Bigelow Teas Charleston Tea Plantation welcomes guests to celebrate the arrival of the spring season with their Annual First Flush event, a day dedicated to the entrance of the 2008 crop harvest. Taking place on May 17, 2008 on Wadmalaw Island, the 2nd annual First Flush Festival will offer a full day of excitement and revelry.

Throughout the day, the Tea Trolley will take visitors on a special route and provide an informative and enlightening First Flush Tour. Attendees can also observe the process of making tea in the on-site factory.

In addition to the plantation tours, food, live music and games, attendees will have the opportunity to purchase their very own supply of Charleston Tea Plantations 2008 First Flush Loose Tea. At an extremely limited availability, the First Flush Tea produced only with tea leaves from the very first spring growth on the tea plants has a unique taste of its own.

Tickets for the festival will be sold prior to the event at the Gift Shoppe for $8.00. On the day of the event, tickets will be $10.00 at the gate. For more details regarding the First Flush Festival, please call 1-843-559-0383 or visit www.bigelowtea.com.

Gwen goes organic when it comes to a healthy diet, and that includes her tea. The Grammy-winning singer even insists on organic tea while on the road. According to Showbiz Spy, Gwen Stefani’s health-conscious tour demands include a buffet of organic fruit and vegetables, 30 bottles of branded vitamin water and organic tea.

Stefani is likely to get her way. She’s a serious artist with two Grammy Awards to her credit and five additional Grammy nominations. She may be known as much for her sense of style as for her music, however. Stefani is immediately recognizable in any Hollywood spread with her bright red lips and platinum blond hair. She has even designed her own clothing line, L.A.M.B., which is sported by top celebrities such as Halle Berry.

For more information on Stefani or her latest music cd, The Sweet Escape, visit her official website.

Photo by Jill Greenberg, Gwen Stefani Official Website.

Spinach Salad Spectacular with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
4 cups (1000mL) baby spinach leaves washed and dried (about 10 oz.)
1 – 8oz. (250mL) can manadarin oranges, drained
1 – 8oz. (250mL) can artichoke hearts (not in oil), drained
Optional Ingredients
2 medium-sized red apples, cubed (such as Red Delicious or Gala)
5 large ripe strawberries, cut up
1 cucumber, peeled and cubed
Tomato, cut up
4-5 pieces bacon, well cooked, drained and crumbled

Instructions:
Combine baby spinach leaves, mandarin oranges, artichoke hearts and almonds. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Use any or all of the optional ingredients.

Toss salad with enough dressing to coat.
Dress salad with any one of our delicious Bigelow® Tea Vinaigrette Dressings. Recipes for these dressing can be found in the Salad and Side Dish Category.

Yield: Serves 6 – PrepTime: 15 minutes

Eating right includes drinking tea, especially green tea as featured in this video.  This is our Arizona/Bigelow blend.

CHARLESTON, S.C., April 2008 – Bigelow Tea’s Charleston Tea Plantation welcomes guests to celebrate the arrival of the spring season with their Annual “First Flush” event, a day dedicated to the entrance of the 2008 crop harvest. Taking place on May 17, 2008 on Wadmalaw Island, the 2nd annual First Flush Festival will offer a full day of excitement and revelry.

Throughout the day, the “Tea Trolley” will take visitors on a special route and provide an informative and enlightening “First Flush Tour.”  Attendees can also observe the process of making tea in the on-site factory.

In addition to the plantation tours, food, live music and games, attendees will have the opportunity to purchase their very own supply of Charleston Tea Plantation’s 2008 First Flush Loose Tea. At an extremely limited availability, the First Flush Tea— produced only with tea leaves from the very first spring growth on the tea plants— has a unique taste of its own.

Tickets for the festival will be sold prior to the event at the Gift Shoppe for $8.00. On the day of the event, tickets will be $10.00 at the gate. For more details regarding the First Flush Festival, please call 1-843-559-0383 or visit www.bigelowtea.com.

About Bigelow Tea Company

Bigelow Tea was founded by Ruth Campbell Bigelow over 60 years ago in 1945. The company continues to be 100% family owned and managed by the Bigelow family with a special blend of pride and enthusiasm. Today the company is one of the nation’s leading producers of specialty teas, which includes more than 80 varieties of flavored, traditional, green, organic green, herbal, decaffeinated, and iced teas.  One of Bigelow Tea’s best-known products is America’s number one specialty tea flavor – “Constant Comment®” –   flavored with a delicious blend of oranges and spice. It is available in black tea, green tea and decaffeinated versions.

Bigelow Tea products are available nationwide and every variety can be found on the company website (www.bigelowtea.com).  Tea lovers will also enjoy the company’s blog (www.bigelowteablog.com).

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PRESS CONTACT INFO: 
Elizabeth April-Fritz
Bigelow Tea
203-334-1212
eafritz@rcbigelow.com

Valorie Luther
Creative Concepts
203.259.4202
vluther@creative-conceptsllc.com

You might have read how your leftover tea bags can be used for the skin and eyes (if not, see our December 5th post). But did you know that tea also has some unexpected beauty applications for the hair?

According to Shirley Bragg at About.com, some herbal teas can be used to add shine to your tresses. But that’s not all. Bragg has, herself, witnessed that tea can be used to create highlights or darken hair. She offers the following advice: “If you have red hair, green tea is the color of choice. Chamomile tea will add blonde highlights, black tea will add a glow to dark hair and for gray hair, try ginseng.”

Perhaps your hair color isn’t the problem. Maybe excessive hair is. If so, you’ll want to follow up this study reported by the BBC. In February they noted that one specific herbal tea may control unwanted hair. “Spearmint tea may help to control excessive hair growth in women,” according to Turkish researchers. Thus far results are modest, and additional research is needed, so while you may not want to pin your hopes on this as a solution for hirsutism, keep your eyes open for more word on the potential of this and other herbal tea uses.

Emerging research suggests that consumption of green tea may combat the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. That’s the word from Edinburgh, Scotland where the Society for General Microbiology recently held an international conference. There Egyptian researchers discussed trials which “have shown that drinking green tea helps the action of important antibiotics in their fight against resistant superbugs, making them up to three times more effective,” according to PHYSORG.com.

Green tea was tested in combination with antibiotics against over two dozen disease-causing micro-organisms. “In every single case green tea enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of the antibiotics,” said Dr. Mervat Kassem, a faculty member at Alexandria University in Egypt, where the research was conducted. In one instance, “the killing effect of chloramphenicol [a widely used antibiotic in low-income countries] was 99.99% better when taken with green tea than when taken on its own in some circumstances,” Dr. Kassem continued.  In some cases, even a small dose of green tea was effective.
“Our results show that we should consider more seriously the natural products we consume in our everyday life,” asserted Dr. Kassem.

For more information on the health benefits of green tea, readers are invited to visit the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine website at http://nccam.nih.gov/health/greentea/index.htm.

Celebrity photographers recently captured shot after shot of actor Ryan Phillippe sporting a cup of tea while out-and-about. Iced tea, that is.

The quiet star and one-time husband of actress Reese Witherspoon isn’t new to the beverage. According to a number of entertainment news sites, early in his career, Elizabeth Taylor and Elton John once took him out for tea. The stars made quite an impression. Afterwards Phillippe recalled, “I was sitting there looking at them interact, and I’m thinking, these people have raised millions of dollars to save people. The potential power of celebrity is astounding.”

Phillippe currently stars in Stop-Loss now playing in theaters.

Berri-Good Smoothie

Ingredients:
1½ cups (375mL) boiling water
6 Bigelow® Berri-Good Juice Tea Bags
1 cup (250mL) frozen blueberries, raspberries or strawberries
¾ cup (180mL) cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon (15mL) honey

Instructions: 
Berri-Good Smoothie Boil water and pour over Bigelow® Berri-Good Juice Tea tea bags. Let steep for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags and reserve 1 cup (250mL) tea. Chill.

In a blender, combine tea, frozen berries, yogurt and honey. Blend until smooth.

Yield: Serves 2 – Prep Time: 7 minutes Cook Time: N/A

Herbal tea or tisane is an herbal infusion that does not contain any leaves from the tea bush, Camellia sinensis. (Although tea leaves can be flavored as well, as is the case with Earl Grey, which is black tea and bergamot.) Herbal tea is made by pouring boiling water over loose or bagged fresh/dried flowers, leaves, seeds or roots. 

Herbal tea is flavorful and soothing and comes in many varieties: red raspberry, peach, chamomile, orange spice and lemon among them. In addition to great taste, as Organic Tea blog points out, herbal tea is often used to try to combat sleeplessness, alleviate menstruation pain, detoxify the body and clear the mind.

Chamomile tea, for instance, is thought to have sedative effects. Interestingly, even in fiction, author Beatrix Potter, who wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit, had Peter Rabbit’s mother serving him Chamomile tea to make him feel better And she isn’t the only one. In a number of her mysteries, Agatha Christie’s sleuth, Hercule Poirot, drank herbal tea in order to recover from wet weather. Many modern day celebrities enjoy herbal tea as well.

Pick your flavor! There are so many delicious herbal teas to choose from.