How do you plan to spend Halloween? Carving pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treating, touring “haunted houses”…or maybe something else. For the most avid tea fans, there is always the option of dressing up like a tea bag. Or if that isn’t “your cup of tea”, perhaps hosting a children’s Halloween tea party for all those little ghosts and goblins out there. Another option is always just staying home with a nice warm celebratory cup of Pumpkin Spice tea. But will you be taking your tea with some equally seasonal Halloween brack on the side? What is Halloween brack you ask? It is an Irish Halloween tradition: a delicious fruit cake with tiny objects hidden inside. Boo! In case that scares you more than Halloween itself, you may just want to opt for some other desserts and tea treats instead.

Keep us in the loop if you partake in any of the above Halloween activities or if you’d like to share some ideas of your own. Happy Halloween!

Photo Courtesy of Donncha O Caoimh’s blog at ocaoimh.ie

October is National Caramel Month. This time of year with Halloween just around the corner, when we think caramel,we envision smiling children with sticky faces biting into oversized apples covered in caramel. Try delving into this delicious caramel recipe the whole family is sure to enjoy:

Vanilla Caramel Bread Pudding

Ingredients:
14 Bigelow® Vanilla Caramel or Bigelow® Eggnogg’n Tea Bags
2 ¼ cups (560mL) whole milk
½ cup (125mL) unsalted butter
1 cup (250mL) sugar
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon (5mL) cinnamon
1 teaspoon (5mL) vanilla extract
½ cup (125mL) raisins
16 slices of Challah bread
Vanilla Caramel Sauce
¼ cup (60mL) unsalted butter
½ pound (224g) powder sugar
Reserve tea infused milk

Yield: Serves 12 – Prep Time: 30 minutes – Cook Time: 40 minutes

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC).
Heat milk over medium heat, add Bigelow® Tea Bags (either Vanilla Caramel or Eggnogg’n) and raisins; remove from heat and let steep fo 5 minutes. Remove tea bags, squeezing all excess milk/tea. Strain tea infused milk; reserve raisins. Measure out 2 cups (500mL) and set aside the remaining tea infused milk for sauce.

In food processor, combine butter and sugar until well blended; add eggs, 2 cups (500mL) tea infused milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Continue processing until well blended.

Lightly butter a 9″ x 13″ baking dish. Break up the bread into 1″ cubes and layer in pan. Scatter the raisins over the top. Pour tea/milk mixture over the bread; soak for 5 to 10 minutes. Gently press down on the bread to make sure it is covered by the mixture.

Cover with foil and bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for additional 10 minutes to brown top. The pudding is ready when the custard is set, but still soft.

Make the Vanilla Caramel Sauce while bread pudding is baking, by melting butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add powdered sugar to the melted butter and whisk to blend. Add reserved Vanilla Caramel or Eggnogg’n infused milk to taste.

Pour sauce over the baked bread pudding and allow to soak in 2-3 minutes. Serve warm.

For more recipe and entertaining ideas, go to http://www.bigelowtea.com/entertaining/recipes/.

Be sure to also check out these fall family fun ideas including making caramel apples.

Just came back from a trade show in Boston called Natural Expo East. Had a terrific opportunity to spend the week with my sales team, the marketing group and getting to meet old and new customers. I cannot tell you how valuable that show is for me. I always question if my team needs me to go and can I afford the time. Then I question how many customers I will really get to talk to….and after the show is over, I just say “thank heavens I went!”

Before the show starts, I so enjoy the day long meeting with my sales team listening to what they need, learning about what is happening in the marketplace and hearing about what I am doing that they think needs to be reexamined. I also cannot share with you how much I get from listening to my customers during the show… small, medium and large accounts all have great value. Hearing this feedback helps me formulate what I need to be doing to satisfy what they need to grow their business…I find the three show days to be so invigorating. I love the energy of the show and the people. I have to say one of my favorite parts is how much I get a chance to laugh with my team. It is so important to get out of the office in that kind of open environment, removed from the daily “issues” we each face so that we can just enjoy being with each other.

It was a great 4 days and I have to say, after listening and chatting with hundreds of people, I feel very good about our company and our direction. We recently just became the most popular green tea sold in this country. I am delighted that more and more consumers are finding Bigelow their tea of choice. I truly believe it is going to shows like Expo East and connecting to the people whom I had an opportunity to spend time with is helping drive us forward!!!

Cindi Bigelow

As we’ve mentioned before on this blog, former hard-partying rockers Led Zeppelin now prefer tea. This famous band has greatly altered its lifestyle over the years. On their most recent tour, the band “requested little more than a constant flow of caffeine-free herbal tea.”

Tea and Led Zeppelin may not be such an unlikely match. Lead vocalist Robert Plant is known for always having a mug of hot tea, usually with honey, on tour. Did you know Plant wrote the song “Tea for One” in 1976, on the album Presence? Over 30 years ago, Plant penned this song thinking about sitting alone in hotel rooms in New York City, drinking tea for one.

Another uncommon yet very successful pairing for Plant is one with Alison Krauss. The hard rocker and the Queen of bluegrass collaborated on the album Raising Sand, and like with tea, it’s another winning duo! If you’d like to see them live, check out Ticketmaster. Maybe they are performing nearby and you can let us know more about Plant’s latest tea habits while performing.

Special thanks for this photo from RobertPlant.com and Steve Gillet/Live Pix.

Moroccan tea preparation (called Atai) is extremely unique. While many tea drinkers prefer some amount of sweetener in their tea, Moroccans take it to a whole different level. In most tea preparations, “A large quantity of hard sugar cones or lumps (5 tea spoons for every spoon of tea) is used”. This obviously produces an extremely sweet tea. Along with the sugar, mint is also added to the tea for extra flavor. Morocco is considered the number one importer of Green Tea from China and it is used routinely as their tea of choice.

To begin the tea drinking session, the tea is boiled in a special style of teapot that has a long, arched spout. After it is boiled for some time, the sugar and mint are added. Once the tea is ready to be served, it is poured out of the teapot roughly two feet above the glass. This results in a foam layer that builds at the top. It is also not uncommon for the tea to be poured back into the pot once or twice for the process to be repeated to combine all the flavors even better.

Bigelow offers a few different kinds of teas that can give you a taste of the Moroccan tea experience. A Green Tea with Mint, a Plantation Mint Tea and a Caffeine Free Moroccan Mint Tea are just some of the varieties offered.

For a live demonstration, check out this YouTube video: Moroccan Tea Preparation.

We can add to the list of health benefits touted by green tea…There is research to suggest that green tea polyphenols inhibit Mycobacterium tuberculosis survival. Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that usually attacks the lungs; however, TB bacteria can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal. TB was once the leading cause of death in the United States. TB is spread through the air from one person to another. When an infected person coughs or sneezes, people nearby are thus exposed.

Therefore, these findings are important…given the study showed green tea polyphenols may be of help in the prevention of tuberculosis infection. Just more good news when it comes to green tea!

Just finished up National Customer Service week and what a fun week it was. This is a week for all companies to honor all those critical individuals that bring in the orders and enhance the customer’s experience with a company! We have, as I am sure many companies do, a super CS (customer service) team lead by an amazing positive guy. They did such a good job of making it a true celebratory week. They served breakfast and homemade lunches, they sent out daily emails sharing with all the employees some of the critical facts on what our CS dept does each year.

I made sure I went in and did my daily “hooting and howling” followed by hugs for all. Yes it was a fun week. I actually miss it. I went in to the CS dept today and said how much I missed the celebration….they told me I was welcome to come in “hooting” anytime….maybe I’ll just do that….woo woo woo!

Cindi Bigelow

How good is the end to the baseball season! The Bigelow Team just got back from a trade show in Boston and the buzz right now is like something of unbelievable proportions. It doesn’t matter who you are rooting for, this is baseball in it’s purist form… very exciting, very competitive and it’s coming down to the wire. On top of everything, our seven Sales Managers were able to attend last Thursday’s game at Fenway and they were speechless the next day from the excitement.

Now I have to give Joe Torre and Terry Francona a plug and I’ll try not to make it sound too commercial as they are Bigelow spokesmen and avid drinkers of Bigelow Green Tea. Regardless, of that fact they are two terrific gentlemen and I thought the Dodger fans paid Joe an incredible tribute with a standing ovation after the last game. And Terry and the Red Sox are still in it and are playing great ball right now! I will sure be watching the Red Sox and Rays tonight!

Bob
October 19, 2008

Tea, the second most popular beverage in the world, has long been a subject of interest to those who drink it. Stop in any local bookstore nowadays and you will find innumerable books on the subject.

It all began, though, with The Book of Tea. Published in 800 A.D. by Chinese scholar Lu Yu, this is said to be the first book ever written about tea. Back in a time when tea was really only a beverage for China’s elite, The Book of Tea was ground-breaking because it offered the general public a glance into the wonderfully diverse world of tea.

Although there have been many books about tea published since, The Book of Tea still remains important to avid tea drinkers. Recently, one tea drinker even created a contest for someone to win a rare copy of the book.

If you’re interested in reading up on one of your favorite beverages, check out Bigelow’s fantastic collection of books. They also make great gifts! Look at Chai – The Spice of India for an in-depth look at Chai, or Morning Food for some modern and delicious recipes!

Thanks goes out to Lanie Sips blog for the great review of our Earl Grey Tea and for pioneering the pairing of blueberry Pop-Tarts and Earl Grey Tea. “The bergamot and the berries went great together, and the black tea helped to address the sweetness/stickiness of the pastry.” (Bergamot is the orange blossom flavor in Earl Grey Tea.) To further explore this duo of blueberry and bergamot, try our Blueberry Harvest Muffin recipe with your next cup.

For all you other Bigelow Earl Grey Tea fans out there…give blueberry and bergamot a try and let us know what you think.