TEA 4 FREE - Teazine Issue 22

Shangers Products are in! Products range from Princess Teana Strawberry Green tea for the kids and Hand Baked Clotted Cream Shortbread Cookies. Click here for more information!

Welcome to the twenty-second issue of Tea 4 Free News - Teazine. Thanks to those that entered our Contest. We encourage you to refer your friends and family to enter for a chance to win $156 worth of Gourmet Teas Beautifully Packaged. Spring is in the air. Have we got many spring tea ideas to share with you! This month we have chosen 1 lucky winner!!

Inside this issue, you will find a recent Contest Winner, The Art of Plucking Tea Leaves, Spring Tea Ideas, More New Tea Products for the New Year, and much more. If you prefer to review an html version of this newsletter or other issues please visit http://www.tea4free.com/news.html.

If you would like to learn more about our recent joint venture between Shangers Limited and Tea Connexions (Shangers Teaopolis Limited) with the growth of Shangers, Princess Teana and Teaopolis brands throughout United States and Canada, click here to view more information. Click here to learn the latest news about Shangers Teaopolis Limited.

Are you interested in placing an order? Tea Connexions and its independent distributor members ensure that your orders are processed simply and safely. Through our system of localized distribution, you have the opportunity to order from your nearest distributor for prompt, courteous, and cheerful service. Local service benefits you because it decreases shipping time and costs. It also benefits you because you are not dealing with a head office in another state or country, but a local representative better able to serve your needs, answer your questions, and address any concerns you may have. Many of our distributors offer gift-wrapping and other gift giving services to facilitate your gift giving needs. To find out about these services, simply call your nearest distributor or send them an e-mail. To find your nearest distributor, please visit http://www.leaftea.com/teastore.html

Have you tried any of our teas from our distributors? If so, we'd like to hear from you!! Tell us what you think about our tea products and we can feature your testimonial in our future Tea4Free news! Send your comments to daisy@teaconnexions.com, with subject heading Tea Testimonial.

I look forward to giving away many more cups of FREE tea. Remember our motto: Gourmet Teas. Beautiful Packaging. Superior Service. Exceptional Value.

Yours sincerely,

Daisy Lieu
Tea Connexions

P. S. Feel free to share this newsletter with your friends and family.
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The Tea4Free contest is ongoing and winners are posted here.

To date, nearly $8160.00 worth of FREE gourmet teas beautifully packaged have been given away to tea lovers throughout North America. That is enough tea to make nearly 78,900 cups of free tea. WOW!
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Experts in tea leaf plucking go through tremendous work to give you your blessed cup of tea. Picking tea leaves is not a simple job and requires patience and care. For some rare teas, only the leaf bud, which should be no longer than two centimeters, and the first two leaves, which must be the same length as the bud, are picked. Leaves fetch a high price, and as this work requires small, deft fingers, it is generally women, preferably experienced in this work, that are hired to do it.

Here are some ways tea leaves are being selected:

Imperial Plucking- This method is used for picking white tea leaves. This tea is picked by removing the buds and the first leaves from the tea bush. This method is only used once per year at appropriate times. If by chance the harvest fails, this tea cannot be harvest for the year, so it is very rare. Try our Silver White Tips.

Flushing- The goal of tea cultivation is the harvest. For tea, this means picking the new leaves, or flush. Tea pickers must pick leaves of the same size so that the leaves will shrink and dry consistently. The quality of the tea depends on the planter’s decision to pick a larger amount of ordinary tea leaves, or a small amount of good to fine tea. For an ordinary tea, the picker would pick the two smallest leaves and the bud. For a fine tea, the picker would pick the bud and the next youngest leaf. If a picker picks the bud, the first two leaves and the leaf below them, this is known as a coarse picking and a low quality tea results.

In countries where there is no cold season, tea flushes all year round. In general, the best quality teas are high grown and the first and second flushes in these countries are usually fine picked. Try our First Flush Darjeeling and Second Flush Darjeeling teas.

Today, tea plants are kept pruned into bushes about 7 feet high so to make plucking tea leaves easier and to produce a more abundant crop. Usually harvesters pluck the new shoots from the bush when the first two leaves and a bud have formed. Picking can take place throughout the year, although they say the best tea is picked in April and May, when the new season shoots appear. The tea leaves are then sorted and graded according to appearance into broken and leaf teas.

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Spring is here and what a great way to celebrate by having a Spring Tea. This could be held as a mother daughter event, Sunday school afternoon, bridal shower, baby shower, birthday, or simply to celebrate a new season.

Send out your invitations for the occasion, but send along a tea bag inside to remind them the Spring Tea that you are holding. To prepare for this, the table is the most important central piece of the event, therefore it is important to decorate it to give the ambiance of the spring season. Some ideas are using light pastel colors, or for extra excitement go with bright colorful ones. This includes tablecloth, place mats, matching napkins, antique tea ware, silverware, floral patterned furniture to match the decor, and fresh flowers. If you do not have nice tea ware, second hand stores, garage sales, blow out sales at department stores will always have these accessories at affordable prices. Or if you want the tea event to be more unique and individualized, ask the guest to bring their favorite tea cup if they wish. You can organize flower arrangements or tea gifts for each guest to take home. Finger foods such as light sandwiches, vegetables and dip, crackers and cheese, fresh fruit, pastries and squares, cookies and cake are some things that you may want to serve. Lastly, the most important thing of all is to brew some good tea, which can be both hot and iced, along with fruit punch or juice, and condiments.

Are you interested in providing feedback or comments for the Princess Teana products? Email your comments or ideas to us at daisy@teaconnexions.com.

Princess Teana's English Lemon Curd
Lemon Curd is a favorite teatime treat. It's scrumptious as a spread on toast, bread, scones and muffins.

Associated with the traditional British Afternoon Tea Experience, Lemon Curd is a classic taste to be enjoyed by children and grown-ups alike. Our 312g (11 oz) jar is free of artificial additives.

Princess Teana's Classic English Scone Mix
Time for some quality family-time preparing hot scones for Afternoon Tea! Our 425g (15 oz) pouch of scone mix will deliver 10 rich and moist home-made scones - fresh from your oven in just minutes.

An all natural product with no preservatives. A fine gift to those who value the tradition of family members baking together in the kitchen.

Princess Teana's Book of Tea Parties
We invite you to be one of the first true visitors to Teaopolis - the fantasy land where you'll find a magical mix of teatime stories, tasty tea party recipes, suggestions on themes for tea parties and an explanation as to how our new celebration of tea has been created. Tea promotes a gentle and considerate approach to life and this new, full co lour 64 page book is a keepsake that's ageless in its appeal.

Princess Teana's Book of Tea Parties truly is for mothers and daughters, grandmothers, aunts and tea party friends everywhere!

To learn more about other teas or order any of these teas, please visit http://www.leaftea.com/teastore.html to find your nearest distributor.
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Tea Popsicles
This recipe is courtesy of http://www.silkroadtea.com

(makes 6-18 popsicles, depending on size of molds)

Thaw 2 cups frozen fruit slightly, mix with ½ cup water, ½ cup cold tea and 1 tbsp. sugar.
Pour into molds or paper cups and freeze until mixture is slightly soft.
Insert sticks & continue to freeze until pops are hard.

Most fruity flavored teas work best for this recipe.

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8. Health News
To submit health news, e-mail us.

Tea and Hypertension
According to an article in a newsletter from the Tea Council of USA it states that Taiwanese researchers found that regular tea consumption reduced the risk of developing hypertension.

Tea and Milk
Tea without milk has zero calories. Using semi-skimmed milk adds around 13 calories per cup, but you also benefit from valuable minerals and calcium.

Tea with milk provides 16% of daily calcium requirement in 4 cups. Tea contains some zinc and folic acid.
Tea with milk contains Vitamin B6, Riboflavin B2 and Thiamin B1

Tea as a Way to Consume More Water
Tea is also a delicious way to allow you to drink six to eight glasses of water a day. Drinking part of that requirement can help maintain your body’s fluid balance and keep your body cool, cushion your joints, and transport nutrients throughout your body. Remember, getting enough fluids is vital as the weather warms up.
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9. TEA-mates: Members of the Tea Connexions Buying Group
Tea Connexions is dedicated to providing the highest quality gourmet teas. Packaged beautifully, they make an ideal gift for tea lovers, health enthusiasts, and connoisseurs of fine art. Our mission is to offer you beautifully packaged gourmet teas distributed by an elite group of independent distributors that offer you superior service and exceptional value. Your satisfaction is assured; all of our products carry a 100% money back guarantee.

More than 100 distributors look forward to serving your tea and gift giving needs. For an updated list, visit http://www.tea4free.com/tea-mates.html. If a distributor is not in your immediate area, please choose the closest distributor. Please note, this list represents distributors whose online stores are live and active; missing are distributors whose stores are still under construction. To choose your nearest distributor, using a clickable image map, visit http://www.leaftea.com/teastore.html.
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Whether it's childhood memories of granny's kitchen, mom's healing hands or toasts to success, each month Tea 4 Free News - Teazine features favorite tea stories. We would love to hear yours. If we choose your story, we will send you a FREE carton of Darjeeling tea bags.

To submit a tea story, e-mail us.
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- - -> Tea 4 Free Winners
- - -> Medicinal Effects of Tea…Fact or Myths?
- - -> A TEAmptation Recipe
- - -> What are tea cosies?
- - -> More New Tea Products for the New Year
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This issue of Tea 4 Free News - Teazine was researched and written by Daisy Lieu, of Tea Connexions. The html version of this newsletter and all web sites www.leaftea.com, www.teabizinabox.com, www.tea4free.com, and www.leafteabiz.com are managed and created by our Creative Director, Suruchi Gupta. If you would like more information about how you can benefit from her services, click here.
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