It’s getting a whole lot easier being “green,” given all the eco-friendly products on the market – from energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs to nontoxic cleaners and BPA-free baby bottles. But some reports suggest that while many consumers care about the environment, they may balk at paying more for products labeled green. The sustainabili-TEA specialists at Bigelow Tea are curious to know more about your green buying habits … do you find you’re buying less or more of these products? Weigh in on our survey!
There’s still time to enter our January sweepstakes but hurry – the deadline is January 31st! You won’t want to miss this chance to win an amazing 4-day/3-night trip for two to Bigelow Tea’s own Charleston Tea Garden, the largest working tea garden in the continental United States!
To enter, simply “like” our Facebook page (if you haven’t already!) then click the sweepstakes tab under our profile picture and enter your name and contact information. That’s it! One winner will be chosen in a random drawing on February 1st.
We are just thrilled to be offering this special prize, and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate Hot Tea Month! Charleston Tea Garden is located on picturesque Wadmalaw Island, just south of historic Charleston, S.C., featuring 127 acres of beautiful camellia sinensis tea plants and lush grounds to explore. One lucky entrant will win the following:
A 4-day/3-night trip for the winner and one guest to the Charleston Tea Garden.
Round-trip coach air transportation for 2 between a major commercial airport closest to the winner’s residence and Charleston, S.C.
Standard lodging at a Bigelow Tea-selected hotel for 3 nights (1 room, based on double occupancy).
A tour of the Charleston Tea Garden.
A $500 American Express gift card for expenses!
Wow, this package has an approximate retail value of $3,200! So grab a cup of your favorite Bigelow Tea and submit your entry today! Good luck!
Soba noodles, traditional Japanese fare served both hot and cold, are capturing the attention of American pasta lovers. Nutritionists are taking note of soba’s nutritional profile too. Made primarily of buckwheat, these brownish, slightly chewy noodles have fewer calories and carbohydrates than white-flour pasta. Soba noodles are also a good source of essential nutrients like manganese, choline, thiamine and riboflavin. And Bigelow Tea thinks soba noodles taste great too, especially in this recipe pairing them with Bigelow Tea’s Chinese Oolong Tea!
Try this dish, with just 161 calories per serving and only 3 grams of fat. Slurping from chopsticks encouraged!
6 cups (1500mL) water
10 Bigelow® Chinese Oolong Tea Bags 8 ounces (224g) soba noodles
1 ½ teaspoons (7mL) toasted sesame oil
¾ cup (180mL) carrot, shredded
1 cup (250mL) bean sprouts
6 small onions, thinly sliced
Salt to taste
Dressing:
2 teaspoons (10mL) sesame seeds
¼ cup (60mL) Bigelow® Chinese Oolong Tea (reserved)
1 tablespoon (15mL) low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons (10mL) toasted sesame seed oil
Dash of sugar
Yield: Serves 8
Directions:
In a large pot bring water to a boil; add tea bags and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove ¼ cup (60mL) tea and set aside for dressing. Bring tea back to a boil and add noodles; cook according to package directions.
Meanwhile, make dressing by placing sesame seeds in a dry frying pan over medium heat, shaking pan frequently until lightly toasted, 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
In a small bowl, add reserved tea, soy sauce, oil and sugar; mix well.
When noodles are cooked, drain and rinse with cold water and drain again.
Return noodles to pot. Add sesame seed oil and toss to coat. Add carrot and bean sprouts, toss to mix.
Place on a serving plate, drizzle with dressing. Garnish with extra green onion.
Angelina Jolie is one of the most recognized actresses in the world, a UN Goodwill Ambassador, mother of six, star of blockbuster movies like The Tourist and Salt, and now a first time director of the new movie In the Land of Blood and Honey which has been getting a lot of attention! So how does this superstar deal with an intense and hard-hitting interview with 60 Minutes? She drinks tea of course! She was calm as a cucumber throughout this recent interview, enjoying her tea while she talked with 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon.
At Bigelow Tea we’re thinking that perhaps it’s this drink of choice that gives her the sereni-TEA to stay so composed, especially while keeping up with all the activities going on in her life. Like us, maybe a spot of chamomile tea or mint tea puts her in just that right frame of mind for relaxing, while still helping her to keep focus.
Angelina’s partner in life, Brad Pitt, is no stranger to drinking tea either, specifically in the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Yes, Hollywood loves tea! As Benjamin Button, Brad actually spends a great deal of time in that film, almost 45 minutes, making and drinking tea! Again, we can’t help but wonder what flavor Brad would brew for himself… a classic like Earl Grey or the enduring Constant Comment?
We’re hoping tea is an important part of Angelina and Brad’s home life. With their full work scheduls, juggling projects, kids and volunteer work (it all sounds very familiar doesn’t it?) they must look forward to a quiet cup together at the end of the day. Here’s a raised cup to this hard working couple and another busy day!
Impressionist paintings are often romantic depictions of the good life; picnics, parties, families playing, and tea time (!) are all common scenes found in Impressionist works. Bigelow Tea certainly enjoys viewing artwork that portrays people pouring, drinking and enjoying our favorite beverage, like the above painting, Tea Time, 1909, by American artist Henry Salem Hubbell! Hubbell’s beautiful paintings are recognized as nostalgic and hopelessly romantic … and we think they perfectly reflect the finer points of the art of tea!
Tea In the Garden At The Chateau de Rozieres (1906)
Hubbell was born in Kansas in 1870 and later studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He continued his studies in France in the late 1890s, exhibiting with many of the French Impressionists. He painted in Europe until he returned to the U.S. in 1910. In addition to his Impressionist paintings, he painted many prominent portraits including one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1940), which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
Study For The Orange Robe (1908)
Bigelow Tea of course thinks that moments related to preparing and sharing of tea are moments well worth savoring … that’s why Hubbell’s paintings make us smile. We’re overjoyed to see tea time memorialized as a truly special part of everyday lives!
What a crazy hour! I just held my first Facebook LIVE chat and it was really fun. I could not type fast enough.
I thought our Facebook friends were so kind and came to our chat with very good questions. We actually had five of us on the Bigelow team working non stop to make sure I was able to answer everyone: if I didn’t have an answer at my finger tips, we had a person going to the appropriate company personnel to get the right answer, we had individuals checking to see how many people were asking questions and directing me where to go (it is hard to go in order but we tried), and we had someone checking all my responses for spelling errors…it was like this amazing swat team!
We’re excited about new research suggesting that green tea may help combat obesity! Researchers at Pennsylvania State University studied obese mice – some were fed a high-fat diet mixed with green tea extracts while a control group was fed the same food but without the tea extracts. The mice in the test group gained weight at a much slower rate than mice in the control group and appeared to be in better health overall.
Although more human data is needed, this is encouraging news for those who struggle with obesity, a complex condition involving genetic and other factors that inhibit weight loss. Other research reported on our Bigelow Tea blog also suggests that daily consumption of green tea can significantly increase metabolism, raising the body’s ability to burn fat … just one more good reason for all of us to enjoy our green tea!
In the Penn State study, the test mice were fed a diet spiked with epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a powerhouse polyphenol found in green tea that researchers continue to study because of its possible health benefits. These obese mice gained weight at a 45 percent slower rate than mice in the control group. Researchers suspect that EGCG may limit the body’s absorption of fat. Joshua Lambert, an assistant professor of food science who helped conduct the research, told Natural News that this study, in human terms, would require 10 cups of green tea a day, but that previous studies have shown that drinking just a cup or two of green tea a day may also help obese individuals control their weight.
So while there is no magic bullet for major weight loss, drinking green tea is one delicious habit that also happens to be good for you! Treat yourself to a cuppa!
You have seen her in our terrific Bigelow Tea videos and have heard from her on our Bigelow Tea blog … and now you have a chance to interact with her on our Facebook page! Yes, Bigelow Tea President Cindi Bigelow will be answering questions live on our Facebook page, on Wednesday, January 18 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. EST!
During that hour, you can visit our Bigelow Tea Facebook page and ask Cindi your burning questions about anything tea-related. Do you have questions about particular varieties of Bigelow Tea? Are you curious to know exactly how much tea Cindi drinks each day, or what her favorite Bigelow Tea is? Have you wondered about details of how the company started? Whatever you’ve been dying to ask her, she’s ready to respond to your inquiries!
And, of course, if you want to share with Cindi your own tea experiences, she is excited to hear from you! This stimulating tea chat will be interactive and you’ll be talking directly to Cindi, so mark your calendars: Wednesday, January 18th from 2-3 p.m. We can’t wait to hear from you during that hour!
“I Have a Dream.” Perhaps some of the most celebrated and memorable words ever spoken, by one of the most inspirational men in history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The emotion and power behind those words still fills us with hope for peace and equal opportunity for all, which are ideals that Bigelow Tea stands firmly behind. It’s like our corporate mission statement at Bigelow Tea: “Do the right thing and good things will follow.”
Peace, equality, justice, and hope are all principles that Dr. King advocated; values that on Martin Luther King Day and all year long we strive to uphold with our families, community and the world around us. Dr. King drew inspiration for his beliefs and ideals from his religious background, the philosophies of American writer Henry David Thoreau, and the non-violent methods of Mohandas Gandhi. By taking inspiration from Dr. King, we can more fully understand each other, and can turn these words into action through community involvement. As we at Bigelow Tea help build homes for families in need, participate in school mentoring programs, and conduct book drives, we believe that we can all make a difference in our community.
It has been 48 years since the world first heard Dr. King’s I Have a Dream speech, and it is now a universal axiom. Today Bigelow Tea honors the man who preached peace and equality for a better world, and who inspires us still to take action.
On December 5, 2011 the Fairfield Metro North train station opened its doors literally in Bigelow Tea’s back yard here in Connecticut. This is a state of the art train station that is handicap accessible and is the first new train station to open on the New Haven, CT line in approximately 100 years.
As part of the new station, we are very fortunate to have access to a paved sidewalk that leads from the train platform directly into our rear parking lot via a security-controlled gate. Bigelow employees are starting to take advantage of this green transportation alternative; we already have 7 employees who take the train to and from our office on a regular basis.
As the price of gasoline is currently hovering around $3.50 in Fairfield County, CT, the train offers a more economical way for employees to get to work. For example, in the month of December, 2011 Bigelow train commuters saved approximately 186 car trips, 2,165 miles and 99 gallons of gas according to information provided by Connecticut Commuter Service. Another very important benefit is that the amount of carbon emissions escaping into the environment has been reduced by 1,000 pounds in only 1 month. We are optimistic that as time goes on and train commuters share their success stories, we’ll continue to see an increase in train riders and a decrease in cars on the road.
One more step for Bigelow Tea towards making the world a better place for future generations to come and a Win, Win for All.
