Back-To-School Season Calls for Tea Time

Back-To-School Season Calls for Tea Time

By late-July, it sometimes seems like summer’s swaddle of flowers, green grass and vacations will last forever. And then it’s mid-August, and — snap! — families are back shopping for notebooks and pencils, college students begin filing into dorms and parents exhale.

Back to school doesn’t meant the end of summer — the official date this year is September 22. But it does interrupt the spell the warm season casts over us, and reminds us that chilly mornings and gold leaves are drawing near.

Here in Boulder, students now are striding across the University of Colorado campus en masse again, and getting ready for the beginning of classes next week. And everybody from 6-year-old first graders to teenage seniors have returned to Boulder Valley School District classrooms.

For us, this annual reunion with structure and routine involves — you guessed it — tea. We urge some kinds of teas on frazzled parents. Younger children love our fruit teas, and we recommend different styles for their breakfasts and lunch thermoses. College students need energy and focus, and Ku Cha offers a huge assortment for them: all of our traditional teas made from Camellia sinensis are wonderful scholarly companions. But we know they also appreciate presents, and in this back-to-school guide we suggest a gift certain to awaken their minds and pique their interest in traditional Chinese tea.

Summer remains, but school is in session again. Welcome back, students! And parents, we salute your commitment to the little (as well as the full-grown) ones across the summer. 


Here to help parents, one sip at a time

It’s time to get those packs onto backs, and send them back into the world of desks and blackboards. These teas are for you, mom and dad.

On the one hand, we associate summer with a slackening of demands — with swinging in a hammock, hanging out beside a mountain lake, and losing ourselves to a good book on a Tuesday afternoon. But as parents understand (us included!), no school often interferes with even the best-laid plans. Camps mean shuttling kids back and forth. No camps means play dates (more shuttling), or just tending to them while they slurp on popsicles. 

Summer can exhaust the most energetic parents among us.

Now that the kids are back at their desks, it’s time to bring on the decompression. 


Back-To-School Teas for Parents: CHA Relax

Consider our CHA Relax. It will help liberate those much-needed exhales from deep within the diaphragm. 

We developed this custom tea in partnership with the University of Colorado’s Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA). The Center aims to broadcast CU’s superb achievements in these realms, and we are honored to support it. We also get a kick out of the Center’s acronym, CHA, which means “tea” in Chinese.

This caffeine-free blend contains a variety of herbs well-known for their restorative powers. Rooibos, the tea’s spine, is a South African shrub commonly brewed across the country (and around the world) to provide sustenance and comfort. Among other things, the shrub contains a wealth of electrolytes, which are minerals and compounds that balance pH levels, and help control the body’s balance of fluids. Athletes leverage rooibos to help maintain proper hydration. For tired back-to-school parents during these 90-something degree days (which now seem to persist well into September), rooibos is welcome. 

This tea’s excellence, however, extends far beyond rooibos. It includes leaves from ginkgo, ancient trees originally from China. Researchers look towards ginkgo leaves for helping to improve mental faculties. The chamomile in the blend gets leveraged by cultures around the world to bring about restfulness and calm. CHA Relax includes elder flower, which among other things may help boost immunity and along with ginkgo improves blood circulation. Finally, spearmint makes the already tasty tea even more scrumptious.

Back-to-School Teas for Parents: Cloud Chaser

The summer was packed with fun and long-lasting family memories. As parents return to routine, their busy brains might feel a bit cloudy and cluttered — understandable after so much activity. The end of summer pleasures, too, can spark hints of depression and usher in anxiety. Once the season ends, many of us press our noses firmly to grindstones and work, work, work until our next break, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. The prospect doesn’t always compel our hearts to sing, and can flood us with stress.

It’s a perfect time to start sipping Cloud Chaser, a bespoke blend incorporating herbs like St. John’s Wort, lavender and lemon balm that are known to lift spirits and clear minds. This delicious tea also includes brain-brightening peppermint, floral rose petal and savory marjoram. It’s a perfect blend, and wonderful as an iced tea, too.

Back-to-School Teas for Parents: Black Peony

The season of back-to-school might compel some parent to pop a bottle of bubbly and clink glasses. That’s a fine idea. So is brewing a pot of Black Peony, a tea treasure just as precious as a glass of cold Champagne. 

Black Peony comes from Hunan Province’s Wuling Mountain, which is located in south-central China. Tourists head to Wuling Mountain’s world-famous Zhangjiajie National Forest, where dense foliage blankets pillar-shaped mountain peaks and waterfalls, clouds and mist decorate the environment year-round. The conditions are ideal for growing high-qality tea, and rare Black Peony is a splendid example. Tea enthusiasts savor its intense floral fragrance and lingering fruit-toned flavor.


Back-to-School Tea for Kids: Paradise Peach

Mom and dad, we think your kids will love Paradise Peach.

Kids looove fruit teas. We carry seven custom fruit blends, all with beguiling names: Carnival Apple Tart, Lemon Sonata, Paradise Peach, Pink Pomegranate, Rhapsody of Berries and Shanghai Dreams. In addition, many of our other teas contain at least a little fruit.

Many of the fruit teas incorporate hibiscus and rose hips, which contain loads of healthy vitamin C and pleasing flavors that marry well with nearly all brewed fruit. 

In short, fruit teas stand as excellent ways to thrill your children while they consume healthy food — a rare combination!

Given Colorado’s bounty of world-class peaches, we think our Paradise Peach is a fitting fruit tea for any Centennial State child. Orange zest, hibiscus, rosehips and orange zest complement that peach’s natural bold flavor. Our son Tong’s friend Logan is especially keen on Ku Cha’s Paradise Peach. Your child will, too!


Back-to-School Tea for College Students: White Tea Gift Set

College means late nights buried in books, stress and quite a bit of fun, too. And tea.

They’ll probably drink lots of coffee, and canned drinks like Red Bull and Monster that are flooded with caffeine. Chances are, they’ll imbibe at least the occasional beer, too. But the big brains on those scholars desire something new and exciting, and we’ve got the ticket: our White Tea Gift Set.

All of the white teas in this special set are made from the young leaves and buds from tea shrubs in China’s Fujian Province, the ancestral home of this nuanced, esteemed style of tea. With white tea, the silver buds and leaves are picked during the short spring season, which makes white teas relatively rare, compared to green, black and oolong teas. After harvest, these delicate and prized leaves and buds are briefly withered and dried by the sun before tea artisans arrest the oxidation process. Black and oolong teas, by contrast, spend more time in the air and as a result undergo more oxidation. 

As a result of white tea’s minimal processing, it retains high levels of antioxidants and theanine, a healthy amino acid. And white tea’s flavors range from subtle and honeyed to boldly floral. We adore white teas, and find they are especially well-suited for all-day drinking. They brew into excellent iced teas as well.

Our gift basket contains six premium white teas; one perfect hand-made bamboo tea scoop; one white tea mug with infuser, and a jar of Colorado raw honey, for a little taste of the Rockies.

The teas in the gift basket include:

Silver Needle

This is the best white tea produced from Taimu Mountain, FuDing County, FuJian Province, China. Made exclusively of tea buds from early spring, this tea makes an exquisite brew that will coat your mouth with a clean, smooth sweetness. A rare treat that is not to be missed! 

Summer Tranquility

Infused with Peach and Apricot, this white tea is a perfect go-to tea in summer time. Brewed hot with a touch of honey, or poured it over a glass of ice, Summer Tranquility will improve any university experience. We love it so much we selected it as one of the four teas we now sell in ready-to-drink cans.

Jasmine Silver Needle

Premium silver needle white tea scented with fresh jasmine flowers up to six times, with each scenting lasting four to five hours. With an intoxicating fragrance, this tea is a rich, sweet infusion with a multi-layered, textured flavor. The king of all jasmine teas! 

Cloud Forest White Tea

Sipping this tea is like wandering through a cloud forest surrounded by colorful wild flowers. Sweet, intoxicating aromas arouse a feeling of total relaxation, rejuvenation, and re-connection to nature. (

Shou Mei White Tea Cake

Shou Mei means “Old Man’s Eyebrow” in Chinese, and is a unique white tea produced in Fujian Province that uses more mature tea leaves. It’s said to help improve the immune system, skin complexion, and is mildly detoxing per Chinese Medicine. 

White Madagascar Pomegranate

Premium white tea infused with soothing, fragrant Madagascar vanilla and bright, sweet pomegranate fruit. Sweet, mellow taste with notes of sweet tarts and nuts. Simply healthy, nutritious, and delicious!

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