Its a challenge to find the tea shrubs in this photo. They are there. The garden isnt as picturesce as most tea plantations that you would see commercially grown but they are there. Its a simple trek for the farmers. A few minute incline to these organic fair trade tea fields and back to processing before the withering takes place.

This holiday season recycle your old candles and un-used teacups to create personalized gifts. Here are the items you need before you begin:

•    Two pans
•    Partially burned candles (or wax)
•    Candy or candle thermometer
•    Wicks & wick sustainers
•    Teacups or mugs
•    Tea bags (optional for natural coloring)

As easy as 1, 2, 3……

1.)    In small pan set over a larger pan of water, melt old candles keeping the temperature of the water at approx. 200 degrees. Remove the old wicks from the melted wax & add 2-3 tea bags of your choice for a natural dyed color (optional).
2.)    Fashion wick to the metal wick sustainer and dip into the hot wax to coat. Then, stick the wick sustainer onto the cup’s bottom with the wick.
3.)    Pour wax into your chosen mold stopping ½ inch below the cup’s rim. Let this stand for an hour before adding the remaining wax to finish the candle.

These teacup candles make a great addition to any of our featured gift sets from Art of Tea. Browse our holiday gift offerings below…

Loose Leaf Tea Starter Set
Teabag Sampler Gift Set
Holiday Travel Gift Set
Art of Tea Shop Gift Set

1. Art of Tea’s Rooibos Chai and Tali’s Masala Chai are two spicy numbers: infused with cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, and ginger they’re the perfect point of inspiration for an equally spicy costume. You can go the sassy route (the devil, a nurse) but remember, there is a very fine line between sassy and trashy. Get creative and dress up as a pepper shaker or even better, a chili. Assemble a crew and have each of your cohorts dress up as the spice of their choice – cinnamon, cardamon, clove, or ginger – it’ll be the hottest thing since the Fruit of the Loom crew.

2. Instead of whipping up a bowl of “blood punch” try something a little different:
brew Kauai Cocktail or Wild Red Tian Hu Shan tea– both brew a rich red color, which will surely delight both your vampire and zombie friends.

3. Art of Tea’s Ammo blend – hand tied cinnamon bark with star anise and licorice –
is the perfect complement to that Rambo costume you’ve been meaning to resurrect. After all, what would Rambo be without his Ammo?

4. Iron Goddess of Mercy: that’s right. I know it sounds a little intense but with some careful planning your costume will turn out as balanced as Art of Tea’s blend of the same name.  Take some cues from the tea’s description: steeps an amber colored infusion with a full body and distinctive rich flavor notes of dark chocolate with hints of roasted chestnut and sun drenched raisins. I’m envisioning something like the Statue of Liberty but darker.

Even the environmentally friendly fork is compostable and is made out of potato starch!

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Share your feedback on making this recipe.

Sure you can drink tea but what else can you do with it?

The World Wide Web is chock-full of alternate uses for tea; some good, some bad, all entertaining. Here are a few:

1. Soak your feet in strong tea bath to get rid of unpleasant odors.  You can also try the same for your dog by brewing up a strong footbath of black tea, it will strengthen the pads of your canines feet – that is, if you can manage to persuade them to stand still for longer than a second.
2. In the same vein as stinky feet, tea can also help eliminate stinky fish hands, just run lukewarm tea over your hands after working with fish.
3. Steep chamomile tea in a facial steamer and indulge your skin in an herbal facial.  And although we’ve all heard it a million times, cold tea bags help relieve puffiness around the eyes.
4. Use hot teabags on canker sores or fever blisters to help draw out infections.
5. Cooking with tea – that’s right, you can cook with it too. Here Ceremonial Matcha is a delicious sounding recipe for seared duck breasts with a citrus-tea sauce courtesy of Emeril and foodnetwork.com:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/seared-duck-breasts-with-a-citrus-tea-sauce-recipe/index.html

You can also use tea as a spice. Just grind tea leaves of your choice (a quick survey of internet recipes mentions the use of green, red, and oolong teas) with a mortar and pestle or in a food processor along with basic spices of your choice: salt, pepper, thyme, paprika, etc. to make a delicious tea spice rub for chicken, steak, pork, or fish.

Another great trick: try mixing a teaspoon of matcha green tea powder – like Art of Tea’s Matcha -  into a pint of vanilla ice cream until well blended for an at home version of green tea ice cream.

Perhaps the most entertaining and unusual use for tea comes from lifehackery.com, a website that offers “Useful, Unusual and (Sometimes) Ironic Tips and Tricks to Hack Your Life into Shape.”

“Not sure what to do with your old teabags? Get the normal hanging plastic device but swap out the insides with a tea scent of your choice – there are plenty to choose from and it will almost certainly beat out ‘lemon mist.”

Fortunately, Michelle did not make the same procrastination-based mistake that I did. Instead she let her inner Martha Stewart come out (and really, don’t we all have just a little of the Martha waiting to burst forth). In fact, the idea was based on a suggestion from our lady of all things elegant. Using Art of Tea’s loose-leaf tea, Michelle created unique individual tea bags for her wedding guests.

The process is fun, simple and even something a soon-to-be-husband could help with. Here are Michelle’s steps:

1. Get yourself some tea bags. She used bags by T-sac purchased online from Paper Street Teas. These are perfectly sized for one serving and require a single teaspoon of loose-leaf tea each.

2. The tea’s the thing! She used Organic Breakfast, because they’re having a brunch wedding, and Amore – for the love! But you could use any tea that speaks to you.

3. How much tea? Each tea is a little different when it comes to the weight per teaspoon. For example, Organic Breakfast is composed of small back leaves that pack a punch, whereas fuller white leaves and rosebuds comprise Amore.

The folks here at Art of Tea can help you figure out just how much you’ll need based on how many bags you’d like to make.

4. Additional Supplies: you’ve got the bags and tea, so now it’s time to get really creative. Michelle used chocolate and white baker’s twine, which she bought online from Broadway Paper.

5. Make those tags! If you’re computer literate like Michelle (she is a graphic designer after all) you can use a computer program like Adobe InDesign, or if you’re a little more comfortable in the analogue world – nice handwriting or calligraphy will also be lovely. Either way, her tags were printed to be 1 inch by 2 inches when cut out, and 1×1 when folded in half.

6. Assemble: Using a teaspoon, load 1 teaspoon of tea into each bag. Trim excess paper from tea bag with Scallop or Ric Rac scissors. Using the baker’s twine, tie the bag closed. Fold tag in half, and using a glue stick or hot glue gun, adhere baker’s twine to tag.

That’s it! See how easy it is? And even better, you can match the colors of your twine and tag to the colors of your wedding.

Of course, you’ll want to make these tea bags as close to the event as time allows so that the tea remains fresh. Michelle made hers two months ahead of time and stored them in a dark airtight container. Just make sure you don’t get tempted to use these delicious samples before the big day!