Fun with lavender buds

Lavender is such a beautiful and fragrant herb.  For those of us who get the crafty bug during the holidays, lavender is an inexpensive and versatile choice for various projects.  Here are a couple of interesting things that can be made with lavender:

• Here's a delicious-looking recipe for lavender tea cookies. As a healthier alternative I would also try the frosting recipe and add lavender to this oat-based recipe. 
• Make a Lavender Eye Pillow using two pieces of fabric (see Easy Eye Pillow Pattern), 3 cups flax seed or uncooked rice
  
  (not instant), 2-3 tbsp. lavender flowers and lavender essential oil.  I don't know about you, but this is one homemade gift I would love to receive! 
• This is an interesting one - you can make a light lavender water cologne using 1 cup lavender flower buds, 1 cup distilled water and 4 tablespoons vodka.  Combine, shake well and let infuse for a couple of weeks, making sure to shake the mixture daily.  Strain liquid into a container and add a little lavender essential oil if the perfume is not strong enough to your liking. 

If you need fresh, fragrant, culinary grade lavender we offer it in an 8 oz jar size, straight from Sequim, the lavendar capital of the U.S.  Have fun!

Mmm...

 

Are you in the mood for a nice, hot, rich Green Tea Latte but your local coffee shop doesn't serve them? Or maybe they only serve a drink with very little or no matcha(stone ground Japanese green tea), or one with a strong melon or soy protein aftertaste? 

If you feel that your local coffee shop would be open to serving authentic Green Tea Lattes, please send them our way! And of course if you don't wish to wait for your local coffee shop to start serving them you can always make them yourself at home. 

Matcha for the holidays

The holidays are upon us.  For many it's a time of eating and sometimes overindulgence. I know I'm looking forward to some good food!

Matcha, with its extremely high concentrations of anti-aging components and catechins, sounds like a nice antidote to have on hand when we've partaken a bit too much of the rich foods and sweets that are all around us at this time of year.

Also, the calming effect of L-Theanine may be just what's needed when the stress of the holidays starts to mount.

Perhaps you've been telling your friends and family about the benefits of Matcha. Now would be a great time to introduce matcha to others by making a Matcha-Banana Smoothie for an energizing breakfast treat.  2 tsp matcha, a banana, some milk and some ice(and a little sweetener), delicious!

Of course, a traditionally made cup of matcha enjoyed with a rich treat is also something I'm looking forward to.  Or I may just get out my bag of Culinary Matcha and make a tray of Matcha shortbread cookies.  So much for overindulgence!

Some recent articles on matcha:

http://www.brainready.com/blog/thetop5brainhealthfoods.html

http://www.gayot.com/lifestyle/health/features/matcha-green-tea-health-benefits.html

The new ThreeTreeTea.com website is here!

The new ThreeTreeTea.com is finally here!  A brand new website with all of the old favorites and some new ones as well.   We now offer payment through PayPal's secure site.  However! If you don't have (or don't like/want to use) PayPal you of course have the option to pay by credit card as well and bypass PayPal altogether.

Though our previous site was security encrypted through Yahoo!,  it was difficult to tell because our site was built in frames; that is, no matter what web page you were on within our site, the search bar always showed the address of the first page because the frame around the site was always part of the home page.  Now you can clearly see the https:// and the lock, so no more worries!

We've got great new products including our Matcha Set, which would make a nice gift for someone who likes matcha.  We've also got our new line of floral teas, Hana-cha.

We hope you like the new site, and we hope that we've made it easy to navigate and find what you need.  Enjoy the new site!