It’s sometimes a challenge finding just the right gift for someone special in your life, so what’s more thoughtful than a homemade present? Whether you’re preparing for the holiday season rapidly approaching or you’re just feeling crafty, why not try these unique soap making recipes using Art of Tea blends.

Most soap making recipes require lye, but lye is often times dangerous and challenging to use by less experienced soap makers. Here are some easy recipes that use the melt and pour method instead, which is also known as using glycerin as a base for your soap. This method is kid-friendly with the supervision and assistance from an adult and easy for any beginner soap maker to learn.

*Chamomile and Citrus Soap using Chamomile Clementine

You will need:

• 4 oz. Glycerin Soap or soap base (found at most craft stores)
• ¼ cup of Grated Orange Peel
• Orange Soap Colorant (optional)
• 2 heaping tsp. of Art of Tea’s Chamomile Clementine (un-steeped)
• Soap Mold lightly coated with Olive Oil

*Lemongrass and Ginger Soap using French Lemon Ginger

You will need:

• 4 oz. Glycerin Soap or soap base (found at most craft stores)
• 2 tsp. Citrus Essential Oils in lemon or orange flavor
• 2 heaping tsp. of Art of Tea’s French Lemon Ginger (un-steeped)
• Soap Mold lightly coated with Olive Oil

*Green Tea and Honey Soap using Moroccan Mint

You will need:

• 4 oz. Glycerin Soap or soap base (found at most craft stores)
• Green Soap Colorant (optional)
• 3 tbl. All Natural Honey
• 3 tbl. Essential Oil in lavender or peppermint flavor
• 2 heaping tsp. of Art of Tea’s Moroccan Mint (steeped and completely dried)

• Soap Mold lightly coated with Olive Oil

Directions:

First, slice the block of glycerin soap into smaller pieces, so it’s easier to melt. Place the soap pieces in a microwavable bowl if you choose to microwave, or place in a double boiler pot for stove boil. Melt the soap using whichever method you prefer—microwave or stove boil until it is completely liquefied. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Mix thoroughly until it’s smooth. As it cools, the soap base will thicken to a pudding-like consistency. Slowly and carefully, pour the melted mix into the olive oil coated-mold. Let it sit, and completely harden. Remove from mold, and let it air dry for 24 hours before use or packaging. We hope you enjoy your customized soap bar infused with tea and herbs!

Gift Packaging Ideas:

• Wrap the soap in wax paper. Tie a ribbon around it into a bow.
• Place the soap in a brown soap box. Decorate the box using paint or markers.
• Make a gift basket. Individually wrap the soap in decorative cloth. Package them together in a basket. Add other bath accessories such as bath salts, loofah, scrub, etc. Add a bow for a finishing touch.
• Tie twine around the soap. Display on a nice ceramic soap dish.

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.

Want to add a personal touch to your holiday gifts? Looking for a stocking stuffer for the tea lover in your life? Make a Teacup Candle today!

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

With Halloween looming on the horizon things are getting just a little spookier – giggles turn into evil cackles, black cats abound, brooms become flying vehicles, and paranormal activity is at an all time high. If you’re anything like me, all this creepiness has distracted you from putting together the ultimate costume. Not to fear, Art of Tea to the rescue, just take cues from some of our brews. Here for your pleasure, four costume ideas inspired by our blends:

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.

Oh Yes…

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

Here is a great little recipe we adapted from Epicurious.com
Ingredients:
•    3 cups of water
•    2 1/2 tablespoons fine-quality Green Kukicha
•    3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar or 1 cup of Agave Syrup
Preperation:
In a small saucepan bring water to a boil. Add kukicha and remove pan from heat. Cover pan and steep tea 5 minutes. Add sugar or agave, stirring until dissolved, and strain tea through a fine sieve into a bowl. Chill tea, covered, until cold and freeze in an ice-cream maker. Sorbet may be made 1 week ahead.
Notes:
Yield: Makes about 3 cups

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.”

Michelle is one individual who understands the power of packaging. She’s been working with Art of Tea for some time, helping with packaging and design. Michelle is also about to get married, which, as anyone who’s recently been through the process can attest to, can be a particularly expensive time. For my wedding a couple of years ago, I remember being at a complete loss when it came to favors. It seemed appropriate that there be something sitting on the tables for our guests, but what? In the end, I succumbed to buying individual chocolates. By that point my creative energies were zapped (I put off favors until two days before the wedding, and paid for it) and I was looking for a quick fix.

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!