Create Your Own "Stimulant Package" at the Office

Hello TEA Friends,

These days, many companies, including the one I work for, are looking at ways to cut costs. One of the more insignificant perks on the chopping block is the familiar and taken-for-granted coffee station. You know, the standard commercial pots and generic prepackaged coffee and tea bags that have been around since we moved to an industrialized nation (and, sadly, often tasted like they had been around that long, too).

Faced with a challenge, many folks are getting creative and resourceful in filling this now unmet need for caffeine. In the office I work in, some of our java brethren launched a "coffee club" last year, just before the official plug-pulling of the company-sponsored supplies. Each week someone was responsible for bringing in a new package of grounds - the only condition: it had to be better than the generic fare that was already there. Few found this difficult to meet.

Borrowing from this great idea, my friend, co-worker and fellow tea enthusiast, Christine D. , suggested we start our own club, but, with (how anti-climatic!) tea. Knowing we'd seen others with the recognizable string-and-paper- tab dangling from their cups, we figured there were at least a few like us who might want to start an exchange.

One office e-mail later, we had almost a dozen members the first day, and one third are gents. Cost of entry is a box of your favorite tea. Of course, being practical and a friend to Facilities, we have to stick to teabags, but we take comfort in knowing over 90 per cent of England's tea drinkers use them daily. If it's good enough for our friends across the pond, it's certainly sufficient for us to take back to our cubes.

We've had a great variety brought in, including herbal, fruity, green and black teas. It's interesting to see the different personalities and what tea they bring: one member brought in Tazo"Passion" and another brought in Tazo "Calm" (I'll let you decide who you want to sit near in the next staff meeting).

We continue to grow in numbers and we're finding with with the variety of tea and enthusiam we bring to the table, we're a pretty good team. As we all know, there's no "I" in team, but there is "tea".

If your office hasn't started a stimulant package yet, we highly recommend it. And, when you do, we'd love to hear about it.

Bringing in the New Year with a Bit of the Bubbly

Hello TEA Friends!

I know, it isn't exactly the "New Year", but the "bubbly" I'm referring to isn't the effervescent, golden-hued adult beverage, either. No, the drink I rang in the second month of 2009, was the trendy curiosity that I've been anxious to try ever since I heard about it a few year's back - bubble tea!

Bubble tea is an unlikely combination of black tea, fruit juices, milk and "pearls", the little tapioca drops that fall to the bottom of the glass likes rows of miniature cannon balls. It's an interesting, if not necessarily appetizing, look, to be sure.

As you might suspect, this drink is more popular with the "younger set" and by that, I mean college kids. My college sophomore daughter, knowing that I'm always up for a new tea experience, suggested we visit "Bubble Island" in East Lansing a few weeks ago and I couldn't wait to go.

Bubble Island is a growing franchise on college campuses and this particular "tea room" has resided on Grand River, hub of the local campus retail strip, since 2004.

I ordered, I believe, a passion fruit drink, and Rachel having sampled bubble tea before, opted for her drinks "sans" pearls. I think that may be my choice in the future as well. The drink was sweet and tasty, but the gummy bear spheres that slid up my straw when I wasn't paying attention, were chewy, and by my fourth slurp, a bit annoying.

Bubble tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980's and began as a fun treat for the little ones. It made it's way to California where it proliferated like Starbucks, with a bubble tea outlet on every corner. Today, it's found a welcoming home on college campuses and continues to be a popular drink with the same folks who are tutoring us on Facebook.

And in that vein, I sometimes feel for my kids - their culture and fads get invaded by us baby boomers like our entitlement generation has approached so many other things. We invade their music, their movies, their TV shows and, yes, even Facebook, as our territories leaving them little to claim as their own. In this instance, however, I surrender to you this bubble tea. It belongs to those with a "refined sugar palate". I still prefer my tea in a china cup and my pearls around my neck, but, thirty years ago, I would have given this a mood ring-adorned thumbs up!

Yours in TEA and friendship,

Barb

New TEA Video from Barb's TEA Shop!

Hello TEA Friends,

Happy New Year from Barb's TEA Shop! We are looking forward to another exciting year of tea events with you. To kick off 2009, we created a new BTS video with the talented folks at M-1 Studios of Royal Oak.

So, please put the kettle on, take a tea break with us and enjoy our new video.

We'll look forward to sharing another cup of tea with you real soon!

Barb

Holiday Boun-tea Anything But Routine

Hello TEA Friends!



I am trying to prolong this unusually sunny winter Saturday afternoon by having a second cup of Marriage Freres Darjeeling Princeton which notes on the label, "finest daytime Darjeeling". Even though the sun is starting to set, I'm going to use all resources available to extend the last weekend of my holiday vacation before the alarm gets reset Sunday night for the routine 5:30 Monday morning wake-up call.


This year, I saved up enough vacation time to take over a week and half off between Christmas and New Year's Day and it was the best mix of holiday hustle and extreme relaxation that I could have ever anticipated. We saw more family, engaged in more sporting activities, watched more movies, ate more home baked goodies and took more naps than should be legally allowed for anyone over four weeks old.

We launched our holiday extravaganza with the now traditional Christmas Tree Tour, where we make a few stops to my aunt's and a few of my brothers' homes (the latter of who join us at our final destination) to enjoy their decorations, some season's goodies and a cup or two of Christmas cheer. Last stop is our home, where we dine on pizza and eggnog before the yuletide treasure bath. Gift exchange culminates in a family board game my son Rob and his fiance, Karyn, created last year. It's a hilarious hybrid of Candy Land and Festivus, where the airing of family goofiness can earn you points. The winner gets first choice from the gift trove of dollar store collectibles, bookstore gift cards and lottery tickets.

The vacation fun continued Christmas Day at Rob and Karyn's. They hosted their first holiday brunch for both families and we had as much fun as we did on Thanksgiving - even without the tournament card playing!

Then we enforced mental shut-down for a few days at Pemberly Pines, with the exception of one side trip to the wineries in Traverse City. Here we met up with Karyn's family and friends to conduct some "research" for the upcoming wedding. After that, we did nothing more than read books, watch DVD's (including the original A & E's Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth!) and nap. Although, we did venture out into cross country skiing with "new" skis Chris obtained through Craig's list. We all took shifts in sharing the two sets of skis and boots and burned off some of the Paula Dean's chocolate mint brownies and walnut chocolate chip cookies we brought up for noshing.

It wasn't lost on me that the history channel was running the story of the seven deadly sins throughout my holiday break. Seems like every time I flipped channels, I'd hit "gluttony" and "sloth" - usually while I was sitting in one of our recliners, feet up, eating one of Paul Deen's brownies. But, I knew my days of indulgences were temporary, and so enjoyed it all knowing the discipline of the usual routine was just around the corner.

So, like Bing, I'm Counting My Blessings: family, togetherness, good friends, tea and non-tea related gifts and the good fortune to return to a schedule that makes an almost two week vacation possible.

Yours in tea and friendship,


Barb

Every (Snow) Cloud has a Silver Lining

Just in time for the busiest time of the year, a snow storm hit southeastern Michigan hard this weekend. Like many in my area, this was not on "the list" of things to do before December 24th. I still had shopping, wrapping, card writing and decorating on my to-do's and this 10 inch snowfall was an imposing fluffy-white barricade to getting these things completed.

So, Friday morning, in total denial, I pulled on my Cabela snow boots, threw my ski coat over business casual attire and headed into the office. Braving unplowed streets and what appeared to be an abandoned parking lot, I made my way up to our department floor and was met with the silence of the majority, who wisely stayed home. I made myself a cup of tea and shared stories of the treacherous drive in with a few co-workers who were slowly making snowy trails to their cubicles. In a relatively short time, we received word from executive management to go home, as all indications were the storm would not be letting up any time soon.

That's when the "snow day" alarm set off - that joyous memory of no school, no homework and an unapologetic reason to do absolutely nothing. I immediately called my daughter, Rachel (who's home on college break), to put the kettle on to boil and warm up the DVD. It was a cosmic gift being sent our way - a day off, with no guilt!

By the time I got home, the tea was ready and the first episode of Gilmore Girls, Season 7, was ready to run. We were armed and ready - I brought out the full artillary of honey sticks: cinnamon, lemon and cloverleaf. Then Rachel went full throttle and brought out the kitchen aide. The day before, she had found a recipe in one of my tea magazines, for white chocolate chai tea mousse in dark chocolate cups. So, while Lorelai and Christopher were trying to salvage their marriage, we were wrapped up in afghans, sipping tea and eating chocolate. "The list" stayed forgotten, tucked away in the zippered pocket of my mock-designer purse.

Now, mind you, the list was still there the next day, but with the forced recharging of internal batteries, it seemed like a snap to get the remainder of the holiday tasks completed. Well, my husband might argue the mid-afternoon drive to the mall was more like a taxi ride in rush-hour Manhattan than a "snap," but we softened the stress by switching on the 24-hour Christmas music station and, as if on cue, the familiar and soothing sounds of Bing Crosby bellowing"White Christmas" came on.

Certainly, there's no doubt, in Detroit, we don't have to dream it, we're living White Christmas this week. But, to borrow from Irving Berlin, no matter where you are: "May your Holidays be merry and bright and - with the assistance of a full force of salt trucks - may all your Christmases be white."

Happy Holidays!

Barb

Thanksgiving Traditions Start with "Capital Tea"s

Hello Friends!

If it's any indication how prepared I am for Christmas this year, on this afternoon's tea break I'm still reflecting on Thanksgiving. In the midst of snow, twinkling lights and holly berry wreaths, I decided to pour myself a second cup of Earl Grey (from Angelina's) and share with you some of our new Thanksgiving traditions this year.

"In-laws" took on a new meaning for us this November as we had our first blended holiday gathering between ourselves and our future daughter-in-law, Karyn's family. Of course, we had the standards: turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. But with our extended family, we had more tea enthusiasts at the table than ever before! So, for dessert, we brought out the variety pack as well as brewed a pot of Earl Grey from Angelina's.

(Just for the record, we picked this fine tea at Angelina's in Paris, upon our good friend, Carol D's recommendation. After sampling, we understood why she asked us if we could bring her back a tin. With that, we find it is true - good friends don't let good friends drink bad tea!)

So, for the first time at our Thanksgiving dinner, we brewed tea for our guests. It added a touch of grace and civility to our holiday repast - that is, until the cards came out. Then, the white gloves came off as we began the ultimate pinochle tournament only to be followed by Extreme Hearts. The latter of which we renamed, "There Will Be Blood. . . But Not on the First Trick!" (For those who don't follow that card game, "blood" refers to the suit of "hearts" - so no worries!)

After midnight, and long after the tea had turned cold and the leftovers were put away for a week's worth of tasty meals, we concluded our Thanksgiving get together with traditions old and new. It was the perfect "meld"-ing of family, turkey, tea and pinochle. Dare I say, it will be hard to "trump"?

But, now, back to this weekend where, while taking ornaments out the crate and dusting off snow globes, I'm also thumbing through Hoyle's as well as Harney's new tea catalog for inspiration for our next blended gathering.

So, friends, enjoy your holiday preparations - but don't forget to treat yourself to a little holiday tea time in between!

TEA and friendship,

Barb