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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I hope I don’t offend anyone here with this post. According to my resources deep in the Wuyi Mountains there are plenty of wild tea trees but  no Monkeys that pick tea or for that matter have ever picked tea here.

Oddly enough however there appear to be several species of non human primates in this region which are known to open/pop the top off a bottle of beer. Granted there are pictures and old paintings of the tea partnership between Monks and Monkeys trading food for wild tea leaves that could not be reached by humans, however these primates have no interest in the leaf. They prefer another brew.

So why have the name  Monkey in a tea such as our white monkey picked or golden monkey? Monkey Picked Tea refers to a top tier tea. Typically wild thicker leaves are used for this or rarer more precious leaves and buds.

Meet Melissa Fielding, Spa Consultant at Creative Spa Concepts.  Melissa works on various spa projects throughout the world.  When she started in the spa industry tea became a small passion of hers.  We spent some time with Melissa getting her advice and feedback on integrating tea with spa programs.

Q: How did you get involved with the spa industry?

A: “My background is mainly in food and beverage.  When I entered into the spa world I noticed that a lot of spas were forgetting to include the food and beverage area as part of the concept and experience.  Tea is an easy affordable way to enhance the area.”

Q: So Melissa what are your top health tips with tea you recommend to your clients Condé Nast spas?
A:Here are my 5 detox and health tips
1.)     Tea is a great source of antioxidants
2.)     Tea is a wonderful appetite appeaser
3.)    The caffeine in tea is much healthier then the caffeine found in other beverages
4.)    Tea can help calm the mind and body after a stressful day
5.)    Tea is not only healthy when you drink it but also has benefits when used in face creams, body lotions, scrubs and wraps.

Q: Discuss the making of their custom Qua Tea Blend at Qua Bath and Spa Caesars Palace Bath.
A: When I was working as the Spa manager at Qua Baths and Spa, Art of Tea and I worked closely together to create the perfect signature blend.  We took all aspects of the spa into consideration, the concept of the spa, the size, the guest experience, the menu of services and the space available.  After looking at all of those aspects, Steve Schwartz, CEO of Art of Tea and I talked about what I wanted the signature blend to taste like. It was important to me that the tea could be served hot or cold and the flavor was so good that it would leave an impression with the guest.  Steve then sent various samples to us and I did tasting with myself and my management team.  I had everyone rate each tea based on look of the loose leaf, smell of the liquor and dry leaf, and most importantly the taste.  After I received the results I went back to Steve and we took the best of all blends to and created the Qua Signature Blend.

Q: What are your core concepts that you would recommend to people wanting to get into or more out of the spa and health industry?

A: As a global spa consultant I believe that serving tea in a spa is a must.  I believe that spa is a sensory experience and you must entice all 5 of your guests’ senses.  Tea is the perfect way to reach your guests sense of taste and smell.  A properly executed tea program can help you stand out in a unique way among the hundreds of spas.  Don’t be afraid to try something completely new and interesting with your tea program.  Have fun with the program and your guests will too.

By all means, enjoy a drink here and there, just don’t expect it to significantly reduce stress. Try some tea instead – like Art of Tea’s Lotus Flower, which according to Asian Medicine has been attributed to relaxation. If lotus flowers really aren’t your thing try Immortal Nectar, a puerh tea known to decrease physical stress and lower cholesterol while delivering a slight sherry-like fragrance (for those of you who still may be craving the sweet smell of booze.)

Also, a warm bath can help to heal stressed muscles.  Believe it or not you can make a tea bath, white tea is known to increase the collagen in the skin.

2. During a recession, the blues go hand in hand with stress. Green tea contains L-Theanine, a unique amino acid that can ease anxiety and depression.  According to worldwidehealthcenter.net, research on human volunteers has demonstrated that the amino acid directly stimulates the production of alpha brain waves, creating a state of deep relaxation and mental alertness similar to what is achieved through meditation. Not to shabby.
3. What better time to focus on your health? As your stress levels rise you become more susceptible to cold and flu. In a 1998 New York Times article, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh found that “people under long-term stress – lasting at least a month and stemming from a significant problem like being fired from a job after years of service – are more likely to catch cold when exposed to a virus than people under milder stress.”
According to teausa.org, the website of The Tea Association of the USA, Inc., The Tea Council of the USA, and the Specialty Tea Institute, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University recently published data indicating that tea contains a component that can help the body ward off infection and disease.  They also found that drinking tea might help to strengthen the immune system.

Add some of Art of Tea’s Tibetan Goji Berries to your tea or enjoy them alone – the plum and cherry flavored berries have been used for 6,000 years by herbalists in China, Tibet, and India protect the liver, boost immune function, and promote longevity.

4.Tea is a relatively affordable way to indulge your senses. Take for instance Art of Tea’s Halo, “a white tea wrapped in a bulb shape which blossoms a rainbow ring of jasmine and amaranth flowers crafted with blueberry and peach essence.”  If you think the description is poetic take a look at the picture. Now imagine how it would taste.
5.Tea has been said to help decrease obesity, which is often stress related and is almost certainly related to the consumption of fast food.  Fast food options may be tempting to both your wallet and your stomach given the tough economic times but resist the urge. Stay healthy by eating healthy and brew a cup of tea while you’re at it.
6.Stress not only affects you physically and mentally but cosmetically too. On a purely superficial note it has to be said that the recession is not kind to one’s appearance.  Many of you may be plagued by telltale bags under your eyes or deepening worry lines accompanied by disappearing laugh lines, but really, who has time to worry about looks when there are larger problems at hand? Art of Tea’s Healer’s Tea is based on an herbal combination from the Tang Dynasty. This combination was used in circles of the elite as a choice health tonic and elixir for abundant radiance, many call this effect the “Glow”. Did you hear that? ABUNDANT RADIANCE. Who doesn’t want some abundant radiance? You can brag to your friends that in your free time you imbibe the same tea as China’s elite, making you rich in spirit, if not in your bank account.

7. A recession is a good time to focus on what really matters. Have some friends over for tea – good company is priceless and cheaper than going out.
Also remember, we are what we believe. If you promote positive self-affirmations you will resonate and attract positivity – add more joy and wellness and that positivity will spread like wildfire. Remember, we make our life happen rather than life happening to us. Turn over a new leaf and sip-by-sip we will make our future shine in ‘09.
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Lisa Przystup is a freelance writer based in Boston.  Her work has appeared in Desert Living Magazine in Phoenix, Boston Magazine, as well as Massachusetts-based papers The Milford Daily News and The MetroWest Daily News . She can often found on her couch drinking tea to quell her neurosis and anxiety over qualms in the world today.  She can be reached at lprzystup@gmail.com.

Pricing is always more expensive to be served something than to buy it retail. There are always added costs involved when running a wholesale tea program; training, preparing, serving vessels, cleaning, labor, equipment. All these things add up. You can often buy a glass of wine in a restaurant for the same price as a bottle in a retail store. Think about a bottle of beer; $2.50-$3.00 in a restaurant. A six pack will cost you $8.00 in a store. How about a ribeye steak? Same thing.

The partners that I have are charging $1.75-$2.25 for togo teas in casual cafes and $3.50-$5.00 for pots of tea in restaurants. Yeah those same teas might be only $4-8 for 2 ounces, but that’s the way it goes. Take it home you have to sell it to yourself, train yourself, make it yourself, serve yourself and clean up after yourself. I serve myself at home all the time but I am willing to go out and pay for someone else to so it – especially if it is done correctly and professionally. It doesn’t matter if that is a $2.00 cup of tea or a $150 dinner. You willing pay for the experience of being served.

Tea houses may have been some of the first depots for weary travelers during the Song Dynasty (960–1279). Prior to the late 1700’s, beyond the borders of China, there were no restaurants in the world. If you ate somewhere other than your home it was because you went to someone else’s house or you were traveling. A “restaurant” was first sold in Paris as a restorative broth for health benefits. People were sick, living conditions terrible, plagues etc. The root of the word is “to restore”. People started making these potent broths of various meat stocks with precious metals. They thought it would be a good defense for the diseases of the day. Eventually they started adding bread and sliced tomatoes. By the early 1800’s it became a full meal. That restorative broth became the largest industry in the world.

Why am I telling you this? That Ginger Peach Apricot thing that you paid $2.99 to enjoy was your restorative broth. Yeah your could have made it at home, or in your shop, but your chose to go out and be served. Sometimes it is the being served part that is more soothing than the product you are served. You get “restored”.

There is so much to cover and so much to tell them, how in the world I was going to hold their attention for 3-4 hours and have them walk away with the knowledge was beyond me. I see a window of opportunity when I only have two staff member joining our team. Two, the perfect size to start off with, I could sit with them instead of stand and lecture; make the training more casual and conversational.

Well as luck would have it the class started to grow. Staff members were finding out that I was conducting at training so they would stop by my office to see if they could come. What could I say; I had to say yes they were excited; they wanted to learn about the tea program a very important aspect of our spa, turning them down will only make them think that the program was not that important.

Training day is here the class that I was planning to hold on the balcony of one of our treatment rooms, has now moved to the Front Desk Training Room. It is officially a training class there are only 8 people in the class so it is not that large in size but still more then expected. Starting the class was rough I kind of stood there awkwardly and stared at them as they stared back at me.

Once I realize that breathing was important, I relaxed, and the class started to relax as well. Most of my associates seemed to enjoy themselves. They asked a lot of questions, had fun tasting and describing the teas. The class was a success and not only did it help my associates get to know about the tea program but it also helped me get to know them a little better.

About the Author of this Post: Melissa Fielding has undergone extensive Tea Sommelier Training with Art of Tea and is the now residential Tea Sommelier for an award winning and Conde Nast recognized Spa in Las Vegas, NV. Melissa was instrumental in developing the tea program and cutting edge concepts in line with all the treatments offered at the spa.

Today while I was working, an imposing man of about six foot three bombarded me with questions about our tea. He wanted to know about everything. Which tea was the healthiest, what jasmine tea was, what the difference between green and black tea was, what it was to have bubbles in your drink, and eventually he settled with a melon jasmine tea with bubbles. It was unusual and I could tell right away something wasn’t right; he had an unusual smirk on his face as if he knew something I didn’t. A few minutes later my boss walks up behind me and lets the man into the preparation area. It was Steve from Art of Tea. He was brought into Dallas to educate the Fat Straws employees on teas. You can imagine I felt like a genius…

Later that night we began our tea clinic. We started out with white teas, moved to green teas, to oolong teas, to black teas, to pu-erhs, to tisanes. We were inundated with information. About halfway through our lesson we came to the most interesting tea to me. It was the Pu-erh. The leaves are steamed quickly and then stored in caves where they ferment. Steve informed us that Pu-erh is similar to a fine wine and that it grows and changes as it ages.

And in a similar way it is a connoisseurs tea. It can be stored over fifty years old. I’m in love with it. It has an earthy taste that changes slightly with each brew. I’ve steeped the same leaves three times now and it is evolving every time. The first brew was my favorite, but it relaxed my body and managed to clear my mind every time; the perfect way to wind down a long day. Pu-erh is the perfect evening tea for me.

This post is written by Jake Windahl, an aspiring tea enthusiast and team member at Fat Straws in Dallas, Texas.

We recently asked Executive Chef Jason Park, and Chef de Cuisine Brock Kleweno about tea and the many ways Yamashiro incorporates tea into their menu.

Q: Yamashiro has a pretty intense and tumultuous history. Is the history something that all employees know about?
A: Yes – the servers are trained to know the history of Yamashiro as they get many questions from guests who are interested in knowing more about the location. Interesting note, Yamashiro houses the oldest structure in California, a 600 year old Pagoda that was brought in from Japan.

Q: Tea is a huge part of Asian culture. How important is tea for Yamashiro, and your clients? Is there a favorite among them?
A: It is very important for Yamashiro, and a recommended part of all of our guests’ dining experience. I would say our top sellers are the Sencha and Plum Oolong.

Q: Yamashiro serves up some pretty interesting dishes that involve the use the tea for an aspect of their flavor. Where did that come from, and how does one actually use tea in a dish?
A: Tea provides a unique flavor palette that gives dishes more complex dimension compared to other spice ingredients. You may use teas in several different ways – you can use it to smoke ingredients and impart flavor, as a liquid ingredient in sauces, vinaigrettes, ice creams, sorbets, mousses, etc., or as a crust on food items. We have used the Art of Tea for our Lapsang Souchan Crusted Salmon, our Oolong Smoked Trout Salad and theTea and berries dessert where we macerate the berries in oolong tea and create a mousse from tropical pineapple tea.

We have also used it for dish components such as an oolong orange marmalade as well as rices that have been infused with Art of Tea’s teas.

Q: Is there a certain tea that you drink during or after work, and why do you choose to drink it?
A: Plum Oolong tea – it’s a good refresher during the middle of service. Chef Jason also enjoys the Amore blend.