"tea bags" news and stories

Have limited time or fridge space but love iced tea? Brew up some iced tea essence.

We've been seeing a lot of stories lately about art made from recycled packaging. We've also seen a few posts about food art and a lot about tea.
In this yesterday's New York Times, I found an article to tie them all together.

Oh how I love my tea, but this group of artists in Capetown, South Africa would rather have the tea bags, thank you. The group, called Original T-bag Designs, collects used tea bags, which turn dry and brown. The artists can then paint them and turn them into any number of things from coasters and magnets to original artwork.

The artists group does well enough selling the magnets and such. Their real hope, though, is to put together a traveling show of artwork similar to the traveling quilts from Gees Bend, Alabama. I wish them the best of luck. And if you want to donate tea bags, you can go to the website for contact information.

Hey, it's always National Tea Month is my house.

This is a good opportunity to update everyone on my tea infuser search. I've switched from store bought tea bags to loose tea, and my first purchase was this Tovolo tea infuser. It works great (and looks funky, a nice bonus). I also bought the Melitta tea filters, which are something I didn't even know existed until recently. My local supermarkets didn't have them, but I found them at Borders. They're like big tea bags, but you can put as much loose tea in as you want, and they make a fine cup of tea (I wanted to say "fine cup of Joe" there, but that's coffee - does tea have a slang term that's a name too?).

Tell me in the comments how you make your tea (tea bag, infuser, etc) and what brands of tea you always come back to. For me, it's been Twinings.

A lot of you gave me some tips for trying to find great-tasting teas that would help me cut down on my daily sugar intake. Thanks again. I took everyone's advice and went on a little tea shopping spree this weekend, and here's what I bought and how they taste.

I went with reader advice and bought two different kinds of Good Earth: Original and Vanilla Chai. Both are nice. The original has a strong cinnamon taste, and while the chai has a strong vanilla flavor and aroma to it, it also has a lot of cinnamon and other spices. But they both taste good. I've had some cinnamon-flavored teas that, well, just tasted like someone took 30 or 40 sticks of Big Red gum and boiled them. These taste really great. I also bought a variety pack of Celestial Seasonings. I've had some flavors of this brand in that past I wasn't too thrilled with, but it's a good tea to keep on hand. I'm going to buy some other brands too and see how they are.

And the best news? With these teas I've cut down from 4-5 packets of sugar to only 1 or 2! Most excellent.

The Chicago Sun Times managed to get ahold of some of the first samples of a new line of products from Snapple. After dominating the iced tea market with their teas flavored with real juices, Snapple is releasing a line of tea bags. The tea bags will be available in four flavors, Le-mmm-on, Wild 'Bout Berries, Orange-Inality and Strawberry, all of which are flavored with real fruits and natural juices. Le-mmm-on is, predictably, lemon flavored black tea, while the Orange-Inality is an herbal tea infused with orange and a hint of lychee. These teas may already be available in your area, but if you have not seen them yet, it is likely that they will be on shelves soon.

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