January: National Hot Tea Month. Hooray???

Posted on January 16, 2013 by naomi

Drink hot tea. Lots of it. Especially in January.

It’s January, so welcome to hot tea month! What a relief to be able to drink hot tea during this one month of the year, right?!

We jest, of course. While January is, in fact, National Hot Tea Month, we wondered what that really means. At two leaves tea company™, it’s understandable that we (and most of our fans) drink hot tea year-round. We’d go so far as to say we celebrate hot tea year round. We love the stuff. We sell it, we drink it all day, sometimes we cook with it, and we’d bathe in it if we didn’t think that was wasteful. (That seems wasteful. Doesn’t it? Someone convince us otherwise so we can try that sometime. Bathing in a good strong tub of Organic Assam probably results in a nice tan, wouldn’t you think?)

Who makes up this commemorative month stuff? A glance on Wikipedia told us that January is also National Volunteer Blood Donor Month, National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, National Glaucoma Awareness Month, National Thyroid Awareness Month, National Financial Wellness Month, National Poverty in America Awareness Month, and National Stalking Awareness Month. Reading that list of everything we’re supposed to be aware of this month made us thirsty for … a (National) cup of hot tea. Good thing National Hug Day is Jan. 21. (Don’t even get us started on the national commemorative days.)

Shouldn’t National Hot Tea Month go hand in hand with National Scone Month? (Get this: I just Googled and found that there is no National Scone Month, but January IS National Oatmeal Month, which lends itself to this recipe for Triple Berry Oatmeal Scones! The Internet is amazing.)

Furthermore, is there a National Tepid Tea Month? Naturally, June is National Iced Tea Month, so there’s one mystery solved. If two leaves tea company™ were naming commemorative months, we might name a Get Out of Your Rut and Try a New Tea Month, or Increase Your Mental Flexibility by Sipping Your Tea While Using your Non-Dominant Hand to Hoist Your Mug Month. (Yes, our commemorative months are wordy, but we like them that way.)

And when it comes to other months our staffers might like to see, Marketing Coordinator Christy Garfield would like a National Cheese Month, and my preferred month would be National Put Your Kids to Bed an Hour Early Month. We’ve decided that two leaves™ CEO/Founder Richard Rosenfeld needs to declare December National Cassoulet Month, because he spends several days of that month at home making this rich, slow-cooked casserole during the holiday season.

So, until our wishes come true, we wish you a happy National Hot Tea Month. We hope you celebrate all year long, every single day. (What kind of tea company would we be if we only wanted you to drink hot tea in January and on ice in June, anyway?)  Chime in with your own suggested months, tea-related or otherwise …

Posted in Tea Education, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Delightfully random happy “labbits”

Posted on October 31, 2012 by naomi

Richard Rosenfled, two leaves’ CEO/Founder, has always been into saying “Rabbit, Rabbit” on the first day of the month for good luck (read this blog to hear the story behind that) and recently introduced us to something else he’s into: tiny rabbit figurines made out of vinyl, called “Happy Labbits.”

Our new Happy Labbits!

Apparently, he found them in a shop during a trip to Seattle, and it’s my theory that the part of him that loved Hello Kitty the first time he saw those cute figurines years ago decided that yes, a grown man can buy a couple of “Happy Labbits” and still keep his dignity in tact. Especially since while these tiny rabbits appear childishly adorable, they also come with sometimes adult accents, whether that be a mustache and an anchor tattoo, or eating a carrot while wearing boxer shorts. “Happy Labbits” come in blind boxes, meaning you never know which design you’re going to unwrap when you buy them, but Richard bought two and ended up with one that has an ice cream cone stuck to its face, and one that appears to be eating a bone.

A little research into “Happy Labbits” reveals this: they were designed and created by American graphic artist Frank Kozik, who is best known for his posters for rock stars like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The White Stripes, and The Beastie Boys. The history of Labbits themselves, according to Kozik’s website, starts with the artist sketching a bunny like it in the mid-’90s, and eventually that bunny design appearing on merchandise for the artist’s own record label, Man’s Ruin Records. In 2000 Kozik agreed to produce the rabbit as a toy with a Tokyo toy company. While Kozik called it the “Smokin’ Rabbit” character, the Japanese toy company had a bit of a language barrier and referred to the figurines as “Smorkin’ Labbit.” Kozik decided to change the character’s name as such, and since 2003 has been teaming with boutique toy company Kidrobot to  produce “Labbits” in many different shapes and sizes. (Also according to Kozik’s website, labbits are addicted to candy cigarettes and beef jerky, and are allergic to work in any form.)

Labbits found in a store window in Avignon, France, where Richard is currently visiting. French labbits smoke, of course.

Richard may buy an assorted case of these mini “Happy Labbits” so we can include them in all of our monthly “Richard Rosenfeld’s Rabbit Rabbit” sale photos … if that happens you’ll see more “Happy Labbits” in our photos, and we wanted you to know why. Stay tuned …

Posted in News from two leaves tea company, Products from two leaves and a bud, Tea Gifts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The big reveal: Check out our new packaging!

Posted on October 10, 2012 by naomi

Weeks ago we introduced you to our new shorter name, “two leaves tea company.” And as we mentioned to you in a blog post, the new name would of course come hand in hand with a new logo AND brand new packaging.

So … here it is!

Presenting our new packaging!

Of course, the biggest difference with this box is how it looks — we’ve got 18 brightly colored boxes featuring our new logo (that is, our shorter name), one photo on the front to show you what’s in the sachets in that box, and text on the other side that succinctly tells you our mission as a tea company.

But maybe you want a few more “new” details, so here they are:

Our boxes won’t be shrink wrapped anymore. Instead, as well as the perforation on the front of the box that helps you reach in and snag one sachet at a time, there’s a tear-strip on the top of the box, so you can whip the whole thing open in a hurry. *Bonus: If you do use the tear strip, on some inside flaps you’ll find fun facts about the tea inside! Like a little hidden note from us to you.

The redesign also included putting the name of the specific variety of tea on the box horizontally, so that you no longer have to tilt your head to the side to read what’s in the box. And that horizontal name on the stripe is uniform on all the new boxes. It’s so easy to read!

We’ve re-sized the individual sachet sleeves inside the box, so now they’re 20 percent smaller. Here’s a photo of some of those newly designed sleeves:

New, stylish sleeves to go with our new boxes.

Many things about our boxes are the same. For example, we’re still giving you specific information about where each variety of tea (herbal or not) is grown, how much caffeine each sachet contains, and our preferred brewing temperature for that tea. We pride ourselves on being a tea company that brings you the best organic teas we can find from around the world, and then educating you on what makes them special and delicious.

You can still read a bit about our company on the box, such as the importance we place in delivering real whole leaf tea to you, how our pyramid shaped sachets are compostable, and how the clear sleeves on the inside are made to decompose. We’ve got a couple of beautiful photos from tea gardens on the box, and a bit more about our company and how we love to live in Colorado on the bottom of the box.

Writing all this out, it’s easy to wonder how a wordy person like me managed to cull down everything we could possibly convey about two leaves tea company™ onto just one box. And let me assure you, it took hours of crafting, weeks of revisions and fine tuning, and several meetings about “tone,” “brand messaging,” and “talking points.”

When really, you know what our marketing team just needs to convey to you, dear tea drinker and two leaves fan? It’s this:

Hey! New box! Pretty! Same great tea! Cheers!

Once you see the new boxes on store shelves, we hope you’ll look forward to cracking it open, steeping a cuppa’ and reading the sides. And please tell us, what do you think?

Posted in News from two leaves tea company, Products from two leaves and a bud, Tea Education | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Turning Alpine Berry into summertime awesomeness (we’re calling it Deb’s Alpine Berry Sangria)

Posted on August 3, 2012 by naomi

Introducing Deb’s Alpine Berry Sangria!

We are a very small family here at two leaves tea company — very small. Perhaps you didn’t know that on a day when our office is considered very full in Basalt, Colo., that means seven people are at work. Seven!

So word travels fast when just about anything happens. The other day, I was seeking more recipes for a fruity iced tea drink when our lovely customer care representative and graphic girl, Lindsay, chimes in. It seems her boyfriend’s mother takes our  Alpine Berry herbal tea and “doctors it up” into a fruit bomb of an iced tea drink. “GET ME THAT RECIPE!” I barked at Lindsay. (Not really. I asked her to e-mail me.)

Here’s where I have to pause to ask you: How do you feel about winging it? I wing lots of things in my life. Writing this blog, accessorizing, raising my children. I do not wing cooking, almost ever. I’m a crazy recipe follower. I believe that if I’m not following a recipe, it’s probably not going to taste great. Or good.

So the e-mail I received from Lindsay with her boyfriend’s mother’s recipe for her magical Alpine Berry Iced Tea made me panic a little – I’m not going to lie. Here’s how it read (as written by Lindsay, after asking Deb Knight):

“She has an iced tea maker, so she just pops the 1 oz. Filter Bag into it and lets it brew.

Meanwhile, she packs (I mean packs to the brim) a pitcher full of ice, sugar and the fruit. She squeezes two to three lemons and one to two oranges into the pitcher, then cuts the lemons and the orange and throws them into the pitcher. Occasionally she will also toss in some raspberries and strawberries to change it up from time to time.

Then she adds the hot fresh brewed iced tea to the pitcher and serves!”

I know why you think I’m crazy — it’s because this recipe is not that difficult. But like some people who are reading this blog, I do not own an iced tea maker, therefore I use sachets of Alpine Berry to make the tea, rather than our 1 oz filter bag. What am I supposed to do about that? I took a deep breath and gave it some thought.

“It’s tea, not rocket science,” I said to myself after several minutes. “If you’ve learned anything by making a bunch of fruity iced tea drinks this summer, it’s that tea plus fruit plus ice equals yum, and it’s hard to mess up. Get a grip.”

So, I made a single serving (I wasn’t going to subject anyone else to a possibly failed experiment). I used two sachets of Alpine Berry in one mug to make extra-strong herbal tea, because I knew I’d be diluting it with ice. I surveyed the fruit I had in my kitchen, and ended up putting two slices of orange, a slice of lemon and cut up strawberries in a glass, taking a fork and mashing the heck out of them in a pint glass. (I don’t own a tiny baseball bat with which to “muddle” things. If you do, you qualify as a mixologist in my eyes.)

I then filled that glass up with ice, dumped my super strong brewed Alpine Berry  herbal tea in there, put in a spoonful of sugar, stirred the heck out of that baby and took a sip.

And oh man, it was good. The typical berry zip of Alpine Berry, with an extra citrus twinge from the lemon and orange, and a juicy strawberry on the side.

So I’m here to tell you to wing it. Wing it! Try Deb’s Alpine Berry Sangria, as I named it moments later while sitting on my front deck with my feet up, marveling at the ruby red drink in my hand. (And if you want to make it a more true sangria with some triple sec, wine or vodka or something, I salute you. Lesson of the blog post: Wing it!)

Cheers to summer and not-your-average iced tea. And thanks to Deb Knight for sharing your creation! Check out the other recipes we’ve posted this summer:

Blueberry Mint Iced Tea

Watermelon Green Iced Tea

Orange-Lemon-Lime Tea-ade

Have any of you ever doctored up some of our tea, and gotten delicious results?

Posted in Herbal Tea, Iced Tea, Recipes with Tea | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Rabbit Rabbit, White Rabbit, Rabbit-Rabbit-Rabbit

Posted on July 31, 2012 by naomi

You know how words start looking funny the more you stare at them? That’s how I feel about the title of this blog post.

Rabbit, rabbit! (Also, awwwwww.)

I think we can all agree that superstitions are strange things. They seem so arbitrary, and yet to the person practicing them, they can take on a life of their own. And I’m not just talking about ardent baseball players who never change their socks during a winning streak. Years ago I worked in a newsroom with a reporter who charged in on the first day of a month, pronounced, “Rabbit Rabbit!” and then sat down at his computer and got to work. Naturally, the first time this happened I wanted to know what was up, and he told me he’d always heard that if the words “Rabbit Rabbit” are the first words out of your mouth at the beginning of the first day of each month, it was supposed to bring you good luck. But much as I try to remember this on the eve of a new month, this superstition has never stuck with me. I figure as long as I don’t stub my toe on the way out of bed and utter something like, “son of a …” first thing on the morning of a new month, I’ll be okay. (Swearing to welcome in a new month just seems like asking for bad luck, doesn’t it? Remember what I said about superstitions seeming arbitrary?)

But bringing us back to this here tea company …  when I started working here, Richard sent out an e-mail on the first of a month that began with the words, “Rabbit Rabbit, everyone!” Richard told me the same thing that reporter did — it’s supposed to be good luck. I stifled the urge to roll my eyes (he is my boss, after all), and started to wonder how I had lived 30 years without hearing anything about this superstition. So I did what anyone would do … I Googled.

Ah, Wikipedia. The place where average Joes get to put “facts” online and the rest of us pretend they really are facts. I found this post which (along with showing me a photo of the fluffiest white rabbit I’ve ever seen) taught me this superstition includes saying “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit,” “Rabbits,” “Rabbit,” or “White Rabbit; ” is probably British in origin (but who really knows); and you could also say “Brown Rabbit” while walking down the stairs backwards at night (which just sounds dangerous to me, and most likely result in a trip to the emergency room. And that’s just bad luck, isn’t it?).

I’ll let Richard and everyone else have this superstition, and hope it works out for the best. In the meantime, the marketing department here at two leaves tea co. is always on a quest to find a way to turn this company’s quirks into assets. So …

Introducing Richard Rosenfeld’s Rabbit Rabbit! It’s a sale at the beginning of each month on the item that Richard is currently excited about. If you’re one of the people signed up for our e-mail list (known as T-mail), on the first of each month we’ll send you the R4 sale announcement, inviting you to learn a little more about the tea/product that’s on sale, and get a good deal on it in the process. If you’d like to sign up for T-mail, visit our homepage and look for the link at the top that says “Sign up & save 10%.”

We’re looking forward to reminding you about this superstition on the first of every month. (Have any of you heard of “Rabbit Rabbit”, or have your own version? Tell us in the comments!)

Rabbit Rabbit!

Posted in News from two leaves tea company | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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