11th April, 2007: Cindi of Bigelow Tea Responds
To say this has been a difficult time is an understatement. The media has been relentless, the 1000’s of emails coming from opposing positions has been overwhelming-furious at us because we advertise and furious at us because we are considering not-I have not seen anything like this…anyway I want to make sure I try to do the best I can to explain our position. The media has now been saying we have “pulled” our advertising campaign. I need to emphasize that this is an incorrect statement. As I stated before, we are seriously reviewing it. But how can I not recognize or acknowledge what I am seeing come out of this whole thing? I believe Don Imus is showing great humility, I believe that we are seeing an amazing grace from the Rutgers team in their willingness to meet him. Why can’t this be something that takes us all to a higher place? And yes, based on what I am seeing, we have not made a decision.
I hope and pray this world still does allow for redemption. I realize that I (probably like Pollyanna) think Don is truly sorry for his words, that he made a terrible, terrible, terrible statement that he will actually learn from. I hope and pray the world can be a better place if we look at what we truly do wrong and reflect on how that can be “our teacher”. Yes, we will review our plan for next year. But I have to say, my heart now not only hurts for the Rutgers team, it hurts for the divisiveness that has been created in this country.
The harsh emails I am receiving does not make me think that any one side is wrong, it just makes me think we have lost touch with the word “love”- that is my inner light that is my compass during difficult times.
I know there will be people who disagree with my thoughts, but I am trying the best I can to share with you what is running through my soul.
I appreciate all of your opinions, and I appreciate you allowing me to share mine with you.
Cindi
Cindi Bigelow
Co-President
Posted by Cindi at 6:06 pm | Comments (55)
10th April, 2007: Bigelow Tea Responds to Imus
While Bigelow Tea has been an advertiser on the ‘Imus in the Morning Show,’ our company does not condone or support in any way the unacceptable comments made by Imus with regard to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.
Bigelow Tea is a family company that prides itself on honoring and respecting all individuals.
We do support the good work and efforts Don Imus has done over the years for children with cancer or terminal illnesses, the battle against SIDS, Tomorrows Children’s Fund at Hackensack Hospital and so much more.
We are deeply saddened by Imus’ remarks. His comments in no way represent the views of our family or the Bigelow Tea Company.
This unfortunate incident has put our future sponsorship in jeopardy.
Cindi Bigelow, Co-President Bigelow Tea
Posted by Valorie at 1:29 pm | Comments (139)
10th April, 2007: Bigelow for Dessert!
Ingredients:
12 Bigelow® Pomegranate Pizzazz tea bags
2 cups (500mL) boiling water
3 cups (750mL) all-purpose flour
1 cup (250mL) sugar
1½ tablespoons (22.5mL) baking powder
¾ teaspoon (3.5mL) salt
¾ cup of vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1½ cup cooled Pomegranate tea from above (reserve 6 tablespoons (90mL) for icing
Glaze:
2 cups (500mL) icing sugar
5-6 tablespoons (75-90mL) of remaining Pomegranate tea
Add 1 tablespoon at a time to make a stiff icing
Instructions:
Make tea by steeping tea bags in the boiling water for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Preheat over to 400ºF (200ºC).
Line muffin pans with muffin paper liners (total of 12) and spray top of muffin pan with cooking spray.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large mixing bowl. Whisk together oil, eggs and reserved tea in separate bowl until combined. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are moist and blended. Do not over mix.
Scoop the muffin mixture into prepared muffin pan filling to the top of each muffin cup.
Bake 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown or when a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Turn out the muffins and glaze.
Make the glaze by combining icing sugar and 5-6 tablespoons (75-90mL) tea. Ice the muffins with glaze.
Yield: Make 12 muffins
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12-15 minutes
Ingredients:
6 Bigelow® Tasty Tangerine Herbal Tea Bags
¾ cup (180mL) boiling water
½ cup (125mL) butter, soften
1 ½ up (375mL) sugar
3 eggs
2 ½ cups (275mL) all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons (7.5mL) baking powder
¾ teaspoon (2mL) salt
1 cup (250mL) buttermilk
1 cup (250mL) raisins
1 ½ teaspoons (7.5mL) vanilla
½ cup (125mL) walnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon (15mL) orange peel, grated
Frosting:
1/3 cup (80mL) butter, softened
3 cups (750mL) powdered sugar
4 Bigelow® Tasty Tangerine Herbal Tea Bags
½ cup (125mL) boiling water
2 teaspoons (10mL) orange peel, grated
Instructions:
Cake:
Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Prepare an 11″ x 13″ (27.5cm x 32.5cm) pan by greasing and flouring. Boil water and add Bigelow® Tasty Tangerine Tea Bags, let steep for 10 minutes, strain making sure that you have ½ cup (125mL) tea.
Cream butter and sugar; add eggs - one at a time, mixing well. Add dry ingredients, alternately with buttermilk and the tea. Add vanilla and mix well. Add raisins, walnuts and orange peel. Pour batter into pan, bake cake for 45-50 minutes.
Frosting:
Make tea by infusing boiling water with Bigelow Tasty Tangerine Herb Tea, let steep for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags and make frosting by beating butter, powdered sugar and tea together. Spread frosting on top of the cake and garnish with grated orange zest.
Yield: 15 to 20 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40-45 minutes
Posted by Liesl at 6:00 am | Comments (2)
9th April, 2007: Tea Bag Equipment Spring Cleaning
Each year we take our tea bag equipment apart and do a major part evaluation and replacement, almost like rebuilding your car engine. You would not think that tea could be that abrasive but when the machines are running at high speeds for a year tea tends to wear parts.
Not all tea companies take such a proactive approach to analyze/replace parts prior to problems, some only replace parts when they break. We believe by keeping our equipment in tip top shape all the time which allows us to control our process and give a more reliable tea bag to our consumers.
Dean
Posted by Dean at 6:00 am | Comments (11)
6th April, 2007: Kissa Yojoki - the Book of Tea
The oldest tea book in Japan, Kissa Yojoki – How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea, was written by Eisai in 1211. Eisai was a famous Zen Priest, who had brought tea seed from China to Kyoto in 1191. He had given the seeds to a priest named Myoe Shopin who had made then into Uji tea. In the two-volume book, which Eisai wrote, the priest begins by saying “Tea is the ultimate mental and medical and medical remedy and has the ability to make one’s life more full and complete”.
The book describes the positive effects that tea has on the vital organs, particularly the heart. It praises the value of tea as a medicine in curing indigestion, quenching thirst, avoiding fatigue, working as a stimulant, undoing the effects of alcohol, and improving brain and urinary function. The book also explains the parts of the plant and the appropriate dosages and administration for specific ailments.
In 1214, Eisai, introduced tea to the Samurai. When the priest Eisai heard that Shogun Minmoto no Sanetomo drank too much night after night, Eisai presented a book he had written to the shogun about health benefits of drinking tea. That event changed the custom of the warrior class. Tea drinking became popular among the Shogun and the Samurai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea#Kissa_Yojoki_-_the_Book_of_Tea
Posted by Elizabeth at 6:00 am | Comment (1)
4th April, 2007: Bigelow’s Bed knobs and Broomsticks Bed Race
Last week I visited Louisville and our production plant there. Once a quarter I try and get out to each plant to see how they are doing and offer assistance wherever possible. This year I want to see the Bigelow “bed” which has been built to participate in the Kentucky Derby Bed knobs and Broomsticks bed race. Businesses from around Louisville build and then push their beds through a course to see who has the best design and the fastest. The Louisville plant has been participating for several years and has been close to winning a couple of times but has not taken 1st yet, may be this year. While this might not have anything to do with making tea bags, it sure is a fun activity for all of those that participate.
Dean
Posted by Dean at 6:00 am | Comment (0)
3rd April, 2007: From Beer To Bigelow Tea!
I drink a lot. Not “a lot” in the sense that I have a problem, but in the sense that my default nighttime drink is beer. How this came about is not important, but the short version is that I live in a college town and drinking is just what you do.
Unfortunately, for the last couple of months or so, I’ve been getting over beer. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it, but what with the growth of my belly and the shrinking of my bank account, it seems ill-advised to kill a six-pack of micro-brew every night (with help from my love and my neighbors). Which is why Dawn and I have been searching for a replacement.
Soda doesn’t work because it gives me a stomach-ache. Dawn does the fruit juice thing and I love a glass of lemonade, but I never want more than a glass, which isn’t enough to get me through the night. For the last couple of months, despite the desire to stop drinking beer every night, my taste for other beverages just wouldn’t match up with my need to constantly have some sort of liquid within arm’s reach.
But that all changed last week, and I gotta tell ‘ya, Dawn and I couldn’t be happier.
What happened was, I finally started liking tea. For the last 29 (almost 30) years, I have not been a tea drinker. I didn’t like hot tea and I didn’t like iced tea. As with all of my food-related quirks, I blame my mother. We never had iced tea in the house growing up, and I’ve never seen either of my parents brew a cup of tea. If you asked my brothers (and you can, since they read this blog), I don’t think they drink tea either. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing anyone in my family — except maybe the clan in Connecticut — ever drinking a cup of tea. We’re Callahans. We don’t drink tea. We drink alcohol.
But last week, Dawn got sick. I had been sick the week before, and as soon as I was back on my feet, she came down with it. Where I had only wanted to curl up in the fetal position and wait for the pain to pass, Dawn wanted to have herself a warm cup of tea. Being the great boyfriend that I am, I went out and bought a box of herbal tea. I came home and brewed her a cup, but then…something happened. I don’t know what it was. Perhaps it was the fact that I was still only operating at about 65% of healthy me, but whatever it was, it made that cup of tea smell absolutely delicious. So I brewed myself a cup, and lo and behold, I now love tea.
Since that day, I’ve been drinking about four or five cups of herbal tea per night. I’ve made lemon tea, mint tea, chamomile tea, Earl Grey, green, orange spice, and well, almost the whole product line of Bigelow Tea. At first, I was nervous that drinking so much tea would be bad for me (in the sense that a lot of anything is usually bad for you), but the worst thing that seems to be in tea is caffeine. Fortunately, I’ve been drinking mostly herbal tea, which doesn’t contain any caffeine, but even if caffeine is the worst thing, my morning coffee-drinking (about four or five mugs) has already made me addicted to caffeine, so a little more won’t hurt.
What’s even better than acquiring the taste for tea is the introduction of the tea brewing process into my evening. I spend most nights either curled up with a book or writing on my computer. Both of those activities are more enjoyable when I take regular breaks for about 10 or 15 minutes at a time. When I was drinking beer, that 10 or 15 minute break was taken in walking to the fridge, cracking open a new bottle of beer, and (depending on what Dawn was doing) either spending a few minutes talking or spending a few more minutes surfing the web.
But with tea, that process is taken up by putting on the water, choosing a flavor, rinsing my already-used mug, opening the tea packet, and then standing over the stove and waiting for the water to boil. If Dawn wants a cup too, the whole process is accompanied by an enjoyable conversation. When the water is done and the cup poured, I either go back to what I was doing or continue talking to Dawn while waiting for the tea to steep. By this point, the air has become more aromatic and the mood in the entire apartment more homey.
To enhance our new habit, earlier today Dawn and I invested in a new tea kettle. I can’t wait to see how it improves not the quality of the tea (hot water is hot water, after all), but the quality of our tea-drinking lives. How much more enjoyable the process will be when the happy moment is announced by a whistle!
I gotta tell you, I’m thoroughly enjoying my shift in habit.
Kyle Callahan, fluidimagination.com/blog
Posted by Liesl at 6:00 am | Comments (4)
2nd April, 2007: Baseball and Bigelow
Opening day is upon us and all the teams are getting in position for the first game. I’m sure Joe Torre’s office and the locker room is fully stocked with Bigelow Green tea!
I got a call last week from Mike Francesca of Mike and The Mad Dog on WFAN and YES Network who has become an avid drinker of Bigelow Green Tea (it must be the power of suggestion from Joe Torre and Phil Simms). We might be talking about integrating Bigelow Green Tea into his show, but at a minimum we are running Joe Torre radio spots around opening day.
To all of you Bigelow bloggers, let’s raise your mug of Bigelow Green tea to your favorite team winning the World Series
Bob
Posted by Bob at 10:55 am | Comment (1)
