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. :) :)

Back-to-school Jitters

Teazanne (Maryann) sent in the winning entry for the September 2011 Monthly Contest at Keen Tea Thyme and scored two pouches of free tea - Toasted Marshmallow and Autumn's Walk.

Her winning entry is below:

I always loved back-to-school time as a kid, shopping for school supplies (and new clothes!) and getting set for a new school year. It's no surprise, then, that I opted to become a teacher when I grew up. After earning a Masters in Early Childhood Education, I taught kindergarten for several years. I enjoyed the kids, and let's face it, kindergarten is pretty fun! But I decided to expand my horizon and teach "older" kids - fifth grade. I went back to college for a few "refresher" classes on teaching, and while I didn't earn another degree, I did feel confident I would be a terrific fifth grade teacher.

I made sure I had fresh supplies - lots of construction paper, stickers, posters, glue, crayons...and then I panicked. What was I doing?! Fifth graders are nothing like kindergarteners! I didn't even know how to dress; normally I wore pants and a shirt that I wouldn't mind getting fingerpaint on, or construction paper stuck to. But what to wear for the older kids? I opted for a nice pair of khakis and a button-down shirt - so I still looked like a "fun" teacher, but also one with authority.

The first kids started walking in and sitting down. "We have assigned seats? Man!" They said. I thought quickly, what's the harm? I could take away the name tags...but I stopped myself. I was a their teacher and I wanted assigned seats until I learned their names. I could do that. I was their teacher.

The rest of the class filed in, and once the bell rang I said hello to my new students and introduced myself. "I'm new to fifth grade, just like you guys, so let's take some time to introduce ourselves." I learned about summer vacations, family pets, favorite sports teams and players, and what these - no, my - fifth graders liked to do for fun.

We laughed. We learned. (Hopefully!) My students learned about new experiences; I sure did.

Now I've taught fifth grade for almost a decade and I can't believe I was ever scared. Don't let my students know that! :) I just calmly brew a pot of tea in the morning and carry on.

The Buzz...

What's the buzz about this month? Well, glad you asked because September is National Honey Month!

How sweet, eh? (Sorry but you know me and my puns.)

Honey is a favorite sweetener in many recipes, including tea and especially when there is a sore throat involved. I remember drinking a cup of chamomile tea with honey. Yum! I never stirred the honey in - being the sugar freak I am - so that last gulp was a satisfying sugar rush...that, now that I think about it, probably counter-acted any sleep-inducing qualities of the cold meds I was taking. (Sorry Mom/Dad.)

Did you know that there is a honey tea as well? Culinary Teas - home of many of my favorite teas, including Cinnamon and their to-die-for Long Island Strawberry Sencha - offers a Honey Tea. It tastes just as sweet as plain black tea with a dollop of honey. You can add sweetener if you want, but for those of us - again, sugar freak, right here - who love the taste of honey, that's good enough for me.

They also offer a Raspberry Honey Tea and a Chamomile Honey Tea which I have not yet tried. Guess I'll have to place another order! Oh darn. ;)

Get even more in the spirit of National Honey Month by trying Strawberry Honey Lip Balms and soaps from my new favorite soap and sundries shop: SCENTSational Soaps! (Check out the story first, and then head over to their shop to try out their products. 100% wonderful!)

So what about you, dear readers? How will you celebrate National Honey Month? Got a favorite tea to add honey to, or a favorite honey-flavored tea?

Any tea & honey recipes you'd like to share as well?

Happy Buzzing...I mean Brewing! :)

A SCENTSational product with a SCENTSational cause

Sarah Torrance and her son, Chad, at a crafts show selling their SCENTSational Soaps and Skincare products

SCENTSational Soaps: A SCENTSational product with a SCENTSational cause

What began as a therapeutic bonding experience between mother and son has become a successful handmade soap and beauty products company called SCENTSational Soaps.

 
Sarah Torrance, owner of the Florida-based business, started making the soaps as part of her son’s homeschooling projects. “It all started as a hands-on homeschool project for my special needs son, Chad,” Sarah explained.

 
“Chad also has eczema and in finding that commercial soaps only made his eczema worse, we thought that making glycerin soaps together without any sulfates, phthalates, parabens, etc. would be beneficial to his skin,” Sarah said, adding that the soaps did help ease his eczema. 

   
Before long she and her son were crafting the soaps together, giving them out as presents to friends and family, and then attending craft shows. “We had so much fun making soaps together that we started doing craft shows and giving away a lot of our soaps to family and friends,” Sarah added.

 
By October 2007 the company was born and Sarah and Chad started making other beauty products, such as body butters , lip balms, and bath salts. SCENTSational Soaps was even approached by a local bed-and-breakfast, the Stanford Inn, to make an exclusive soap for them.

 
“We thought that making a tea-infused soap would be a great soap to make.  We used their [the Stanford Inn’s] strawberry signature blend tea,” Sarah said. “We also made them a strawberry honey lip balm, and strawberry honey lip exfoliator. We also added this to our lip balms for sweetness and into our soap for extra healing properties.  We use the strawberry tea infused honey in our Strawberry Honey Whipped Parfait Soap.”

 
(I sampled both the Strawberry Honey lip balm and the Strawberry Honey soap and they smell delicious and work wonders. The lip balm is some of the best I’ve tried, and I’m a nut for lip balms!)

 
All of the products SCENTSational Soaps offers are handmade, with organic, natural ingredients – including tea! “Using tea in our products gives them extra added natural ingredients that are beneficial to the skin,” Sarah explained. “Strawberries are rich in alpha hydroxyl acid and helps clear acne and reduce oil.  Green Tea reduces inflammations in the skin and promotes collagen and maintains a firm and elastic skin.”

 
SCENTSational Soaps offers a green tea body butter – which uses green tea extract. Sarah said the body butter is a favorite of hers and Chad’s, as well as their customers. But along with the Strawberry Honey tea-infused soap, the green tea body butter isn’t the only tea-infused product SCENTSational offers.

 
“We make a Beauty Bar that has Rooibos Tea in it, and our body butters have Japanese Green Tea Extract in them,” Sarah said.”We have a Green Tea deodorant, Chai Tea Soap, Midnight Safari soap is made using Black Tea.”

 
(I sampled the Chai Tea Soap as well and it’s officially a beauty supply staple!)

 
Sarah’s a tea drinker, and looked to add tea to her products for their numerous health benefits. “We decide to use certain teas in certain products because of its uses and benefits on the skin.  For example, our Beauty Bar has African Red Tea in it because it is very soothing to the skin, making it an excellent soap for the face.”
 

She added that her company is always looking to incorporate more tea ingredients in their products.
 

In fact, within the next few weeks there will be a new soap for sale: Cranberry Apple Tea. Sarah explained that this favorite scent of fall has tea-infused honey and bits of ground tea for exfoliation. (I added this one to my wish list today!)

 
SCENTSational Soaps also has a charitable heart. “We make a BELIEVE soap bar in Lavender and Blueberry.  BELIEVE is the word that IDEAS (Isodcentric 15, exchange, advocacy and support) uses as their logo,” Sarah said.

 
Why this organization? Because it helps benefit children like her son, Chad, who have Chromosome 15q duplication syndrome, which is a developmentally-disabling disease. Some children who suffer from Chromosome 15q duplication syndrome have symptoms of autism, while others may have varying levels of mental retardation. “We decided to make a BELIEVE soap bar to represent the mind set of all parents with disabled children, to "BELIEVE" in what is possible and "BELIEVE" in a positive future.”

 
For every soap bar sold, SCENTSational donates $1 to IDEAS to further research.

 
Many of their soaps are $5 and right now there is a special sale, three for $12 on all six ounce soaps. 
“IDEAS sends us a letter each month thanking us for the donations,” Sarah explained proudly. “We have put this letter up on our youtube channel:  SCENTSationalSoaps1.  You can see Chad and I making soaps together.” 

SCENTSational Soaps doesn’t limit themselves to just one charity, though. “We make gift baskets to give away to a charity. We recently made one for our local Warrior Walk.  We also gave money to American Red Cross to the communities affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific,” Sarah added.

But best of all, her soap company helps her bond with her son.

 
“Chad and I enjoy making soaps together, it is very therapeutic for us both and our business together teaches Chad money skills, social skills,” Sarah said, explaining that while Chad is 17 he is global-developmentally delayed. He is homeschooled and being taught second grade work, and has progressed well in reaching many of his goals. He receives Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy outside the home to help him in his needs. 

“Chad is a happy and loving young man,” mom Sarah said. “We are very proud of Chad.”

Quick notes
Web site: http://scentsationalsoapsskincare.com
Twitter: ssoapsskincare
Facebook: SCENTSational Soaps
Blog URL: http://scentsationalsoapsskincare.blogspot.com/
YouTube Channel: SCENTSationalSoaps1

Strawberry Honey Lip Balm

Strawberry Honey Whipped Parfait Soap

 Photos are copyrighted by Sarah Torrance/SCENTSational Soaps. Used with permission.