Blend of the Month - August

It's certainly been great iced tea weather lately here in Seattle! On Wednesday, SeaTac Airport reported a record-breaking temperature of 103F! It's cooled down today, just in the mid 80s, but it's still important to keep hydrated. And why not drink iced tea? It keeps you hydrated, and you get the bonus of all those healthy anti-oxidants!

Anyway, on to the Blend of the Month - Peaches & Cream!



It's a 50/50 blend of our Vanilla Cream black tea and Decaf August Peach. It may seem odd to blend a decaf tea with a regular black tea, but the peach flavor in the August Peach seemed to match up the best. And really, how could we pass it up for the August blend of the month?

You can get it here in the shop and online all this month.

Caramel Pu-Erh

As some of you may know, we can often special-order teas that we don't normally carry, or seasonal teas in the "off-season". We usually have to order at least a pound or two, so if you have a few friends who want to go in on a special order, that's a great way to make it work.

Anyway, one of our customers recently special ordered a kilogram (it's a Canadian company) of Caramel Pu-Erh, a tea we carried last Winter. They never came to pick it up, so now we're selling it in the store!



Now, I know what you're thinking; "caramel pu-erh? Seriously?" It sounds crazy, but it's actually pretty good. The earthy richness of the pu-erh pairs nicely with the caramel flavor, making it a very satisfying cup. It's probably better in cold weather, but if you store it in an airtight container it should stay fresh until it starts getting cool again.

It's available here on our online store as well as our shop in Seattle.

Blend of the Month - July

Apparently I completely forgot to blog about the blend of the month for July!

This blend is Berries Noir, a blend of our Blackberry, Blueberry and Blackcurrant black teas. Perfect for iced tea, and a lovely hot tea as well.



Berries Noir is available in our shop at Pike Place Market, as well as online.

You'll find it there until the end of the month, but if you don't get some before then, don't worry! As with all of our monthly blends, we can always blend them to order any time of the year (as long as we still have the ingredients.) Just give us a call and ask, or come in the shop.

New Tea Books

We just got some great new tea books in the store!


First is Tea with a Twist by Lisa Boalt Richardson. As befits the name, it is about different ways of preparing tea and food for tea parties in ways you may not have thought of before. In particular, her Tea Sangria sounds quite refreshing this time of year. This book is packed with beautiful pictures and delightful recipes.

Next, Tea For You by Tracy Stearn (also author of Tea Party). This new book is a guide to blending your own custom teas, for yourself or for gifts. It's one of the only books I've seen that is specifically about blending your own teas, and it's got lots of great info. There are also a few recipes for teatime treats tucked near the back of the book.

Digestive Biscuit Review

There's a certain time of day in between breakfast and lunch where I can't quite wait until lunch to have something to eat. A cup of tea and some biscuits fits the bill quite nicely, so today around that time I decided to do a review of a classic biscuit, the Digestive.



This was also a great time to test the new "%50 less saturated fat, same great taste" claim on the package.

First, a little history about the Digestive. It was invented by Alexander Grant at McVitie's in 1892. McVitie's is still one of the largest biscuit brands in the UK, now owned by United Biscuits.

The name "Digestive" came from the high amount of baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, used in the biscuit. Sodium bicarbonate has antacid properties, so it was thought that the biscuits would aid in digestion.

But enough history, let's taste some biscuits. As said in the book Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down, "Tea without biscuits is a missed opportunity". I would assume that the reverse is true as well, so I made a cup of tea to go with my biscuits. Since the Digestive is considered the "quintessential" English biscuit, it seemed only right to have the classic English tea, PG Tips.

Now, let's take a closer look at our biscuit.



McVitie's is very fond of stamping their name on biscuits, and this is no exception. Since the Digestive is copied by so many other biscuit companies, this serves as a sort of "certificate of authenticity".

The Digestive is also a rather large biscuit, measuring about 2 3/4" in diameter. This can pose a bit of a problem when dunking in a small cup, as you tend to get a situation like this:



So make sure you have a good size cup if you plan on dunking. Speaking of dunking, the light, crispy texture facilitates rapid tea absorption, so don't leave it in too long or you'll end up with a cup of biscuit sludge.

The flavor of the Digestive biscuit is probably best described as being very similar to a graham cracker. It has just a touch of sweetness, so it goes great with a wide variety of toppings, from lemon curd and jam to sliced cheese. They're also great to use in recipes. Try using them in place of graham crackers for a cheesecake crust, or make s'mores with them!



Truly, the Digestive is a versatile biscuit, and a wonderful accompaniment to any cup of tea.

You can find them in our shop in Seattle, or online here.

Happy dunking!

Decaf August Peach

Boy, we sure have been getting a lot of new teas in lately! Today we received our new Decaf August Peach, a lovely decaf black tea bursting with peach flavor.


This makes a great iced tea, too! Since it's decaf, you can have it on a warm summer evening and not worry about it keeping you up all night. We've definitely had iced tea on the brain lately with all the unseasonably hot weather here in Seattle!

This tea will be up on the website soon, and is available in the shop now.

Blend of the Month - June

Well, it's that time again; time to unveil our new Blend of the Month for June!

This month we've blended up some Lemon Jasmine, a lively mix of jasmine-scented green tea and Lemon Myrtle, an herb from the rainforests of Australia.



The combination of floral and citrus flavors makes a unique and refreshing iced tea, and a wonderfully aromatic hot tea.

We'll be brewing it up in the store periodically, so come give it a try and take some home!