This one will require a gift basket, which you can find at walmart or a fabric store like Joann fabrics. This idea will also require some food shopping. Things you will need…a loaf of fruit cake, couple of types of fruit jam (having lived in Ohio, I am a sucker for Smuckers but you can pick your choice), a couple of types of cookies eg. some local delicacies, or how about baking some yourself!

Next you’ll need a good selection of teas. My recommendation would be to include a Darjeeling First Flush - such as Okayti or Giddapahar or Makaibari, a second flush such as Goomtee or Namring Second Flush, a Nilgiri tea such as the Craigmore, and an Assam tea such as Mokalbari or Boisahabi. Include a tea pot - a two or three cup tea pot should do but if you want to splurge, you could select the glass transparent tea pot.

Lay some paper cuttings at the bottom of the gift basket, and place the tea caddies and the Ritz cracker box in the back. Put more paper clippings (or just some crushed tissue paper) infront of the caddies and bring it up to the top of the rim of the basket. Start arranging the cookies and the bottles of jams in a nice a decorative way. When you are done, simply place the basket on transparent wrapping paper (also available in the gifts or crafts section at Walmart or Target) and start collecting it towards the top. Tie it all up with a string and cut it into a nice decorative shape. Add a bow to the top, and there, you have a nice little gift basket. Cost - the jams and cookies etc should cost you no more than $10, the teas $30, the tea pot - $12 to $35, and gift basket and other materials another $10 or so.

Huge thanksgiving weekend sale is currently ongoing at Jaya Teas. Make your holiday gift purchases right here today! Sale is for a limited time only.

Almost all flavored teas are on sale. Some of our best seller black teas are also on sale. Shop now and get a head-start on your holiday savings.

Nothing says “I love and care for you” more than a gift that has a personal touch to it.  Holiday season is upon us and before we know it we will need to start thinking about gift giving.  Now, we have a nice little gift section to our web catalog which you can browse through any time you want and select a few gift baskets you could give out this season, but today I want to focus on how you can make your own inexpensive gift packs to hand out to your near and dear ones.

Lets start out with the most economical gift you could give this season:  That would be simply a caddy of Jaya tea, with a nice little bow attached to it. 

A variation on this theme would be taking the caddy and wrapping it in a gift wrap in the style of a candy wrapper.  You could go really crazy with this theme and put the caddy in a wine bottle bag by putting a little bit of padding at the bottom.  You can buy one at walmart or target for a couple bucks.  Since the bag is slightly large, you could potentially add a box of tea filters to it.  Cost: Cost of tea caddy varies from $6 to $14, plus the cost of paper - may be a buck.  In less than 7 to 15 dollars you have a nice gift.

Note:  For a limited time, if you ask for a cellophane bag to put a caddy of tea and a box of filters, we will send it to you for free.  Use a ribbon to tie the mouth of the bag, and put a nice bow on it, and you’ve got a fine gift under $20! Just be sure to request it in a box provided for notes and special instructions, on the checkout page.

Its the classic problem. Year after year thanksgiving comes around, and I worry about what to serve at the table. Ofcourse there will be the big bird at the center of the table, but what to provide for beverages? Apple cider? May be, Beer? why not. How about tea this year?

Tea is often overlooked at the thanksgiving dinner because hey, not everybody drinks tea and it takes so much time to make, and I am so busy etc etc. But really, these are all just excuses. Because after all is said and done, it takes no more time to brew a few cups of tea than to make a pot of coffee.

So this year, start a new tradition, and start serving teas - not the cruddy iced tea, but the good ones. Give your family the best you have got, and who knows, you might start a young one onto drinking teas!

For the afternoon, brew a pot of nice light Darjeeling tea and put it on the table. Remember, with loose tea you can rebrew the tea at least once more, so save the infusion and re-use it to brew another pot after the first one is gone.

With the dinner, serve something more fragrant like the passion fruit or vanilla, or apple tea. You want a tea that will compete well with all the other strong aromas on the table.

And finally, for the after-dinner tea, here is a great idea. Brew some nice strong Assam tea or Nilgiri, and mix one cup of tea with a shot of liquor like Amereto or Triple sec, and serve warm.

Above all, whether you serve tea or not, have fun at the thanks giving. Its the one holiday that reinforces our family bonds, and this is the main reason for having thanksgiving dinner together.

In the hallowed tradition of dedicating months for awareness of various diseases, it is important to note that November plays a critical role as the Lung cancer and Diabetes awareness month.

Among cancers, Lung cancer is by far one of the largest killers of men and women. More people are killed by lung cancer than are killed by Prostate cancer, Breast cancer, Colon, Liver, Kidney and skin cancer. And the one true recognized cause of lung cancer is smoking - something we have control over. So this month, try to give the gift of life to your friend and family members, and wean them off smoking if you can.

One of the reasons why lung cancer is so deadly is because by the time it is detected its often spread widely in the body and taken on a deadly form. There has been no early and easy way to diagnose Lung cancer. However, just recently there has been some positive news in early detection of lung cancer. There is a test called spiral CT, which has been found to detect nodules in lung much much earlier than ever before detected by x-ray. Learn more about this test here. It just might save your loved ones life.

Here is an additional resource to learn more about Lung cancer.