Monday, August 29, 2011

Storehouse Tea Supports Fair Trade

After water, tea is the most popular beverage in the world

with 15,000 cups drunk per second worldwide.

Source: Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International

“Fair Trade is by far the most comprehensive

program that not only provides disadvantaged

workers with access to better opportunities for

themselves but also for their children.”

----Bharath Mandanna , Vice President of the

Bombay Burmah Trading Company (BBTC) Ltd.

The largest and oldest fully organic tea company in India

Storehouse Tea Company has gone through the difficult but rewarding process to certify our FaIr Trade Teas with TransFair USA, the leader in certifying and promoting Fair Trade products. While we always felt strongly about providing as much Fair Trade Tea as possible we had no idea how difficult and confusing the process was going to be. But this didn’t deter us because we feel strongly that the millions of tea workers, the tea pluckers and processors, that supply us with our incredible teas, have a much brighter future for themselves and their children only because of the additional “premium” that Fair Trade tea purchases can provide. While it adds only pennies per cup to our customer, the extra money that these underpaid workers receive is literally a life-saving and life sustaining resource. Talk about a win-win, great tea and great good all in one delicious cup.

Currently Storehouse Tea Company offers 13 Fair Trade Teas which comprises 40% of our teas. When we develop new teas and the spices, herbs and fruits that go into them, we source organic and fair trade whenever possible. Fair Trade organic teas might not taste better than organic tea that isn’t Fair Trade, but they will make you feel better about drinking it because your purchases are the difference between systemic poverty and life giving sustenance to the very people that make these incredible teas possible.

What is Fair Trade and Fair Trade Certified™?

Fair Trade is a market-based model of international

trade that benefits more than one million farmers

and farm workers in 58 developing countries across

Africa, Asia and Latin America. Fair Trade certification

enables consumers to vote for a better world with

their dollars, simply by looking for the Fair Trade Certified

™ label on the products they buy.

Find more information: www.fairtrade.net/standards/

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Hello to all of our tea friends!

It’s been a while since we have updated you on what's been happening with Storehouse Tea, so we're excited to let you know about all the great things that are going on because of your loyalty and I dare say fanaticism about our teas!

Listed below are amazing events that we are proud to be a part of, the finest Farmers Markets in Northeast Ohio that we are honored to be investing our time and energy in this summer and fall, so come find us and say hello!

Just to let you all know we got Certified Organic and Fair Trade this past fall, and we've updated our website! We have new and improved labels and many new tea blends. This has opened up opportunities to get our teas in many more shops and bigger food markets, we'll update you more as that happens. We have some new teas and have improved on some of our classic offerings. We have partnered with Boko Botanicals who has created some amazing new Spa Tea Soaps for us! We also have some really cool iced tea pitchers... check them out on our new and improved website.

www.storehouseteacompany.com

Yeah summer is finally here!!

We look forward to seeing you all soon so read on

and come visit us!!!

Summer Schedule

Events & Farmers Markets

Little Italy Art Walk

June 3, 4 & 5

Friday, June 3 from Noon to 9PM
Saturday, June 4 from Noon to 9PM
Sunday, June 5 from Noon to 6PM

You can find us on the patio of Anne Van H. Boutique, 2026 Murray Hill Rd. Ste 106, Murray Hill School House, 216-721-6633. Storehouse Tea will partner with Boko Botanicals selling tea and tea soaps. The Little Italy Art Walk is Cleveland's wildly popular event combining food, culture, arts and fashion!

Ohio City’s Open Air in Market Square

June 11, July 9, July 16, July 23, August 13, August 20, 11:00am – 5:00pm Storehouse Tea will partner with Boko Botanicals selling tea and tea soaps. Located across from the West Side Market, Market Avenue and West 25^th. Featuring weekly musicians, and art installations on Gould Court. Open Air in Market Square is Cleveland’s Artisan Outdoor Market. This summer market has a lively and fun vibe you'll want to check out! For more information: http://www.ohiocity.org/

Taste of Hudson Labor Day Weekend

September 4 – 5 Storehouse Tea will partner with Boko Botanicals selling tea and tea soaps. Located in Historic Downtown Hudson on the Clock Tower Green this gastronomic event gets rave reviews.

RIPE Food & Garden Festival at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens

September 23-25 Storehouse Tea will partner with Boko Botanicals selling tea and tea soaps at this truly unique blend of adventurous cooking and organic and locally grown foods. Storehouse Teas are sold at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens and they featured some of the new Orchid Tea blends at their highly successful late winter, Orchid Festival.

StoreWhy are Farmers Markets so much fun? They provide a venue where local farmers, producers, and artisans can sell their high-quality products directly to the consumer, in a fun, informal, (and mostly) beautiful community setting that allows them to interact directly with the grower or producer, thereby re-connecting them to the source of their food.

"Don’t buy your food from strangers!"

Countryside Farmers' Market at Howe Meadow
Saturdays, May 14 – October 29, 2011
9 am until Noon
4040 Riverview Rd. Peninsula, OH, 44264

This is a beautiful location in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. After your market experience go for a hike on one of the many beautiful trails in the park, visit nearby Blossom Music Center or Brandywine Falls, or bring your bike and head over to the groomed and winding bike paths that cover almost a hundred miles and follow the historic Ohio & Erie Canal route. Bring the family or just you and your appetite and you'll be a regular!

For more information: www.cvcountryside.org

Hudson Farmers Market on the Green

Saturdays, June 11 – October 1, 2011

9 am until 12:30

The Hudson Farmers Market is located on the main Hudson Village Green at the intersection of Rts. 91 & 303 (Main St. & Streetsboro St.)

Hudson has a quaint and vibrant downtown great shopping and dining and just checking out the scene. Check out this well run and fun market,

For more information: www.hudsonfarmersmarket.org

Lakewood Market

Mid- week day market

Wednesdays, June 1 – September 14, 2011

10am -1pm, this is a new mid-week market for us that looks to be growing in popularity and variety every week! We are finally close for all of our West-side (Cleveland) friends.

15300 Detroit Ave. Lakewood, Ohio 44107

For more information: www.northunionfarmersmarket.org

Heritage Farms, Peninsula Farmer’s Market

Mid – week evening market

Wednesdays, June 15 – September 28, 2011

3:30 pm -7:00 pm

Heritage Farms

6050 Riverview Road, Peninsula, Ohio

For more information: www.heritagefarms.com

The Farmers’ Market is located on the 163-year-old Ohio Century Heritage Farm, a family-owned and operated working farm. Long known as the place for families to gather in the Cuyahoga Valley, Heritage Farms is a family friendly place to find a Christmas tree in the winter, select Daylilies for the garden during the summer and discover that special Pumpkin or enjoy a hayride each fall. Heritage Farms provides the perfect location and ideal backdrop for a flourishing community Farmers’ Market.

Dan and I hope that you can stop by and visit us, see and sample our selection of new teas and tea ware!

Enjoy your summer days and stay healthy!

Paula and Dan Hershman

About Storehouse Tea

Dan and I are part of the 76 million baby boomers who want to stay healthy and live longer. Seven years ago, we took that old coffee maker off the counter and replaced it with a beautiful functional infuser teapot. At first we both missed the caffeine addiction buzz, but we didn’t miss the jittery, anxious feeling we got when we drank it and the headaches and crabbiness if we didn’t. My husband, Dan, feels his health and overall wellbeing has increased and he has more continuous energy. I believe coffee caused me repeated kidney stones, headaches, bloating and fibroids. Thank God I have none of that in my life anymore!

Dan and I have left our coffee addiction behind and have fully embraced tea drinking as a lifestyle choice, and what a difference it has made in our lives, we are blessed! So with this new passion we’ve decided to share our knowledge and enthusiasm for high quality Certified Organic and Fair Trade loose-leaf teas, making them available to as many people as possible by turning our passion into a business, Storehouse Tea Company.

The art of drinking tea has been around for 5,000 years. It’s amazing to us that there are still a lot of people who have never experienced drinking loose leaf tea. Most of the world drinks whole leaf tea, unfortunately we Americans invented the tea bag and since then we have been missing out of about 300% of all the great health benefits, flavor and freshness that whole leaf teas offer us. So with that being said all of our teas are sold loose, which means they are not in tea bags. We purchase the most current crop from that picking season, and purchase as much Fair Trade tea and ingredients as we can. Most of what America drinks is produced by big industry making it just another bland, dissipated, expired, useless cup of nothing! The teas we’re passionate about offering you are the best you’ll ever taste, small batch blending using fresh organic ingredients which are the healthiest for you! Our customers won’t go back to tea bags again!! We love our teas, and drink them every day, so do our three teenagers, we would not give you something that we don’t absolutely believe in, trust and love. Here is what you won’t find in Storehouse Organic Teas …no carbohydrates, no calories, no fats, no sugars, no artificial colorings, no preservatives, no pesticides.

We offer a beautiful selection of Organic loose leaf teas and beautiful, practical and functional infuser tea ware. Check out our website storehousetea.com and go under "All about Tea" tab to "Tea and Health" to find amazing studies that point to all the great properties that fresh loose leaf teas contain.

Our vision for Storehouse Tea Company is to be ethical and socially conscious as well. So providing Certified Organic tea was only the beginning. We feel our customers want to be sure that people in underdeveloped countries are being paid a reasonable price for their teas. Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace. Our suppliers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, guaranteeing to pay above market prices, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to develop the business capacity necessary to compete in the global marketplace. Harmful agrochemicals and GMOs are strictly prohibited in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers’ health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations. We try to purchase as much Fair Trade tea as possible, so that we can give back to the world. We also feel connected to the Farms that have so diligently provided this amazing tea for us. We know it has not been sitting in some warehouse for years, we know exactly where it comes from, how it was grown and we know it was from the spring or fall crop that year. Fresh is the best!