The Joy of Loose Leaf Teas
I love tea. For me tea is the most wildly wonderful creation for sipping – other than chocolate martinis, of course! It’s perfect breakfast or an afternoon delight and is always soothing when I’ve had a rough day. I prefer hand blended loose leaf teas above and beyond all others, though sadly my first and fondest tea artist is no longer in the business. I now shop from Tea for All Reasons when in need of a restock, as she’s also from Virginia, and produces a lovely variety of loose leaf black tea blends, my favorite of which is Cream Earl Grey. I’m always on the lookout for new tea artists, however, and I love to try new products and creators.
I have also found that T-Sac Filters make the most wonderful, eco-friendly tea bags for my loose leaf teas and highly recommend them. You can buy them from Mountain Rose Herbs along with organic herbs perfect for making your own teas. Mountain Rose Herbs also carries a surprisingly flavorful and interesting rice tea called Genmaicha Tea, which was introduced to me by one of my fellow tea lovers. Genmaicha is a Japanese classic which includes a stunning combination of whole, fresh Green Sencha leaves combined with sweet, roasted organic brown rice. If you’ve never tried Genmaicha, I highly recommend it as well.
<pstyle=”text-align: justify;”>In celebration of my love of tea, I’ve put together a collection of posts related to tea – everything from tub tea for the bath to crafting your own cup of tea. I hope they bring you as almost as much enjoyment as your own, favorite cup of tea.
Quotable Tea Bags. Check out this free downloadable template from Shrimp Salad Circus for making your own tea bag tags with quotes. These would be perfect for gifting teas to a friend.
Bath Tub Tea. When you’re stressed, bath teas can really make a difference. It’s a reason to spend time alone and the aromatherapy properties of the herbs used can help ease your stress away. Learn how to create your own soothing bath tea mixture in decorative “heart” sealed tea bags from In Words and Pictures. Also try these recipes found on Soap Deli News for a Tropical Tea Soak and Cold Comfort Bath. There’s also a diy from Martha Stewart for creating tub teas for gifts as well as a tutorial for making bath teas as party or wedding favors from Inspired Taste.
Make Your Own Tea. With a little knowledge and research, you can easily start on the path towards making your own herbal teas. Playing Learning and Going Home to Roost both have simple instructions for getting you started on making your own teas.
And, if you’ll be making your own teas, you may want to make your own tea bags as well. If you’re good at sewing, Lillyella Blog has a photo tutorial for stitching your own re-usable, eco-friendly tea bags on a sewing machine using untreated fabric. For those of you who prefer to hand stitch or don’t have access to a sewing machine, Design*Sponge has craft tutorial for making heart shaped tea bags with the tea inside. And finally, Merriment Design offers a diy for crafting handsewn fabric teabags for loose tea favors. There’s even a free tea bag template and printable matching tea tents for display.
Looking for unique ways to store your loose leaf teas? Wit & Whistle has a diy for Tea Storage Jars made from mason jars and lids painted with chalkboard paint. With each new blend, you can re-label the jar quickly and easily. While Style Me Pretty has a tutorial for labeling tins filled with tea for wedding favors.
Want more tea inspired ideas? Then check out this idea for DIY Tea Painted Cards with Free Printable from Creature Comforts. Thanks for sharing my tea “collection” with me. If you know of other fun uses for tea, please feel free to share them in the comments! In the meantime, if you’d like to keep up with more of my “fun” tea finds, the follow my Everything Tea Board on Pinterest.
15 Comments
MikiHope
June 5, 2011 at 11:43 am
I love tea–of course I also love coffee–but I grew up on tea–never even knew what coffee tasted like until I went off to college. I never thought of making tea bags with quotes as gifts–intriguing idea-thank you!!
I am a brand new follower from Pink Dandy Hop!!
Michele aka MikiHope
http://www.mikishope.com
Sonja
June 5, 2011 at 9:10 pm
I’m a new follower from Sunday blog hop. Would love a follow back at http://www.toeuropewithkids.com/
Thanks!
Sher
June 5, 2011 at 11:48 pm
Thanks for the great links. I love tea! I’ve never been a coffee drinker. Must be the English side of me (that would be from Mum).
http://www.sherscreativespace.blogspot.com
CMB Display Designs
June 6, 2011 at 1:19 am
Have you ever tried http://www.serendipitea.com? Soooo good! 🙂 My favorite tastes and smells like lavendar, instant relaxation!
Mom Daughter Style
June 6, 2011 at 1:49 am
cute blog, im your new follower from the blog hop
http://momdaughterstyle.blogspot.com/
Rebecca (Soap Deli News Blog)
June 6, 2011 at 2:21 am
I’ve never tried serendipitea.com. I’ll have to check them out once I have some extra funds. Thanks for the recommendation!
winterbabe98
June 6, 2011 at 3:05 am
I can’t wait to read some more from your blog! New blog follower via Sunday Blog Hop from Pink Dandy Chatter and Between the Lines.
My blog’s over at : http://flmoms-winterbabe98.blogspot.com/
FL MOM’S BLOG
Barb
barbs562 {at} gmail {dot} com
Victoria
June 6, 2011 at 4:28 am
I love tea, and I was amazed at the whole world of loose tea! My mom mentioned to me once that she was trying to drink more green tea because she heard it was good for you, but she didn’t really like it. I said, “Mom, are you drinking bagged tea?” Well – that was the problem. Green tea from bags tastes nothing like a loose sencha, properly brewed. And genmaicha is one of my favourites! 🙂
Kanelstrand
June 6, 2011 at 8:36 am
What a great amount of information! I too love tea and only drink herbal. Most of the time my family and I pick the leaves by ourselves and dry them at home. One of our favorites is Icelandic thyme.
Lauren @ My Wonderfully Made
June 6, 2011 at 3:03 pm
I am a loose tea lover as well! Fortunately we have several great tea shops with tasting bars nearby so you can sample before you buy. Just made a pitcher of Jazzberry Oolong sun tea yesterday! So many of the loose teas are great iced! Thanks for all of the links and ideas!
Trish – Sweetology101
June 7, 2011 at 12:18 pm
this is absolutely FABULOUS!!!!!!!!! thank you for linking your wonderful blog post up b/c now I found you. I look forward to checking you out on pinterest.
Colie’s Kitchen
June 7, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Hi this is Nicole from Colie’s Kitchen I just discovered your blog and wanted to drop by and say hi. I am now a new follower. I would love to have you stop by Colie’s Kitchen if you get a chance. http://www.colieskitchen.com
Wanda Lee
June 8, 2011 at 3:49 am
Hi There,
Oh my, but I do love loose leaf tea’s also.., Cream Earl Grey being my fav! ~ Thanks for the inspiring and informative post!
As an aside; Enjoy your national Iced Tea day on June 10th; I know I will! ~ Thanks to Amy for ‘the heads up’, @ http://teagirlworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-tea-drinking-problem.html because I didn’t realize that there was one.
Thanks ALSO for joining me for TTTT and also for my 86th ‘Tuesday Tea For Two’; I always so enjoy having you join us as part of, ‘Tuesday Tea Time In Blogland’.
Cheers and hugs from Wanda Lee
Katie
June 15, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Super cute tea bags! Thank’s for linking this project up at Sew Woodsy last week.
james
November 25, 2011 at 11:07 am
Amazing blog I like it !!
Buy Loose Tea
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