Keen Tea Thyme's shop - at Tea Trade!

I'm finally able to sell some of my teas online! YAY!

Thanks to Tea Trade, it's possible for lil ol' me - a non-tea company, just a teaist - to have her own shop. :)

Visit my shop here:
http://keenteathyme.teatra.de/store/products/

Pink Pearls is finally available for sale, and Summer Sunshine will be ready in a few weeks...

Got any questions? Just ask!

Special thanks to the folks at Tea Trade for making this possible. :) :)

Little Mew Brew - Tea for me and tea for you

logo used with permission/all rights reserved

Little Mew Brew, a new tea company, began as a beer label.

          No joke. Courtney Powers and her husband used the name for a label of their custom blended beer for their wedding, called “Nuptu-Ale.”

          Now she says, she’s keeping the name alive. The name actually honors the couple’s three cats who provide “help” to Courtney in brewing tea.

          By help, she means the cats hang out in the kitchen, looking for treats. :)

          She partnered with Frank @ 52teas.com – the innovative new-blend-every-week tea seller known for outstanding, but limited edition blends – to “Rescue from Retirement” three blends:  Cinnamon Raisin Toast, Pomegranate Green and Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish.

          This is the second partnership 52teas has launched with the “Rescued from Retirement” initiative. iHeartTeas.com “rescued” Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish and other favorites: http://keenteathyme.blogspot.com/2011/06/iheartteascom-rachel-carter-may-2011.html

          In fact, Courtney – also known in the online tea community as Wifey_Woman – first found out about the 52 Teas initiative through Rachel@ iHeartTeas. “I thought to myself, she’s really lucky to have gotten in on that!” But then Frank put out a call to other tea fans who may want to get involved. Courtney wrote him back, saying she’d love to get involved as long as her blends didn’t infringe on Rachel’s shop, which he assured her that her tea venture wouldn’t. So she launched Little Mew Brew’s rescued blends which are for sale now:  http://teatrade.tinypay.me/#q=user:s7rRc3RY

          “I’ve always wanted to go into business for myself,” Courtney explained. “I love tea and they said you should love what you do, right?” This is her first tea business venture, but Courtney is no stranger to business sense. She’s also an Avon Independent Sales Rep and holds down a full-time job to help pay the bills. But her dream is to sell tea full-time – and make a living at it. “I think selling tea is more in my blood unlike makeup,” Courtney joked.

          Not only is Little Mew Brew rescuing teas from retirement from 52Teas, she’ll also offer her own blends – eventually.

          Courtney is a recent convert to drinking tea – she used to drink coffee, at least 2-3 cups per day while she drank tea maybe once or twice a week. Due to health reasons, she was looking for a better option. For Lent she gave up coffee “cold turkey,” she said. Instead she opted for tea – and hasn’t looked back. She’s tried coffee drinks since the end of Lent, and hated the taste.

          The health benefits to tea are pretty awesome, Courtney said. While neither Courtney nor I are medical practitioners, no one can deny the amazing health benefits of tea: rich in antioxidants, helpful with digestive issues, and even increased energy. Courtney’s own experience speaks volumes as well. She used to suffer from many migraines and was on lots of medication to treat them. With the decrease in pain, she’s been able to stop taking migraine meds and just takes daily vitamins – a change her husband loves.

          With Little Mew Brew, Courtney hopes for success – so much that she could quit the full-time job and work from home selling tea and Avon. “I think there is a lot of potential for both businesses to take off,” she explained.

          But Little Mew Brew is also excited about the opportunities to meet fellow teaists. “I hope to gain new customers and friends as well as helpful advice from those in the business.”

Quick Notes:

          Little Mew Brew does ship internationally - to Canada and Europe, as well as within the United States.

Blog: http://littlemewbrew.teatra.de/

Tea Trade Co. Site: http://teatrade.tinypay.me/#q=user:s7rRc3RY

  

iHeartTeas.com - Rachel Carter, May 2011 CelebriTEA

CelebriTEA for May: Rachel Carter

iHeartTeas blog: http://www.myteasandmore.com/ or http://www.iheartteas.com

What is a CelebriTEA? This Keen Tea Thyme post features popular tea bloggers and their histories, passions, stories. Why? The online tea community is a vast resource of knowledge, tips, experiences – a place of conversation and sharing of passion.

Meet Rachel Carter: dedicated wife to Ralph (of 14 years!) and adoring mother to four-year-old Alexandria.

Lately, her plate has been chock full. Or should I say her tea cup runneth over? 

This tea enthusiast combines her passion for the world’s most popular beverage with her natural inclination to share knowledge and enjoy what brewing tea has to offer.

“I love my tea friends,” said Rachel. “It is great to read their blogs. Everyone has so much to share. I love reading and hearing about new teas, accessories, and what business someone is starting. I find our tea community is tightly knit like a family. We support each other.”

Rachel’s been blogging too here: http://myteasandmore.com/. This site, which is under a makeover to transform into iHeartTeas.com, offers her take on fave teas, new accessories and everything else tea. She reviews a variety of tea, anything she can get her hands on. Tea reviewing can be a subjective matter, but Rachel has a system. “I review teas based on flavor, accuracy based on description and tea type,” she explained. “I also consider the visual appearance of the leaves.”

Rachel doesn’t just blog, though. After joining Tea Trade – an online tea trading, selling, sampling Web site – Rachel decided to start selling teas in sample packs, under her new brand name, iHeartTeas. Check out her many products here: http://teatrade.tinypay.me/#q=user:ss0YORHB

Plans are underway to eventually create a company – maybe, Rachel said. “I’m working on it, but I want to take things slow. I want to do this right. I am glad I am in a position where I can do it right.”

Business is booming. She’s a hit at Tea Trade, and is grateful for the opportunity to belong to the site. “I will eventually have a site dedicated to my teas which at this point come from my personal stash. The idea is if you place an order you click on the item and are directed to Tea Trade. I don't want to forget my friends there. If it weren't for their support and of those associated I wouldn't have this success.”

Rachel, a stay-at-home mom, spends lots of time with her daughter – sampling teas and taking her to swim lessons and preschool. Little Alexandria has already shown a penchant for tea, like her mom. Rachel said her daughter helps her put together orders from Tea Trade and is developing a tea-tasting palate.

So what kinds of tea does Rachel (and Alexandria!) recommend? She lists the following teas as her go-to brews:

1. Milk Oolong - thepuriTea 
2. BenShan - Chicago Tea Garden 
3. Sweet Velvet Fog - Adagio signature blend by Rachel 
4. Genmaicha - Obubu Tea 
5. Matcha - DoMatcha 

With all these things to keep her busy, Rachel still finds time to enjoy other activities such as scrapbooking. In fact, she is a representative of Close to My Heart, an in-home scrapbooking company. “But honestly, I do that for myself,” she added.

She also loves to travel, enjoys sampling different wines and is a self-proclaimed “tech geek.” “I love my gadgets especially my iPad, I don't even have regular TV everything I do is streamed,” she said. And what TV shows would that be? SyFy channel mainstays: Warehouse 13, Star Gates, Battlestar Galleticas.

But what it comes down to for Rachel is that her love of tea is a permanent part of her life – always has been and always will be. Originally from India, Rachel said tea is like water in her home. “Tea runs through my veins and it always has been,” she said. “I love the constant discovery tea brings me. Every cup is a new adventure. It is a newly discovered treasure with every cup.”

Want to be featured on Keen Tea Thyme as a CelebriTEA? All you have to do is be a tea blogger and want to share your love of tea. E-mail me [at] keenteathyme@gmail.com for more info.

Check out my teas for sale on Tea Trade

In an effort to make room for more teas (specifically Read My Lips from David's Tea, it will be mine soon!) I am selling some of my teas on Tea Trade.

All of these teas were purchased by me; I didn't receive them in swaps. I just need to rebuild my tea budget for May so I can place an order with David's tea. Please help!

Oh and all orders from my store on Tea Trade get a FREE sample of either Vampire Lemonade or Toasted Marshmallow. You pick when you order - or I'll pick for you! :)

Here's a link for the items for sale:
http://teatrade.tinypay.me/#q=user:sMb5JE7l

Send me any questions! :)

Tea Trade - Give it a Chance

Tea Trade is now available for tea bloggers (fellow tea dorks like me), and those who want to buy and sell tea.

At first my friends and I were wary of the process. We enjoy tea swapping with tea enthusiasts on sites like steepster.com. Most of the time we just cover the cost of shipping to the person and have the philosophy that we'll "get the $ back" when the person returns the tea favor. Or we just enjoy swapping teas and sharing them.

Tea Trade offers a forum for people to actually sell tea that they have accumulated through regular purchases, gifts and swaps. Some steepster folks are signing up. I did as a test run - with the blog.

I am not a fan of Wordpress, which is the format used by Tea Trade. However some sites are able to be mirrored. (Like mine.) Others can be domain mapped, as Pete (founders) explained in a post. Leafbox is an example; it's hosted by Tea Trade but has its own domain. Pretty cool. Eventually I may do that with Keen Tea Thyme. Maybe.

Pete added in the comment that Tea Trade hopes to work with businesses too. That will be a bonus, maybe we can get samples, etc. Details are still under development. But they've got an awesome, informative FAQ page. 

So you can look at this a few ways:
-a Tea Yard Sale, in a way, where you can clear out unwanted teas
-a place to sell your own custom creations
-a place to find new teas
-a place to avoid, because you don't have an open mind. ;)

Give this place a chance. Let's see how Tea Trade will do. We'll check back with them in six months and see how the business is going.

Meanwhile, there are some rooibos tea I need to part with. Any takers?