I have to thank Jennifer Melzer for turning me on to the Adagio Teas website. Not only do they have absolutely delicious teas of their own, but they have a set up where you can combine teas, flavorings, and inclusions to produced your own custom blends, and your own labels! It’s so much fun.
Being the hard-core tea drinker that I am, I’m partial to writing a bit of it into my books. In the case of Willow Greene in Swamp Ghosts and Finding Hunter, it’s a bit more than “a little.” She’s a little New Age in appearance and dress, and loves her herbs and teas. (Not to let that fool you, though. She’s a clever business woman and a very strong character, in spite of it.) And Willow loves tea as much as I do. She has one for every mood or ailment, I think.
It was on my first visit to Adagio Teas that I decided my characters would be great inspiration for some custom blends I wanted to try for myself. For you folks who enjoy a good cuppa as much as I do, I hope you’ll stop by and check them out. I now give away sample tins of these teas at signings and presentations, and they’ve gone over very well. Plus the little tins serve as a nice bit of promotion for my books, since the labels include portions of the title graphic, and my name. 🙂
I now have ten custom blends, including: Sarah’s Favorite Earl Grey, Ruth’s Berry Apple Blend, Gunnar’s Assam Blend, Maggie’s Tropical Green, Willow’s Raspberry Cooler, Willow’s Soothing Chamomile, Lester’s White Cranberry, Maggie’s DECAF Mango Surprise, and DECAF Orange Mango Blend, and Christmas on Wake-Robin Ridge.
Hope you’ll check some of them out. You can order them in various sizes, including a small sample package to see what you think. I don’t get paid for this, per se, but any orders at all will earn me points I can use on my next purchase, including my own. So far, just my own orders keep me from ever paying shipping, and usually give me a few dollars off on my purchase as well. (This is a big help when you have over 32 different teas in little cannisters on your counter! 😯 )
If you stop by the site, be sure to look at all the wonderful teas they offer, AND you might consider making your own custom blends, as well. It’s so much fun. You can create them for you own use, or try using them as promotional giveaways at events. The cute little sample tins run about $2 each if you order 10 or more, so you don’t want to give away thousands of them, but a bowl full of freebies on your display table is a nice touch, and not totally prohibitive for most events I’ve been to, so far.
The Write Stuff 