Holidays 2023 Begin With Shopping for Tea Gifts for Family, Friends, Colleagues
Happy Thanksgiving, friends!
We hope you savor an afternoon and evening of the holiday’s rich perfumes and flavors. Thanksgiving revolves around family and friends, and the pleasures of the table. We understand that for many of you, the table might miss a few people this year.
If you are alone today and miss your people, our hearts are with you. If miserable COVID this year canceled the annual trip across the prairie to Kansas City to visit the clan — the first miss in 17 years — we wish we could deliver hugs.
We trust you are defying the pandemic’s complications and hosting a memorable holiday — even if it’s just the two of you. Make sure to head back for seconds, even thirds, of bronzed turkey, of stuffing and mashed potatoes, of gravy dolloped across the plate’s savory zones. Ditto for the pumpkin pie.
Holiday weekend of sales
After a deep turkey-fortified sleep, you might head out tomorrow for some Black Friday adventures. Small Business Saturday arrives the following day. And then comes Cyber Monday.
We offer specials on tea gifts across the long weekend, something we call “mix and match discounts.” For each pound of tea — and that can mean four 4-ounce sacks of whole-leaf tea, or any combination that reaches a pound — we offer a 10 percent discount. If the purchase reaches two pounds, the discount rises to 15 percent. Five pounds or more? Your bill decreases by 20 percent. The specials are available in all of our stores, as well as our online shop.
This year’s holiday kick-off weekend will be different from those in year’s past. We normally offer tea samples and treats to our guests, but that won’t be happening. And due to COVID restrictions, the number of people in the store at one time remains limited.
But none of that stops us from helping you find perfect holiday tea gifts for the whole group: the mom who loves grilling, the dad who likes winter hikes, the friend who goes crazy for flower gardening, and everybody else on the list.
Please enjoy Part 1 of our 2023 Holiday Gift Guide. All of these tea gifts are available in all of our shops (in Boulder, Cherry Creek North and Fort Collins) and online.
And welcome to the kick-off of the festive holiday season! Let’s all embrace this one with extra-strong hugs, yes?
Ku Cha House of Tea 2023 Holiday Tea Gift Guide
For The Mom Who Loves to Grill
Some people like to kick back in an easy chair and watch TV to unwind. And then there is the grill-obsessed mom. She prefers donning an apron, starting a fire in her Big Green Egg grill, and turning racks of ribs into tender masterpieces.
Smoke always figures into grilling, whether it’s just a kiss of charcoal on a sizzling New York Strip or a saturation of hickory on a slab of brisket.
For this grill-loving mom, we offer a tea gift of Lapsang souchong, a black tea from the WuYi Mountains in China’s Fujian Province that is smoked over pinewood. For anybody who enjoys the flavors and aromas of smoke, Lapsang souchong is a must.
Its versatility, however, extends beyond liquid in mugs and cups. It also figures into culinary preparations. Instead of adding smoked ham, for example, to a pot of beans to add smoke flavor, it’s easier to turn to Lapsang souchong. Any dish that benefits from smoke can get the Lapsang souchong treatment.
For the Dad Who Likes Winter Hikes and Snowshoeing
We always hike with warm tea once the weather turns brisk. Few things fortify cold bones like sips of hot Camellia sinensis.
This year, think about giving the dad who thrills to get out in the cold air an insulated travel mug, specifically our PO2GO bottle. This beauty, a Ku Cha signature accessory, is double-walled and insulated to maintain hot beverage temperatures. Even better, it comes with its own built-in glass device to let tea lovers brew proper cups of tea within the mug itself — no need to brew tea separately and then add it to the mug.
For the Friend Who Loves Spas and Pampering
She saved every year for trips to spas, where she received massages and body wraps, where aestheticians enlivened her face and feet, where she sunk to her neck in hot springs and stayed put for entire afternoons.
The year of COVID has altered her spa visits. She turns to her bath for relief and regeneration. Surprise her this year with tea for the bath, as well as tea soaps.
Our guess is you didn’t know there was such a thing as tea for baths. Your friend didn’t either. Consider our Boreal Forest bath tea, a blend of organic eucalyptus, organic rosemary, organic ginkgo leaf, organic peppermint and epsom salts. When sprinkled over a hot bath, the tea promotes stress reduction and body circulation, while also invigorating the senses and relieving chest congestion. How is that for a special bath?
We carry three bath teas. In addition to Boreal Forest, we have a blend called Sensibilities, which is excellent for damaged skin and promoting feelings of calm, and Zenergy, a blend of five herbs that soothes muscle pain, promotes mental clarity and embraces all elements of Zen.
In addition, we carry a trio of soaps that incorporate tea: Lavender Oatmeal, Forest and Zesty Lemongrass.
For any lover of spas and pampering, these teas and soaps make clever and welcome gifts.
For the Aunt Who Loves Home Decorating
Decorating with tea? It sounds about as unlikely as bathing in it. But we now know that tea makes for splendid baths. And guess what? It can help beautify a house.
We well a range of what are called blooming art teas, all meant to brighten a kitchen table or living room mantle. A blooming art tea involves blends of tea leaves and flowers, all of which bloom and grow when steeped in water.
Our Autumn Beauty blooming tea, for example, includes green tea, jasmine flowers and a single elegant red flower. In China, this blooming tea is called “Diao Chan,” which refers to a story about the four most beautiful women in the country. This tea’s physical beauty lives up to its name in both appearance and flavor: like all blooming teas, the tea can also be sipped.
These teas are dramatic, aromatic and unusual. They complement any part of a home.
For the Uncle Who Loves Mountains
We created our own line of bespoke blends, called Taste of the Rockies, that reflect our beautiful Rocky Mountain home. Each of them is sold separately in tall, decorative tins. We also offer a sampler that includes them all.
Afternoon in the Aspens, for example, incorporates lemon verbena, lemongrass, rosemary and licorice root, a blend that offers lift and energy without the caffeine. Organic Boulder Boost double-downs on the energy, with black tea and guayusa (caffeine-punched leaves from a South American shrub) along with Madagascar vanilla, green rooibos, tulsi, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, fennel and rose.
For any mountain lover, teas from our Taste of the Rockies line stand as superb gift choices.
For the Cousin Who Loves Adventures
We discussed our new BYOTB (Build Your Own Tea Box) feature in last week’s blog, but feel compelled to touch on it again. It’s that awesome.
Sometimes it makes sense to offer something specific as a gift, like a new book or a bottle of Colorado whiskey. But there’s good reason, too, to champion keeping things a bit more open-ended. Given tea’s extreme diversity, why not give a friend (or that aunt of yours) a key to the tea kingdom, and let Cousin Edith choose her own path?
That’s where BYOTB comes in. With this new function, you send the gift recipient a note (through Ku Cha) that the world of tea awaits them. When they head to our website, they encounter a wide range of teas organized thematically that lets them explore six different teas of their choosing. Once they select their teas (with the option of swapping out teas for certain tea accessories), we at Ku Cha pack them in boxes, add a note of your choosing, and send the teas to the address.
