What to look for when buying a tea pot

Quality tea, quality life!

Of course we always dress for tea!

"...I have never tasted tea like this. It is smooth, pungent, and instantly addicting...This is from Grand Auntie, my mother explains... she told me if I buy the cheap tea, then I am saying that my whole life has not been worth something better...If I buy just a little, then I am saying that my lifetime is almost over, so she bought enough tea for another lifetime."
The Kitchen God’s Wife
Amy Tan

When you purchase tea, do you buy, 'the good stuff' or whatever is on sale? Sales are a good thing, don't get me wrong, but a quality tea lasts longer and of course tastes better than a $3.00 box of tea bags you get at the grocery store. Loose leaf, with its larger, rolled leaves is not an extravagance, but a necessity for any tea drinker if you want to get the best tea experience possible from each cup. Whole leaf tea as less surface space from which the essential oils in the leaf may evaporate while the leaves in bags are cuttings and dust which can dry out faster than whole leaf tea creating a stale and tasteless tea. Stale tea is especially problematic if you are buying tea bags in boxes that do not seal properly. Exposure to air destroys the quality of tea because it dries out the leaf. Those essential oils in tea are so very important to a good, quality tea experience. Save the sales and coupons for your soap and non-perishables and use the money you save to purchase quality teas such as those sold buy MJB Teas. Your tea arrives sealed in a tin to keep out moisture, light and air. The three enemies of tea. Go ahead, buy enough MJB Teas for another life time. Show yourself you deserve a long life filled with quality.

Paper vs. ceramic it's a green thing

You turn out the lights when you leave a room. You participate in the annual, sit-in-in-the-dark-for-the-environment-day. You reuse your shower water to water your lawn and make sure your soaps are phosphate free. Then, you hop in your electric car, head to the local coffee shop and spend $2.00 or more dollars for tea in a paper cup.

We Americans need to get over our addiction to this kind of over priced convenience. Buying loose leaf tea to brew at home, then take  with us in travel cups, makes so much more sense than heading out to buy over priced hot drinks in throw away cups.
In many parts of the nation, gas is over $3.00 a gallon and quickly headed toward more than $5.00 a gallon. Why waste gas and paper to get a drink you can easily make at home? By the time you add up the cost of fuel the cost of the paper cup (paper tea bag if used) and the years it takes for that cup to break down in a landfill, brewing your own tea at home makes more and more sense. Also, brewing your own tea at home gives you an opportunity (and excuse if needed) to stop for a moment in your hectic day and relax while the water is heating and the leaves are steeping. Miss meeting your friends at the coffee house? Invite them over to your place, along with some neighbors, and build community within your neighborhood. You do not have to spend tons of money to accomplish this change in your life. Brewing tea at home saves money in gas, the price of the cup of tea, wear and tear on your vehicle, keeps you safer since you are not on the road as often with those other crazy drivers.

Whether you take your tea to-go in a travel mug or enjoy it at home in your ceramic mug or porcelain cup and saucer, brewing loose leaf tea at home is the next logical step in, 'going green'. Brewing your tea at home using MJB Teas can potentially save you a dollar or more per cup. What would you do with an extra $2000.00 per year? The average hot beverage drinker, at a conservative estimate of 3 drinks per day, can spend over 2k a year to indulge in this habit. Why not start saving money today with a purchase of one of our fine teas? 40 Wall Street Blend is a great tea blended with ETPSri Lanka teas that come together in a  creamy blend of maple and honey notes with just a hint of delicious chocolate notes. It is time to mature our spending and hot beverage habits to include a good, long look at where our money is going and the impact our spending is having on the world around us. MJB Teas is a great place to start making such positive changes.

How much is too much when it comes to tea?

6, 14 & 30 oz tins

We here at MJB Teas believe you can never have too much tea which is why we sell our teas in larger canisters than our competitors. Usually, tea comes in a standard 4oz or 8 oz tin. Our teas, however, are offered in three generous sizes: 6 oz for the 'more than occasional tea drinker', 14 oz for the 'prolific tea drinker', and a very generous 30 oz tin for those who just cannot get enough of a good thing!
Our 30 ounce tin can get you through the deepest, darkest of winters with enough tea for you and a couple friends.
It has been a bit slow getting the website going, however, we have many more teas than what are listed.Estate teas: flavored black teas, oolong, white, green & yellow teas as well.
Ask, and you shall receive.

Tea words

The first cup moistens my lips...
The second cup breaks my loneliness
The third cup searches my barren entrail
The fourth cup raises a slight persperation
The fifth cup purifies me
The sixth cup calls me to the realm of the immortals
The seventh...I can take no more!

Ancient Chinese poem.

Green tea and weight loss

If you have been guzzling green tea as part of a New Year's resolution to lose weight, I have good news, and some not so good news for you. The good news is that drinking green tea is a healthy habit to start and maintain.

Green Tea's Powerful Antioxidants

Green tea's antioxidants, called catechins, scavenge for free radicals that can damage DNA and contribute to cancer, blood clots, and atherosclerosis. Grapes and berries, red wine, and dark chocolate also have potent antioxidants.
Because of green tea's minimal processing -- its leaves are withered and steamed, not fermented like black and oolong teas -- green tea's unique catechins, especially epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), are more concentrated. Quote taken from WEBMD.

American mug in back.

Drinking 6-8 cups of green tea (Chinese sized cups (they are much smaller) which would be about equal to 3-4 American size mugs of tea.) is how much tea you would need to consume to reap the health benefits.
So the bad news about drinking green tea. While tea is good for aiding in digestion after heavy meals, green tea does not help you lose weight. Sure, it contains caffeine which does raise your metabolism, but you cannot eat a diet heavy in fatty and fried foods and think that green tea will come to the rescue and miraculously you will not gain an ounce. Green tea should be drunk as an additive to an already healthy diet and lifestyle; like drinking 8-8oz glasses of water everyday. It's 'I drink green tea in addition to working out, getting enough sleep and eating a healthy diet', not 'I drink green tea, sit on the couch all day watching soap operas eating potato chips and oh, by the way, why haven't I lost any weight?'.
Green tea is not a magic weight loss 'pill' even if it is being hocked in the form of capsules. As I read on twitter the other day; 'the only tea that helps you lose weight, is the 't' in treadmill. It boils down to this, dear readers and tea lovers, in order to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle, you will need to eat healthy foods and exercise everyday. Don't forget to relax with a cup of tea now and again because; green, white, black or oolong, tea is a daily luxury from which we could all benefit.

Thinking ahead to Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is coming...fast. Instead of the usual roses and chocolates as gifts, why  not try combining them in our newest tea blend, Wild at Heart? A delicious blend of chocolate, orange, spice and scented with rose petals, our Wild at Heart blend gets straight to the heart of the matter; passion. More specifically, passion for tea and love. Rev up your love life and make this Valentine's Day unforgettable with; Wild at Heart.