Thursday, March 29, 2012

Spring Special!

Visit our website to take advantage of a great spring sale - save 50% on all six varieties of our Specialty Tea Bags!

Our boxes include 25 individually foil-wrapped, premium tea bags and are now priced just $6.50!

We offer six flavors: Belfast Tea (similar to English Breakfast), Decaf, China Green, Darjeeling, Peppermint and Lapsang.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

1887 Was Quite a Year

2012 marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of S.D. Bell teas and here at Best International Tea, we'd like to think that the best thing to have happened in 1887!

We are very grateful that Samuel David Bell decided to found S.D. Bell & Co, back in 1887 in Belfast, giving us his gourmet, world-class teas that we import to America today courtesy of the fourth generation of his family.

With this milestone anniversary, we got to wondering about what else occurred or started in 1887. Here are just a few of the many events and our thoughts (in italics) ...

• Jan 5: The first U.S. School of Librarianship opens at Columbia University
We are all grateful to librarians for the role they played in our education

Jan 28: Construction of the Eiffel Tower begins in Paris
Both the Tower and the Tea have lasted 125 years, we'll let you decide which is more impressive!


Feb 2: Groundhog Day is first observed in the US in Punxsutawney, PA
Old Punxsutawney Phil told us six more weeks of winter this year but the thermometer says different

•  April 14: Legendary character Sherlock Holmes first appears in written works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
We bet Holmes and Watson would love to relax with a cuppa S.D. Bell after cracking a tough case

June 21: Britain celebrates the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her reign, which lasted until 1901. Her 63 years and 7 months on the throne make her the longest-reigning British monarch and she provided over a period of great industrial, scientific and artistic success.
We imagine the Bell family celebrated Queen Victoria with a toast


Aug 31: Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, which produces moving pictures
Movies have come a long way since 1887 but our tea has stayed a classic







• Nov 15: Painter Georgia O'Keefe is born
Her painting and S.D. Bell tea: both masterpieces!

 
 

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Best International Tea has been featured in the March issue of Inside New Jersey Magazine. The writer, Karen Prager, does a wonderful job telling our story from the very beginning! I think you'll enjoy getting to know quite a bit more about our founders, Rob and Amy Milo, and the many, many interests they have in addition to tea!

Though it really has not been very long since our intrepid tea undertaking began, Rob & Amy's love of tea runs deep and this is article is a fine retrospective.

Here's a brief excerpt, enjoy the rest of the article by clicking here.
The life that he does have has allowed Milo and his wife, Amy, to do a great deal of traveling over the 46 years they’ve been married.

The Chatham couple’s latest business, Best International Tea, grew out of their many trips to London and their affection for the pleasant ritual of afternoon tea.

“Amy would tell me, ‘We’re not having lunch — we’ll do teatime,’” Milo says. His wife’s favorite tearoom is Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly, and she is also fond of the Claridge’s and the Brown’s Hotel afternoon teas.

From every trip to London, Amy would bring back “plain, black tea — always loose,” she says.

The couple’s longtime friend, Penni Garcia, “knows good tea,” says Milo, and “when she visited her auntie in Belfast, she brought us back some tea.”