Greetings, friends. Maria, Jessica, and I are back into the swing of things after attending the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. It was great trip (pretty darn hot though), we had a lot of fun and met a lot of people. Overall, it was wonderful to put faces to the names of our customers, importers, and friends in the industry. I think we were all reminded of how lucky we are to be working in the tea industry, where nearly everyone we do business with is a friend. The Expo had more the air of a cocktail party than a business meeting–everyone was excited to see what others brought with them.

Highlights for me include: tasting oolong with Devan Shah and the ITI team, trying out a delicious white tea grown in Hawaii, and tasting perhaps the best gyokuro of my life (my favorite cribbing) brewed by the man who farmed it himself.

At any rate, the World Tea Expo provided us with an excellent chance to premiere two new products. The Mod Teapot (pictured on the right), in stunning new colors, will be out soon, and was received quite well by those who stopped by. Not only is it a gorgeous and sturdy teapot, but it’s got a gigantic infuser. If you know The Tea Spot well, you know we’re all about large volume infusers, and this pot is no exception.

Our second exciting release was the Brewlux, which we’re distributing exclusively. I could ramble for days about how revolutionary this product truly is, but I’ll try to be brief here and link you to the Brewlux Video we just put together. Long story short, it’s a large volume infuser designed for to-go tea service in coffee + tea shops. That’s cool, but let me drop your jaw a little more: Brewlux is completely biodegradable, made from US grown corn, and produced locally. You know those cool compostable to-go cups you’ve been seeing around? They’ve got a new best friend.

I’d like to wrap up by congratulating Steven Donner (a customer of ours) of Sipping Streams Tea Co. on his win in the Tea Sommelier competition at Expo! We’ll have to try his matcha sometime…

With January being national Hot Tea Month, loose leaf tea is getting a lot of attention. For those of you who have some questions as to where to start and which tea might be right for you, this post is for you :)

Many people are surprised to learn that all teas, white, green, oolong and black, are made from the leaves of the same plant: Camellia sinensis.
While weather conditions and soil contribute to the final taste of the tea, the significant differences of tea type develop in the oxidation process of the leaves. Oxidation begins a process of drying and withering. A black tea is fully oxidized, causing it to turn black, while a white tea is barely oxidized at all, thus retaining its soft, silvery down.

Pu’erh teas are aged and fermented. 60–70 mg of caffeine per 8 oz cup.

Black teas are fully oxidized teas. 40 – 60 mg of caffeine per 8 oz cup.

Oolong teas are semi–oxidized, which places them mid–way between green and black teas. The caffeine content and antioxidant level is also mid–way between that of green and black teas, 25 – 35 mg caffeine/8 oz cup.

Green tea leaves are only very slightly oxidized. 20 – 30 mg caffeine/8 oz cup.

White teas are the least processed of all teas. They release the least amount of caffeine of all teas, 10-15 milligrams per 8 oz cup.

Sipping a cup of tea at every afternoon will begin to bring you some of the feelings of well-being from tea, but to reap the full protective rewards of loose leaf, you need to drink 32 to 64 oz a day. This level of tea consumption is not uncommon in many parts of the world, but for most Americans it probably represents a significant shift.

So in short, be it white, green, oolong or black – or from India, China, Japan or Sri Lanka – you can drink up and feel good about it!

Morning pu'erh tea steep in my kitchen

Starting back in May Parallel Seventeen started serving The Tea Spot teas! Parallel 17 is a restaurant where quality, taste and style all coordinate well together in a Vietnamese cuisine.  The plates are not only delicious, where you want to savor every bite (and you do, I’ve eaten there and didn’t want dinner to end) but they’re gorgeous to boot, and not in that over the top pretentious way.  Therefore, it was the perfect fit for our gourmet loose leaf teas.

Image by Andrea Doenges

The server will present the table with four of our teas, Earl of Grey (black tea), Boulder Blues (green tea), Meditative Mind (white tea) and Red Rocks (herbal tea), in a simple and classy display.  Once the customer decides on what tea they’d like to drink, they are treated to a tasty finish to their meal, almost a subsitution for a dessert I daresay.  I highly recommend going to try this restaurant yourself, not only for their teas, though we wouldn’t mind if you did, but to have a fun and tasty experience in uptown Denver.

Parellel Seventeen is located at 1600 East 17th Avenue, Denver 80218
303-399-0988

Summer in Boulder: our extraordinary irises and wild Mariposa Lilies, which we’re well known for, are showing their varied colors and exuding their delicious fragrance. Wood roses are open and sharing their exotic perfume. These and more contribute to the lovely feeling of romance in the air…hence my inspiration for this post!

As busy entrepreneurs in our respective businesses, my fiancé and I don’t always have the time or energy for a leisurely 6 o’clock drink, but it’s still important for us to get together and reconnect at the end of our work days – which is just as beautifully, if not more so, accomplished with an informal gong fu tea ceremony and some aromatic (is there a pattern here?) oolong…or, if we need more of a lift, a nice strong pot of Earl Grey, or a Japanese green with some dark chocolate! When we’re really looking to unwind, a couple of aromatic steeping cups of Meditative Mind, our white tea blend sprinkled with rosebuds and green tea jasmine pearls, are just the thing.

A quick Google search on “aphrodisiacs” shows that there are many different categories of substances named after the Greek Goddess of love, Aphrodite, used in the belief that they increase sexual desire – aromatic, edible, stimulating, relaxing, hallucinogenic, and more.

The oil of bergamot in Earl Grey, it turns out, has long been used as an aromatic aphrodisiac to reduce muscle tension, anxiety, and stress. For added smoothness, our Earl of Grey has just a touch of licorice root, considered an excellent edible and aromatic aphrodisiac. In fact, traditional Chinese medicine used licorice root to enhance love and lust and the ancient Kama Sutra included it as an ingredient for many recipes to increase sexual vigor! According to research done at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, the smell of licorice root is particularly stimulating to women. I always thought the calming aromatherapeutic benefits coupled with the visual beauty of Meditative Mind helped make it our best-selling tea, and had quickly dismissed a most grateful cycling buddy who once told me that my gift of that tea turned his girlfriend wild! But my research unveils that the rosebuds and jasmine pearls may do more than simply calm us down. Rosebuds are, indeed, an aphrodisiac…mmm. Their aroma stimulates the brain and keeps the mind focused and alert (hence the name of our tea!). But rosebuds are also a great mood enhancer and amplify the libido! Eating them (though I don’t know about their infusion) apparently increases blood flow through the body and allows a warm sense of stimulation. Jasmine is also an aromatic aphrodisiac. So much for the meditation…perhaps we should have called it “Tantric Mind”.

Needless to say, the caffeine in tea can offer an energy boost at the end of a long day to get you back to your best when starting your evening with your sweetheart. You should consider a romantic tea break next time you come home. Just keep in mind the quote by the travel writer Catherine Donzel: “Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage”.