If imagining a warm, flavorful cup of Bigelow Tea makes you smile, then you know just how to prepare for National Smile Month! Yes, the third week of May through the third week of June is a month dedicated to celebrating your pearly whites and all the joy that a smile brings!

We all know that being on the receiving end of a smile feels great, but did you know that smiling can actually enhance feelings of happiness? And if that’s not enough reason to smile, it has also been reported that a person’s smile outranked eyes, hair and body as the most important physical feature. It’s true – that nice, bright smile of yours will inspire Constant Comment(s) from your friends, coworkers and family!

At Bigelow Tea we smile all the time, especially when brewing our favorite teas, enjoying time with our families and thinking about how much joy our products bring to our customers.

So as you brew and enjoy your tea this month, smile and enjoy!

Image by romainguy via Fotopedia.com

Bigelow Tea has joined Pinterest, the wildly popular new social network that lets you share online images of your favorite things – like tea, of course! We’re excited to develop our Pinterest presence and connect with our fans and the larger tea community with our love of tea.

New to Pinterest? Here are the basics: once you create your profile, you’re ready to create pin “boards” for your interests, and follow those created by your friends and others. As you browse images within Pinterest, you can “repin” appealing images to your boards. “Like” them, or just comment on them. A “Pin It” button (which is easy to install on your toolbar) allows you to pin images from your computer or anywhere online. Here’s a list of some of Bigelow Tea’s tea-centric pinboards:

• Bigelow Tea Recipes and Gluten Free Living for those interested in unique recipes and healthy living

• Tea Inspirations, Tea Party Ideas, and The Joy of Drinking Tea for all tea lovers

• SustainabilitTEA to highlight eco-friendly living and the company’s green initiatives

• Your Bigelow Pins to celebrate and acknowledge fan pins of favorite Bigelow Teas

• Tea Cups and Tea Pots and Bigelow Tea Gifts for tea collectors

• Notable Tea Drinkers to showcase well-known tea enthusiasts

• Gardening, For the Home, Holidays and more

“At our house, tea was always a social event, something to be embraced. So it’s only natural that as a tea company, we would want to share our love affair with tea by fans pinning all things tea — favorite recipes, images, inspired accessories, news and party ideas on Pinterest,” says company president Cindi Bigelow. “We were pleased to discover there’s so much interest on the part of Bigelow Tea fans with pinning and repinning.  We’re all having a lot of fun exchanging ideas.”

We invite you to join the Pinterest party by following Bigelow Tea, sharing your favorite tea images and repinning ours. Happy pinning!

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Famous TV sleuth/mystery writer Jessica Fletcher had an uncanny knack for catching murder suspects. Could it be that tea was one of the secrets to her success? Bigelow Tea is on the case! Thank you to Joy’s Teaspoon blog for inspiring such fun speculation in a post about the indomitable “Murder She Wrote” heroine, who was the equally spirited Angela Lansbury for 12 exciting seasons.

Joy writes: “Jessica Fletcher may be one of the most dangerous tea guests. Murder seems to follow her no matter where she goes. But, when it comes to tea this lady really knows her stuff.  Jessica Fletcher knew that when writing a good book, or reading one, tea was far superior to coffee. When her nerves needed calming nothing was better than a pot of tea, a small round table, and friendly although slightly nosey friend.”

And we agree with Joy’s prediction about Jessica’s “old school” taste in tea. No doubt she would gravitate toward English Breakfast or Darjeeling … and that’s “case closed!”

Photo by Classic Film Scans via Flickr.com

More than 4,500 tea industry movers and shakers will descend on the Las Vegas Convention Center June 1-3 for the 10^th annual World Tea Expo. It’s a major event that keeps getting bigger every year – a testament to tea’s ever-increasing popularity with you, the consumer! Bigelow Tea invites you to join us as we take a sneak peek behind the scenes at the hottest tea trends brewing in the marketplace. Stay tuned for additional posts about the buzz – tea quality, continuing green tea power, and how tea fans are discovering new ways to enjoy their favorite beverage!

After thousands of years, it’s clear that tea is no passing fancy.  However, George Jage (president of World Tea Media, which produces the World Tea Expo) points out that from a historical perspective, Americans have only just begun to embrace tea. While tea is the most consumed beverage in the world – second only to water – it currently ranks 7^th in the U.S. for consumption. Jage sees this as a huge opportunity for continued growth and the introduction of satisfying new products to suit American tea tastes. Indeed, we have previously reported that wholesale tea sales grew fourfold between 1990 and 2010, to $8 billion annually.

Jage suggests interesting reasons why so many people are gravitating towards tea. He says baby boomers are interested in tea’s health benefits, finding it to be a great alternative to sugary soft drinks. Meanwhile, the younger millennial generation is drawn to tea’s association with purity, relaxation and sustainability. Jage notes that today’s tea drinkers are “getting away from the idea that tea is something [from] your grandmother’s cupboard. It’s something cool, it’s hip, it’s chic.”

We concur! It all adds up to a bright outlook and more good things to come, for tea lovers everywhere.

Photo by mrkathika via Flickr.com  

The month of May not only brings spring flowers and Memorial Day, but also the beginning of the BBQ season with National BBQ Month! No matter where you live or what you like to cook, grilling is an easy and versatile way to bring out mouth watering barbecue flavors! Here at Bigelow Tea we know you will savor our delicious and unique recipe for Grilled Green Tea Chicken and Peaches, made with our Green Peach Tea. Fire up the grill and get the marinade ready for this lip-smacking Bigelow Tea recipe hit!

Grilled Green Tea Chicken and Peaches 

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken – cut up – about 4-5 pounds
¾ cup (180mL) water
6 Bigelow Green Tea with Peach Tea Bags
1/3 cup (80mL) honey
1 teaspoon (5mL) freshly ground pepper
¼ cup (60mL) extra virgin olive oil
Freshly grounded pepper and salt to taste
4 fresh peaches, halved and pitted

Yield: Serves 4 – Prep Time: 10 minutes – Cook Time: 55-65 minutes

Instructions

Instructions for Marinade:

In a small saucepan over medium high heat, bring water to the boil and add teabags, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes reducing liquid by ¼. Stir in honey and black pepper.

Instructions for Grilling Chicken:

Preheat grill. Rub chicken with the olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Place chicken on grill, turn to medium low heat (or use “Indirect” cooking according to grill instructions) and brush with Green Tea with Peach marinade. Cover grill and cook chicken for 15 minutes, brush again with marinade, and cook for another 15 minutes, turn over and brush with marinade and continue cooking for another 20 minutes. Check chicken with a meat thermometer which should read 140-150*F. Remove from heat.

Brush peaches with marinade and place cut side down on grill. Grill for 3-4 minutes. Turn, brush with marinade and grill for another 3-4 minutes.

 Image by scubagirl66 via flickr.com

Celiac Disease affects 1 in 133 people – and yet 97 percent of them go undiagnosed, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. That means lots of folks are living with abdominal pain, chronic headaches and numerous other unexplained symptoms that can have long-term health consequences. Since May is Celiac Disease Awareness Month,Bigelow Tea wants you to be informed about testing for this autoimmune disorder.

Although the way Celiac Disease operates within the body is complicated, the treatment for it is simple: lifelong elimination of gluten from the diet. Gluten is a protein found in grains like wheat, rye and barley. For those with Celiac Disease, eating gluten sets off an immune response in the small intestine, damaging the tiny hair-like villi that normally absorb basic nutrients. Over time, damage can be chronic and life-threatening, but once sufferers stop eating gluten they typically enjoy immediate relief.

The challenge then becomes figuring out how to live without gluten-laden baked goods, pastas and processed foods. Even foods that are naturally gluten free, such as oats, can be cross-contaminated with gluten during processing, setting off a reaction for someone with Celiac Disease. And those who test negative for Celiac Disease can still have some gluten sensitivity, making it difficult for them to digest gluten. Fortunately, the gluten-free aisles are well-stocked in today’s grocery stores, and online resources abound for the gluten-free cook! Just beware of gluten-free junk food that’s loaded with sugar and salt to compensate for the lack of gluten.

You could check out Bigelow Tea’s extensive file of gluten-free recipes for inspiration and (of course!) great taste … and rest easy knowing that most Bigelow Teas are naturally gluten free! Look for “gluten free” next to the ingredients list on the box.

Photo via Flickr.com

At Bigelow Tea, we are always committed to doing the right thing in all areas whether it is with creating the perfect teas or doing our part for the environment. We recently had our first pick-up of used cooking oil that was from our Fairfield. CT company cafeteria.  The oil is sent to a processing facility in Waterbury, CT where it is converted to biodiesel fuel. It was an exciting day for us at Bigelow as we watched the oil being recovered and carted off for reuse.

This is just one more step in our on-going sustainability efforts. Whether it is installing solar panels, instituting compost policy, working towards becoming a “Zero Waste to Landfill” Plant, recycling our overwrap, reducing our shrink wrap and undertaking countless other energy efficiency initiatives, we are always on the lookout for new ways to help protect Planet Earth.

Jim Gildea
Connecticut Plant Manager
Bigleow Tea

The Kentucky Derby Festival is a two week event in Louisville, KY that promotes all things Derby (Bigelow Tea has a manufacturing facility in Louisville). The festival started with the biggest Fireworks show in North America, “Thunder Over Louisville,”  then many other events followed suit ranging from The Great Bed Race, Great Steamboat Race, Pegasus Parade, Festiville (Chow Wagon) with lots of food and music, golf scrambles and many other things leading up to race day and the Kentucky Derby.

While most of the events are more community involvement related there are some that raise money for charities. With the bed race there was an award called the “People’s Choice Award” where the people could vote for $1 on the bed they liked best and profits went to the winning bed’s favorite charity.

The theme of this year’s race was bedtime stories.  We decided to have a momma teapot reading to her baby teacups and named our story “Sweet Dreams.”  Our bed won Best Decorated for the 2^nd year and we were all thrilled. The event started at 11:30 am where all participants’ beds were to be viewed in the front of the KFC YUM Center. There was quite a crowd and we gave out lots of tea samples as everyone walked around and checked out the beds. The crowd was very impressed with all of our hard work. Around 5:30 pm the beds were taken into the YUM Center and the parade of beds began (this is where all participants parade on the floor of the YUM Center to show off their decorations). Right after this was completed we rushed to get all the decorations off of the bed in order to get prepared for the race which began at 7:00 pm with live coverage on WAVE 3.

Lots of hard work but a great time was had by all!

Kathy Van Sant
Bigelow Tea, Louisville KY

Rock stars are usually larger than life by definition, but there are a select few that fall into the category of legendary. Freddie Mercury of the rock band Queen achieved that status. As the front-man and lead vocalist for Queen, Freddie’s powerful and versatile style propelled them through the 70’s and early 80’s, the Glam Rock phase of music history. It was no surprise to us at Bigelow Tea that the legend, like so many, also loved his tea.

Freddie was born in Zanzibar, off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, a country well known for their spices and adoration of spiced tea. His early beginnings at an English boarding school also contributed to his zest for tea. But there are also reports of his mom brewing the elixir for him, perhaps documented in the lyrics “Funny how love is coming home in time for tea … Funny how love is when you gotta hurry, ‘cause you’re late for tea,” which he wrote in the song Funny How Love Is.  Freddie was noted for his favorite flavor being jasmine tea. We at Bigelow Tea imagine him running home for a cup after school in his younger days!

In another song he wrote, The Miracle, Freddie speaks of man-made and natural-made miracles, with the biggest miracle we are all waiting for: peace on earth and an end to war. But in the middle of the song, and contrary to Freddie’s flamboyant stage presence, he lists as a miracle “Sunday mornings with a cup of tea.” We couldn’t agree more. Here’s a toast and a raised cup to singer, writer and tea-lover Freddie Mercury. Here’s wishing for peace on Earth, and Sunday mornings with a cup of tea.

Image by Flash28068 via queenzone.com

Wearing beautiful hats, socializing with friends, sipping iced tea … it’s all so civilized! So it’s no wonder that we at Bigelow Tea are quite fond of the pomp, pageantry and celebration that surrounds the Kentucky Derby!

Back in 2007, when Queen Elizabeth II visited the Kentucky Derby for the first time, we wondered whether she might enjoy her favorite tea, Earl Grey, during the race. While we’re not sure if she did, a traditional tea like Earl Grey would have been an ideal choice for such a tradition-filled event. The Kentucky Derby’s official website talks about tradition:

Over its 137-year history, the Kentucky Derby known as America’s Race™ has amassed dozens of traditions that Churchill Downs’ employees, horsemen and millions of Derby fans worldwide hold dear.

From the iconic Twin Spires that overlook the track….to the potent mint juleps that infuse Derby Day with “spirit,” traditions are an important part of the Derby experience (!)

We have to say it – like Bigelow Tea, the Derby is steeped in tradition! And while many people are sipping Mint Juleps at Churchill Downs, iced tea is also a very popular beverage on race day. Fittingly, one horse in the 2012 race is named “I’ll Have Another.” His owner says the name came from his love of chocolate chip cookies, but we think it applies perfectly to our sentiments about tea!

So, whether you’re attending a neighborhood Kentucky Derby party, watching at home with your family, or actually heading out to Churchill Downs, we hope you’ll find time tomorrow, May 5^th, to sip some tea! Whether iced or hot, we think tea is the perfect beverage to drink during the annual run for the roses! Enjoy!

Image 1 via soil-net.com
Image 2 via fotopedia.com