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!

Wow that was crazy….I can’t wait to do it again!

Cindi Bigelow

David Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard and Chris Evert join Cindi Bigelow at Sports Illustrated 2011 Sportsman of the Year Awards

"Big Papi" (David Ortiz) with Cindi Bigelow

I was so excited to be able to attend the Sports Illustrated Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year event in NYC Tuesday night.  I met incredible athletes including Chris Evert, Sugar Ray Leonard, David Robinson, Wayne Gretzky, and David Ortiz (Big Papi).

I was honored to be in the presence of this year’s honorees, Pat Summit and Mike Krzyzewski.  Their acceptance speeches captivated the entire audience as they reflected on their life journeys and spoke about commitment and dedication to the principals of teamship and excellence. Most important was that they honored the players they met and worked with throughout their careers.

I’d like to extend my heartiest congratulations to Coach Summit and Coach Krzyzewski!

Cindi Bigelow

What a beautiful Saturday morning yesterday was.  We decorated Bigelow Tea to look like the “North Pole” and invited all of the employees to bring their children and grandchildren for a festive event.  Great food, a very funny magician, and of course a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus-it was absolutely wonderful!  The kid’s huge smiles and the parents’ and grandparents’ overwhelming joy was what the holidays are all about.

We have a team at Bigelow Tea that takes months to plan this day and what was so fantastic was I wasn’t sure who was more delighted with the morning, the North Pole team or the little children!  It was a the perfect way to start the holiday season….HO HO HO

Cindi Bigelow

Bigelow was prominently recognized for our sponsorship and participation. We were listed as a corporate sponsor on all of the walker’s shirts.  Dawn Gee, a popular local news lady, referred to our tea as “fabulous” in front of the crowd and encouraged everyone to get samples at our booth.  We were able to distribute many samples both teabags and brewed samples.  Another great event for Bigelow!

Steve Keys
Plant Manager
Bigelow Tea

This week our bed race team enjoyed the grand honor of being selected as best decorated bed in the bed race held in the new KFC YUM center arena in downtown Louisville, KY, home to a major Bigelow production facility.

The theme for this year’s race was super heroes.  Our team came up with the brilliant idea of promoting our product’s antioxidant properties in developing the bed decorations.  The team made a large frame shaped like a teapot and put a cape on it.  It was highly decorated with ruffled paper including recycling scrap pieces of our teabag paper (for the white color needs).  The bed also had 4 pivoting teapot signs on each corner representing our 4 new herbal plus tea products.  Many sample teabags of our new herbal plus products were distributed to the crowds of people present for the event.

The actual bed race itself was not so successful.

The Bigelow bed ran into some cones in the course which severely impacted the runners.  Despite this we still placed 33^rd out of 42 beds entered.  We beat several teams that normally place high each year like Coca Cola, PPG paints & Knight’s School of Welding (who makes the beds for many of the teams).  The event was carried on a local NBC affiliate WAVE 3 (and cable channel 441) and spots were included on several of the local news programs.  Bigelow was also listed for the award in the Louisville Courier Newspaper.  The team received a prize of a stereo system which I suspect will be raffled off among the team.  A nice trophy was also presented to the team which will be placed in our display case.

The amazing thing that came out of all of this was an invitation to show the decorated bed in the annual Kentucky Derby Pegasus Parade.  This parade is one of the top events in the entire 2 week festival (behind the Kentucky Derby horse races and the Thunder over Louisville kick-off event).  The parade route is typically lined with ~100,000 people, maybe more with the good weather that is forecast!  The event is a very popular TV event locally and will be televised live Thursday afternoon.  We will again have an opportunity to pass out sample teabags.

This is such a big deal in our goal to recognize the awesome work done by our employees.

Steve Keys
Plant Manager
Bigelow Tea

The Bigelow Tea Boise Plant recently completed a “Blue Jean and Snack Drive” for The Hope House, a local children’s home located in Marsing, Idaho.  We collected 100 pairs of blue jeans and many boxes of snack food to help this worthy cause.   Nicki Cunningham and Barbara Marcum, team members of the Boise Plant who are pictured above,  were instrumental in organizing our effort.  They delivered our collections to the Hope House and were met with a warm welcome by the kids.  Oh, and we also gave them lots of tea!

Above (left to right): Bigelow Tea’s Cindy Brancucio (Research Division), John McCraw (Vice President/Tea Division) and Lisa Feather (Research Biologist) are joined by Robertson Sheehey (Primary Care).

Prizes were awarded for the top eight entries. Winners and judges alike enjoyed the event.

A raffle was held in our plant to pick the three contest judges. Nicki Cunningham, Terri Hamilton, and Abel Morel had a blast testing their palates and chose Tracey Wade of Boise as the contest winner.  Tracey won for the second year in a row with her “Cranberry Pomegranate Pizzazzi.”  Try Tracey’s recipe for yourself … or create a beverage of your own!

The judges enjoy the winning entry

CRANBERRY POMEGRANATE PIZZAZZI

Ingredients:

¾ Cup Cranberry Juice

¾ cup Sparkling Apple Cider

1 ½ cups Crushed ice

1 ½ cups Vanilla Ice Cream

1 Cozy Chamomile Bigelow tea bag

1 Pomegranate Pizzazz Bigelow tea bag

1 Plantation Mint Bigelow tea bag

¾ cup boiling water

Optional:  Little decorative umbrellas.

Directions:

Place ¾ cup boiling water over the Bigelow tea bags in a heat-stable container.

Let steep 3-5 minutes. Remove the tea bags. Allow the tea to cool.

To serve:

Combine the cranberry juice, sparkling apple cider, crushed ice vanilla ice cream and ¾ cup of the cooled blended Bigelow tea. Blend well. Pour into glasses and serve.

Optional: Use little umbrellas as a decoration on top of the glasses.

The Bigelow Tea Community Challenge, 2009

It’s that time of year again when summer fun begins to come to an end, fall begins, and there’s nothing like a nice hot cup of Bigelow Tea … after running a 5K road race!? Yes, actually! Bigelow Tea is excited to announce our 23^rd annual Bigelow Tea Community Challenge, taking place on September 26^th in Southport, Connecticut at Wakeman Boys and Girls Club.

The event is always a crowd pleaser attracting hundreds of men, women and children each year. It challenges our community to donate to a good cause, while still having a lot fun. Proceeds from the Community Challenge go to local charities, such as the Connecticut Food Bank, the Bridgeport Rescue Mission, and the Mercy Learning Center among others. Giving back to the community is something Bigelow Tea is always proud to do, and we’re thrilled for the opportunity!

Participants in the Community Challenge have choices: the 5K run, the two-mile fitness walk, or the Kids’ Fun Run. And they are welcome to enjoy the complimentary food and drink and the other activities that are offered! In addition to donating to a good cause and getting your morning exercise,  the grand prize raffle winner this year will win two round trip tickets to anywhere in the United States, even Bermuda or the Caribbean!

So grab the kids and the whole family, and head down to Wakeman Boys and Girls Club this September 26^th. Have some real fun while helping those who really need it!  And in the meantime, get inspired with this video from one of our previous Community Challenges:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This year’s 4^th annual First Flush FesTEAval was amazing!!!…

The weather was perfect, in the mid 80’s and sunny…We could not have asked for a better day!  Excitement filled the air as we opened the gates at 10:00am on Sunday morning, but little did we know that by 3:30 that afternoon we would be announcing that we were closed to all guests without pre-purchased tickets.  Yes, that is right!…At 3:30 The Bridge at 105.5 announced to all of its listeners that the First Flush FesTEAval was SOLD OUT!  We had reached our maximum count of 5,000 plus attendees!  What an amazing site to see!  People and cars covering every inch of the farm… with the exception of the tea fields, of course!

People danced to the music, soaked in the sun, and enjoyed over 7,000 cups of iced American Classic Tea we had prepared for them!  We thought 7,000 cups would be plenty, but much to our surprise this tea loving group wiped out our entire supply by 1:00 that afternoon.  We found ourselves scrambling to brew enough tea to satisfy their demands!  We did it though!…Thanks to the hard work of our Charleston Tea Plantation staff and event volunteers, we were able to keep the tea flowing!

This year’s First Flush offered more entertainment than year’s past.  Not only did guests get to enjoy the music of well known performers like Crowfield, Cory Chisel and headliner Robert Randolph and The Family Band, but they were also treated to sounds of local artists presented by Mark Bryan’s (Grammy award winning guitarist/songwriter for Hootie & The Blowfish) Chucktown Music Group.  This included Amber Caparas, John Wesley Satterfield, Mac Leaphart and Mark Bryan himself.  However, to no one’s surprise, it was Robert Randolph that brought the house down with his unique style of music!  Even people who weren’t familiar with the sounds of a his famous pedal steel guitar danced and grooved to the beat!

Guests also enjoyed local cuisine and shopped the wares of Charleston artists.  Needless to say, there was something for everyone, even the kids!  The Spider Jump was a huge hit again this year and children and parents loved the new additions to the kids’ area: face painting, pony rides and Beaufort the Rescue Mule!

We can’t say it enough, this year’s First Flush FesTEAval was AMAZING!!!

A big THANKS to everyone involved in making this the best First Flush FesTEAval to date!!! Our entire Plantation staff plus over 35 event volunteers were the true heart and soul of it all!  THANK YOU again for your support, and we look forward to next year!

Cara Valentine, Charleston Tea Plantation.

Photos provided by Mark Snowberger