The Official 2024 Ku Cha House of Tea Gift Guide: Nice Tea Gifts
The people of the world could use more of a whole lot of qualities. For example, peace. Happiness. Serenity and humor. One practice that is important for achieving all of the above? It’s awfully simple—being nice. Shoveling the driveway of the elderly neighbor. Praising a colleague for good work. Thrilling a child with a plate of still-warm cupcakes. Randomly offering to spring for the beverage of the stranger behind you in line.
Nice tends to cultivate more nice. Imagine a planet of people always striving to do the nice thing. All of our lives would experience huge improvements.
Nice characterizes a big part of the holiday season. It’s during the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day that we exchange gifts en masse, bake cookies for others, volunteer at food pantries, send notes to far-flung family and friends and sit down with loved ones to savor the pleasures of the table. The holidays? They’re nice.
To that end, we have come up with a range of gifts that we think represent outstanding gestures of “nice.” From little presents for a neighbor to larger gifts for a special friend or family member, our ideas are sure to warm hearts, spark smiles and help spread nice!
Nice Tea Gifts: Colorful Colorado
Our home state stands as one of the most beautiful in the country. Between the snow-splotched peaks and flower-dense meadows of the high country, the trout-filled streams, the trails that climb desert mesas and ravines, the ski runs deep with snow and much more, the Centennial State is a beauty.
To honor our state’s many majestic qualities, we developed a line of teas called “Colorful Colorado” in illustrated boxes that celebrate the state’s visual glories. Buy one of the ones detailed below—or the whole set—for s person to whom you want to deliver a jolt of nice
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Boulder Boost
Welcome to Colorado, filled with the most adventurous, active people of all sorts! We formulated and blended this sumptuous spicy combination to fuel the many hikers, bikers, rock climbers and river riders (among others) who call Colorado home. This tea contains the electrolytes of rooibos, the balancing effects of tulsi and spices, and the energizing properties of black tea and guayusa. So grab a cup and get boosted!
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Desert Rose
A mellow, delightful caffeine-free herbal blend to quench your thirst and rejuvenate your spirit. This tea embraces the fresh breeze of sage brush and delicate aroma of rose and lavender. Sage provides many health benefits such as boosting memory, reducing anxiety and lowering blood glucose.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Enchanted Forest
A sweet, invigorating green tea and yerba mate blend to enjoy when exploring the forests of the Rockies! The aroma is reminiscent of a piece of Black Forest cherry cake; its taste is so pleasurable that you won’t need anything else to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Rocky Mountain Huckleberry
A Sri Lankan black tea mixed with raspberry, rosehip pieces, cornflowers, and natural huckleberry flavor. The blend has a delightfully sweet, tart berry flavor.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Summer Tranquility
Infused with peach and apricot , this white tea is a perfect blend for anytime when it’s sunny and warm. Brew it hot with a touch of honey or pour it over a glass of ice—let’s make a toast for peaceful, relaxing—and nice!—mornings and afternoons when it’s sunny and warm, no matter whether it’s July or January!
Nice Tea Gifts: Winter Health Teas
Winter sends us indoors, where germs and viruses can root and spread. Meanwhile, the holidays portion of the season persuades us to eat too many sweets, drink too many adult beverages and engage in much more feasting than normal. The parade of celebratory diversions saps our immune system and often leads to exhaustion and subpar health.
The cold months in general tax our bodies. But tea can serve as a powerful assistant! While all of our herbal teas offer health benefits, we think the list of five below are especially well-suited for enhancing winter well-being. Any of these, or all of them in a pretty box, capture the essence of nice. Your loved ones will thank you!
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Congestion Tea
There’s much to love about winter, from the cozy warmth of gathering around a fire to gliding down mountain trails on skis. One regrettable winter quality, however, is congestion. Winter is when we catch colds—when our heads feel like bowling balls, our sneezes seem to never stop and our noses need constant attention. One way to combat congestion is with this tea, which utilizes eucalyptus, elderflower and peppermint to break up the gunk blocking your sinuses and disrupting your peace of mind. Pro tip: Adding a little bit of honey to the brew helps massage sore throats.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Organic DeToxitea
Immoderation and the holidays—they go together like chocolate chips and cookies. We pull out the stops during the holidays to enjoy time with loved ones, colleagues and more. And all of those sand tarts, slices of pie, glasses of port and third helpings of roast interfere with our body’s natural immune system. Help rid your body of those holiday-fostered complications with our DeToxitea, a powerful blend designed explicitly for liver and kidney health. This custom blend helps reduce inflammation, promote joint health and boost kidney and liver vitality. It also provides antiviral and antimicrobial benefits. Key ingredients include dandelion root (a class detox botanical), cinnamon (another potent detoxer), lemon peel, the South African plant honeybush (which is similar to rooibos, and also contains a wealth of electrolytes) and lapacho, a plant from the pau d-arco tree in South and Central America that indigenous people use to treat a variety of ailments.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Organic ImmuniTea
This delicious and healthy tea goes straight to the heart of the matter; it elevates immune health. Resting on a foundation of peach rooibos and its reserves of electrolytes, our Organic ImmuniTea includes chamomile (largely for flavor, as well as its stress-relief properties), ginkgo leaf (excellent for circulation and brain health), marshmallow (anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial) and echinacea, a flower found all over Colorado that people around the world use to help improve immunity.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Throat Elixir
With all of that holiday carousing and feasting, throats often turn sore. You can buy sugar-packed lozenges to help mitigate the pain, which we have never found especially effective. Another route: try our Throat Elixir. This blend turns to some classics for throat massaging, like licorice, ginger, anise and eucalyptus. And then it includes other ingredients like orange peel, elderflower, marshmallow and chamomile, which ripen deliciousness but also add their own benefits for nursing sore throats.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Tummy Tea
The gravy. The 16th cookie of the day. The drinks-fueled work holiday party on a weeknight that didn’t end until 11 p.m. Stomach turbulence is a common holidays complaint. And it’s one for which we have a solution: Tummy Tea! This spicy and rich tea incorporates allspice, anise, black pepper, cardamom, lemongrass and ginger into an elixir that pampers your throat on its way down. And then it gets to work in the tummy, soothing the bumps and helping make you feel much better.
Nice Tea Gifts: Tea Infusers
As ambassadors for the many advantages of whole-leaf (rather than bagged) tea, we also champion many different ways to turn those leaves into your favorite hot beverage. Many kinds of pots are designed for brewing whole-leaf tea, but you don’t need to buy a proper pot to craft high-quality tea. Infusers work just as well, and are much more portable. Some of them are awfully fun, too! Giving them to loved ones counts as a nice gesture.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Figure Infuser
This delightful tea infuser makes it look like a little blue person is wading in the cup of tea. In fact, that’s exactly what the blue person is doing—and brewing tea at the same time!
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Hippo Infuser
Hippos spend most of their time in water, so maybe it’s no surprise it’s a hippo that plunges into your mug of hot water and commences making tea.
Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Shark Infuser
Some sharks are scary. Not this one! It’s here to make your tea—not to chomp!