Stepping out...

So today I began the arduous task of promoting Blend Teas in stores. I feel that it went fairly well, but the "proof is in the pudding", or so the saying goes. I will expand further on those new stores if (when??) things develop other than just initial contact. On another note, we have received notification that we WILL be at the Grass Valley Celtic Festival in October (yay!)and are working on participating in several other weekend events. Will keep you all informed.

Another fun night tomorrow at the Mill Street Farmer's Market. We will again be sampling two varieties of Twisted Southern Style Sweet Tea along with two others.

Starting to work more on the development of the website. Have had a few good leads, so will be following up with those...I'm hoping that the etsy.com account works out well. We shall see.

Pros??? Well, maybe :)

It is farmer's market eve....quite an event in the Blend Teas household. We run around like Santa's elves trying to package, check and recheck our lists and inventory. Big sighs. BUT so exciting too! I find it very interesting to place our bets the night before on what will be the big seller of the evening. I'm finding (and this will be a total shocker to those of you out there who are reading) that whatever we sample is (in general) the hit of the night.

Last week we launched our new line of Twisted Sweet Teas (thought up by my husband and inspired by his mother). Yet another surprise! Who knew that the Northern California folk would be so taken with Southern Style Sweet Tea??? Certainly not us, but alas! We are thrilled to be proven wrong in this instance. Last week we sold out of our sample, the Sweet Southern Blackberry. This week?? We're sampling TWO! Sweet Georgia Peach and Sweet California Boysenberry. Nor-Cal, we are ready for you to welcome sweet tea into your home!

Packaging continues to be somewhat of a learning experience. While our black tins have had a quite positive response, we are also finding that our "refill" bags are growing in popularity. A few weeks ago, we introduced our 6 ounce size with much success. This week, we will slowly be adding 12 ounce sizes in select teas for those who are REAL tea drinkers (like yours truly). We welcome feedback from our customers. Let us know what you like and why.

On another note, we have received confirmation that we will be vending at the Grass Valley Celtic Festival in October! Yay! Come see us then! We will update you about other events we will be attending.

Happy Brewing....

Farmers Market!

Last night was our first Farmers Market. What a blast we had!! We didn't really know what to expect, this is all new to us! Luckily, we had set up a "trial run" the night before, practicing how to set up our canopy and tables so we didn't look too foolish amongst all the professionals there :). How very invigorating it is to make your first sale. I must say, our little "sample jars" (for free sniffing of product!!) were a huge success. Not only did they tie the whole look together, people really seemed to enjoy actually seeing and smelling the product. I think it could quite easily be a little overwhelming, the number of products we are carrying, but the ability to smell and look at them and see what makes each tea so special is really a fabulous little "bonus". Case in point, our Blueberry Black Tea has little bits of Cornflower in it which lends to a purple hue when brewed, but also adds a bit of flashiness when looking at the looseleaf tea.

All in all, we took away many notes for next week, but our excitement is growing. We were shocked and impressed by the support we felt not only from the customers, but the surrounding vendors. Our community is so giving and willing to help, we are truly proud to be a part of it.

Sneak peek for next week??? Samples of brewed iced tea! YUM!

Stickers and Labels

We are working with a guy on creating some stickers/labels for our tins. Yay! Super excited about filling out applications for farmer's markets, etc for this summer. It's getting real!

Sun Tea Time?

Weather is looking good for this weekend. Should start experimenting with different types of sun teas. Will be sure to document all findings....yes, this is exactly the type of research I really enjoy. Who could turn down sampling iced tea on a warm day? Not me!!

just a tuesday

have been researching all day about etsy.com...it seems to be our answer in the long (and short?) run. trying to figure out how best to promote our business and at the least cost. it's difficult, as it all takes so much time, but i hope that this new line of thought will end up being as successful as i'm hoping. a key factor will be getting lots of photos of the tea and getting them posted as soon as possible. we are still finalizing how we want our labels for the tea tins to look - it's hard because i have an image in my mind, but can't quite seem to figure out how to make it happen. we are working with a guy right now, and he seems pretty good - keep your fingers crossed! keep checking in for more updates.

so we're a little tardy....

Alright, I can admit it. Things are not moving as quickly as we had hoped. It's very difficult to work/commute 65 hours per week then try to come home and be creative. I find that inspiration comes at very inopportune times (note, it's Sunday night and all of a sudden I feel the urge to create a facebook account for Blend Teas AND update the blog). Go figure. This will be short. Because quite frankly, while I would have a lot of time if I'm fired from my day job, I do think it would be more beneficial if I go about it in the correct way. And so, I'll call this a night. Get a good night's sleep. Try to be inspired again tomorrow....

...Tthis will NOT be in another month. I hope.