9th December, 2008: How My Mother Dealt With Cancer Treatment Through a Healthy Diet
A little over a year ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. With the help of quick-working surgeons and a wonderful oncologist, she was able to have a lumpectomy 30 days after her original diagnosis and began her chemotherapy a few days before Christmas.
My mother is a very intelligent and strong woman. She knew that she was heading into some tougher times, but she knew those times would be dealt with much easier if she had the proper tools. Her massive support system was a huge aid, but she also found some helpful hints in A Dietitian’s Cancer Story. She had done a ton of reading, and had listened carefully to her oncologist regarding her diet and some things that she could do to keep her immune system strong and energy levels high. As it is constantly mentioned on this site, green tea is incredible (it’s even better when accompanied by a great antioxidant). The book seconded this and gave her a great recipe for a green tea shake, which she tried and loved. Throughout her chemotherapy, she drank a lot of tea to help boost her immune system. I can personally attest to the fact that it worked wonders.
After her chemotherapy, she had to go through radiation treatments. These treatments are notorious for draining your energy and producing a lot of fatigue if you don’t preemptively strike against that. Her doctor told her that ginseng works wonders for people going through radiation treatment. My mother took ginseng pills and drank ginseng tea a few times a week in an effort to counteract the fatigue she would get from her daily treatments. Very rarely did she ever experience any drop in energy due to her treatments and she was able to easily maintain her happy demeanor.
Overall, a combination of great doctors, great attitude, and a great diet helped her go through the invasive stage of her treatment fairly easy. She went into it scared, but very prepared and ready to take whatever came at her head on. Now that she has moved on past the extreme treatments and into the less invasive, she still continues her healthy diet and drinks a lot of tea to continue to boost her immune system as the cold season bears down on us. It also helps to have a son who writes for a tea blog and provides her with the wealth of knowledge this place has to offer.
Ross Hammond, Bigelow Tea supporter and blog writer
Posted by Ross at 6:00 am | Comment (1)
1st May, 2008: A Bigelow Tea bridal shower
Dear Bigelow Tea,
Recently, I held a bridal shower for my niece, Chessie, at The Colonial Inn in Concord, Massachusetts. We are all big tea drinkers so we decided an afternoon tea would be nice. I had silver teapots overflowing with bright colored spring flowers on the tables and as favors, gave tea cups wrapped up with an assortment of Bigelow teas. Bigelow Tea is a favorite in our family! My sister, Julie, Chessie’s mother, is a Constant Comment fan from way back. Thought you might enjoy seeing the photos:
Sincerely,
Susan O’Neil
Posted by Julie at 6:00 am | Comments (5)
10th April, 2008: The Cat who loves Bigelow Tea!
This is Spooky the cat drinking Bigelow Mint Medley tea. Spooky is now 11 years old and in very good health, probably from the tea says her owner. When she smells it she comes running to the kitchen just hoping to get some for herself. Then she rolls around on the floor all happy and content.
Here’s Spooky hanging out at home in Coconut Creek Florida just waiting for more Bigelow Tea.
Audrey, proud owner and Bigelow Tea Drinker
Posted by Liesl at 6:00 am | Comments (3)
4th April, 2008: Story of a Constant Comment® Tea Fan
Here is a nice letter about a new, and now loyal, fan of Constant Comment® Tea…how did you discover Constant Comment®? We want to hear your story too!
Dear Bigelow,
My name is Ian MacGregor and I live in Seattle, Washington. This is a
story of how I recently came to discover Constant Comment.
Normally my friends and I meet at one of our homes a few times each week
for a social gathering. Last month, one of my friends brought a new tea
for us to try - tea is a large part of our gatherings. This new tea was
Constant Comment, from Bigelow. Bigelow teas are my favorite but I had
never seen this tea at any of the local markets. We talked a bit while
the water heated and I asked “how does it taste?”, to which she replied
“it’s a surprise”. The water finished, steeping done, I reached for my
cup and was met with the most wonderful aroma of black tea and oranges.
I quickly realized the new tin of Walkers shortbread cookies I bought
would be a perfect addition to our evening. Hours later we had finished
off all 20 bags of this delicious tea - the cookie tin now empty - and I
could only think that next week was too far away. Constant Comment is
now on my favorite teas list, thank you Bigelow.
Sincerely,
Ian MacGregor
Posted by Liesl at 6:00 am | Comment (0)
20th November, 2007: Tea Party Baby Shower
This is from one of our creative Bigelow Tea supporters…what’s your story?
I have been a big fan of Bigelow for some time. I put together a Tea Party Baby Shower for a friend, and the obvious choice for the favors was Bigelow!! I love that the bags are indivudually wrapped, and you can find one in just about any color to match a theme. I’ve attached some pictures of the final result!!
Thank you for making a great product!!!
Tiffany K.
Ohio
Posted by Liesl at 6:00 am | Comment (1)
22nd June, 2007: An Englishman’s Reference
Just wanted to congratulate Bigelow on your English Teatime tea. I have been here in the US for about six weeks with a month to go before returning to my home town of Rochester in the UK. My English tea bags had run out and I was not looking forward to the coming month.
It is always a challenge for the English abroad to find a way to make a decent cup of tea. I have a travel kettle, so boiling water is not a problem. Decent tasting cows milk can be difficult to find but not this time as I’m working in Wisconsin. Only the tea bags to find then. Finally, I was in Wal-Mart and happened across your English Teatime tea bags. Usually the tea bags abroad either taste more of the bag than the tea or the tea is like perfumed water. Not yours though, just a lovely cup of English tea.
I hope you’re supplying all those hotels in Florida !!!
Well Done.
Graeme Longmuir
Posted by Liesl at 6:00 am | Comment (0)
11th June, 2007: A Music Video about Tea by Denacious Tea
Check out Denacious Tea here.
Posted by Liesl at 6:00 am | Comments (3)
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 February, 2007: Your Story: Lillian’s Story!
I don’t know if you could consider this a story, but I have loved “Constant Comment” tea since I was a youngster, and I always loved the instant tea blends Bigelow used to make long and ever ago.? The Lemon Lift was also a wonderful flavor, superior to many of the flavored teas we have today. Are there any other fans of the old mixes back when?
Lillian Hanson
San Diego CA
Posted by Sabine at 6:43 am | Comments (7)
15th December, 2006: From our customers: tea at a baby shower
My sister wanted to do a nice baby shower for my niece. My niece wanted to have the party at a formal tea place, but it was a bit much for my sister so we decided to have it at my house.
We provided all of the usual treats plus coffee but I wanted to also include tea because of my nieces first wish to have a tea party. I took out my Bigelow tea box and had it nicely presented on the table along with one of my favorites, Eggnoggn.
Well when it came time to have the tea and coffee, everyone went for the tea and they went nuts over the Eggnoggn. Before I knew it the conversation had turned into stories about tea. I didnt know a lot of my guests because there were my nieces friends, but by the time everyone had left, we had all had a good laugh and shared some nice tales about tea.
Derry, Connecticut
Here’s a Recipe for Eggnoggn Pancakes
Posted by Sabine at 3:13 pm | Comment (1)
