heavy notes of cinnamon, orange and clove. Our Holiday Spice Tea pairs perfectly with cold winter mornings and evenings by the fireplace. It carries an aroma reminiscent of mulled spices and cinnamon candy emerging from a full body and dark liquor.

RED HOT CHAI

This strong and spicy blend kicks the cold away with the season’s boldest flavors: red rooibos, cinnamon, chai spices and a kiss of vanilla come together in this complex yet balanced tea. Naturally caffeine-free and high in antioxidants and minerals, Red Hot Chai’s rooibos base provides health benefits and a mild honey sweetness to compliment the bold flavors of a traditional chai. Great prepared with or without milk, our Red Hot Chai is sure to please palates at any time of the day.

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Brewlux

The Brewlux™ product that The Tea Spot is distributing is a concept patented by my brother and me. The initial inspiration for the product, however, came out of a brainstorm that included his wife Karen and my daughter Laura as well. And the funniest part of the story is that Brewlux™ might never have come about if Ohio eisweins were more to my liking.

Ashtabula County, Ohio

My brother Alex lived midway between where my daughters were doing their undergraduate work, in Oberlin, Ohio and Rochester, New York. I liked to take the opportunity to visit them all in one trip, and particularly enjoyed our Fall gatherings in this beautiful, rural area of Northeastern Ohio. Two years ago, we were enjoying a gorgeous brisk and sunny day touring the wineries in Ashtabula County, who specialize in eiswein, which is a kind of extreme form of the late harvest wine. The grapes are left to hang on the vine long after the usual moment of harvest. But whereas late harvest wines are commonly brought in from the vineyard in the Fall, grapes destined to make eiswein are left until winter fastens an icy grip on the vines. This makes for an exceptionally sweet dessert wine.

Ohio Eiswein Vineyard

After our fourth or fifth winery stop, we stopped to get some pizza. I was so enjoying the wonderful pizza aromas emanating from the giant oven. But, they were offering eiswein to taste while you waited for your pie! I couldn’t take it anymore, and became almost desperate for a great cup of tea. Needless to say, that wasn’t an option at this pizza-wine barn. All I could do was complain and fantasize about my loose leaf tea…

Yummy Pizza

Being engineers, we started to scribble and draw up designs on a napkin. Our loose leaf tea would need to have sufficient volume to expand in, you should be able to brew it in a standard to-go cup, and it could not contribute to the landfill issue. Lots of ideas, more eiswein and a delicious pizza later, we were on our way home and stopped at a convenience store where we found a set of 10 styrofoam cups and lids. Drawing, cutting and designing into the night, we had a few concepts completed by the end of the weekend, and Alex got them into a computer-aided design model right away.

Brewlux Inventors

We have just been granted a Small Business Innovative Research Grant by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to do market research in commercializing the Brewlux™. And two years into the development process, and many iterations later, we’re still always working on optimizing the “next” generation model… but now fully able to serve folks a legitimate cup of loose leaf tea to-go, in our fully biodegradable Brewlux™ filters. Thank you Alex, Karen and Laura, and I should add – Ashtabula County, Ohio and the USDA.

TAGS: biodegradable, Loose Leaf Tea, Tea filter
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Better than the B-side of a record, we’ve recently attained B Corp status! Certified B Corps (where B stands for ‘Benefit’) are a new kind of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Unlike traditional corporations, Certified B Corps are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their employees, suppliers, community, consumers, and environment.  Cofounder of B Corp Jay Coen Gilbert states “B Corporation certification is key to distinguish good companies from just good marketing. With their commitment to the triple bottom line, The Tea Spot stands as a leader in the movement for a better way to do business”.

Throughout the certification process it helped us develop and articulate a set of core values for our company which we have since added to our employee handbook. Even though we’re a small company currently, integrating these hard core commitments now will help keep us aligned with our goals as we grow. Our vision for a profitable, sustainable and philanthropic business has a singular focus: to help people live longer, healthier lives by making loose leaf tea an everyday luxury. Our mantra, “Modern Brewing. Conscious Living.” translates into five core values:

1. Develop groundbreaking innovations and deliver extraordinary customer experiences in support of our mission.

2. Ensure that our products have a positive net effect on the environment and their practices are consistent with eco-friendly values.

3. Inspire and support each other at the workplace through employee ownership and reciprocal relationships – understanding that respect, integrity and active teamwork are the building blocks of our successes.

4. Build and maintain reciprocal relationships based on respect and integrity with the buyers, suppliers, and colleagues in our community and industry.

5. Advance our mission through social entrepreneurship by means of our 10% Pledge for Cancer Wellness, donating 10% of all sales in-kind to cancer wellness and community programs.

We were since featured by Development Crossing, a Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainable Development media company, in their CSR Minute news report for attaining this certification. They feature companies committed to a triple bottom line (people, planet, & profits). You can watch the quick video segment here.

TAGS: 10% pledge, B Corp Certified, B Corp company, B Corp Tea, eco-friendly tea
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