June 30, 2006: 11:49 am

Time for a Tea update!

The last few updates have involved art, now it's time for some tea time updates! July is right around the corner -- OK... it's tomorrow! July's tea of the month is Strawberry. This is a flavored black tea with a sweet and subtle touch of sun-ripened strawberries! Nothing says "summer" quite like strawberries! Some of my favorite childhood summertime memories involve strawberries, like my gramma's delicious strawberry shortcake, and visiting the strawberry fields for freshly picked strawberries! Yum! (NOTE: I'll be moving the strawberry tea over to the 'tea of the month' category tomorrow)

I love my strawberry blend because the flavor is delicate, and allows the flavor of the black tea to shine through. Most of the fruit flavored teas that I've tried have masked the flavor of the black tea rather than celebrated it! Being a tea lover through and through, I found this practice to be disappointing. My strawberry blend is one of my favorite iced tea flavors too! It's very refreshing served chilled!

Speaking of berries, I believe that I spoke recently of a new berry blend on the horizon. That's still in the works. I'm still trying to perfect the recipe, and I've not come up with a balance that pleases me. But, I'm still working at it!

Other tea news: I'm taking my Chocolate Rose Romance down from my website (temporarily!) because during my 'tea blending playtime' I've found a way to improve the flavor! So, I've blended up a full batch of the NEW and IMPROVED Chocolate Rose Romance. It will be available after July 15th. The new flavor brings a richer flavor... a true dessert tea! Sinful chocolate flavor without the fat and calories!

I've developed a very timely herbal blend! I suffer from horrendous allergies this time of the year, and they really drag me down! Some days they're so dreadful that I can barely function! I used to take benadryl, and while it does help knock the symptoms out, it also knocks ME out... for a good 24 hours, I'm in a fuzzy haze! I've had no real success with any of the over the counter options, so I turned to a herbal approach. I've come up with a blend that I'm really pleased with, and it helps with the symptoms, and allows me to keep alert!

Well, that's all for this update. Thanks for reading along!
~Anne