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KTeas Sipping Notes

It must be Friday, because it's Chai! 

September 2011 

in this issue
:: Cyber Monday!
:: Our Town for Thanksgiving
:: Shop Small Saturday
:: New Glenburn Teas!
:: A Twitter Raffle! Whodathunkit?
 KTeas owners toasting you with TeaGreetings!
 [Oh dear. We have belatedly discovered that some kind of glitch--okay, most likely human error, let's be honest--caused this Sipping Notes to not go out to everyone. Apologies if this is a duplicate for you, but we wanted to try to make sure everyone got it at least in time for our Cyber Monday special.  No problem that it's too late for Small Business Saturday--that happens every month. Besides, it's not necessary to wait for an official occasion like Small Business Saturday to Shop Small and Shop Local.  We were sending this out after Thanksgiving Day, itself, to begin with, and there's no reason to limit thoughts of gratitude and Thanksgiving to one day or one weekend a year.  So this is just a blanket re-send in hopes that everyone gets it this time!]

We want to be sure to express our gratitude to you for sharing your Tea Journey with us.  We are so very grateful for all of our Tea Friends joining us on our own Tea Journey.  We hope you and yours have had a pleasant and safe Thanksgiving holiday, and we want to share a few things with you in return, to show our appreciation.

Kathryn wants to share an inner Thanksgiving Tradition:  For some years now, I've considered Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" the perfect Thanksgiving Reflection.  I came upon the play when our children were involved in their high school's production, and it resonated with my own sense that we all need to be more aware of what happened around us and the dear people in our lives.  I always wondered if a movie had been made of it, but in contradiction to the very reason I so valued the play, I somehow let the years slip away without finding out---until this year.

We also want to share with you the whole "Shop Small" campaign for the day after Black Friday.  Being a small business ourselves, we like to show our support for other small businesses.  In addition, we didn't even try to do anything for Black Friday because we're a small business and we know we can't compete with the Big Box stores.  That makes the whole Shop Small campaign all the more appealing to us, a giant nod to "the rest of us", so to speak. 

By the same token, we kind of see the whole Small Business thing also as a prompt to Shop Local.  We like to Shop Local when we can.  That may seem contrary to the fact that we run a web store selling to folks all over the country, but we truly don't feel that it is.  Tea comes from other places besides locally, where we live, but we shop a local grocery store which carries local honey which we use to sweeten our tea, and carries milk from a local dairy to put in the teas that we do put milk in, and we get buttermilk from the same local dairy and grocery store for making our scone and biscuit mixes.  See:  no contradiction.  Buying local and buying long-distance can go hand-in-hand.  Our world is becoming a Global Village.

Finally, we especially want to show our appreciation to you by offering our Cyber Monday special!

So enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving holiday weekend and we hope you have splendid kick-off of the rest of the Holiday Season. 

Warmest regards,
Kathryn & Ed
Cyber Monday!
Check the special offer at the bottom for KTeas Cyber Monday observation!
 

Really: nuff said.  Don't forget to look!
Our Town for Thanksgiving
May become a Thanksgiving tradition!
 
I'm so excited:  This year I have finally taken action so that I might put into effect a long-imagined Thanksgiving Tradition.  Ever since I saw our children's high school's production of Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town", . . . 

Our Town: A Play in Three Acts (Perennial Classics)
by Thornton Wilder by Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Paperback ~ Release Date: 2003-09-23
List Price: $13.99
Our Price: $2.99
Buy Now


. . . I have felt that "Our Town" is the perfect accompaniment to the sentiment and purpose of Thanksgiving.  What a magnificent time to reflect on our lives and what we all-too-often appreciate in our lives without ever expressing that appreciation, whether to the people in our lives who we appreciate, or simply acknowledging aloud that we appreciate something in our lives or some aspect of our lives. 

As many folks do, I'm sure, I have some traditions for the Christmas holiday season that revolve around movies or at least holiday entertainment programs.  I consider it a "must" to see the original "Miracle On 34th Street". for example, as well as Jimmy Stewart's "It's a Wonderful Life"; let's not forget "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" ("It's a holly, jolly Christmas ...!"),  --oh, and of course the 1/2-hour animated "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". . . . But I'd never had in mind a must-see movie for Thanksgiving, until "Our Town".  It turns out there are DVDs of "Our Town": movies or at least filmed stage performances like this one:  

 

Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Two Historic Productions on Two DVD
by Mastervision
Starring:Spalding Gray Hal Holbrook
DVD ~ Release Date: 2005-10-20
DVD ~ Release Date: 2005-10-20
List Price: $59.95
Our Price: $46.99
Buy Now

 

So now I have a Thanksgiving movie to watch and the book.  The story is perfect for a day dedicated to Being Grateful: for our country, for our families, for our friends.  

 

The message of "Our Town", one of gratitude for each minute of our lives, is not unlike the Tea Ceremony of Japan. Surprised? The Tea Ceremony has become so stylized and ritualized, but the root of all of it is Slowing Down, taking note of the details of your environment and appreciating them, Appreciating and Honoring your Guests, as well as the Tea that you are preparing. . . .  

 

If you wonder how I can say "Our Town" and the Tea Ceremony and Thanksgiving all "go together", consider these moments toward the end of Act 3:

 

Emily has passed away and her spirit in the graveyard has realized it is possible to "go back", to view--indeed, to relive days and moments of her life. The other spirits discourage her, insisting it's not wise. When Emily insists that she will not choose a moment that will cause her pain, that she will choose a happy day---one spirit admonishes:  "No!--At least, choose an unimportant day. Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough."  

 

. . . Emily persists, choosing the day of her 12th birthday. Emily is there, viewing her fellow townspeople and her beloved family for only minutes before she bursts out, first about her parents:

"I can't bear it. They're so young and beautiful. Why did they ever have to get old? Mama, I'm here. I'm grown up. I love you all, everything.--I can't look at everything hard enough."  

 

. . . In another few moments, as Emily's spirit observes her mother bustling about the normal morning routine, not even stopping for the fact that it's Emily's birthday, Emily's spirit cries out unheard to her mother,

"Oh, Moma, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me. Mama, fourteen years have gone by. ... But, just for a moment now we're all together. Mama, just for a moment we're happy. Let's look at one another."  

 

. . . After just a bit more of the mere start of her 12th birthday happens right before her gaze, Emily's spirit cries:

"I can't. I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another." She breaks down in sobs, then continues: "I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed."

 

Maybe you'll consider making "Our Town" part of your Thanksgiving tradition.  Or better yet, just resolve from now on to Notice.    

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Shop Small Saturday
After the chaos of Black Friday, show your support of small businesses!    

  

You've probably seen the commercials for Small Business Saturday.  It's a pretty simple concept.  Perhaps the most important aspect of the whole idea is:
Small Business Saturday logo
Don't feel like it needs to be either/or.  No one is saying you shouldn't have taken advantage of massive sales on Black Friday (at least, we're not).  After all, many of the small businesses you can support by spending your dollars there operate by using products and services that come from big corporations.  No need to ostracize one for the sake of the other! 

Naturally, as a small business, ourselves, we'd love it if you shopped with us on Small Business Saturday (or any time!).  We didn't even try to do anything for Black Friday because we know we can't compete with the Big Box stores.  So we like the promotion of shopping with small businesses the day after.

We realize that many may consider the Small Business Saturday campaign to be about Shopping Local, also.  We try to Shop Local as much as we can.  When we encourage you to Shop Local, also, don't think we're undermining our business.  If you're not local to KTeas, you might shop our website for teas and baking mixes (perhaps on Cyber Monday, take advantage of our special to stock up for yourself as well as on gifts!) . . . and then Shop Local to get the other ingredients you will use with the products you purchase from KTeas.

If you are local to Fort Mill and Rock Hill, SC, you can shop with us by going to The Shoppes At River's Edge in Rock Hill, KTeas has a space in the front of The Shoppes right off I-77 exit 82A at the corner of Cherry Rd. & Celanese,   or by going to The Marketplace at Young's Garden Center in Fort Mill, Welcome to Young's Garden Center, Fort Mill, SCon Hwy 521 south of Ballantyne, north of Sun City Retirement Community.  You would then support the small local business which carries our products as well as supporting the KTeas small business---two birds with one stone!

So pat yourself on the back for surviving Black Friday, and pat a small business on the back when you Shop Small on Small Business Saturday!
New Glenburn Teas are in!
Green Tea, Monsoon Tea, Silver Needle--Oh My!

The latest new teas from the Glenburn Estates' Darjeeling plantation have arrived.  We now have Glenburn's Silver Needle White Tea
Glenburn Silver Needle, chilled, w/a smidge of agave nectar, in champagne flutes
chilled Glenburn Silver Needle in flutes
Usually a harvest of the month of July, the tips for this Silver Needle tea were harvested throughout the month of August this year, due to an unusual Monsoon Season.  We took this delicate tea chilled, with the barest hint of agave nectar added, to the Thanksgiving dinner we were invited to, and served it in champagne flutes.  Darjeeling is, after all, considered the Champagne of Teas! . . . We also now have Glenburn's unique Monsoon Leaf Tea--unique because many plantations don't harvest the teas grown during the Monsoon, or use Monsoon tea leaves only in blends. 
chilled Glenburn Green in flutes
Not Glenburn; they produce this hearty workaday black tea from their Monsoon harvest.  . . . And finally, we have the Glenburn Green Tea, picked 12 August 2011. We also took this bright sweet--yes, sweet-- green tea to the Thanksgiving dinner, chilled, with just a touch of agave nectar, and served it in champagne flutes.
Win some KTeas products
in a fun Twitter raffle

TheTeaShowIcon
The Tea Show with Brian & Lisa DiVita
KTeas is taking part in a fun little Twitter raffle conducted by @FoodBlogTeaShow.  Here's how you enter:
Tweet this phrase:

@FoodBlogTeaShow's Twitter Raffle: http://tinyurl.com/teashowraffle #teashowrafflenow

(easiest way: copy & paste it into your own tweet) and get someone to Re-Tweet your tweet!  When @FoodBlogTeaShow sees that someone re-tweeted your tweet of that phrase, they will tweet you a photo of your raffle number.  (Limit of 3 per day.)

On their final 2011 episode of The Tea Show, they'll draw the winning number.  The winner gets the prize, which seems to be growing all the time.  KTeas has contributed products to it, but we're not the only ones. So check it out!  Enter!
SCGB containing TTL-Dixie w teas mentioned in book
Tea & Mystery Lover's basket w/Dixie TTL book + teas from KTeas like those in book.
 
a birthday basket from SCGB
a lovely birthday gift basket created by Southern Charm Gift Baskets.

 To fill your gift-giving needs in every way possible, KTeas has teamed

 up with Southern Charm Gift Baskets so that you can give your tea- 

 loving friends and family beautifully-crafted gift baskets containing  

 teas, tea ware, accessories, books from KTeas. You can even choose

 a la carte items from Southern Charm Gift Baskets to enhance your

 basket's contents according to the intended gift recipient!

 

 To place an order by phone, call B.J. at 803.207.5668 or  

 call Dee at 803.909.5850.     


 Or contact by email to discuss your order.

 Until we sip together again,
 Teafully yours,
 Kathryn & Ed

 KTeas

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Cyber Monday!
Enter Promo Code:
CYBER MONDAY KTeas
at check-out on
for an order with Minimum Retail Total of $15.00,
and receive 25% Savings!
All Day Long on Cyber-Monday, 28 November!
--Earn "full" K.I.S.S. the Tea rewards points along with your savings! For example: if you order $50, you will save $12.50 on your retail total, making your order's subtotal $37.50 ---but you will earn 50 K.I.S.S. the Tea points toward earning 100 points and getting a $10 e-coupon.  
Looking forward to hearing from you on Cyber Monday!
Offer Expires: 11:59pm 28 November 2011