Teajo Blog and Articles

Flavored Teas for Recipes- August 30, 2010

There are so many fantastic uses for tea other than drinking. Teas can be used for cooking and in recipes, adding a little extra flavor without overpowering the taste of food. Substituting tea in your favorite foods and beverages sounds tricky but is so easy, delicious and may just become your "cup of tea!"

Tea Flavored Ice Cubes and Popsicles
One of my favorite ways to make iced tea is to take some of the tea I've made, pour it into ice cube trays and add them to your glass of tea. It's such a great way to make iced tea without it getting watered down as the ice melts. You can also try to add different flavored tea ice cubes to regular iced tea to give the tea a great fruit flavor. Along the same lines as tea flavored ice cubes, freezing fruity teas in popsicle holders is the new, grown up way to enjoy a frozen treat on a hot summer day.

Mint Teas in Chocolate Recipes
I love chocolate mint, but using mint extract tends to be too strong for me. So in place of the extract, when cooking, I brew a fairly strong cup of mint tea and add a portion of this in place of the mint extract. This gives my recipes a softer flavor as opposed to that kick that the extract has.

Teas to Enhance Recipes
Raspberry or lemon teas specifically, along with pretty much any other fruit flavored teas can be added to glazes, icings or mousses to give the recipe a subtle taste without overpowering. Brew your tea as usual, making it as strong or mild as you like and in place of the portion of the water you would normally add to these recipes, substitute that liquid with the tea. I would advise you to add the tea slowly, less is better since you can always add more!

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She often can be found blogging about education and scholarships for college. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Try some iced Sencha this summer - A unique and flavorful green tea- July 17, 2010

In the U.S., most of the green tea we consume is from China. Very few are exposed to Japanese teas, and in particular, Sencha. Sencha is the most popular green teas in Japan and represents approximately 80% of the green tea produced in Japan. How is it different from the typical Chinese green tea? First, sencha leaves are initially steamed whereas Chinese green tea is pan-fried. This initial steaming step creates a more vegetal, almost grassy-like flavor with the sencha. In fact, it also has a slightly sweet flavor as well.

I personally prefer the taste of sencha over Chinese green tea any day and would recommend it to anyone who would like a lot more flavor in their green tea. This summer, instead of brewing up some black tea or Chinese green tea, try getting your hands on some sencha and definitely enjoy it over ice.

Large global specialty loose tea retailer wants to be #1 in the U.S.- March 18, 2010

One of the largest specialty loose tea retailers in the world, TeaGschwendner, is moving forward with an aggressive strategy to be number 1 in the U.S., a spot arguably claimed by Teavana. A recent interview with their Director of U.S. Operations reveals some interesting aspects of the company's strategy, including a comment about not wanting to be the "Starbucks of Tea." Read more...

Is your favorite loose tea from a farm or a factory?- March 8, 2010

After having watched the movie, Food Inc., I realized that there are many similarities between food and tea. If you know anything about the book or movie, you understand that most of the food we consume in the U.S. is processed in a factory environment from a small handful of large food companies. Even when you see the words "Farm Fresh" on the labels of your favorite beef or poultry, you can rest assured that the contents in the package most likely did not come directly from a farm. Everything today is highly processed and rarely fresh, primarily because it is cheaper to do so.

The same thing applies to your favorite loose tea. 99% of the tea in the supermarket or tea shops are highly processed, consist of factory blends produced by consolidators and are certainly not direct from tea gardens/farms. Why do they do this? It is cheaper, plain and simple. Just like there are very few retail choices for consumers to shop for organic meats, there are very few places for a tea drinker to purchase organic and garden-fresh loose tea.

The choice is yours. Pay a little more and eat better tasting and healthier food or eat cheap and risk your health. Also, if you are looking to make a change to a more organic lifestyle, do your research and visit your local natural foods stores.

Our flavored loose teas are now available in more stores- March 4, 2010

Teajo Teas is proud to announce that our flavored loose teas are now available through a quality chain of 13 natural food stores located throughout the Midwest and Florida. Akins Natural Foods Marketplace has stores in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, where as Chamberlin's Natural Foods, the sister company of Akins, is located throughout Central Florida. For more information, please visit http://www.teajo.com/wheretobuy.php.

Is drinking loose tea safe during pregnancy?- January 24, 2010

Drinking tea and how it can affect pregnancy is a subject that has recently become very near and dear to our hearts, given that my wife and I are expecting in the next few months. Naturally, as a regular loose tea drinker, my wife is wondering if a cup of tea a day is considered safe to drink without adding significant risk to the pregnancy. Most doctors will tell you, including ours, that everything in moderation is basically safe. While there have been studies that show large amounts of caffeine can have adverse effects on the fetus, there are no conclusive studies that rule out caffeine completely. If you are pregnant, the bottom line is listen to your doctor and also to your body. The following is a well written article on what is considered safe in terms of caffeine intake during pregnancy...read more.

Green tea - one study shows link between consumption and symptoms of depression- January 18, 2010

Just when you think you've seen every benefit to drinking green tea, another one comes along. In one particular study, Japanese researchers discovered that men and women aged 70 and older who drank more than four cups of green tea a day were 44 percent less likely to exhibit symptoms of depression. Read more...

Loose tea is now available at Village Health Market in Tampa- January 12, 2010

Good news for our local customers in Tampa, FL, especially those living in the South Tampa area. Our teas are currently available at Village Health Market located at 3225 S. MacDill Avenue in the tea section. Teajo Teas are the first loose tea products to arrive on their shelves, which is very exciting. This is just another step in our mission to introduce and promote loose tea.

Loose tea flavors and variety - How much is too much and why is it important? - November 24, 2009

When it comes to flavored tea, how much variety is too much? In a perfect world, there would be no limit to the number of flavors one could create or offer to customers. What's the downside? Quality and freshness are at stake. As a customer, think about this very carefully. The more flavors that are offered, the more inventory that is accumulated, and the longer it takes to go through the inventory. The reason is not everyone will purchase every flavor, which means many of the flavors could sit around for a long, long time before they are replenished with fresh product. Ultimately, you, the customer, pay the price by getting stuck with stale tea.

Take Cold Stone Creamery for example, a retail chain of gourmet ice cream stores. They offer 20 signature creations and approximately 9 base ice cream flavors for custom blending. By keeping a limit to the variety, they are able to control the quality and freshness of their ice cream.

As a consumer, you should be thankful when you see a company or brand follow this type of strategy. Everyone likes variety, but there is a price to pay for too much variety. Of course there is no formula or magic number for the variety of tea flavors a brand should offer. But when you see a tea company offer 70 different loose tea flavors, approach with caution. They obviously don't have freshness or quality in mind and are interested in one thing...volume.

Custom blend your flavored loose teas - Is Raspberry Dark Chocolate the next flavor?- November 19, 2009

We discovered a new loose tea flavor by combining our Very Raspberry with our Dark Chocolate Dream at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show in Washington D.C. The result was a huge hit with the customers. We are now seriously considering combining these two loose tea flavors and offering it as a special blend from time to time. Stay tuned for further updates.