The holidays are upon us! Art of Tea has the ultimate gift-giving guide. Avoid the crowded shopping malls and long lines. Art of Tea’s online store makes it easy and convenient to shop for all the special people in your life. You can place your orders from the comfort of your own home in your pajamas while sipping on an excellent brew of tea. Take your time browsing through our wonderful array of must-have tea ware and accessories on top of our wide selection of organic and fair trade hand-crafted teas. Here are Art of Tea’s top 10 holiday gift ideas (arranged by price—low to high):

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

With all the hustle and bustle during this time of the year, it’s easy to feel stressed out, overwhelmed and anxious about the holidays looming ahead. It’s necessary to remember to take deep breaths, relax, and take some time to pamper yourself. You deserve it. Here are a few remedies infused with the perfect touch of tea blends by Art of Tea.

*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

With the winter in full swing and all of the holiday bustle upon us, a hot elixir can be just what the doctor ordered. This holiday inspired cider is sure to win your guests over at your next holiday shindig and can also be equally enjoyed in solitude after a long day of braving the elements. We hope you enjoy it!

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.

On a day filled with candies and sweets, it would be fitting to enjoy one of our delicious dessert teas. Instead of a handful of chocolates, why not drink a cup of Chocolate Monkey? It would be a sweet treat, and healthier too! And to make that cup of Chocolate Monkey even sweeter, it should be noted that it contains Fair Trade certified ingredients. You may be thinking, So what? What does Fair Trade even mean? A lot of Art of Tea’s products are Fair Trade certified, and so here are some facts about Fair Trade Tea and why it is so important to us.

Well, first off, October is Fair Trade month.  The main focus of Fair Trade is to help farming families and communities from Africa, Asia, and Latin America improve their lives. According Transfair USA, some Fair Trade principles are:

Fair price

Fair labor conditions

Direct trade

Democratic transparent organizations

Community development

Environmental sustainability

Too often we hear of disadvantaged laborers in other countries, and Fair Trade helps battle those conditions. Fair Trade holds special conditions and standards to ensure that sustainable farming methods are used, a minimum floor price for products are paid and guaranteed, and that fair labor conditions exist. It may seem that to ensure such standards, Fair Trade products would be more expensive, but in actuality, Fair Trade products are priced as competitively with products that are not Fair Trade certified.

As mentioned before, Fair Trade is committed to community development as well, and this means building schools and community centers to pull these communities out of poverty and to better the quality of life in these communities. In addition to helping people, Fair Trade exists to help improve the environment. Fair Trade standards ensure that there is proper waste disposal and proper water and soil conservation, among other environmental benefits. With these goals, it’s no wonder why we at Art of Tea wanted to be involved with Fair Trade. Art of Tea also strives to ensure that workers are treated with respect, that communities are improved, and that we are as environmentally sustainable as possible.

Many of our organic teas are also fair trade certified. Some of our teas that contain Fair Trade certified ingredients are Kauai Cocktail, 1896, Egyptian Chamomile, Chocolate Monkey, and more. We are proud to support Fair Trade and believe that our contribution truly does help make the world a better place. For more information on Fair Trade and what it is all about, visit transfairusa.org. Drink a sweeter cup of tea, knowing that you helped make a difference.

Sugar is the Pandora’s box of tea. So tempting, yet so volatile. In the history of consumption, the rise of the sugar and tea trades happened at similar times, and had a symbiotic relationship. Sugarcane from the West Indies was harvested at the same time Indian and Chinese tea plantations harvested their crops. Let’s face it, tea is good with sugar. Yet sugar, whether in the form of honey, sugar crystals, or Agave nectar, has the potential to hide the most exquisite elements of the tea’s flavor when all you can taste is the syrupy sweetness. However, with the right amount, it can also enrich the body of the tea.

A tea is comprised of three main components: aroma, texture, and taste. Let’s take Jasmine Green Tea. When you first smell it, it smells like jasmine flowers of course, but there’s also a deeper, woodsy smell lying underneath. Then you taste it. The texture is smooth yet sharp with the pungency of the jasmine flower. The taste is sweetly floral, along with elements of cut grass and lemon.

Conduct an experiment, and try to describe the aroma, texture, and taste of the same type of tea with and without sugar. See for yourself what tastes the purest to you. I’ll leave you with an excerpt written by the staunch anti-sugar man, George Orwell. The following is from his essay “A Nice Cup of Tea,” from the Evening Standard published in 1946.

“Lastly, tea—unless one is drinking it in the Russian style—should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.”

One image of summer that has always perplexed me is the people who sit around sipping boiling cups of tea on an equally sweltering summer day. From Nana, or mint tea, in Israel, Turkish coffee, to spicy Chai in India, the locals always seem to pair their humid climates with hot drinks. Is it because these tea drinkers are engaging in an extreme sports game of tea or is their a deeper, more scientific reason for this oddity? After doing some digging, I discovered that one reason is because the heat from a hot drink promotes your body’s metabolism, which means that it allows you to oxidize fat at a higher rate. It also will decrease your chances of becoming dehydrated because a hot liquid replenishes the body even more than cold water. This is because the body does not have to work as hard to digest it. Think of it this way- if you eat a popsicle, your body is not used to that type of coldness. The popsicle actually shock your system, making your body exert more energy, therefore creating more heat, in order to metabolize it. In Ayurvedic medicine, warm liquids are prescribed in order to balance the kapha and vata doshas. Western medicine backs this up, with the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommending that people avoid very cold drinks as it can provoke stomach cramps. Make sure to pay attention to how your body reacts to cold.

After asking some native Middle-Easterners, some told me that they always believed that hot tea increases your body’s temperature internally, therefore tricking your mind to believe it’s cooler than it actually is outside. Others claimed it’s because the heat makes you drink the tea slower, allowing for more time to sit around and wile away the day with friends. Whatever it is, hot tea is a comforting accessory to have on a summer afternoon.

Strike up the band. Alert the media. This just in. Tell your friends.

Pardon us, if we’re sticking our chests out with a little pride and firing off some celebratory fireworks, but it’s like the Fourth of July around here, as we’ve just received the great news that four of our Art of Tea selections have been chosen for the finals at the upcoming World Tea Expo at the end May in Las Vegas.

We are so pleased to have multiple tea candidates competing and all four choices have gone through very rigorous prejudging tastings to get to this stage. We will be represented in three categories.

Our HALO, a bulb shaped white blossoming tea that opens into a rainbow ring of jasmine and amaranth flowers that are accented with blueberry and peach essence has been honored in the Hand-Tied Flowering Category. If you’ve never seen a flowering tea, it’s a beautiful thing to watch. Imagine slow motion, time-lapse photography and you’ll get the idea behind this incredible tea as it’s leaves open infusing the water with a delicious taste.

We’ve got two entries in the Blended/Flavored Category, our MANDARIN SILK oolong will hopefully steep its way into the hearts of the judges and our green Hojicha de la Creme will have them asking for another cup. No fighting you two, we’re all family here at The Art of Tea. Our oolong’s Pouchong tealeaves are blended with lemon myrtle , flowers and natural essence and deliver a smooth rich flavor with hints of creamy vanilla and a stimulating orange finish. The green’s hand roasted tea leaves and twigs are combined with fresh essence of vanilla and vanilla blossoms to brew a scrumptious toasted marshmellowy and hazelnut taste. We can’t pick a favorite in this one, we love them both the same, like all of our teas.

Last but not least, we’ve got an entry in the Herbal/Mint division with our sweet enticing Velvet Tea. It’s chocolate swims in a velvety base of organic rooibos and mint leaves and will give all those other tisanes a run for their money. It’s really the perfect dessert tea and has a finish that’s smooth and complimented by just a touch of vanilla. Chocolate fans will be standing in line for this one.

So, if you’ve always wanted to experience the real world of tea, hop in your car or head to the airport and join us in Las Vegas for the World Tea Expo. If you’re a fan of tea or want to do something in Vegas other than gamble, this is a show that we’re sure you will enjoy. It’s May 30 – June 1, 2008 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV. And if you do come to Vegas we’ve got an added treat to announce. Our own founder and Tea Blender Steve Schwartz will be conducting a don’t miss seminar on the art of blending teas. Learn the secrets of a respected Tea Blender and create your own tea blends. If you can’t join us in Vegas please try some of our nominated teas that are available on our website and conduct your own taste test. Let us know which one is your blue ribbon winner.