I drink tea daily, and during these winter months, I notice that I start to transition my tea selection to chai blends. This season often invites ailments such as the flu and cold, but the ginger in chai, is generally known to combat respiratory inflammation and pain. For centuries, ginger has been used in many cultures as a natural cure for the flu and cold. It is also believed to reduce all symptoms associated with motion sickness.

Winter, an essentially frosty and cold season, hails comfort from a spicy and aromatic tea. The spices commonly found in chai– ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom, gently soothe the throat during colder days and nights. Together, these chai spices create a pungent flavor for the palate, which soothes, balances and warms the body.

Chai or chi is the word for tea in many countries. Traditional chai is a spiced milk black tea from India made up of a strong black tea, heavy milk, various spices and a sweetener. For a take on India’s customary chai, Tali’s Masala Chai by Art of Tea presents a fair trade and organic-certified blend with the quintessential balance of sweet and spice. Using organic Assam black tea anchored in savory spices, this chai can be enjoyed as is or with milk and a sweetener.

But if you’re looking for something more unique, Art of Tea’s new winter-inspired White Winter Chai is my new chai favorite this season. This signature blend is composed of organic white tea, black peppercorns, cinnamon, fennel, cloves, cardamom, star anise and natural flavors. The beautiful star anise is frequently used as a cough remedy by Asian herbalists. The addition of fennel to this chai blend suggests medicinal properties since fennel is widely used to treat kidney and ocular problems. White Winter Chai’s lighter and milder flavors succumb to a sweeter tone that is comforting and warming.

For non-caffeine drinkers, cozy up with a cup of Art of Tea’s Rooibos Chai. This caffeine-free blend or tisane allows you to enjoy and reap the same flavor notes found in a traditional Indian chai. Grounded by South African rooibos and gently hand-crafted with Indian spices, this unique concoction is a nice alternative to chai without the caffeine.

For more teas and tisanes to comfort you this winter season, check out Art of Tea’s selection of Winter Inspired Teas.

-MELISSA CHUA

You Will Need:

· 4 1/2 Cups of Art of Tea’s Kauai Cocktail, Over-steeped (10-12 minutes)

· 2 Cups of Chilled White Wine: Moscato, Riesling, Pinot Grigio or your favorite sweet white wine

I used Trader Joe’s Moscato D’Asti ($5.99)

· Assortment of fruits: blueberries, strawberries, pineapples, apples, oranges, lemons

· Pitcher such as Art of Tea’s Bodum Iced Tea Pitcher (50 oz.)

· 2 Tsp of Coconut Sugar (Optional)

Large Wooden Mixing Spoon

Instructions:

First, make sure you wash your fruit thoroughly, especially if you’re leaving the peel on, which I did. Dice or slice the fruit you wish to include. De-core and remove all the seeds. I used lemon and orange slices, blueberries and chopped up apples. Then, add ice cubes a quarter of the way into the pitcher. Add in your fruit. Next, carefully pour in your over-steeped Kauai Cocktail and chilled white wine. Sprinkle in the coconut sugar or preferred sweetener if you like. Use a large wooden spoon to marry all the ingredients. Refrigerate the pitcher and let the ingredients marinate. Sangria is best served cold. Enjoy, and let the merriment begin! Cheers to a jovial and prosperous 2012!

- Melissa Chua

One gentle step toward better balance this winter: a cup of Art of Tea’s Cran Marnier, which is Caffeine Free for a blissful winter’s night of sweet slumber. Spices in this blend – Cinnamon, Cloves and Nutmeg—are traditionally associated with warming, across many cultures. The jewel-bright, holiday cranberries which give this blend its name and its tangy, citrus-y finish, are considered by many to be naturally supportive of bladder, kidney and urinary tract health.

This second point is significant in the context of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This 10,000 year-old system of wellness associates the season of winter with the kidneys. The kidneys are considered the source of all Qi, Chi, or life-force, and during the deeply Yin (dark, cold, damp, quiet) period of winter, protecting and replenishing the strength of the kidneys is considered essential to well-being.

If you live in the Sunbelt like I do, it may be difficult to connect with the archetypal experience of winter. Here in Los Angeles, Uggs and a bikini-top are often worn together as a fashion statement. A bit confusing, from both an energetic and a sartorial standpoint.

And, apart from climate, our modern lifestyle no longer corresponds to the seasons. For instance, many health-conscious people eat a crunchy, chilled, raw diet year-round, or at least eat many raw foods (fresh fruit, cold salads, sushi) throughout the year. Our immediate ancestors, on the other hand, did not have access to peaches and tomatoes and cherries in February, as snow drifted past their doors. Foods were cooked, cured, smoked and preserved any way possible, to provide nourishment during lean times.

A traditional winter diet in the Northern hemisphere would, by necessity, have consisted of warm, long-simmered stews and soups, based around leeks, onions, garlic, potatoes, turnips, beets and other root vegetables which could be stored for many weeks without refrigeration, as well as dried legumes like lentils and beans. Marrow and bones often provided rich protein, fat and flavor. These “slow” foods would still be considered harmonious and consistent with winter energy by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine today.

Winter typically also brought a slowing of activity, with the focus shifting inward—close to the hearth, close to home. But those of us in the industrialized world do not make space for rest, although spiritual stillness and deep reflection also have traditionally defined winter. Occasionally a massive snowstorm will close down a major airport, leaving thousands of travelers stranded. They always seem surprised –often outraged– by winter’s self-assertion.

A warming cup of tea addresses this potential imbalance on a number of levels. First, and perhaps most importantly, a cup of tea persuades us to stop, slow down, take a breath. This moment of reflection may be solitary, or shared with others.

And, specific ingredients in the blend take the chill off. Another Art of Tea favorite this winter: French Lemon Ginger, also Caffeine Free. The “heat” of Ginger root, paired with zesty, tart Lemongrass and Lemon Verbena, will energize and comfort even as the days grow short. This tea can be slipped into and savored, like a haramaki, an ancient Japanese garment worn around the midsection, to keep the lower back and kidney area deliciously warm all winter long. Wearers of low-riders and hip-huggers, take note.

Consider the act of making tea itself: water, the quintessentially Yin element, associated with winter, encounters fire, which is the blazing essence of Yang. Heat creates steam, a rolling boil, a brew. This meeting of elemental energies borders on alchemy, and merges in a cup of tea—to your health this season.

-Victoria Thomas

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1. Artisan Chocolate Flower – $16

2. Tea Sampler Packs – $19

3. Teabag Sampler Gift Set – $24.99

4. Curve Teacup Gift Set – $29.99

5. Travel Gift Set – $35

6. Artisan Chocolate Tea Gift Set -$36

7. Tea of the Month Membership – Starting at $49

8. Tea Lover’s Gift Set – $74.99

9. Complete Matcha Gift Set -$97

10. Journey Into Tea Gift Set – $99

These are just a few of our favorites, so make sure to also check out Art of Tea’s Gifts Under $50 and Stocking Stuffers for more gift ideas. Happy shopping!

-MELISSA CHUA

*Green Tea Face Mask

To replenish and repair damaged or dry skin, use this mask nightly. This also helps remove redness on your face.

You Will Need:

- ½ of a Ripe Avocado

- 2 Tbsp of Powdered Green Tea such as Art of Tea’s Matcha- Grade A

- 1 Tsp of Green Tea such as: Art of Tea’s Sencha, Uji Gyokuro, or Moroccan Mint,

Lightly Steeped (about 20-30 seconds)

- Mixing Bowl

- Fork

- Mask Applicator (Optional)

Instructions:

First, ball the avocado into your mixing bowl. Use the fork to mash into a clumpy consistency. Add in your powdered green tea and lightly-steeped green tea leaves. Mix well. Carefully use an applicator or your hands to apply an even, thin layer of the mixture on your face, avoiding your eyes. After 10 minutes, rinse off with warm water. You can store the leftovers in a container in the refrigerator. Apply to a cleansed face and use nightly as needed. Enjoy your new youthful and silky-smooth skin!

*Tea Bag Eye Relaxer

Save your cucumbers for eating, and recycle your used tea bags! Reuse your tea bags to remove puffiness and under eye circles. Use daily or as needed for best results.

You Will Need:

- 2 Tea Bags like Art of Tea’s Eco-Pyramid Tea Bags. I recommend

using: Egyptian Chamomile, French Lemon Ginger, or Mint Green

- Relaxing Music (Optional)

- Scented Candles (Optional)

Instructions:

To ensure optimal relaxation, it helps to set the tone. Turn on some relaxing music. Light scented candles. Make sure the room temperature compliments your mood. Take a load off, and plant yourself in a comfortable position where you can spread out your limbs and rest your head. Gently place a tea bag over each eye, and lay still. For better results, heat the tea bags in the microwave for 5 seconds. Indulge in a slumber if you wish!

*Hand and Foot Wash

Whether you’re on your feet all day long or use your hands tirelessly typing away, this calming remedy is a treat to reducing redness or inflammation on your hands and feet.

You will need:

- ½ Cup of Art of Tea’s Welcome

- ½ Cup of Sage, Finely Chopped

- 2 Cups of Water

- 4 Drops of Lavender Oil (Optional)

- Pot or Saucepan

- Large Basin

- Small Bowl to dip your hands in

Instructions:

First, combine the Welcome blend, sage and water in a pot or saucepan. Bring to a boil. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Strain, so you are left with only the liquid. Add the drops of lavender oil for a more relaxing experience that will appeal to your senses. Allow the fragrant liquid to cool for 7 to 10 minutes. The liquid should be warm to your liking. Carefully distribute the liquid into the large basin and into the small bowl. Soak your feet in the large basin, and use the small bowl for your hands. Remove your hands and feet when you’re ready, and dry with a clean towel. This is the perfect precursor for a home style manicure and pedicure!

-MELISSA CHUA

Hot Cran Marnier Cider

You will need:

- 8 Tbsp Art of Tea’s Cran Marnier Tisane

- 4 cups boiling water

- 2 cups unsweetened cranberry juice

- 2 cups apple cider

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 2 cinnamon sticks

- 1/2 tsp ginger

- 4 cloves

- Orange slices (optional)

- Whipped cream (optional)

Instructions:
Put 4 cups of water to boil with cinnamon sticks & cloves. Boil rapidly until water reduces to 3 cups. Remove cinnamon sticks and cloves and make a strong tea with the Cran Marnier and cinnamon/clove water. Steep for approximately 10 minutes. Once the tea is brewed, pour the mixture into a crock pot and add cranberry juice, apple cider, brown sugar, and ginger. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Cover and cook on low heat for about 1 hour. Serve in mugs and garnish with whipped cream and orange slices, if desired. Makes approximately 8 (8oz) servings.

These delicate and rare white tea leaves can be found only in the Fujian Province in Southeastern China. Silver Needle tea leaves uniquely resemble uniformly-shaped needles that are covered in a silvery green fuzz or “hao”. When the tea is brewed, the fuzz disappears to reveal a vibrant green tea leaf. Chinese legends say Silver Needle was solely picked just two days a year in the spring by virgins wearing white gloves and offered exclusively to the emperor. Only the top buds are harvested to maintain Silver Needle’s supreme quality among white teas. Today, this prestigious and widely sought-after white tea is still revered for its high quality and rareness.

This new batch of Silver Needle is pure splendor in your cup. It has a golden ivory flush with an inviting earthy tone. Its light woodsy aroma lingers in the taste, but offers a mildly sweet finish. These leaves are fresher and softer in texture, and provide a beautiful green hue. Contrary to the Chinese legends, Silver Needle can widely be enjoyed by everyone, and that is something you should definitely take advantage of. Steep for one to three minutes for best results!

-MELISSA CHUA

Blame it on Julius and Augustus, who expanded our modern calendar from 10 to 12 months. There’s a lot to like about the Romans (cool armor, great language), but they weren’t exactly known for their restraint. Excessive ego ruled. No surprise, since the Romans gave us the word “ego” itself!

These two emperors, the story goes, insisted on inserting months named for themselves—July and August—into the original 10-month calendar. This is why September, October, November, and December still contain the Latin prefixes for 7, 8, 9 and 10. (How February got its name is another story altogether.)

Personally, by December 1, I’ve had more than enough. In November, my freezer and pantry are packed, ready for feasts of thanksgiving. Then, as the Bears of summer, Ursus Major and Ursus Minor, depart for the season, and the belt of Orion appears in the night sky, the bones are picked clean. There is a sense of bareness at the year’s end. Austere and spare.

Those of you who love traditional shakuhachi playing will be reminded of the classic “A Bell Ringing in An Empty Sky”, and the specific feelings of the season invoked by the sound. But, in American culture, we fight these feelings.

So, December typically is a month of major consuming and indulgence in our society. We buy and binge, as cultural traditions. I find that the simplest, gentlest way out of this feeling of “too much-ness” is a pot of tea. I usually like to share, but in this instance, enjoying tea in solitude may be the most cleansing.

The Art of Tea menu really speaks to me this time of year with several purifying and tonic brews. Green teas especially seem to invite the falling-away of excess, through their purity and simplicity.

• UJI GYOKURO – The most precious and sought-after Japanese green tea, with high levels of chlorophyll and a bright green vegetal essence.

• YUN WU CLOUDS MIST FAIR TRADE GREEN TEA – Poetically called Mist and Cloud tea, harvested in a mystical environment which rarely sees beyond its cloud-cover.

• FRESH GREENS – Because we do believe in spring, lemon verbena and lemongrass are added to the green mix, suggesting sun.

• LIQUID JADE—Award-winning blend of white with green, with gorgeous sweet-notes of bergamot, honey and citrus.

• ZUISHO PINE SENCHA – Premium deep steam organic green tea, with leaves resembling pine needles, making it a fitting choice for December. Art of Tea is the first trader to bring this unique Japanese tea stateside.

• SNOW DRAGON – Clean, refreshing, breath of early spring frost, from Fujian, China.

• GUNPOWDER GREEN TEA – The distinct rolled shape of these leaves, along with the whiff of smokiness behind the grassy infusion, makes this tea ideal for those days when you’re feeling especially overwhelmed.

And, if the weeks around the Winter Solstice do involve overindulging, Art of Tea offers Pre-Tox and Post-Tox brews. Pre-Tox helps to prepare your body for an onslaught of wanton a-wassail-ing or other excess, blending green tea with Dandelion Root and other naturally cleansing botanicals. In the aftermath of partying, caffeine-free Post-Tox soothes and restores, with singular botanicals including Fennel Seed, Chicory Root and Milk Thistle.

I also follow the advice of my favorite Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners when making my tea in anticipation of a new year. I regard my stove—my fire-source—as a metaphor for my finances (another reason to never microwave water for tea!).

With this in mind, I use every burner on my stove (I happen to have a great gas-range). In other words, keep the fire moving; keep all of the burners engaged. Don’t just favor one burner. In a single day, I probably use each of the four burners at least once, which some sages say will bring more fire, meaning more prosperity, to my house in 2012. May it do the same for yours.

——–VICTORIA THOMAS

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Why not try this simple recipe for Pumpkin Muffins infused with Art of Tea’s Chocolate Monkey? This delectable dessert tisane is made with fair trade rooibos, pink peppercorn, cacao nibs, chocolate, banana chips and apple bits. Chocolate and pumpkin in muffins are the perfect way to treat your family and friends this Thanksgiving. This recipe yields about 40 mini muffins.

Chocolate Monkey Pumpkin Muffins

You Will Need:

· Pumpkin Mix, which you can easily find at any major grocery store during the holidays

· 2 Large Eggs

· ½ Cup of Vegetable oil

· 1 Cup of Over-steeped (10-12 minutes) Art of Tea’s Chocolate Monkey

· 1 Cup of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

· 1 tbsp of Cinnamon

· Mixing Bowl

· 40 Cupcake Liners

· Ice Cream Scooper

Instructions:

Follow the directions on the pumpkin mix box. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lay out the cupcake liners onto your muffin trays. Let the over-steeped cup of Chocolate Monkey sit for 10 minutes or until room temperature. Then, mix eggs, oil and tea in a large bowl until the batter is smooth. Add in the cinnamon and chocolate chips, and mix thoroughly. Use an ice cream scooper to transport the batter into the cupcake liners two-thirds full. Finally, place your sheets in the oven at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. Perform the toothpick test by gently inserting a toothpick in the center of a muffin and pulling it out.                                                                                                                                                     If the toothpick is clean, your muffins are done!

Tip: Once the muffins cool off, add your favorite frosting, and you’ll have cupcakes! I topped mine with buttercream frosting. Enjoy, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

-MELISSA CHUA

The way that food and drink function on a symbolic level depends largely upon context. For instance, in a place where the mercury rarely descends below 100 degrees F, there is no more lavish gesture of welcome than a glass of ice-water, further cooled by a slab of peeled cucumber, a crushed sprig of mint leaves, and the piercingly tart juice of tiny limes.

Humans have also historically used foods, spices and seasonings to send messages of status, prestige and wealth, similar to the appeal of luxury designer goods today. Both tea and sugar have a shared history as a prestige import, and this is, in part, why sugar is conventionally part of tea-drinking in the West.

Author John Keay illuminates some of this history in his fascinating book, THE SPICE ROUTE – A History (University of California Press, 2006), where he chronicles the trade boom around stimulants (tea, coffee, sugar) as well as many other kitchen-commodities which, though familiar to us now, were once exotic beyond compare. Salt and pepper, for example, were once as valuable as precious metals.

Poor-quality tea also invites intervention. Since the 1930s, commercially produced tea-bags, filled with “fannings” which are essentially the dust from the broken remains of tea leaves, call out for cream, sugar, honey, lemon. These traditional augmentations cut the raw-feeling bitterness and mustiness of an inferior brew. Tea purists understandably rankle at this, and nutritionists warn against our current sugar consumption.

But the sugar bowl and creamer predate the modern teabag by centuries. Like the salt cellar, these containers for precious condiments once broadcast the worldly affluence of the owner, and thus occupied a place of honor on the formal dining tables of imperialist Europe and Britain.

Times change, and now premium teas from everywhere on earth are available and accessible for brewing and enjoyment. From a historical perspective, this is an unprecedented opportunity to enjoy tea in its most immaculate state.

Because we now are able to experience the freshness of tea, we also have the opportunity to shelve the sugar bowl for baking. Just as an aside—in the quest for a sugar-free alternative, have you ever had even a lovely cup of tea dosed with Stevia? A bit like sipping through a rolled-up ball of aluminum foil.

Buddhists say that life is simply a moment, and that life is comprised of moments. Art of Tea specializes in creating teas for every one of these moments, including the craving for a bit of sweetness (when you really want to go there, check out Art of Tea’s new tea-infused gourmet chocolates!).

Blending the essences of natural fruits, spices and other botanicals releases subtler, mellower and more complex sweet notes than interaction with sugar, aloe-syrup or honey, much less the yellow, pink or blue packet.

For the move from fall to winter, Pumpkin Pie (Caffeine Free), Cinnamon Fig, Cherry Amaretto (Caffeine Free), Caramelized Pear (Caffeine Free), Italian Blood Orange, award-winning Lychee Peach and Peach Oolong bring the last bit of ripeness from the harvest and orchard to the cup.

In a holiday mood, or want to get there? Chocolatey-vanilla Velvet Tea, White Coconut Crème, Coconut Cacao Puerh, Hot Sweet Cinnamon and Vanilla Berry Truffle warm as well as sweeten the palate, perfect for sharing with friends around the fireplace.

These blends open the experience of tea in its uninterrupted state—a bit like drinking real tea for the first time.

–Victoria Thomas