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!

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!

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

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

We wanted to give you another update for the online tea shop.  Things have been going well with it and we are in the final stages before launching it!  We are now testing it out, refining some things and making sure everything is smooth on both ends.  We have over 165 products with more items on the way from China weekly!

Thanks for your patience,  I know I told you an October launch, but I think you’ll be happy we waited to launch things.

Don’t forget that Vitamin Tea is a great way to help prevent influenza!  Along with C, D, antioxidants, frequent hand-washing and use of your neti pot twice a day!

Stay healthy, stay warm,

Garret

After a little delay brought on by a bout with Lyme disease, Sarah and I are now making true progress  toward the online launch of our tea shop!!  With hundreds of products and teas now photographed and catalogued, we are now in the process of entering them into the template which will be our e-tea shop.  This is exciting for us and will make for easier access not only for our national customers but for our local ones, as well.  We will let you know more as the launch date approaches.

We have also acquired more space for our tea biz and have leased the rest of the 1st floor of the building here at Mandala.  This gives us space for our packaging and storage of teas and tea wares and also a very nice room for our tea classes and samplings!  It’s great.  See the entry below this for info on the upcoming community ed tea classes.

Thank you all for your continued support and interest!

All the best,

Garret and Sarah

https://ssl.dwebsite.com/secure2/ce_winona/php/public.php?action=listClasses&categoryId=6&programId=4&from=listCategories

Class title is “For the Love of Tea” and the classes are held on the following Sundays: Sept 13, Oct 11 and Nov 8.

It will be offered again on February 22nd, also from 2-5 pm.  The March and April dates have not yet been announced.

If you have any questions about the classes, please call or email us.

You may register by going to:

https://ssl.dwebsite.com/secure2/ce_winona/php/public.php?action=listClasses&categoryId=6&programId=4

During the 3 hour class, we will discuss the origins, myth, stories, processing and preparation of the different types of tea – white, yellow, green, oolong, black and pu’er.  We will sample many different teas all while helping you to get more confident in your skills as a preparer of tea for your friends and family, not to mention your own enjoyment!

You will see in the picture here that this tea is not merely scented with jasmine but rather whole August harvested jasmine flowers and petals float delicately to the top of each infusion like white snow on a jade pond.   Steeping after steeping, this tea gives off a sweetness in aroma as well as flavor and makes it one of the best green jasmines I have ever tasted.

This tea will be a great tea to share with honored guests, a nice middle of the day break or simply to relax with after a long day.  It would be delicious iced, as well, for those who enjoy an occasional cold glass of tea.  You’ll also get a good dose of much needed antioxidants with this fresh and tender young leaf.

Stay warm,

Garret

Me?  I’ve been busy working with the new teas that we picked out in China.  We are really excited about our very own “private label” raw pu’er tea that has been pressed.  The raw material is Silver Needle white tea from spring of 2007.  After choosing the material, we had it pressed into a hundred 250-gram cakes, just for us!  We knew it would be good, but now that we have received the first cakes and are tasting it, we are so happy to announce that it is way beyond our expectations!  Steeping after steeping, this raw tea keeps giving a nice nutty and sweet flavor.  This is a really great tea!

We are now choosing a recipe for our upcoming privately pressed ripe style pu’er and will keep you posted about that.

Other new teas include the fall crop of Tie Guan Yin oolong from the Fujian province – stellar!  Also just in is a fall golden bud black tea – nothing but golden buds, this black tea from the Yunnan province is really a treat for the nose and the tongue.  Sweet on its own, it also stands up well to milk, if you desire a little treat!  Many new ripe pu’ers have also arrived, along with the latest crop of ren shen wulong (ginseng oolong), a tea that not only tastes and smells great infusion after infusion (we’ve done as many as 10 infusions of this tea) but would be an ideal tea to use if you have a cold or sore throat.  It is very soothing to the throat, coating it with a sweet, thick, almost licorice flavored liquor.

I will work at getting reviews of individual teas up here soon.  And please let us know if there is a particular Chinese tea that you are looking for and we can work at getting it for you.  We will get some pictures up of tea wares, tea, and accessories, as well.

May this holiday season be a beautiful one for you, your family, and your friends!

We are grateful for your continuous support of our endeavors!

Giving thanks,

Garret and Sarah