Masala Chai Latte at Hammerhand Coffee

Hello everyone! My name is Avery and I work Tuesdays and Thursdays at the teashop. One of my new favorite things is drinking tea and a new love of mine is a masala chai latte. I am a Senior in High School, and I take all of my classes through Mizzou Online.

Recently a few friends and I went to Hammerhand Coffee in Historic Downtown Liberty to have coffee and exchange Christmas gifts. While my friends got coffee, I opted for tea! It was cool to see Hammerhand serving a selection of Anna Marie’s teas as well as the option to have a Chai Latte made with our Masala Chai Tea. If you have not been to Hammerhand I highly suggest trying it sometime. It’s a favorite place for students to hang out, catch up and do homework.

Anna Marie’s Masala Chai Latte at Hammerhand Coffee – premium loose leaf and spiced chai

The coffee not only tastes great, but the latte art done by the talented baristas is like no other! It is always fun to get together with friends and enjoy each other’s company over a warm cup of tea!

As I mentioned before, I work Tuesdays and Thursdays here at the teashop and have been doing this since the end of summer 2016. I used to drink Strawberry Cream Black Tea and only Strawberry Cream Black but as soon as I started trying more and more of the 100+ premium teas we have, I quickly began to find so many new favorites! Of course Strawberry Cream Black is still my all time favorite, but now my favorites include Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Lung Ching (which so happens to be January’s featured tea of the month), Red Velvet, Lavender Gray (which makes an amazing iced tea), Jasmine Monkey King, and so many more!

I take all of my classes online through Mizzou where the professors write up their lectures and we correspond through email. I have done this for both my Junior and now Senior year and it has been such a great experience! Not only do I get to sleep in everyday, but I also have all of my schoolwork done around noon! That leaves me plenty of time to pursue hobbies like volleyball, photography, and of course Netflix! Taking these online classes has also allowed me to start college at Truman State University next year with a whole semester of classes out of the way which will be very helpful as I plan to study Communication Sciences and Disorders and continue on to Grad School.

🙂 Avery

By Avery C.|2017-01-24T18:10:10-06:00January 24th, 2017|Drinking Tea|Comments Off

Megan’s Twelve Days of Tea

The holidays have arrived! I’m so glad to be celebrating my first holiday season with the Anna Marie’s family. We have so many exciting things lined up for this most wonderful time of the year and I was lucky enough to be able to put one of those items together!

The Twelve Days of Tea is a gift set that’s perfect for the beginner or the tea veteran. It includes one of our beautiful glass mugs with the newly redesigned logo and twelve unique individually wrapped pre-filled tea pockets, one for each of the twelve days of Christmas!

Since each tea is already in a tea pocket, simply add hot water to your mug and violà, a warm soothing cuppa! The sampling is a mix of our premium herbals, rooibos, green, and black teas.

I chose each tea personally in an effort to help make your season merry and bright! Who knows, you might find a new favorite in our collection!

Each tea pocket package comes complete with a ribbon that can be used to hang on a tree or in any other festive location. I hope you all enjoy this holiday bundle that is near and dear to my heart!

Happy Sipping!

Megan

By Selena S.|2016-11-18T15:53:58-06:00November 18th, 2016|Drinking Tea|2 Comments

Meet the artist behind the tea plant

Lee, Ben, and Baby-on-the-way!

We love tea. But, if you know our family…you know we love people even more! It’s a great day when a door opens and these two worlds (tea+people) collide.

We feel this new door opening with our artisan tea cans. Our gorgeous hand-drawn artisan labels are popping up in unique and special locations. Hammerhand Coffee, Irish Crystal, and The Elms Hotel and Spa.

22 of our premium leaves, rooibos, and herbals are available in the artisan cans with the simple pencil sketches of the young artist. Her nature-inspired idea won our hearts. The simplistic yet refined sketches speak the nature, the earthy, and the timeless way the tea leaf has given people a place for celebration and a place to heal. A place to feel good.

Tea Plant

So, have you seen the cans? They are beautiful! And to see the artisan tea cans you have to know the artist. Lee. Lee is a darling woman from Columbia, Missouri. A new mom (baby is almost here – like a trickle of days away!) A full time art and design student for ten years allowed Lee the skills to execute any design challenge.

Rooibos Plant

Lee is currently a full time design team member at Pinnacle Graphics helping her mom Kim with a variety of design projects. Most recently, the two designed the logo, package design and illustrations for Anna Marie’s Tea. Once Kim finalized the logo, Lee completed three beautiful pencil sketches for representing the Leaves, Rooibos, and Herbals that we carry.

A diverse line of nature that is loose, premium and trustworthy.

We are so excited to have prints of Lee’s hand drawn pencil sketches in our new location! 7 W. Franklin Street. The natural and organic look is so pretty tucked into the re-purposed historic location on the Liberty Square!

By Selena S.|2017-02-24T13:17:48-06:00November 3rd, 2016|Drinking Tea, Events, From Brenda|2 Comments

Matcha Tea – nature’s work out and recovery drink

Drinking tea and October go together like best friends…Autumn tea blends are the fun, the feel, and the taste of Fall. But not all teas are consumed for the same reasons, right? Fall is also the best time to learn something new! Searching out the best work out and recovery drink is now trending and so is matcha.

Purists of all kinds – work out, health and tea are on the same hunt for all natural, organic and premium. Nature providing to nature what our bodies need.

Here at Anna Marie’s Teas we see how these connect. In our own research we stumbled across a fantastic article outlining the The 8 Wonders of Matcha Green Tea. The article was written by a contributing writer at bodybuilding.com. The article is spot on with the super facts about matcha but not written by a tea person or a tea company. The author is 100% about health, working out and what matcha provides for the body. Jam packed with every reason your health and work out needs matcha. Here are the highlights:

Cancer Preventer
Anti-ager
Lowers “LDL” bad cholesterol
Weight Loss
Detoxifier
Mind Improver
Fiber
ENERGY

Knowing and understanding matcha is a big deal. Our matcha is natural, organic, and premium. Anna Marie’s Teas next Matcha Workshop is scheduled for October 15. Blending demonstrations, sampling matcha and recipes. Plenty of time for Q&A. Sign up for the Matcha Tea Workshop and receive 10% off all matcha tea and our new Blender Bottle!

Matcha tea is a whole food context. Ingesting the whole tea leaf is what makes this a super food and the highest level of antioxidants to eat or drink. Regularly using matcha will reduce inflammation. Matcha tea provides a natural energy boost as well as a completely natural work out recovery drink.

Along with caffeine, matcha also contains L-theanine which counterbalances the “jittery” effects some experience with consuming caffeine. Matcha green tea promotes calm focus and clarity of mind without producing nervous energy.

Before soccer practice – Haden’s matcha applesauce

By Selena S.|2016-10-04T15:48:20-05:00October 4th, 2016|Drinking Tea, Matcha Recipes|Comments Off

7 more reasons to love Autumn

TEA. Fall Blooms. Jeweled Leaves. Crisp Air. Pumpkins. Apples. COZY laughter.

Hello Autumn. Happy to Have You!

We simply love to drink good tasting premium tea and love sharing it with others. Autumn centers and reminds us to be thankful – and we are very thankful for tea and others who enjoy the simplistic, healthy life of tea.

Tea Tasting Days are fun over here at the Teashop. Yes, we do get excited to BLEND, BREW, and CHOOSE new Tea Blends! Last week all of us found 7 more reasons we fell in love with Autumn all over again! For our fall line up we have 4 NEW teas (organics and private blends), 1 Fall Favorite (welcome back big pumpkin!) and 2 special events. Why to love fall? The list is endless but here are 7 great reasons just in case you need help jumping on the fall pumpkin wagon…

Autumn Blooms Private Blend – This tea is a cozy cup of blessing! It’s simply all comfort in a cuppa. Rich and tasteful with a touch of sweet ginger, cinnamon and caramel. A black and rooibos blend.
Vanilla Pumpkin Private Blend – dreamy creamy vanilla meets Chinese Hunan black tea blended with a strong pumpkin spice. Creates a good balance.
Spiced Coco-Mint Organic Herbal– this is our new cozy-up-on-the-couch favorite! An organic herbal blend of cinnamon, cocoa, and peppermint. Not just an evening tea but the tea to create your own “cozy” where ever and whenever!
Chamomile Mango Organic Herbal – A unique tea centered on relaxation and holding close those fabulous warm days of summer vacation! Subtly and slightly sweetened with organic stevia. Mangoes and flowers – just a bit of tropical heaven in an herbal brew.
Pumpkin Spice – welcome home our Favorite Fall Friend! The perfect pumpkin tea that is strong enough to handle becoming the best pumpkin around. Brew strong for your own latte. Chai lovers love this one. Having a Halloween Party? Yes, this is the ONE TEA that makes the sinfully delish and super easy Pumpkin Spice Latte.
10% Coupon off online orders through the month of October! Coupon code 10offnow.
October Tea Sampling Saturdays – Stop by the teashop any Saturday for a cup of one of our new autumn teas.

By Selena S.|2016-09-29T11:42:41-05:00September 19th, 2016|Drinking Tea|Comments Off

the little gold teapot

Hello Tea Friends!

Happy Back to School day! A day that has looked different for our family business over the past 22 years. The opportunity to enjoy a new beginning with rejuvenated energy. And with our retail brains we aren’t afraid to pretend it is officially fall. Permission to start looking ahead and dreaming of cinnamon, pumpkins, and cooler weather.

In addition to fall, we are super-duper looking forward to our new tea cans AND the new teashop location! Although we can’t make the official announcement where the new location is just yet….it appears as though we might be a little closer to our original location when Anna Marie’s first opened in 1994!!

Through the years, our happy little gold teapot seemed to follow us where ever we went. Al hand-sketched the original gold teapot over 14 years ago one Saturday night after a big tea party. We love the crooked lid and funny handle. Today, the updated happy gold teapot rests over hand-sketched drawings of a tea plant and beautiful herbals such as rooibos. Sketched by a young graphic designer – who also happens to be a new mom. 🙂 We can’t wait to show off our new tea cans!

Stay tuned as we get closer to unveiling our new packaging and finalizing the new location. Until then enjoy your own ‘back-to-school’ moment and toast a cup of tea to health and family!

By Selena S.|2016-08-17T14:46:11-05:00August 17th, 2016|Drinking Tea, Family Stuff|Comments Off

August brings a harvest of Tisanes

August. Last month of summer…do you ever get that feeling inside like a restlessness? A little feeling that says…”Hey there… it’s time to try something new!”

Maybe it’s that old back-to-school feeling even when you are way past the back-to-school years. Well in our little tea world we get that same feeling.

In this last month of summer what feels fresh and AND REFRESHING?

We often reach for something simple like sweet dried apples and tart hibiscus blossoms brewed together and chilled in a tall glass. Or an herb like mint – only this time the mint is poured over freezing ice…

Strawberry Kiwi Herbal Chilled it is a crisp tart brew. Simply Peppermint Herbal is a big family favorite. Yes, enjoyed year round but wow…! Chilled in the summer this light colored brew is absolutely the best digestive tea after any meal. In this heat sometimes any meal feels heavy. FYI – No sweetener needed. 🙂

Yes. August is the perfect month to discover your favorite chilled tisane (pronounced tee-zahn). Tisane, French for herbal infusion, is typically caffeine free. Herbal infusions are blended with a wide variety of flowers, berries, roots, seeds, peels and leaves. Tisanes will not include leaves from the Camilla sinsensis plant or tea plant. Popular herbal infusions often include healthy herbs and flowers such as chamomile, ginseng, rose petals, hibiscus, peppermint, Valerian, lavender and jasmine.

We look forward to serving Provence Rooibos at our Tea in Paris tea this month. A yummy herbal rooibos infusion which proudly boasts blueberries, red and black currants, rosehips, rose petals and delightful note of culinary lavender! Tickets are still available for the 2:30pm Tea in Paris August Tea Party!

Embrace August for what she offers most…A refreshing infusion of both bountiful herb harvests, fresh beginnings, and refreshingly new flavor favorites! Enjoy tisanes in your tall chilled glasses and short tea mugs. Healthy, good and quenched.

By Selena S.|2016-07-30T15:12:12-05:00July 30th, 2016|Drinking Tea|Comments Off

Flower Power Tea

Jasmine, Rose, Hibiscus. Blooming flowers of summertime. Beauty in the garden and tasty flavors in our cuppas! Next week, July 8-9 we look forward to our Fairies in the Garden Tea Party. A party that shifts focus from just tea…to flowers & tea. Truly a joy to watch the innocent imaginations bloom as we take our Fairy Walk in Brenda’s Gardens! Also, a good mid-way point of our year providing opportunity for mothers, grandmothers, and little ones a time to stop and ‘smell the roses.’

Lavender. Cornflowers. Sunflowers. Calendula (Marigolds). It is amazing how many of our premium loose leaf teas are carefully blended with flower buds and petals. Blended in to add flavor and eye appeal. The flower petals or buds are brewing right beside the tea leaves – opening up flavors and fragrance. Blooming flowers which soothes so many of our souls both inside and out. Chamomile. Safflowers. Outdoors in the gardens and inside our cups of tea.

Flowering Herbs are also an important part of special premium loose leaf blends. We offer several herbs that make great add-ins to flavor or enhance another tea such as Simply Peppermint and our newest – Stevia Leaves. Loose leaves are brewed just like a tea. The sweet liquid can be used as a healthy sweetener added to hot or iced teas. Here’s a great list of other herbs and flowers on GardenKnowHow.com. The article includes brewing directions and even health benefits. More Flower Power to you!

The Earth laughs in Flowers. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

By Selena S.|2016-06-29T13:59:12-05:00June 29th, 2016|Drinking Tea, Events|Comments Off

Frozen Tea Cubes

Summer-Time, Tea-Time, Soul-Time…

This month we are looking forward to our outdoor, relaxing-on-the-veranda Shabby Chic Porch Party. Summertime really is a special way of drinking tea. New flavors burst out when tea is poured over ice. Chilled tea is a forgiving tea – not quite as demanding. Easier to brew and one we don’t have to think about as those leaves unfold. So summertime Tea Time really is more soul-time. Slow down and brew up some iced tea to share. Add some herbs. Or yet…get creative with your cubes! Flavor combinations are endless.

Choose two flavors – make one into cubes and one into the drink. As the ice melts the flavors will blend. Be sure to buy your trays early and start freezing several batches of cubes.

When making the tea cubes brew the tea as normal and freeze in ice cube trays. If you don’t have a lot of time or don’t want to make tons of frozen tea cubes you can double or triple the strength of the brewed tea. Then pour into ice cube trays and freeze. (double or triple the amount of tea used – same amount of water) Then use one or two frozen tea cubes along with regular ice.

Frozen Tea Cube Flavor Combos:

Earl Grey Supreme cubes and Vanilla A La Creme black tea
Cream Tea cubes with Apricot black tea
Earl Grey La Creme cubes with Kenilworth Estate black tea
Blueberry Black Cubes with Strawberry Cream Green tea
For extra strong peach…Peach Tea Cubes with Peach Tea
Apricot Black Tea Cubes with Peach Apricot Honeybush

By Selena S.|2016-06-22T14:02:35-05:00May 31st, 2016|Drinking Tea, Tea Drinks|Comments Off

How to Create a Tea Bar

Welcome to Summer – Iced Tea Friends!

Here in our Anna Tea Shop tea world we often anticipate the seasons as different flavors rather than changing weather. With the calendar firmly planted in June our highly trained taste buds already crave our yummy fruit teas and tisanes. Welcome Iced Tea-Time!

A Tea Bar is one of those almost-too-easy ways of turning any gathering into memorable party. Herb Iced Tea and Frozen Tea Cubes are simple yet super fun ways to jazz up your Tea Bar. Mix and match tea flavors with your menu and don’t be afraid to try just about any combination. One reason so many people brew and enjoy iced tea is that it is easy and the minute details of the traditional perfect cup of tea simply fade away as that tea is generously poured over the ice cubes.

Build-your-own-Tea Bar:

A couple of weeks ago we hosted our Girl Graduated party. We rented a tent, hung lights, and used our real vintage Shabby Chic tablecloths. We kept the menu pretty simple yet we had so much fun with it! With the help of the amazing world of Pinterest we created our own version of a Burger Bar, Popcorn Bar, Grandma’s Dessert Bar, and of last but not least – our Tea Bar. My tea bar consisted of two beautiful glass drink dispensers – one held chilled Strawberry Cream Green and the other chilled Peach Apricot Honeybush. Mini chalkboard with twine hung from the lid (Hobby Lobby) with the tea names, a vintage style diner sugar holder (Dollar Tree). All set out on a red and white checkered table cloth. A Tea Bar can be as simple or as extravagant as you want. Just start with a few of your favorite flavors. Shop our Best Selling Iced Tea Blends and let your wheels start working!

By Selena S.|2016-06-01T10:25:45-05:00May 31st, 2016|Drinking Tea|Comments Off