For Bigelow Tea, it all started in Ruth C. Bigelow’s kitchen more than 60 years ago with her splendid creation of Constant Comment. Bigelow Tea has been providing tea time traditions ever since.  We’re always excited to invite you inside Ruth’s granddaughter Cindi Bigelow’s own fabulous kitchen, where here she demonstrates how to take food and drink from ordinary to extraordinary with – you guessed it – Constant Comment!

You’ve got to try the Constant Comment Cosmo! It might just inspire you to invent your own original Bigelow Tea recipe and enter it in our Recipe Contest! Who knows? Maybe YOU could win a year’s supply of Bigelow Tea!

 

The Emmy Awards seem to always generate constant comment, both before and after the show, so Bigelow Tea began thinking about our own Constant Comment tea and how tea may have been part of the Emmys this year!

One thing we noticed is that on the red carpet a few stylish ladies were wearing tea-length dresses! The dress getting the most post-Emmy buzz was worn by Kaley Cuoco, who stars on The Big Bang Theory. Red carpet watchers praised her chick black tulle Romona Keveza dress and her simple makeup. We thought all the ladies looked fabulous that night!

Actress Amy Teegarden

In addition, one of our favorite young actresses – whose name makes us smile – was on the red carpet: Amy Teegarden(don’t you just love that?!) from Friday Night Lights; she attended the Emmys wearing a giant smile, gorgeous earrings and a dress that also received rave reviews!

And while we think champagne may have been the beverage of choice for many of those in Hollywood, we’d venture to guess that many Bigelow Tea lovers enjoyed the Emmy telecast from their comfy sofas…with a cup of tea! Constant Comment Green Tea, perhaps?

All that, plus a joke from the show’s host Jane Lynch about her daughter attending a “tea party,” made the Emmy Awards a beau-TEA-ful evening!

Now that’s entertainment!

Image 1 by WEBN-TV via Flickr.com
Image 2 of Amy Teegarden by david_shankbone via Flickr.com

When I was very young, she introduced me to Bigelow’s Constant Comment. The spices and orange flavor made it especially yummy to my young palate.

When I was still in grade school, my mother baked a huge assortment of Christmas cookies every year, and I proudly carried a written invitation to my teacher for afternoon tea and cookies on the last day of school before the holiday break. I would dress in my finest new Christmas dress, and my mother would have the house all decorated, with the dining room table set for just the 3 of us. We would enjoy polite conversation, cookies, and of course, our favorite Constant Comment tea.

I eventually moved away from my home town, and my mother passed away 2 years ago, but I’ll always cherish those “grown up” moments with my mother over cups of Bigelow’s Constant Comment tea.

Louise

Bigelow Tea Drinker

Gathering to tell stories and sharing a cup of tea go hand in hand. That’s why Bigelow Tea loves to celebrate National Family Stories Month.

In so many cultures, teatime is also story time. In Ireland, families gather in front of fires with tea to share stories and songs about their history. In China, tea is an integral part of many family celebrations. And in England, tea breaks are the perfect time to catch up on the latest family news.

Storytelling is also important here in our Bigelow Tea family. On this very blog we share the stories of our valued customers and employees, who are truly like family to us. As a family-owned and family-operated business, we are also always proud to share our family’s story, which began with Ruth Campbell Bigelow offering her orange spiced tea to friends. They couldn’t stop commenting on it … and of course that’s when Constant Comment was born!

This month we encourage everyone to take time to brew a cup of tea and sit for a while with a beloved family member. Share some family stories along with your tea. You’ll make moments to cherish for a long time to come!

Photo via Flickr.com

October is Celiac Disease Awareness Month.  For adults and children living with Celiac Disease (CD), a lifelong digestive disorder, gluten is the mortal enemy.  So, what is “gluten”, exactly?  Well, it’s actually a generic name for the storage proteins found in grains, specifically: wheat, barley, rye and oats.

When people with CD eat foods containing gluten, they suffer a toxic reaction to the immune system, causing damage to the small intestine which, in turn, hinders proper food absorption.  CD patients generally have weak immune systems and may experience sensitivity to other foods.  However, as long as they are monitored by their physician and carefully watch what they eat and drink, the disease can be managed without sacrificing quality of life.

At Bigelow Tea, we take “quality of life” very seriously, by providing you with a wonderful selection of teas to add to your gluten-free diet.  So, have a cuppa, and toast to your good health!

We have continued this tradition for years, rarely missing a day. Serendipitously, we would discover years later how good for our health all this tea drinking was. Our friendship blossomed, watered by countless cups of Bigelow’s elixir. Once a week perhaps, our conversations would be held face-to-face as we watched our toddlers form their own bonds, ties that exist to this day. We shared our joys and sorrows, career successes and tragic deaths, our children’s accomplishments, our aging parents’ struggles. Often we would look into our cups, trying to read the future in the amber liquid. A tear might drop, sending out waves of fragrant tea, as comforting and timeless as an ocean tide.

Then Maggie moved to Germany. Communication went from verbal to visual. It was pre-internet days, so we resorted to pen and paper. When the blue aerogram envelope arrived, I would restrain myself from ripping it open long enough to brew a cup of “Constant Comment®.” Some traditions simply have to be honored. We are grandmothers now, our lives full of new babies, second careers and madcap projects. Phone calls are few. E-mail serves, in its impersonal way, as the preferred method of communication. In fact, a recent e-mail from me to my dear friend carried the lament that we no longer have time for a tête-à-tête. All those cups of tea nourished the plant that is our friendship. It is time to feed it again.

By Susan Tornga

One afternoon, I had the ultimate in time consuming tasks to perform; washing, combing out tangles, and braiding our Thoroughbred stallion, Miraculus Time’s beautiful thick floor length red chestnut tail. After a trip to the wash rack, I tied him up close to his wall mounted grain bin, grabbed the combs, brushes, and conditioner and put my sports bottle in the grain bin. I started in the front with his mane until I had the last of the tangles free, sipping a few times and replacing the bottle in the bin. Miraculus is a brilliant red, very kind stallion, who follows every move you make with his ears forward and his eyes aglow. I finally got around to going behind him to attack the 4 and a half foot long mass of tangles that comprised his tail. After about 20 minutes he stepped forward a few steps and started making some very strong sniffing noises.

A few minutes later he started rattling things around in his grain bucket with his nose. Since stallions are very curious and mouth around on everything, I thought nothing of it and let him go ahead and enjoy himself. It wasn’t long after that, when I heard some very interesting sounds. It sounded like he was chewing on something and there were definitely gurgling noises. I decided to drop everything and go see what he was doing. Imagine my shock when I found my Constant Comment® bottle with his teeth on the straw drinking my tea!! My straw had teeth marks imbedded in it and he had tea dripping from his muzzle. I laughed until my sides hurt. I guessed that I was the only woman on Earth that had ever shared a mug of Constant Comment® with a REAL STUD!! From then on every time I hold him for a new set of shoes, I set the bottle on the ground beside my director’s chair. Every time he points his nose in that direction, I pour out a handful and he slurps it up and licks my hand (clean!). It really has ruined stallion’s reputations to have one licking your hand that way.

ANNE GEINZER, Constant Comment® Contest Runner Up

If I think about this too much it makes me cry, because Constant Comment is the only tea my grandma ever used. I loved her so very much and I think of her every day – she is my inspiration. I grew up in Northbrook, Illinois and my grandparents were hard working people who did so much for their community. They singlehandedly started the Northbrook speed skating club, and my grandma dyed long johns red for the kids uniforms! My most special and loving memory of drinking this tea was after a speed skating race in the dead cold of a Chicago winter. I can still see it in my mind…when my sisters and I were done skating, we would be freezing cold – our toes and noses almost frost bit. We were so little, 6, 7 & 8 years old. We would skate our hearts out for my grandpa, and when we were done we got to race back to my grandma’s car and get warm. We couldn’t wait! My grandma would be waiting in there, snug and warm and tell us how proud she was of us. Then she would get out her red plaid thermos and pour us a cup of “her” tea. It was so sweet and so warm and went through us like a warm, wonderful blanket. Except this was a warm blanket of love from her, like her outstretched arms to keep us from shivering.

She was so amazing to us all, so gifted and so full of love and adventure and we all adored her so much so this special tea, Constant Comment, was her tea and hers alone. I knew the name – I remember recalling it many times and feeling so privileged to have had it. She made us feel so loved and so adored that surely, anything she did, was special. If Mrs. Bigelow hadn’t created that tea, I know my grandma could have. But the fact she loved it, was enough for me to become a fan for life. When I smell it and close my eyes over that cup of warm, orange aroma, it makes me feel like she is right here with me, wrapping her soft arms around me once again. (This is where my tears fall into the cup!)

As for that Northbrook Speed skating Club, my grandpa put that little town on the map when his team won Olympic medals in Sapporo in 1972. I know that her tea went along on that trip and many others! This tea, “her” tea, my grandma’s favorite tea, is now mine and will be always. I hope that someday my two boys will feel the same love that I do when they smell that aroma and that sweetness and know I am with them in every cup. This tea is like a big warm hug of love from someone very special. It is a little cup from heaven.

Heidi Prom

Tea reminds me of my mother. One of my earliest memories is of getting off the big yellow school bus and coming home to find my mother in her bedroom, waiting for me to tell her about my day, sitting in her chair and watching soap operas as she had her “afternoon tea.” She would have her favorite tea cup full of her favorite tea, Constant Comment — a blue and white cup so big it looked more like a soup bowl — and an open-faced sandwich to go along with it. She was European, and afternoon tea was an important ritual to her — so important that I can remember driving home from a family vacation and my mother insisting that she needed to stop for “high tea,” while my father tried to bring her attention to the fact that we were in the north woods of Canada and tea houses were few and far between. We ended up stopping at a truck stop; I don’t think the “high tea” lived up to my mother’s expectations that day.

My favorite family teatime ritual, however, was our evening tea. Every night around 9 p.m. my parents would brew a pot of tea. They would carry out the steaming cups (my mother’s cup taking up far more than its fair share of space on the tray) along with dishes of ice cream or slices of cake. We would sit together, enjoying our dessert and watching television. My mother would sew or flip through a magazine for awhile, but eventually I would lay my head in her lap and she would scratch my head with one hand as she sipped her tea with the other. I would doze off, sleepy and content, feeling her fingers in my hair, her warm touch conveying her love for me. I’m 29 years old, now, and my mother has been gone for three years. She was the glue that held our family together, and I miss those nights of tea and dessert like I miss sunshine in winter. That big blue cup belongs to me, now. When I take it out and make myself a cup of Constant Comment, I can still feel my mother’s hand on my head, and I feel again her love for me, and suddenly all is right with the world again.

—Erika Holst, Runner Up for Best Story for the Constant Comment Contest

As far back as I can remember, my mother bought Bigelow’s Constant Comment Tea, she loved her coffee too, but would relax in the afternoon with her tea in our living room, and when I became a teenager she shared it with me. We would sometimes sit out on our outside front porch in the summer when everything was rich and green and the morning doves were cooing, crickets were noisy and read a good book savoring our CC tea. As I grew up and life became more hectic, time did not always allow for us to sit on the front porch. I never developed a taste for coffee and continued to drink Constant Comment every morning and made iced tea with it, and it became my staple. I moved to other cities to work and live over the years, and had a family, but almost every time I drank Constant Comment tea I would think of my home and my mother and our time together.

So two years ago when she was diagnosed with a terminal disease, I flew home and we cried together and spent our time with each other and we would again sit every day and have our tea, remembering our times 40 years earlier, our summertime’s sipping tea on the front porch. Constant Comment was our very favorite and she would always buy me a box to have for myself when I came to visit for the holidays. Once she even put one in my Christmas stocking! I don’t have a daughter now to share my tea time, but I am acquiring a daughter in law next spring and we will be having an afternoon tea shower for her. I can’t wait for her to taste my Constant Comment. It will seem as if my mother is somewhere there with us in spirit. It was just one of the pleasures in life that we enjoyed in common.

Debora Dickinson with her mother.