Frederik's London Fog and their Dirty Chai from Meijer

I was at Meijer's the other day and saw that their Frederik's brand made a London Fog. (They also make a dirty chai, that my friend purchased for me)   I know that my friend is currently loving London Fogs and making them all the time at home.  I enjoy a good London Fog as well, so I bought this for us to try at work.

https://www.meijer.com/shopping/product/frederik-s-by-meijer-dirty-chai-tea-latte-concentrate-32-oz/71373346334.html

It was half the London Fog concentrate and half almond milk. She really liked it and said she would be going to Meijer to get some of that to have on hand.  It is $4.95.

I thought it was a good, quick alternative to making it at home.  But, it was a bit artificial tasting.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, I just prefer to make it myself.

Now to try a dirty chai.  

I mixed this one with oat milk and some of us ladies at work tried this one.

We really really liked this one!!  The espresso flavor was there, but not over powering at all.  The chai was sweet but not super sweet.  I thought it was a really nice mix.

I added the milk and concentrate to my mixing cup and it blended and frothed it up for me.  I thought it was delicious.

The flavor on this one is really nice!!!  The reason this gets 4 tea cups out of 5, is the sugars.   The calories are not bad, but the sugar is way to much for me.

Psalm 96:3
Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!

Tea for Women Together Ladies church group

I was asked to do a tea at Kidron Mennonite Church for their ladies group.  I jumped at the chance.  This is the church my mom grew up and my parents were married in.

Also, I have friends that attend, so I figured it would be a fun night....and it was!

The tea was at 6:30 at night, so I did mostly decaf teas for them.

I always make the butterfly pea concentrate at home...then I add the lemonade so that they can see the color change from blue to purple.

My favorite base for this tea is Natural Hope Moringa Mint tea.  It is a green tea with spearmint, lavender, moringa, and chamomile.

This time I made it both caffeine free and with the Natural Hope Moringa Mint...knowing that a lot of women were looking for tea with no caffeine at this event.  The caffeine free version is just spearmint, lavender, butterfly pea blossom and then the minute maid lemonade.  I also used some of the lavender from my garden.

When I got home from work I also made up some carafes of tea- so that I would not have to make it all there.  I only had about an hour at home before I needed to be at the church.

I made the white tea and oolong tea ahead, but the carafes do an excellent job of keeping them hot. 

To be sure I get a perfect cup of tea, I still make the tea in tea pots.  I then pour the tea pot of tea into the carafe.

I set up my teas in stations, so that everyone could move around the room.

I had butterfly pea tea regular and decaf.

I had a decaf black peach tea.  

I did the oolong tea here in the corner.  I also had a small bowl with the tea leaves in it so they could look at the leaves and smell the tea.  They could also see if they could determine what was in the tea.  The coconut oolong was a one a lot of people enjoyed.  And I have to say it is one of my favorites.

There were 29 ladies that came out.  They did a nice devotional to start out and played some fun games.

I spent some time giving out tea facts as they tried the teas.

My friend and her sister did the food.  It was a really nice spread.

I used to work at Lehman's Hardware with two of these ladies.  It was great to see them again and be asked to do a tea here for them.

The ladies are trying the teas.

Did you know that black tea, green tea, oolong tea, white tea, yellow tea, and Pu-erh tea ALL come from the same plant??  It is true, it just depends on when they harvest and how they are processed.

There is only one large scale commercial tea plantation in the US...Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina.  There are smaller plantations popping up in the south, but really only one big one (127 acres).  Mars Hill NC (Red Sun Tea), Fairhope AL (Fairhope Tea Plantation- the oldest plantation in the US) and Pickens SC (Table Rock Tea) have medium tea plantations.

These are the only areas in the lower 48 to have the right conditions to grow tea.  (Hawaii has some tea plantations too.)  The Camelia Sinensis tea plant needs both heat and rain.

They were kind enough to invite my mom and aunt along too.

For educational teas for groups over 20 people I charge $8 a person.

Over 50- $7 a person and over 100 - $6 a person. 

Psalm 96:3
Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!

Home tea party, a birthday party

A friend I had not seen in over 10 years reached out to see if I would do a birthday tea for her mom.  I said absolutely!!!

Her mom doesn't do caffeine, so we made it a caffeine free tea.  I gathered some fun teas that had no caffeine and started prepping.

Herbal teas have no caffeine, because they are herbs and there is no actual tea in it.

Rooibos teas have no caffeine either.

Then you can also get black, green, oolong, white, yellow, and others as decaf teas.

I like to type out what is in every tea, so that if there are allergies people know what is in the tea.  Also, since I don't sell the tea people can know where the tea is from.

Oolong is my favorite, so I love serving it.

So, I found a decaf to try out before the party, PurelyNative.  I wanted to have one real tea, since all the others were herbal or rooibos. I decided it was a winner and would serve it.

You can see that the leaves open up when the water is added.  They call this the agony of the leaves.  They dance in agony in the water.

I put my fun tea pins on for this tea.

I also worked on my Butterfly Pea tea...Purple Palmer.  

It is somewhat green in color if you had a little bit of Butterfly Pea Blossoms, then if you add more it gets blue in color.

Then once you add citrus (lemonade) to the tea is turns purple.

For this caffeine free blend, I did spearmint, lavender, butterfly pea blossom, and mixed it with lemonade. 

This tea is always a big hit.  I then also took blueberry bursting boba as a treat for them as well.

I arrived at the house about 30 minutes before the tea was to start to get set up and start making the teas.

This is my friend, who I met when I was selling Thirty One bags.

Their table looked great.  This was a tea for the mom, her three daughters, and three granddaughters.  They used family tea cups which is really special!

They each brought food- which is a nice way to do it, so not just one person is responsible for it all.  They had scones, lemon bars, chicken salad croissants, eclairs, cucumber sandwiches and more.

I would serve a tea and then we would talk about it.  Talk about the notes they were tasting.  I shared tea stories and told them facts about each tea.

It is funny how we all have unique taste buds.  One of the favorites of the day, is one of my least favorites.  But, you never know what people are going to like or enjoy.  I was glad I brought a variety.  And it is nice that they were willing to try them all...because you never know what you will enjoy.  

How adorable is the birthday girl???

Mothers and daughters enjoying tea.....

I just love seeing people coming together to enjoy tea and each other.  

Let me know if you want to have a tea at your home.  I do charge .60 a mile, but the first 5 miles are free.

For educational teas for groups over 20 people I charge $8 a person.

Over 50- $7 a person and over 100 - $6 a person. 

Psalm 96:3
Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!