Improve Summer’s Bounty of Good Times with Tea
Summer is HERE, and wow does it feel wonderful after last year’s, which was more dangerous endurance contest than fun-filled season of lighthearted whimsy.
This year, it’s all about the lighthearted whimsy!
We anticipate a summer of hikes through shaded forests. Of picnics in parks. Of concerts at Red Rocks and the Denver Botanical Gardens, road trips to New Mexico, and Rockies games.
Tea improves all of these pursuits. It can offer energy or relaxation. It’s packed with healthy plant compounds that help us power through our busy summers. And it offers a wide variety of flavors, both hot and iced.
Our Tea-Happy Guide to the Summer of 2021 will further punctuate your season of lighthearted whimsy with fun and flavor.
Tea for Summer: Boulder Boost
After living in Boulder for a bit, we learned quite a bit about the culture. Mountains figure into nearly everything. People are extremely active — on the trails, rock faces and courts, in the gyms and the yoga studios. And the food scene is fabulous. Boulderites support a vibrant culinary culture.
We desired a custom tea blend that reflected the culture — something healthy and energetic that tasted fantastic. After much experimentation, we arrived upon a fabulous blend of herbs, spices, flowers and other plants. Boulder Boost is perfect for Boulderites!
This gorgeous organic tea offers both Madagascar Vanilla black tea and guayusa — a caffeine-filled South American shrub similar to yerba mate — for plant-based energy. We incorporated electrolyte-dense green rooibos into the blend because electrolytes are excellent for hydration. The rest of the ingredients — tulsi, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, fennel and rose — taste wonderful and also help the body heal and stay in balance. For all of the Front Range’s energetic pursuits, Boulder Boost is a must!
Tea for Summer: Rocky Mountain Breakfast
Bold, rich black tea gets the gears moving for many of us shortly after we open our eyes and pad into the kitchen. For us Coloradans, that could mean that soon we’ll be climbing a 14er, or piloting a bike down steep single-track. Skip the bagged teas you find in supermarkets, the boxes holding 100 or more paper-wrapped tea bags. The tea inside is dreck. In addition, there’s so much waste! The tea bags. The paper wrapping each bag. It’s ridiculous. Whole-leaf is the answer!
Even better, our Rocky Mountain Breakfast blend. Here, we mix a permium Assam black tea from Northern India with a Keemun black from China’s mountainous Anhui province. Mild climates, abundant rainfall and cloud-encircled forests nurture the teas that grow in these fantastic tea regions. The combination is a flavor powerhouse: malty, smooth, robust with a piney fragrance and lingering aftertaste. This beauty is wonderful on its own, or with milk and/or sugar.
Tea for Summer: Throat Elixir
Why are we suggesting a throat-friendly tea for your summer of lighthearted whimsy? Because you’ll be singing!
This is the summer of concerts. You will sing. It’s the season of music-throttled parties, of clubs and karaoke bars. Some of us sometimes sing while we’re hiking — true fact (and only when we think nobody can hear us).
You’ll want Throat Elixir to give your throat an assist. This tea incorporates some of the key throat-comforting plants: licorice root, ginger, anise, fennel, orange peel, elderflower, eucalyptus, marshmallow, cinnamon and chamomile.
Brew a thermos and stash it in the car; you’re throat will thank you when you’re heading home. Bring it to a Rockie’s game, too — you’ll be shouting!
Tea for Summer: Enchanted Forest
Colorado forests are much more than just acres of trees. They are intricate, complex ecosystems full of birds, mammals, fungi, flowers, insects and much more. Enchanted? Absolutely.
Given their mysteries and magic, we think our Enchanted Forest tea is a perfect complement to a stroll through the woods. The blend finds its roots in green tea and green yerba mate, both of which deliver pleasing jolts of caffeine to enliven forest strolls. But it also contains rose petals and cornflower blossoms — flowers to match the colorful pageant of wildflowers spangling the forest. And this beauty also has coconut shreds, which add hints of nutty sweetness to Enchanted Forest.
Get out into those forests this summer. Hug some trees! And improve the entire experience with sips of Enchanted Forest along the way.
Tea for Summer: Summer Tranquility
The season of long days and warmth will send you to the mountains, to lakes and rivers, to concerts, baseball games, bike lanes and parties. We say heck yes to all of that. But it also might persuade you to bring a book and a blanket to a park, and spend an afternoon reading and people-watching. The morning after a long hike, you might desire nothing more than sleeeping in, and then listening to music and reading the Sunday newspaper in bed. We think after-dinner strolls through the neighborhood are wonderful things.
Pairing tea with each of these relaxing activities is an excellent idea. When we want to slow down and sink into something — reading, knitting, watching a show, hanging out with family in the back yard — we often turn to Summer Tranquility.
Delicate white tea serves as this tea’s spine. The blend has only two other ingredients — natural peach and apricot flavor. So simple, yet so very delicious. We love this one so much that we sell it brewed in ready-to-drink cans; it makes a beautiful iced tea. We think of it as summer in a cup (or a can!).
Enjoy your summer, friends! And don’t forget your tea!
