Happy days of summer to you!

I like my tea nice and hot, truth be told.  Still, I must admit, that after a nice run on a hot day, there is nothing like doing some stretching on the deck and sipping some ice-cold, slightly sweetened tea!  Many customers love serving up iced tea to their guests, a welcome refreshment for many on these warm summer afternoons.

Check out our summertime iced-tea recipes.

Drink up, be healthy and enjoy!

Hi Folks!

Fluoride has been added to most drinking water in the US and that is, in our opinion, not good.  At our center and at our home, Sarah and I have installed, along with our regular water filtration, special filters to remove the fluoride from the water we consume and serve our clients.  Ask us anytime for info on fluoride removal.  We can get the right filter for you.

Here are some quick facts about fluoride for you to check out.  And you can always find out more info by tooling around on their site:

10 facts about fluoride

To your health!

In between massages today, I have been sipping on some fine pu’er tea in the form of a mini-tuo.  These are small, single-serving cakes or bricks of pu’er tea, much smaller versions than their bigger brothers and sisters.  They are convenient in that one does not need to go through the work of breaking apart a larger cake nor guess as to how much to use.  And guess, what?  Some of them are really tasty!  We sampled many while in China and continue to test them out when we have samples sent to us from our connections in China.  You can find quite a variety of them in our tea shop and rest assured, there are always new ones on the way!  We choose the best we can find for ourselves, and for you!

Unwrap the mini-tuo, place it in your pot or gaiwan, and pour boiling water over it.  Let it warm up like that for 20 seconds and discard that liquid, using it to warm your sharing pitcher and then your serving cups.  Pour more boiling water over it and steep away!  For those who like a strong cup, do a longer initial steeping,  as in 3 to 5 minutes.  For a more delicate cup and many repeated steepings (giving you the opportunity to taste the tea as it opens up, start out with a couple 30 second infusions and gradually increase time from there!  Try it every which way you can.  You can’t go wrong.

Rockin’ in the tea world,

Garret

Hi Friends!

Our online tea shop has been up and running for a few weeks now.  Apparently I forgot to update this page in the midst of all the other computer schtuff we’ve been up to.  You may access the online tea shop by clicking on the “Tea Shop” link above!

We are very excited to be able to offer this service.  We are *SO* very grateful, too, that we have had so many customers supporting us and encouraging us in this newest Mandala endeavor.  It is a labor of love, that’s for sure!

Visit us soon!  And let us know if there is anything we may assist you with!

May 2010 be your healthiest and happiest year yet!

Garret