Tea is About Sharing

Here's a wonderful tea story from one of our customers in California.

"Just wanted to tell you that today I offered a cup of tea to the man who was selling us shutters for out house. He Said he was a green tea drinker, so I gave him some of your Cherry Blossom. He loved it, and took your card, and will probably call you or maybe order online."

Thank you for letting us know about and sharing this story.

What's In a Name?

We've had many people ask how we came up with the name Tozy Tea. Also, what does "Tozy" mean?

It's not nearly as mysterious as Victoria and her secret. Here's how we did it.

We had a number of requirements we hoped to fulfill with a name. First, we wanted something that started with "t" so that we could have something alliterative with the word "tea."

Next, we wanted something short so that it could be big on labels and in ads.

We went to a website that allows you to generate a list of all the words starting with a certain letter of a given length. We looked at four letter words starting with "t" and then went down the list.

"Tozy" jumped out because it's not a common word. In fact, you have to go back to dictionaries about 100 years old to find it. It means "soft and fuzzy." It also evokes a common tea term--"tea cozy." The old English roots also bring up mental images of the tea drinking culture. And it just sounds nice and catchy.

Even better, no one is using the word as a brand name. So we reserved www.tozytea.com and the rest is history in the making.

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My First REAL Cup of Tea

Unlike Heidi, I'm a relatively recent convert to tea. My "Saul on the Road to Damascus" moment came on a trip to England. At the urging of Rick Steves, we went to the Bramah Museum of Tea and Coffee.

For those of you who might want to visit the museum, you should check first as it was closed for some time. The website currently seems active but indicates the museum itself is closed.

I was intrigued when Mr. Bramah said that it has been a "diabolical" century for tea. First, who says "diabolical" in every day conversation? Second, why was it so bad?

The tea bag has been a disaster for tea, he explained. Tea bags require the tea to be ground up into fine bits which ruins the flavor. In addition, tea bags allow for the use of lower quality tea which of course does not taste as good. Lastly, the art of making tea has been lost.

The museum had a little cafe attached to it with crystal clear instructions on how to make proper tea. I selected a loose-leaf Earl Grey for no other reason than Captain Picard drinks it on Star Trek.

I should point out that if you buy our pyramid sachets, you don't need any of the following. However, here are the instructions if you want to go the loose leaf route:

(1) Choose the right size teapot, preferably with a grill at the base of the spout.

(2) Warm the teapot with water that's just below boiling point. Swirl the water and drain it out.

(3) Use one teaspoon of loose leaf tea for each person and one for the pot.

(4) Fill the teapot with freshly boiled water. Never re-boil the water.

(5) Stir the tea gently for a few moments and replace the lid.

(6) Allow tea to infuse for exactly 5 minutes. Don't guess, use a timer.

(7) While infusing, use a tea cosy to keep the pot warm.

(8) Pour milk at room temperature into each cup. 1 1/2 tea spoons per cup.

(9) Use a mesh strainer to keep the leaves out of the cup. Fill the cup to within 1 cm from the rim.

(10) Leave teas in the pot. Add more hot water to the pot.

(11) When refilling your cup, dump out the existing cold tea before refilling.

The results were wonderful. Like most Americans, I'd never had good tea in my life. The combination of tea, milk and sugar gave it a consistency a lot like good hot chocolate but not quite as sweet. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least.

For me, this is too much work on a daily basis even with the vastly superior results. That's true of most people, that's why the tea bag won out even though the tea tastes nowhere as good.

Our pyramid tea bags give you the best of both worlds. It's exactly the same tea as loose leaf tea, but it's pre-packaged so you can make it either in a teapot or (like I do) right in my cup.

If you liked this post and you got here from Facebook, it would be greatly appreciated if you went back to our Facebook page and hit "like" there. Thanks!

Bellsmith Graphics

We've gotten a lot of compliments on our logo and brand concept. We've been working for several months now with John Bellsmith of Bellsmith Graphic Design and he deserves a lot of the credit for our look and feel. Beyond his obvious artistic talent, we really appreciated his ability to take our directions and needs and turn them into something real.

We wanted to make sure our logo was different from other brands of teas. I remember telling John we wanted no "faux heraldry" and no "new agey weirdness." The world's got enough of those things.

We also had some practical requirements. We wanted something that looked good in landscape so that it would work on the website, yet we needed something that would make a good icon for social media. In addition, we wanted something that would work in monochrome (for when we get those corporate t-shirts made!).

We're delighted with our modern logo that you see on the website and the packaging. In addition, the "t" with the cup makes a great stand-alone symbol.

John also designed our business cards as well as the layout for our packaging. We wanted our product to look different and modern and I think we've achieved that.

We certainly recommend John if you're looking for an artist to help with your business. Let us know what you think.

Tozy Tea at Frankenmuth Farmers Market

Heidi had a great time meeting people at the Frankenmuth Farmers Market yesterday.

One highlight is that a young man stopped by who said he was very excited by our commitment to the environment. He said he liked the idea of our bio-degradable pyramid sachets and that the cans are recycled paper. He even liked that our shopping bags are recycled paper.

In addition, he liked the quality of our tea. He said he'd check us out further on the internet.

We look forward to seeing you at future market days.

Off to a Great Start

Thanks for the great support. In our first week, we've had visitors from 60 different cities, in 4 countries, on 3 continents. Kudos to all of you out there!

Tozy Tea's First Customers

The other day, a friend wanting to put cream in her coffee, mistakenly added some of our Northland Blueberry Infusion instead.  She loved the great flavor.  She said it was so nice having a shot of flavor without it being syrupy sweet.  Before we knew it, she and her husband had purchased the Northland Blueberry and another tea as well.  They were our very first customers.  Thank you Paul and Laura!

Check out their website at Kapow Soap.

The Starting Lineup

Our guiding principle at Tozy Tea is to make it easy for anyone to enjoy great tea. Our first six blends are ones we know most people will like. Other companies rely on a bewildering array of flavors, some too exotic for most people.

We want you to rest assured that when you order you and your friends will like the flavors we have.

So what do we have?

Two black teas--Up North! and English Breakfast. Both have caffeine and taste better than your typical grocery store teas. Up North! is a bit stronger in taste.

Two green teas--Moroccan Mint and Cherry Blossom. Moroccan Mint is green gunpowder tea with peppermint. You have to admit that drinking anything called "gunpowder" is pretty cool. Cherry Blossom is more complex, a sencha green tea with cherry and rose flavoring. Green teas have caffeine but typically less than a black tea.

Two infusions--Northland Blueberry and Brahms Lullaby. Infusions don't contain tea at all. Northland Blueberry, already becoming our best seller, has blueberries and other fruits. Brahms Lullaby's main ingredients are camomile and rooibos making it an excellent herbal tea. Neither has caffeine.

If you have other teas or infusions you'd like us to see, just let us know. We're starting with sure winners and we'll be expanding from here.

Welcome!

Welcome to Tozy Tea. We are pleased to announce that our website is up and running. We look forward to serving you and hope you like our tea as much as we do.

Please feel free to stop by and talk tea. We're always looking for new ideas. Drop us a line and let us know what's on your mind.