December’s Teas – 2012

Our December’s Tea Box has the excitement of Christmas. With the holidays around the corner we decided to pull out all stops on the blender’s Christmas teas. We’re giving you nothing less than Europe’s Santa’s Secret, along with a beautiful refreshing peppermint tea. Bah-humbugs need not worry; we’ve got you covered too.

We’re also introducing Mountain Tea’s Black Pearl, a brandy oolong. We hadn’t heard of anything like it until we were introduced to this new category of tea, only recently invented. Cool right? And of course how could a Tea Sparrow Tea Box be complete without a little decadence, brought to you this month by Rishi’s Lavender Earl Grey. So love the tea box, love the season and most of all love life. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all, may our lights shine brighter than ever.

Sonnentor’s Santa’s Secret

Description: The Perfect stocking stuffer!

Ingredients: Apple pieces, Hibiscus, Rose hip, Cinnamon Ceylon, Pears, Quince, Essential Oils, Organic Orange, Cloves, Vanilla.

Health Benefits: The phrase “herbal tea” or “tisanes” usually refers to infusions of fruit or herbs made without the tea plant. Regarding their benefits, apart from being the perfect refreshment on hot summer days, they are also packed with vitamin C. So it’s a great way to get your vitamin C without having to eat all the sugars that come with whole fruits.

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “Christmas in a cup. Apple, cinnamon, orange and spice everything to love for those that are both naughty and nice.”

Mountain Tea’s Black Pearl

Description: This beautiful black tea is harvested at our third garden in Sumatra, Indonesia. High-grown 1200m above sea level in a temperature climate and mineral-rich, volcanic soil, our tea masters hand-roll and shape this dark oolong until it produces a sweet liquor with a fragrance and taste like Washington Red apples. Great iced or hot.

Ingredients: Hand rolled tea leaves.

Health Benefits: Most people don’t realize black tea comes with many of the similar health benefits as green tea, including reduced risk of stroke and heart disease, among many others. As well, black tea is said to increase energy, aid in digestive health and to promote healthy skin and hair. Black tea’s tannins are also great immunity-boosters.

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family: “A beautiful light black tea. So fulfilling on a cold day. The natural scent of apples is so familiar and comforting.”

Rishi Teas Lavender Earl Grey

Description: The floral aroma of lavender is perhaps the perfect complement to the sweet citrus and full-bodied flavor of Earl Grey.

Ingredients: Organic Fair Trade Certified™ black tea, Organic lavender flowers, natural essential oils of bergamot and lavender.

Health Benefits: Most people don’t realize black tea comes with many of the similar health benefits as green tea, including reduced risk of stroke and heart disease, among many others. As well, black tea is said to increase energy, aid in digestive health and to promote healthy skin and hair. Black tea’s tannins are also great immunity-boosters.

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “A bold, strong and fragrant tea that can hold its own. A new favourite for me.”

Sonnentor’s Peppermint Tea

Description: The perfect peppermint tea.

Ingredients: Peppermint

Health Benefits: Did you know that peppermint tea has been used medicinally for centuries? It is known to improve digestive health, reduce headaches, support menstrual health, lower fevers, and reduce inflammation.

Darcy McMurray, Tea Enthusiast: “Big beautiful dried leaves, mild crisp flavour. Delightful!”

November’s Teas – 2012

The long-lost quest for the perfect chamomile blend has been found: Rishi’s Chamomile Medley. Until now I held Might Leaf’s Chamomile as the industry standard, but this tea will surpass any chamomile critic’s expectations. On the other side of the road, for years, when I woke up, I had to have Rishi’s Earl Grey Supreme. That space is now shared with Florapharm’s Rich Earl Grey, and it has found its way to the front of my tea cupboard. This month was all about finding new favourites.

Rishi Tea’s Chamomile Medley

Description: This tea is delicious and relaxing. Sip it in the evening and you will sleep like a baby.

Ingredients: Organic chamomile flowers, organic lemon myrtle, organic lemongrass and organic spearmint.

Health Benefits: Chamomile throughout the ages has been regarded as a medicinal cure-all. It was considered a universal remedy by the ancient Egyptians, and the Romans and Greeks used chamomile flowers as a compress to apply to wounds to speed healing. It’s no wonder that modern medicine has been able to find so many additional health benefits to this flower as a tea. Here are but a few: chamomile tea boosts the immune system and fight infections associated with colds. It also helps relieve muscle spasms and menstrual cramps, relaxes the nerves, soothes the stomach, reduces inflammation, improves liver function, helps relieve back pain and rheumatism and is most well-known as a sleep aid.

Zeta Newis, Tea Sparrow Family – “I would drink this all the time. Just beautiful, almost juicy with honey.”

Teatulia’s Lemongrass

Description: Brisk, refreshing and clean with a pure lemon essence. An invigorating citrus indulgence. Lemongrass is also anti-bacterial and anti-fungal in nature, which makes it an effective remedy for a wide variety of complaints. Also detoxifies the liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder and digestive tract.

Ingredients: 100% Organic Lemongrass

Health Benefits: With such a delicate flavour and fantastic health benefits, we love this tea. Lemongrass tea is known to aid in skin health, and to fight inflammation as well as cancer. It is also known for its detoxifying properties.

Jenny Dent, Tea Enthusiast – “Sweet, mellow, delicious. Chutzpah in a cup!”

Florapharm’s Rich Earl Grey

Description: This full rounded Earl Grey has a light and mild taste, perfect for gentle morning wake up. 

Ingredients: Black tea, sunflower petals, flavour and mallow blossoms.

Health Benefits: Most people don’t realize black tea comes with many of the similar health benefits as green tea, including reduced risk of stroke and heart disease, among many others. As well, black tea is said to increase energy, aid in digestive health and to promote healthy skin and hair. Black tea’s tannins are also great immunity-boosters.

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “The perfect middle ground. A light refreshing Ear Grey, that gives you the same flavour and strength you would expected.”

Tree of Life Tea’s Wind Blend

Description: The tranquil combination of floral notes and vanilla in the caffeine free Rooibos based Wind blend makes for the perfect cup of gentle uplifting tea to sooth the soul.

Ingredients: Organic rooibos, organic jasmine flower, organic vanilla bean powder from Madagascar and uplifting organic lemon verbena.

Health Benefits: This incredibly flavoured caffeine-free tea is growing quickly in popularity but did you know that it also contains high amounts of antioxidants? Although the antioxidants found in rooibos tea are different from those in green tea, they are still known to fight off free radicals in the body. Rooibos tea is also known to fight off cardiovascular disease, liver disease and lower blood pressure.

Jenny Dent, Tea Sparrow Enthusiast – “Delectable honey vanilla smile at the end of a tongue rainbow. Tea love.”

September’s Teas – 2012

Tea Sparrow’s Ti Kuan Yin Tea

Description: This soothing oolong tea, originating in the 19th century in the Fujian province and loved by many in China to this day, contains hints of toasted walnut and leaves a floral scent. It requires over a dozen distinct steps to produce, and is named after Chinese goddess of mercy who is said to embody the compassion of the Buddhas.

Ingredients: Pure Oolong Tea

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “Soft and soothing taste. Rich in mineral, it leaves and intriguing smell of walnuts.”

Rishi Tea’s Ginger Lime Rooibos

Description: The dry and pleasantly flavored West Indian Lime variety gives our Organic Ginger Lime Rooibos a unique and zesty citrus flavor with notes of ginger and rare spices. The brilliant turmeric yellow and orange infusion glows in the cup and has wonderfully refreshing notes of tropical fruits and spices.

Ingredients: Organic Fair Trade Certified™ green rooibos, Organic ginger, Organic lemongrass, Organic lemon myrtle, Organic licorice root and natural essential oils of lime and tangerine.

Jane Pettigrew, International Tea Sommelier – “Smells excellent – the ginger notes balance well against the citrus aromas and the suggestions of the liquorice – wonderful, heady, and seductive.”

Florapharm’s Snow Flake

Description: A great blend of black tea with almond gives this tea a Marzipan flavour.

Ingredients: Ceylon and China black tea, coconut rasps, natural flavour, almond flakes.

Jenny Dent, Tea Enthusiast – “Marzipan rose love. A warm marzipan childhood memory.”

Florapharm’s Vanilla Honeybush

Description: Smooth aromatic vanilla caramel flavour. Delicious hot or as an iced tea.

Ingredients: Honeybush, natural vanilla flavour, vanilla bits

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “Naturally sweet, wonderful and playful. Mellow. Sweet. Gold.”

August’s Teas – 2012

Within a week of deciding to put a pure white tea in July’s tea box, we started to receive emails from members asking if we would consider including a pure green tea or black breakfast tea in our boxes. And so we did! A big ’Thank you’ to all our members who contacted us. To recognize that, we will be including a bonus tea in this month’s kits for anyone who went online and either rated a tea or emailed us sharing their Tea Sparrow experience.

Teatulia’s Bengal Breakfast

Description: Smooth and medium-bodied with a sweet, mellow finish. Let the sun shine.

Ingredients: Organic black tea.

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “The quintessential breakfast tea. A bold black with a gentle citrus taste. Holds its rich flavour after adding milk or cream.”

Herbal Republic’s Ginger Fresh

Description: Original ayureveda blend. Spicy and gingery with hints of liquorice and mint. An invigorating small and flavour with smooth and full-flavoured after taste. A great tea for after dinner, or to help you recover from that cold or flu.

Ingredients: Lemongrass, ginger, citrus peels, liquorice, pepper, peppermint, plant sweetener.

Zeta Newis, Tea Sparrow Family – “Sweet, fun and playful. A beautiful full misty colour brewed. So easy to drink.”

Teatulia’s White Tea

Description: A medium-bodied delicacy with notes of peach. Made from the youngest and rarest tea parts.

Ingredients: Organic white tea.

Zeta Newis, Tea Sparrow Family – “Very Floral and simple with hints of tropical fruit. I love it!”

T-Buds Midsummer Night

Description: A wonderful blend of green and oolong tea with a dramatic and whimsical play of jasmine, rose and lotus notes to bring out a true theatrical joy.

Ingredients: Green tea, oolong tea, jasmine, rose, lotus.

Jenny Dent, Tea Enthusiast – “This set the mood for our sweet summer solstice party. Wonderful whimsical aroma. The hint of rose is so comforting.”

July’s Tea Box – 2012

You’ll notice in this month’s shipment that we have included a unique white tea. The variety and purity of this tea make it a rarity for our North American and European markets. To find out the best way to brew this tea, check out our video at http://bit.ly/NMXOUS

Tea Spot’s Coconut Milky Oolong

One cannot forget this incomparable tea. Our Taiwanese Milky Oolong has a smooth yet fruity and creamy taste. It is blended with roasted coconut to create a delicate and calming experience. If you love sweet coconut, this is your tea! Discover this guiltless dessert for the holidays. Simply extraordinary.

Ingredients: A blend of Chinese Milk Oolongs and pure shaved coconut.

Jenny Dent, Tea Enthusiast – “Rich and juicy, delicate and buttery dessert. A luscious joyful can’t-put-it-down summer drink.”

Sonnentor’s Harmony Tea

This tea is a great digestive. With the fennel and licorice, it feels very calming and healing.

Ingredients: Lemon balm, fennel bitter dark, rose hips, licorice, anise, quince fruit, cilantro, amaranth shamrocks, alpinia galangal, cornflowers.

Zeta Newis, Tea Sparrow Family – “Nice and earthy, spiced just the right amount.”

T-Bud’s Lychee Rose

A deliciously sweet tea. Smooth and cooling with the floral hint of rose to create a refreshing brew, and the sweetness of lychees to awaken your taste! May be served iced for a truly satisfying thirst-quencher in summer.

Ingredients: Chinese black tea, rose petals and natural flavours.

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “Exotic and floral. This tea made me feel decadent.”

Tea Sparrow’s Rare White Tea

White tea is considered one of the rarest teas sold in China. This particular white tea is grown exclusively in the Angi County, located in China’s Zhejiang province. Due to its limited cultivation and the fact it is loved by all, certain white teas are among the highest priced in China.

Ingredients: Chinese White Tea

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “This is a rare white tea popular in the Henan province of China. Different to our conventional white tea it grows in a three leaf cluster and brews to a soft white liquid.”

June’s Teas – 2012

Summer is here and tea drinking has become that much more posh on ice. Over the summer months we are selecting teas that score just as high cold as do they hot!

Sonnentor’s Spring Kiss

Description: Mint and licorice with a gentle touch of lemon. Lots of mild flavors balanced so you can taste them all.

Ingredients: Lemongrass, peppermint, raspberry leaf, cardamom, liquorice, cornflowers, roseflowers.

Jenny Dent – Tea Enthusiast – A sunny beautiful, minty liquorice, zing zang up-lifter. Nicely balanced and does not need honey.

The Tea Spot’s Blood Orange Smoothie

Description: This creamy blend of naturally caffeine–free South African red rooibos, orange, and vanilla is herbal bliss!

Ingredients: Rooibos, orange peel, hibiscus, rosehips, apples, safflowers, rose petals, vanilla, and citrus flavors.

Michael Menashy – Tea Sparrow Family – Awesome without honey if on ice. Honey needed to balance the tart if drinking it hot. This tea is family hit.

The Tea Spot’s Chocolate Cherry Bomb

Description: This Chocolate covered cherry will have you feeling like a kid in a candy store! Think hand-dipped chocolate cherry truffle…sweet, plump, juicy, decadent – without the calories. Its cherry scent and velvety smooth chocolate notes work to enchant, but not overwhelm. Handcrafted from two black teas this gourmet cherry delight is a dessert tea that you can enjoy even for breakfast.

Ingredients: A blend of Keemun and Assam teas with Chocolate and Cherry natural flavourings.

Zeta Newis – Tea Sparrow Family – “I didn’t like this tea so much without the honey. But with honey it tasted like a yummy chocolate bar with dried cherries.”

Joy’s Teaspoon’s Lemon Zest

Description: Now we realize that many people add a bit of lemon to their tea, but with Lemon Zest, hold the wedge! This tea boasts a creamy, lemon flavor sure to satisfy both your hot and iced tea needs! Naturally caffeine free.

Ingredients: Rooibos, honeybush, lemon bits, flavoring, cornflower blossoms.

Michael Menashy – Tea Sparrow Family – “Hands down the best lemon tea I’ve tried.”

May’s Teas – 2012

You speak and we listen. This month we have brought back two of our most popular teas, Red Rocks and Royal Blend, both featured in our January Tea Box. To date, these two teas have received the most acknowledgement from our members. This month we also bring to you Crannyberry by Joy’s Teaspoon. I would swear this tea was specifically blended for me, except for the fact everybody at the tea party loved it. Rishi Tea returns to the stage once more with a tropic green tea, Orange Blossom. Let us know what you think. Your feedback helps guide our selection process.

T-Bud’s Royal Blend
This blend is a traditional English black tea blend scented with bergamot and high notes of caramel, finished with delicate rose-petal accents. This fragrant blend is evocative of English romance and heritage that will awaken the passion of tea lovers.

Ingredients: English black tea, bergamot, caramel, and rose-petals.

Jane Pettigrew, International Tea Sommelier – “This has a very appealing and balanced aroma. Very pleasant. The caramel comes through well but subtly, softened by the roses with a whisper of bergamot.”

Joy’s Teaspoon’s Crannyberry
Dating back to Greek Mythology, the pomegranate has been a symbol for beauty, power and community. Sour cranberries and fruity, sweet raspberries play in perfect harmony with the pomegranate: a dream of scents combined with the noble, tangy aroma of black tea.

Ingredients: Black tea, freeze-dried raspberry and cranberry pieces, flavoring, pomegranate arils, peony petals.

Michael, Tea Sparrow Family – “Beautiful black tea, with a touch of sweet and tart from the cranberry and pomegranate. This is a permanent staple on my tea shelf!”

Rishi Tea’s Orange Blossom
Orange Blossom is a refreshing and floral blend of green teas with sweetly-scented blossoms, lemongrass and tropical citrus fruits.

Ingredients: Organic Fair Trade Certified™ green tea, organic lemongrass, organic lemon myrtle, natural rose flavor, natural essential oils of orange, lime, and tangerine, organic jasmine flowers.

Michael, Tea Sparrow Family – “It’s not often we discover a tea made with so many ingredients that can still deliver a distinct uniform flavour.”

The Tea Spot’s Red Rock
Our blend of naturally caffeine–free South African red rooibos, vanilla, and almond bits is an herbal delight! Rooibos is full of antioxidants and healthy minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, and fluoride. It has a wonderfully smooth flavor, and is a great cold buster as well as thirst quencher. It brews into a dark red liquor and has a naturally sweet, earthy scent, reminiscent of pipe–tobacco. You cannot over–steep this tea (the longer the better!) and it is fantastic by itself, or with cream and a bit of sweetener. Red Rocks is the perfect, healthy, all-around herbal tea – a favorite amongst athletes and as mom’s choice for children.

 Ingredients: South African rooibos, vanilla, chopped almonds.

Michael Menashy, Tea Sparrow Family – “Gold Metal Rooibos winner. This was our favourite rooibos from the tea parties. A complete feel good drink.”

6th Tea Party

Beautiful tea selection, new enthusiast, great conversation, braided cheese and the mysterious Moustache Gang. Welcome to the 6th Tea Party.

1 Today’s line up features The Trading Post, Rishi Tea, Bissel Tea, Aromatica Fine Teas, Murchie’s Teas, Adagio Tea and Sennentor. It was a full all-star roster.

2 Zeta making sure our score cards are in order.

3 Darcy is curious for Jordan’s opinions.

4 Measuring out the teas for round three.

5 Welcome Erin to our Tea Party. Erin has visited several tea fields around the world and has some great stories to share.

6 Michael takes a long smell of the Raspberry Chocolate Rooibos. Three beautiful scents together.

7 Zeta finds serenity in a cup.

8 Jordan commits to a bag of Yebo Mate.

9 After the tea party we enjoy Lebanese braided cheese. Supplied by…

10 …The Crazy Moustache Gang.