Pyramid Bags and Iced Tea

A few weeks ago we were in the Detroit area "fancy mall" and picked up an iced tea pitcher at Teavana. After experimenting a bit, it turns out it's a good way to make iced tea.

The pitcher is made of a special plastic that you can put really hot water in. It has a little strainer at the top where you put the tea leaves. Just heat up some water, put it in the pitcher, put tea leaves in the strainer, wait a few minutes, then remove the tea leaves and put the pitcher in the fridge.

I used several different loose leaf teas and herbs--an oolong, peppermint, even a white tea. They turned out pretty well. My only complaint was that the leaves were hard to clean from strainer.

So I took some of our pyramid tea bags and used them instead. I took the strings and labels off and used two bags. I added some sugar and it turned out perfectly.

And it was easy to clean after removing the pyramid bags.

So feel free to use our tea with their equipment. Don't worry, we won't tell anyone.

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Tea and Marathons

Marathon runners rack up many many miles with their workouts and races. They stay focused on their grueling training in the hope of improving their personal best time or even winning a marathon. People have different reasons for running. The possibilities range from loving a great challenge, running like the wind, to the exhilarating feeling they when they finish. No matter what their motivation may be for running, it always comes back to it being something they really enjoy doing.

You may be wondering how marathons link up with tea. Think of this way. Think about what a wonderful day it would be to go from one tea party to the next....

A good friend of mine became engaged a few years ago. Being her matron of honor I helped plan her bridal shower. It was decided that a bridal shower tea would be given. One of my jobs was a to take the bride to a tea room so as to not arouse any suspicion that she might be going to bridal shower.. I told her to dress to a tea (pun intended). This included hat, gloves, the works. After tea, I told her that I needed to stop by work and pick up something that I had left behind and needed in order to finish some teacher tasks at home. Pretending to be unable to find my key, my friend quickly found hers and opened the door. Surprise! There were about 100 ladies, plus children all ready for a bridal shower tea.

So that day we both had a marathon of tea parties. Hey, two parties separated by thirty minutes is not bad at all. Of course, we had all of the tea, tea sandwiches, and oh so many other delectable goodies all over again.

Two tea parties in one day is still my tea marathon record, which I have repeated several times since.

Hopefully, the record will change to three tea parties in one day, which would be absolutely fabulous and dreamy. Every marathon participant needs a goal, even an individual who loves tea and tea parties can have a tea party marathon goal.

Try this, get a group of friends together and and plan a tea party marathon. Have everyone prepare light tea party foods (Remember, you have to pace yourself if you are going to do this all day) that are ready to serve, along with great tea that you will brew after everyone arrives. Think of this as a tea party marathon.

Making Tea Go Farther

We received a tip from a customer the other day we'd like to pass along. It's a good example of how to stretch your resources.

She's a big fan of our Up North! black tea. She makes one hot tea in the morning, then saves the bag and brews iced tea for the evening.

All of our blends are strong enough to make two cups from one bag. Check out all our varieties at TozyTea.

If you have any similar helpful suggestions, please put them in the comments below. Or if you wish, send us an email at heidi@tozytea.com.

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300 Likes Celebration

We just got our 300th fan on Facebook and we're having a celebration for our FB fans. Buy two or more teas and get free shipping. Go to our Facebook page and hit the Exclusive Offer button to get the coupon code. Enter the code at checkout, and voila, no shipping charges.

The coupon expires August 29 so act quickly.

Thanks to everyone out there.

The Power of Pyramids

Have you ever been at work and wanted the perfect cup of tea and yet have not had a great tea or all of the equipment? We have the answer to this problem.

The Power of Pyramids - Our pyramids allow our teas and infusions to have plenty of room to fully expand which allows the full body and characteristics of the tea to be savored and enjoyed. On top of the great cup of tea you will be drinking, you will be happy to know that our pyramids are ecofriendly. Being made of cornstarch makes them 100% biodegradable! So when you are done with your pyramid, feel free to compost it!

Have you ever been concerned whether or not you have the correct amount of tea for your hot water? This was something I used to be concerned about when I was a young 10 year old tea brewista. I mean, come on we had this tea ball infuser why shouldn't it be completely full when brewing one's cup of tea. Good grief! I learned quickly, but for a long time there was always the little nagging question of whether or not I had too much or too little tea. It was for this very reason that we wanted out teas and infusions in pyramids. This way, the brewer would always know that they have the perfect amount of tea every time they brew.

So with the pyramids, there is no need to get any infuser of any type, or even loose leaf tea leaves. For these very reasons there is no muss, no fuss, no mess, no stress. It's just so easy and convenient to use our pyramid teas and infusions, you'll never want to go back to the old way of doing things again.

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A Childhood Tea Story

Childhood memories...those thoughts from a time in our past. Sometimes, these memories make us smile, laugh, or even cry. Hopefully your mind is flooded with all sort of great memories. One of my memories from my childhood revolves around tea...actually there are quite a few, but for now let's just stick with this one.

One evening our family went out to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant owned by a classmate's grandfather. My brother and I settled into our chairs as we started to look over the menu and decide what we were going to have for dinner. I'm not sure what we had, but it most often always included Mu Shu Pork. YUM! After we ordered our meal, my brother and I had this idea to see who could drink the most tea. Wow! My classmate's mother kept bringing us teapot after teapot of tea. She did notice that we were consuming more tea than usual, but I can't remember what her comments were anymore. Thank goodness our mom was a good sport about this contest. I seem to remember that she said something along the lines of, "Remember to save room for dinner."

In the end, my brother won the tea drinking contest with 36 cups of tea!...But I was not far behind. :-)

So remember to take time out of your day and make great lasting memories with your kids, family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues with a little or a lot of tea. Sup it. Sip it. Savor it.

With all this talk of tea, I'm going to have a cup of our Up North! right now.

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On Tea and Pizzas--Easy to Read Instructions

Frozen pizzas and premium tea have something in common. Both require the correct time and temperature to come out right. No one is surprised that is true of pizzas, but many people don't realize that if tea is steeped incorrectly it won't taste right.

Green teas have become very popular in the last few years, but are much more sensitive to overheating than black teas or herbals. It's important to make green tea at a cooler temperature, around 180 degrees or so.

Of course, do you really want to have to remember that? Most tea labels, if they have a temperature or time listed, put it in tiny print like that on a bottle of aspirin. Not good when you're bleary-eyed in the morning. Even worse when you don't know to even know enough to look.

To solve this problem, every Tozy Tea label has a summary instruction in the upper right with the proper time and temperature for that tea. Red means make it very hot, close to boiling. Yellow means not so hot, around 180 degrees. So no guessing, no trips to the optometrist. Detailed instructions are on the back of the can as well.

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Does Premium Tea Really Need to be so Complicated?

We were at the mall in Ann Arbor yesterday and stopped by the big national tea chain's store there. They've done more than anybody to introduce premium tea to America, but it struck me that for the average person it's still overwhelming.

The samples are great but I think many people would not even realize you can buy ready to drink tea in the back of the store. Also, does the average non-tea drinker get turned off by the $250 water heater, $13 measuring spoons, and randomly placed $90 Buddhas?

That company is trying to bring good tea to the masses, but they're still holding on to their eclectic roots. The appeal is mainly to people who are already initiated into the tea world.

At Tozy Tea we're trying to do something different. We want people to experience great tasting tea--every day without changing your overall lifestyle. A $250 water heater is nice but not necessary. With a pre-measured sachet like ours you don't need the measuring spoon.

And even the most experienced tea drinker sometimes wants to make some tea swiftly and easily. In addition, if you're an experienced tea drinker have you ever wanted to give tea as a gift to someone who you think will like it but just finds it too hard? We want to solve that problem.

We're about making it easy. We'll help you get the temperature and time right. We'll also make sure you pick a flavor that you'll probably like. Those are the only secrets you really need to know. You can enjoy great tea without spending a fortune on the extras.

Let us know what you think. If you liked this post, please head over to our facebook page and hit "like." Also, feel free to check out our products at www.tozytea.com.

Tozy Tea is Environmentally Friendly

We at Tozy Tea care about the environment. Even though we're a new company with a simple product line, we have taken a number of steps along the way to make sure our products are environmentally friendly. Here are a few features.

First, rather than using metal cans like many of our competitors, our canisters are made of 100% recycled paper. Our community has a paper recycling program and when we are finished with a can we put it in with the paper to be recycled. If your town has a paper recycling program you may be able to recycle the can as well.

And you won't end up with a cabinet full of fancy cans with pictures of magic dragons and happy rainbows (or happy dragons and magic rainbows for that matter!).

Second, our pyramid tea sachets are made of bio-degradable cornstarch. They will not be sitting forever in a landfill somewhere after you enjoy your tea.

Another feature that is not obvious is that it is possible to get two cups of tea out of a single tea bag. That conserves resources and saves you money. Don't hesitate to double dip.

Our gift bags are also made of 100% recycled paper.

If you have other ideas we can incorporate as the company grows, please let us know.

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