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Bamboo Tumbler with Tea Infuser and Strainer… Gorgeous Gift Idea for Tea Lovers

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Here’s an especially gorgeous gift idea for tea lovers: Original Bamboo Tumbler Tea Infuser with Strainer. What is it about bamboo that just screams, “Classy!”

The beautiful bamboo tea infuser holds 17 oz liquid-capacity. Brew your favorite loose leaf tea (or use as a fruit infuser, for that matter) and keep it nearby in elegant style. Insulation Technology keeps drinks hot for 12 hours and cold for 24 hours at any place.

I also love that no two are quite the same. Each Bodhify tea infuser bottle has an exclusive exterior design, because they are made of 100% natural organic bamboo.

  • The double-wall insulated tumbler has leak-proof interior, strainer and infuser basket, are carefully made with 18/8 stainless steel food grade, all tested BPA & Lead FREE, No harmful plastic, chemical smells or toxins used.
  • The Bamboo tea infuser is a reusable product that contributes to a green and sustainable planet – there’s nothing about that I don’t love.

This would make an especially beautiful gift for any tea lovers in your world. See Original Bamboo Tumbler Tea Infuser with Strainer for a closer look!


Iced Tea Pitcher of My Dreams…

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They do not make iced tea pitchers like they used to. I mean they really, really, REALLY do NOT make iced tea pitchers like they used to!

In the past month, alone, two pitchers have met an untimely end in my kitchen – seems they just couldn’t take the hot water and shattered under the pressure.  Years ago, I had a glorious iced tea pitcher that lasted over 15 years. It met its end in an understandable way. NO pitcher can survive a fall on a tile floor.

Sigh, I still miss that great pitcher.

These last two (one bought at Wal-Mart and one at Meijer) couldn’t hold a candle to the first one. Heck, they’d have probably shattered at the sight of a candle!

While looking for a replacement pitcher on Amazon, I wanted one that specifically included holding up to boiling water in its bio. I found just what I was looking for with the beauty shown here, the Borosilicate Glass Tea Pitcher.

  • The Last Iced Tea Pitcher or Hot Water Pitcher You’ll Ever Need – Guaranteed: While most glass pitchers shatter or crack when transitioning from ICE WATER to BOILING WATER, our tea and coffee pitcher is engineered from the highest quality Borosilicate Glass that’s lighter & stronger than typical glass.
  • Fresh drinks every time without a bad taste left on your tongue.
  • Flavor Fresh stainless steel lid locks in flavors.

See  Borosilicate Glass Tea Pitcher for a closer look. This beauty is exactly what I’m looking for!


Beautiful Iced Tea Maker: Available in Blueberry, Raspbery, Avocado, and Black (All Gorgeous!)

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All day. All night. Every day. Every night. That’s when you’ll find me with a glass of iced tea within reach. I’m pretty much in a perpetual motion of either drinking my tea, reaching for my tea, or sitting it down beside me.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do go through A LOT of tea!

I addition to tea, itself, I also love to order and try new tea-related products: tea pots, tea makers, tea cups, brewers, infusion cups, etc. The beauty, pictured above is the Takeya Flash Iced Tea Maker and it’s already in my Amazon cart. While it’s available in black, blueberry, and avocado, I just have to have the one I’ve pictured here – the raspberry. Maybe it’s because raspberries are one of my obsessions or maybe it’s because it’s a gorgeous, girly color… whatever the reason, it must be mine!

  • Makes 8 servings of iced tea (2 Quarts)
  • Make fresh brewed iced tea in minutes
  • Use Takeya loose leaf Iced Tea or any loose leaf tea/tea bags
  • The airtight lid keeps iced tea fresh while storing. Store on its side or in fridge door.
  • BPA-Free Tritan
  • Makes 8 servings of iced tea (2 Quart)
  • Make fresh brewed iced tea in minutes

See Takeya Flash Iced Tea Maker for a closer look and to check out the other, equally gorgeous colors that are available.


ingenuiTEA from Adagio Teas: The Easiest and Most Ingenious Way to Brew Loose Leaf Tea (Review)

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ingenuiTEA by Adagio Teas
As a self-confessed Crazy Tea Chick, I love tea just about any way I can get it. This goes for flavor, temperature, color, loose leaf, pyramid bag, flat bag… if it’s tea, I am more than just a little interested.

While using tea bags is as simple as it gets, there is actually something kind of zen-like and relaxing about making a cup or glass of loose leaf tea. The fragrant tea leaves (especially when fruit is involved) allow you to thoroughly enjoy the tea experience before you even lift the cup to your lips.

Some people complain that fixing loose leaf tea is too timely or complicated. I’ve even heard people complain that it requires too many steps and too many “clicks and whistles.”  That last part always intrigues me because I make loose leaf tea at least 4 times a week and I’ve yet to experience a click or a whistle.

But, in all seriousness, I understand where they’re coming from.  We humans are incredibly busy (often too busy, if we’re being honest) and we want – even NEED – every aspect of our life to be simplified.

Here comes Adagio to the rescue. The ingenuiTEA Teapot (pictured here) is so simple and so blissfully easy that it doesn’t even come with directions. Why? None are needed!

 

ingenuiTEA and Blood Orange Loose Leaf Tea
You can find a VERY short video here that shows how ridiculously simple it is to use the ingenuiTEA teapot to brew loose leaf tea fast, easy, and without a single solitary click or whistle.

  1. You simply place your loose leaf tea into the ingenuiTEA teapot, as it sits on a flat surface.
  2. When tea has brewed, place the teapot right on top of your cup. This will cause a valve at the bottom to release: the beautiful tea flows down into your cup, while the mesh filter retains all the leaves with one of the best infusers on the market.

If you’re looking for a step 3, you can stop looking… that is it.

Not only is the ingenuiTEA Teapot embarrassingly easy to use, it’s just as easy to clean and… get this… it’s dishwasher safe!

I also love that it’s so great looking, as I (as you’d expect) leave my teapot sitting out on the counter at all times – always ready for active duty.

This ingenuiTEA Teapot is the 16 oz size, which makes two cups of wonderful tea.

Adagio Blood Orange Loose Leaf Tea

Sometimes I use mine to make a huge hot mug of tea, but most of the time I prepare my tea for iced tea. If your glass has the right rim size, you can place the ingenuiTEA Teapot right on top. Just be sure there’s enough room in your glass for tea and ice.

I often drain mine into a large mason jar, then pour it over ice in my glass.

ingenuiTEA and Blood Orange Loose Leaf Tea
The ingenuiTEA teapot is, make no mistake about it, something you’ll love to distraction. You’ll fall more and more in love with it each time you use it – it’s just so effortless and simple.

But it gets even better…. keep reading!

Orchard Herbals Adagio Teas

IngenuiTEA Tea Set

While you can, obviously, use any of the links above to purchase the 16 oz. ingenuiTEA Teapot, I totally recommend buying the ingenuiTEA Tea Set.  With the Tea Set, you get the teapot (which I literally wonder how I ever lived without) PLUS four samples of Adagio’s best-selling teas.

You can choose your sample set from the four below:

orchard black
apricot, peach, grapefruit, orange

orchard green
raspberry green, mango green, citron green, apricot green

berries black
blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry

orchard herbal
wild strawberry, berry blast, raspberry patch, blood orange

I chose the “Orchard Herbal” because I am ALL about both raspberry and strawberry tea… ALL about them… and I was beyond intrigued by the “blood orange.”  I frequently buy blood oranges at the store and am infatuated with their flavor. The thought of having that flavor with tea made my knees weak.ingenuiTEA and Blood Orange Loose Leaf Tea
When my ingenuiTEA Tea Set came, I actually brewed the Blood Orange tea first (which is kind of strange for a raspberry/strawberry addict) and it was every bit as amazing as I expected it to be. Honestly, it was just phenomenal.  While it made a beautiful cup of hot tea, I actually liked it over ice even better.

I threw a wedge of a blood orange into my iced tea and it was a glass of iced tea I won’t soon forget. In fact, ordering more Blood Orange tea from Adagio is at the top of my Tea Do List.

ingenuiTEA and Blood Orange Loose Leaf Tea
ingenuiTEA Tea Set

The other “orchard herbal” teas in the ingenuiTEA Tea Set  were just as perfect. I am blown away by the ingenuiTEA teapot and I know you will be just as blown away. It’s beautiful, effortless, ingenious, simple as simple gets… and dishwasher safe.

However, I’ll let you in on a weird little secret – I still wash mine by hand. Why? I just love it so very much that I want to make sure it stays looking as gorgeous as it does now.  And after multiple (mul-ti-ple) washings it still looks like it did the day I took it out of the box.

The ingenuiTEA Tea Set  would make a PERFECT gift for any tea lover in your life…

  • College students
  • Mother’s Day
  • Newlyweds
  • Father’s Day
  • Birthdays
  • Christmas
  • Just Because…

I’d just warn you to be sure and order your own while you’re at it.

I have a few other wonderful Adagio products to review tomorrow, but for now, I hope you’ll head over to ingenuiTEA Tea Set and check out this ingenious and beautiful little teapot. It’s unbelievably affordable – and comes with great tea when you order the set!

Raspberry Tea with a Frozen Peach Slice

Pictured above is one of my favorite ways to enjoy Adagio’s Raspberry tea – on ice with a frozen peach slice. Impossibly delicious… you have to try it. If anyone has trouble drinking tea unsweetened (something I, too, have battled in my life as a Crazy Tea Chick), you’ll find that fruit-infused tea is the way to go. The natural sweetness of the fruit keeps you from missing the sugar…. like, at all. Tossing frozen or fresh fruit into the tea just adds another dimension of fun and flavor.

Sugar? Who needs sugar?!

I can’t say enough great things about Adagio – they do absolutely everything as well as it can be done.  I do a lot of shopping online, so I order from a lot of tea companies, coffee companies, food companies, etc. Adagio stands out and, in my book, that counts for something.

See: ingenuiTEA Tea Set

ingenuiTEA and Loose Leaf Tea

ingenuiTEA Tea Set

Large Glass Jar for Sun Tea (With a Dispenser!)

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Way back in the day – when I was a little girl crazy tea chick – I remember when my mom first made “sun tea.”  I pretty much thought she’d flipped her switch, but I went along with the ordeal. I was honestly shocked when I kept checking on the jar and, sure enough, each time it looked less like water and more like tea.

That day I fell head over heels in love with sun tea and enjoy it regularly each summer.

I’ve been looking for the perfect jar to use this summer (I may or may not have broken mine into a billion and twelve pieces this winter). I’ve found the one I’m going to order and it’s this one shown here, a Mason Glass Sun Tea Jar with a dispenser. The dispenser is a perfect little extra touch because we go after tea hot and heavy in my house all year, but during summer…. let’s just say you’ve never seen anything quite like it.

A dispenser will help us keep moving while chugging.

It’s just beautiful AND big enough for my crew. See Mason Glass Sun Tea Jar for more information.


The #1 Coffee Mug or Tea Cup Holder on Amazon

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Coffee or Tea Mug Tree

Home Basics Mug Tree

The only thing more worse than searching through cabinets for the “perfect” mug or cup for your morning coffee or tea is discovering that the mug is scratched or chipped when you find it. Stacking and cramming never do dishes any favors, do they? I’ve been on the lookout for a mug and tea cup stand (two, actually… we drink A LOT of tea and coffee in our home) but I’ve been disappointed. None of the ones I saw looked pretty enough. Sure, they were functional… but I wanted functional AND pretty.

When I saw this Home Basics Mug Tree on Amazon a few minutes ago, I literally said out loud, “Found it!” It’s available in chrome, bronze (pictured above), black, white, and nickel. The only hard part is deciding what color I want to order. I think I’ve narrowed it down to the bronze and black, since my kitchen appliances are black, it kind of makes sense.

When I was reading about this especially pretty mug tree, I discovered that it was the Number One Best Seller in Mug Trees/Mug Hooks. No wonder… everyone else wants their mug tree to be gorgeous, too!

  • Mug tree holds coffee mugs and teacups for easy access on counter
  • Your Choice of  “finish” with decorative swirl design
  • Holds six mugs; 6-inch by 15-inch


Michael Graves’ Legendary Bird Whistle Kettle

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A while back, I was discussing tea and teakettles (a couple of my favorite subjects) with someone and the subject of Michael Graves’ iconic Bird Whistle Kettle came up. It occurred to me that I’ve never written about it on my tea blog.

Who am I, anyway?! 

Here it is, arguably the most famous kettle of our time and I’ve never even mentioned it once.  We’d better right that wrong immediately.

The adorable Bird Whistle Kettle was designed in the 1980s by Michael Graves. The stainless steel kettle features a moulded plastic bird that makes kettle whistle. With sells counting over 100,000 a year, this is one beloved kettle.

Features:

  • A beautiful little bird adorns the spout of this kettle and whistles when contents boil
  • Designed in 1985 by Michael Graves; crafted with an 18/10 stainless-steel body
  • Handle and whistle in durable PA resin; choose from blue or ivory handles
  • Wider base lets water boil more quickly, making it a favorite for busy, modern-day users
  • Measures 8-1/2 inches in diameter and 9 inches high; hand wash only; both whistling bird and lid can be replaced

See  Bird Whistle Kettle on Amazon for more information.


Sloth Tea Infuser

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If you’ve always wanted a sloth tea infuser (I’m sure you have) but had no idea where to find one (I’m sure you wouldn’t), this is your lucky day.  Amazon has a whole slew of adorable, whimsical tea infusers and this cutie is just the latest.

He’s the Fred & Friends SLOW BREW Sloth Tea Infuser and he’s available for around $10.


Details:

  • Take a break from your frantic pace and let Slow Brew make you a perfect cup of tea
  • made from heat resistant silicone
  • Hangs patiently aside your mug
  • Molded without BPA or phthalates
  • Sweet sloth face helps you relax

See Sloth Tea Infuser for more details.

Also from Fred & Friends: The equally fun Sloth Infuser and Mug Gift Set (pictured below).


Review of the Bonavita Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle

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Bonavita Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle

Bonavita Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle

In its official capacity, you’d call it the Bonavita Variable Temperature Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle, but in our kitchen it’s more often referred to as the “how’d we ever live without this guy?”  We brew so much coffee and tea in our kitchen it smells and sounds like a coffeehouse in here most of the time.  Seriously, the air bristles with caffeine.

Is it any wonder it’s my favorite room in our house?

Anyone who’s serious about their tea and coffee knows that getting the temperature right is everything.  Ironically, the average person brews their coffee and tea without a second thought about the actual water temperature.  I used to be the same way, actually.

Then it hit me one day: Why do I realize the importance of the right temperature for everything else I make – from fudge to catfish – and yet treat water temperature for these all important beverages like it’s an after thought?

Bonavita Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle

 

I didn’t have a good answer for my interrogating question, so I caved in and began meticulously checking my water temperature beforehand.  The fact that both tea and coffee were noticeably better when using the right temperature was all I needed to keep testing the waters, so to speak.

But it was so annoying to have to keep checking the temperature of the water.  If all you’re doing is brewing one pot of tea and that’s all you have to do in the world, then fine… check, check, and re-check.  But given the fact that I’m usually doing a good six things at once, I don’t want life to be tougher, I want it to be simpler.

That’s where the “how’d we ever live without this guy” steps into the picture and saves the day. Sure, it rode in on an Amazon box instead of a white horse, but he’s a hero nonetheless.

Why the Crazy Tea Chick Loves the Bonavita Electric Kettle:

  • 1000 watts makes for unbelievably quick heating – throw the proverb, “A watched pot never boils” right out the window. It does boil – almost instantly if you have a Bonavita.
  • Real-time temperature display – you can see how close you are to your desired temperature.
  • You can “hold” your water at the desired temperature for up to 60 minutes!
  • The Gooseneck shape of the kettle is ideal for precisely pouring water over tea leaves or coffee grounds.

When it comes to brewing tea, water temperature is as important as the oven temperature you use to bake. If you’re familiar with baking, you know that the oven temperature is everything – get it the least bit too hot or not quite hot enough and your cake, cookies, pie, or whatever is doomed.

The right temperature is as essential when it comes to brewing tea (and coffee) as it is when baking. If you’re a “temperature guesser” like I was pre-Bonavita, you may be thinking (just as I did) that your teas are just fine.  Take it from me, you could park a yacht between “just fine” and “as good as possible.”

A big yacht.

The importance of water temperature is never more essential than it is when dealing with tea leaves.  The good news is water temperature doesn’t have to be complicated. Products like this Bonavita Electric Kettle see to that.

The handsome Bonavita Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle will make your tea and coffee brewing life so much easier you’ll also call him “how’d we ever live without this guy,” and you just go right ahead – it’s not like we have a copyright or anything.

The Bonavita Electric Kettle would also make a wonderful gift for the tea and/or coffee lovers in your life.

Bonavita Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle
 

Doctor Who Teapot: What a Great Gift Idea!

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Doctor Who Tardis Teapot

I have a confession to make – I have never seen a single episode of the insanely popular Doctor Who. As far as I’m concerned, I have no idea WHO Doctor WHO is! And yet… I am so in love with this adorable Doctor Who Tardis Teapot, I’m beside myself.

This beautiful collector’s item is fashioned after the time machine in the BBC TV show Doctor Who.

Wait? Time machine? What have I been missing?!?!

See Doctor Who Tardis Teapot for more information while I go look into catching up on Netflix!