Blog - Page 7 of 15 - Anna Tea Shop

Farewell to Downton Tea Giveaway

So hard to say goodbye to Downton Abbey!

Here at the teashop we took it upon ourselves that we needed a way to boost our spirits with our favorite show ending this winter. So, Sarah has been working a little tea buying magic and has collected together 10 of the beautiful Downton Abbey Tea Cans. Gorgeous and collectible.

How to Enter the DA Tea Giveway

Every time you spend $25 with us between now and March 7th your name is entered in our raffle. Online and Teashop purchases qualify. Qualifying orders and purchases include tea, tea foods, tea equipment or a ticket to the Farewell to Downton Abbey Tea!

The LUCKY winner will be announced on our Facebook Page on March 7 at 10am.

The 10 collectible teas are:

Afternoon Garden Tea \\ Legacy Tea \\ Mrs. Patmore’s Pudding

Holiday Cheer \\ Crawley Sisters \\ Bates’ Brambleberry Tea

English Rose \\ Lady Cora’s Evening \\ Grantham Breakfast Blend

+ Downton Estate Blend

By Selena S.|2016-01-13T11:48:39-06:00January 11th, 2016|Events|Comments Off

Meet Joyce

Joyce with Kayla her “granddaughter of the heart”

Joyce King Vazquez. On our Teashop List of our “favorite things” Joyce is right there in the teashop song and in our family’s hearts!! Delightful, spunky, loving, caring, compassionate. These words barely touch the tip of the iceburg and seem almost trivial when describing our Joyce. She is a woman after God’s heart and her passion to love and care for people move mountains.

Just as I am writing this post (no kidding) Joyce phones the Teashop to order “her teas”. She has two favorites and blends them together to create her own favorite. This special “Joyce Blend” she shares with neighbors, church family, and probably anyone who will stop and enjoy a cup. Her cup is full of love and health!

This is Joyce’s story. When I invited her to share her testimony I told her to only share the short version. We are excited to invite Joyce to a Green Tea workshop someday – where everyone can hear a little more. From her own heart and soul.

“My name is Joyce King-Vazquez and here is my story of what I think about the effects of consuming green tea, has had on my recovery and continued maintenance of nourishment I require to feel good every day and to thank God for letting me live to tell my story.

In September of 2004 I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Throat Cancer. This was followed by 2 surgeries to locate where exactly the cancer was. They found out it was where my tonsils should be. Then came 6 1/2 weeks of Radiation and Chemo therapy. After all of the treatment I was alive, (which I was told they didn’t expect me to survive), I started the long road to recovery (that would tell whether the treatment was effective). My step daughter (Yvonne) was fighting her own battle with stage 4 breast cancer) called me and suggested I try all of the antioxidant foods drinks, etc. I could find to build up my body, because I have no immune system in my body to guard against any virus that would make me even more ill. Yvonne told me about all of the good antioxidants in green tea. I of course bought the bags of green tea. I added a black tea to the green tea and was very happy to find out it replaced after awhile my coffee craving. Then sometime later I found Anna Tea Shop.

Earlier in my life, I had drank some really wonderful Chinese teas and remembered the effect it had on my energy level and just a warm wonderful feeling every time I drank it. I went to Anna Teashop and purchased Mountain Mao Feng (Chinese green tea) and Golden Pu-Erh (a premium black Chinese tea). The first cup of the green and black tea answered all of my cravings for coffee and I have noticed how it boosts my energy level even more than before. This has helped with my oxygen level. I have COPD and have difficulty keeping my oxygen level up.

What I am about to tell you cannot be claimed by your doctor, but I can tell you what I can be very excited about…

After I had been on my Chinese green and black teas for about a month, I had my three month visit with my doctor. While checking my lungs and oxygen my doctor did a happy dance! He ask what I had been doing differently since I last saw him. I ask him why, the doctor said to me “Your oxygen level hasn’t gone over 87%, today it registered 98%.” I told him the only thing I had been doing differently was using the tea I had purchased from Anna Tea Shop. He told me I could not make that claim medically, which I knew, but I can make that claim because that was the only thing that I had done differently since I last saw him!”

By Selena S.|2016-01-05T13:44:04-06:00December 19th, 2015|Drinking Tea|Comments Off

Holiday Pick Me Up

Well…here we are – nearing that last week before Christmas. The holiday entertaining and events have been in full swing now. Maybe you still have a few Christmas gifts left to find, purchase, and deliver. Probably a holiday gathering to cook for or prepare a dish for. Hmmm…or maybe you have two or three of those to complete. And oh man…we want to fit in that cool Christmas light show before its too late! Christmas programs at church and school. Add on top of all that what about those few minor Christmas decorations that you know you don’t have to do but you really wanted to do??

How are you doing? Even more..how do you feel? How is the holiday preparations working for you? Probably more than a few of us are getting a bit draggy at this point of the month. A little more run down and maybe even a little annoyed we can’t seem to sit down without our minds racing with our “To-Do” list! I can’t fib. I know I do. Some days in this frolicking month of December it seems as though I wake up in the morning with the afternoon cobwebs already being woven! You know that feeling in the late afternoon when you need an extra pick me up to clear the mind and wake up?

Well here at the Teashop this is when the three of us tea ladies kind of get “back to the basics”. Those basics of tea that aren’t all that fancy sounding on the outside but we know will not only make us feel good but will make us feel fantastic, alert and ready for the next round of fun. Each one of us has our favorite basics but they all have a few things in common. The teas are basic, premium, and give us a small amount of caffeine!

So if you are feeling a big draggy and your holiday oomph is sagging consider a cup or two of good premium tea. Doing this just for yourself will help you slow you down for just a moment. Brewing premium leaves takes only a few minutes – yet is a ‘slow’ food not a fast food. In a matter of minutes a hot cup of tea can take you from Saggy Draggy to Alert and Awake! Plus, if you reach for a green tea you receive the added benefit of more L-theanine. An amino acid that literally peacefully calms you down just as the tea wakes you up with a nice little dose of caffeine. No jitters here.

So, give your self a little R & R in a cup. Reach for a cup of healthy premium tea and start enjoying the season again!

By Selena S.|2015-12-12T18:53:39-06:00December 7th, 2015|Drinking Tea, Family Stuff|Comments Off

Holiday Gift Giving Guide

The other day I caught a headline about a new type of shopping profile called “sport shoppers”. The “sport shopper” has been identified as a person whose shopping habits are akin to an athletic competition! A sport shopper will prepare ahead of time – researching store layouts, mapping their routes, strategically planning time, products, pricing and everything involved!

Sometimes it can feel like sport shopping when we are simply trying to choose the best gift for each person on our list…

When it comes to tea or a tea drinking lifestyle thinking through the personality of your recipient is helpful. Where will they drink this tea? Home or work? Are they health conscience? Adventurous and love to try new things? A gift to say thank you in a big splashy way? Or do you want to make part of their gift the journey of choosing what they want and how they want it?

On-the-Go gifts are perfect for someone who will brew and drink their tea at work. Fillable Tea Bags (50 pockets for $7.95) or the Brewing Basket with handles ($9.95) makes brewing tea at the office easy with minimal clean up. The Fillable Tea Pockets can even be filled at home and stored in a tin or air tight baggie. Our $28 Scones and Tea Basket includes 50 Fillable Tea Bags, loose leaf tea choices, and a bag of scone mix. A Mug Gift Set (or clear glass gift set) is also a perfect on-the-go gift! The newest and possibly the cutest grab and go for 2015 is our Tea Bag Gift Tin. For no more cost per tin we can personalize the label for you!

Healthy Lifestyle Gifts are available and easy to choose from. Our Matcha Gift Basket includes everything needed to start using Matcha Green Tea every day. We also have a $25 Green Tea Sampler which includes 6 different green teas and a tea storage tin. This same pack is also available in pink for our Breast Cancer Green Tea Sampler. For the person who is caffeine free we recommend our Tea Lover Gift Basket tailored to only caffeine-free or decaf tea choices. For the health conscience – yet on the go person? You can’t beat our Matcha to Go single serving packets!!!! For the health conscience cook or chef? Try our Cooking Grade Matcha. This matcha is AMAZING – with a stronger flavor that works best in recipes.

Adventurous Personality Gifts This is the person on your list always up to trying new things. Loves to be surprised and probably has a love language that loves gifts! We recommend our Tea of the Month Club. Tailored around their unique tastes we send only teas we know they will enjoy. After membership has been sent to them we do a small survey and set up their membership how and when they like it. Each shipment arrives either monthly or bi-monthly. 4 ounces of premium loose leaf tea. About 300 cups of tea – truly the gift that keeps on giving! Another simpler version but one that we highly recommend is our Tea Collections. About $25 each – each collection has been carefully selected among our most popular and well loved teas.

Splashy Thank You Gifts for the Administrative Assistant or babysitter that saves your day! Or anyone who really deserves an extra big thank you. All of our Tea Gift Baskets are custom made for you upon your order. Our gift baskets are gorgeous as we finish them with our crystal cellophane, silver foil wrapped tea candies, and big French wired bow!

How they want it – when they want it Gifts when you want to give the fun of the choosing or the perfect stocking stuffer, our Gift Certificates are perfect! They never expire and can be emailed or mailed. Starting at $10 up to $100. Really, husbands…wives love this one!

By Selena S.|2015-12-02T13:56:15-06:00December 1st, 2015|Tea Gifts|Comments Off

There’s just something about that cup of tea

Holiday entertaining. In my mind flashes a beautiful spread in a vast open home, sparkling with glitz, glitter, and glam. The holidays are so magical…this time of year when we can don an apron, turn on that Nat King Cole CD, and escape to yesteryear. We love the beauty of the meal crafted to perfection, gorgeous decor, and of course those perfect hand-picked gifts.

Along with the entertainment side there is another side to the holiday party. It’s really the most important side – yet with all the busy-busyness it’s easy to miss it or not be as prepared for this other side. The heart of holiday entertaining – no one means to skip it…yet it can happen to all of us…The heart of the party is hospitality. Hospitality isn’t the outer beauty – the pinterest-y decor, recipes and gifts. The heart-filled hospitality is that inner beauty of the party. Without a hospitality heart during the holiday entertaining well then – it’s really just a plain old party. The heart is when you genuinely care about the people coming into your home. Sometimes it is hard to keep life simple enough so we don’t miss the opportunities to show genuine hospitality. Keeping it fun. Genuine. Real. This makes me think of one of my most favorite annual ‘holiday parties’. This party takes place by happenstance every year. The spontaneous moment in December when I am sure I don’t have time to fit one more thing in…when my neighbor drops by to ask a quick question about her dog or asks to borrow an ingredient for dinner. I beg her to stay, brew a pot of tea and pull out a few of my nicer cups. We catch up on life, Christmas, our kids, and rants on our busy schedules. That pot of tea is what we gathered around and it became my sweet offering to my dear neighbor.

Adding in a pot of tea to any holiday gathering can be just that sweet offering of hospitality. And the great part about that is it really is just that simple and yet it makes our guests feel warm and welcomed. A hot pot of tea nestled in a snugly tea cozy and some pretty mugs or teacups simply says I want you here and thank you for coming!

So, here are the basic elements to adding a festive…warm and welcoming Tea Bar to your Holiday Party:

Teapot or Mugs
Brewing Basket or Fillable Tea Bags
Selection of Premium Loose Leaf Tea – try our Classic Christmas Tea Sampler
Perfect Cup of Teaspoon (or pre-fill the Fillable Tea bags)
Filtered water
Hot pot to heat your water in. A good carafe that maintains temperature will do in a pinch!
A tea tidy or two to hold used tea bags or brewing basket

Locate your Tea Bar in a place of interest in your home. Lay out the bar on a tray and use a cake stand or cute basket to hold your tea selections. Use little signs to show the different types of tea. Print off our How to Brew directions or make your own. We have over 80+ premium selections and we would love to help you create the perfect Tea Bar for your event!

So as your making your Holiday Entertaining plans… round it out with some genuine Hospitality. And if you get a chance to brew a pot of tea for a friendly pop-in that is even better!

By Selena S.|2015-12-01T12:56:30-06:00November 30th, 2015|Brewing Tea 101, Drinking Tea, Family Stuff|Comments Off

Personalized Christmas Gifts – Tea Bag Tins

Tea makes a fabulous gift. It’s healthy, yummy, and luxurious. With over 80+ tea varieties you can also make your tea gifts very personal. Truly a gift with heart and soul.

We have a couple of new Tea Collections and some new tea products. Our Classic Christmas Tea Sampler is a all 8 of our best Christmas and Wintry Teas bundled together in one price. One ounce each which is 80 cups of tea! Another new item for us is Tea Bag Gift Tins!

Under $10, ready to go tea bags tucked inside a tea tin. The perfect gift for corporate gifts, teachers, neighbors, coaches and more! Each tin is filled with a dozen tea bags and priced right around $7-9.

Additionally we can personalize your tin label with a minimum order of only 10!

Add your personal sentiment such as”Merry Christmas from the Smiths” or “Thank you from Spencer Financial”.

By Selena S.|2015-11-21T05:26:24-06:00November 17th, 2015|Drinking Tea|Comments Off

Decorating with Larry

People comment to our family how amazing it is we work together. The truth is sometimes we get too busy and have cranky days. Throw in the ever changing moods of 3 teenagers and extended family can get a little too close for comfort. 🙂 So, one of the things we are most thankful for in November is a family friend named Larry. Once again we review our Thankful-Giving month – first we remember our loved ones around us, our hometown Liberty, and this satisfying cup of tea. Then Larry is close to the top on all our lists as a reason to be thankful!

An important member of the Teashop Family except Larry isn’t pouring tea, shipping tea, or packaging tea. Every November he comes to spend two weeks with us to work with Brenda preparing the 1913 home for Christmas Tea Parties and Tours. Along with a beautiful talent for decorating, Larry enjoys gardening, and was even written up in the October issue of the The Kansas City Gardener! Be sure to check out the article “In the Garden with Larry Harmon”.

Larry keeps Us Calm as we Decorate On. Truly a cherished friend and a true blessing! We share lunch and tea every day “we get to have Larry over”. Enjoying two pots of Larry’s favorite teas. Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Red Velvet Rooibos.

So, today at lunch as the last cup of Red Velvet was drank Brenda and Larry went back to Christmas decorating. While Sarah and I continued working on stock orders for Christmas and creating Christmas Gift Baskets and Personalized Tea Bag Gift Tins for Liberty’s Hometown Holidays on November 28!

In case you haven’t heard about it yet, Hometown Holidays is a brand new event sponsored by Historic Downtown Liberty, Liberty Parks and Rec and over 24 local downtown merchants. Along with just enjoying a beautiful Saturday afternoon and evening down on the square this is a totally free event with many fun opportunities for the whole family. We hope to see you at Hometown Holidays and we thank you for Shopping Small on Small Business Saturday, November 28.

Hometown Holidays is a free event and includes:

November 28
Passport Giveway – a total of 6 drawings for $80 worth of gift cards each from downtown businesses. Grab your passport on the Liberty Square corner and come to Anna Marie’s to get your passport stamped!
2-4pm Santa at the Corbin Theatre, bring your own camera!
2-4pm Horse Drawn Wagon Rides
S’mores & Refreshments
Crafts for Kids at Blanc Palette and Morning Day Cafe (hosted by the Orange Easel)
Small Business Saturday Shopping and Passport Drawing

Live music and entertainment to include:
2:30 – 3:30pm: 5 Star Jazz Band
3:30 – 4pm: Stars of Tomorrow
4 – 5pm: Liberty Community Chorus 5 – 6 p.m.: Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony

In closing. We are thankful for our Hometown Liberty. Thankful for the other hard working merchants and HDLI staff helping put on such a great event!

By Selena S.|2015-11-19T16:34:37-06:00November 17th, 2015|Drinking Tea, Family Stuff|2 Comments

Cyber Monday Special

It’s all over. All the hype and hub-bub of this week. But, wait. There is still one more shopping delight. Cyber Monday. A shopper’s respite for either those who just need some quiet tea time after the Black Friday Gala or those who simply choose the quiet ease of shopping online.

Our Cyber Monday Special is 10 cups of free Cinnamon Almond Tea. Bagged in a holiday foil red with gold tie. A festive reward for either you or another delicious gift to check off your list. Cinnamon Almond black tea is one of our award-winning best sellers. Nothing says “coming home for Christmas” quite like a fragrant spicy cup of Cinnamon Almond. No matter how you enjoy it – we just thank you for any online order on Cyber Monday! So, enjoy 1 ounce (10 cups) of FREE TEA!

By Selena S.|2015-11-11T12:12:36-06:00November 11th, 2015|Drinking Tea, Events|Comments Off

KC Royals Blue Cheese & Apple Scone

Mary and The Tea Suspects

In honor of our Kansas City Royals World Series win one of our Tea Suspects, Mary Lewis created a scrumptious fall scone recipe. Using Brenda’s Signature Scone Mix she added a few ingredients and now we have a “blue” scone to go with our beautiful blue city!

You will need:

Brenda’s Signature Scone Mix
half cup of peeled, finely chopped Granny Smith apple
1/3 cup of blue cheese crumbles

Following the scone mix instructions only substituting whole milk for the heavy whipping cream.

By Selena S.|2015-11-05T15:37:57-06:00November 5th, 2015|Recipe Box, Scones and more|Comments Off

Thankful-Living.

Woody, Tinkerbell, Snow White, & Frodo posing in Christmas Wonderland!

Family traditions. Looking back through the years as the teashop family kiddos grew up we find ourselves reminiscing. From those babies sleeping in bassinets at Anna Marie’s Gift Shop to now serving tea and directing cars as teenagers and young adults. We think about how family roots are built around shared experiences in life. So, what makes a professional decorator’s family – turned retail gift shop owner – turned rock star healthy tea lady…share? Well…one of them is celebrating Thanksgiving all month long!

We haven’t always had the time to stop and savor Thanksgiving. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas have always been sort of a mash up for our family. October 31, 1995, we handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. Not tucked inside our homes but standing inside our gift shop just off the Historic Downtown Liberty Square. Why? Because we were decorating for the Christmas Open House which fell the day after Halloween! As those cute Halloween kids rang our gift shop doorbell our family was stringing Christmas lights and fluffing pinecone garlands with Christmas music in the background. The look on those kids faces were priceless. When are own kids were old enough to trick-or-treat we headed back to the gift shop – back to the Historic Downtown Square. Our kids Halloween photos were always taken inside of a Christmas Wonder Land. Unique and special. Our family tradition.

This year the Teashop Family kicked off November by heading down the hill to Hillcrest Hope Thrift Store. We got to clean, sort, and merchandise – just like we used to with our gift shop. But, now we do the same thing in this huge amazing store with a community purpose to help families. We appreciate Ryan and all the workers at Hillcrest Hope. Someday when we retire a couple of us might just be the next weekly merchandisers at Hillcrest Hope! Thankful-living. And thankful-giving. We always try to sit down and share a pot of tea, too. This day it was Green Apple Green Tea in our teapot. A fragrant green tea that tastes and smells just like green apples! Just the right amount autumn-pick-me- up.

Fast forward to today. Last August, Wren drove herself home from school bringing a home decor item bought with her own money. A scary Halloweent witch. She hung it right up. Right up in August. Wren turned to me and said “I really don’t know why… but it just feels like it is time for Halloween.” Halloween decor came out end of August. Christmas came out end of October. This is how a family rolls (even the kids!) in the life of a retail gift shop. This time of the year Mimi’s house is decorated all different ways. The first floor is Halloween turning over to Thanksgiving and the second floor is turning into Christmas and the third floor is an amazing hot mess of all holidays combined! What once was a 1913 ballroom is now a dance floor for the art of holiday decorating!

And now we celebrate The Beauty of Thanksgiving…a precious time – not about stuff or things to buy but about the simple art of thankful-living. Living each day – and giving thanks. We get to celebrate Thanksgiving all month long at the Teashop and Inn. Join us for our Thanksgiving Tea and celebrate your own month of Thank-ful living!

By Selena S.|2015-11-05T15:40:28-06:00October 31st, 2015|Drinking Tea, Family Stuff|Comments Off