Our newest custom tea blend is now available!

This summer, we are pleased to introduce our latest custom tea blend to our customers. We have carefully blended this tea in memory of a dear friend of ours. He liked his tea strong in character, yet smooth enough to enjoy after that perfect meal. Our Manhattan Tribute Blend is the perfect combination of Indian, Formosan and Ceylon teas, devised for late day and after dinner consumption when the palate is satiated. When brewed, it produces a bold cup with a slightly floral note.

In the ongoing fight to conquer cancer, 10% of proceeds from the sale of this item will be donated to the Cancer Research Institute.

To learn more about the Cancer Research Institute and its groundbreaking work, please visit online at: http://www.cancerresearch.org

To visit this tea on our website, click here: http://marktwendell.com/ManhattanTribute.htm

We invite you to enjoy a great cup of tea and help out a worthy cause in the process!

The Continued Health Benefits of the Tea Leaf

For many years now scientific researchers have been finding a positive correlation between tea and the body's overall health. Although, it has not been listed as scientific fact, the determination of numerous studies is that tea is good for you! I recently saw a few interesting articles on the Internet that further outlined these healthy benefits of tea. I have listed key excerpts and direct links to the original Internet postings below. So, reach for another cup of tea today and drink to your health.

The first article discusses how a chemical found in green tea may shrink lymph nodes and reduce white blood cell counts in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology shows.

Click the link below to view this article:

http://www.cancerpage.com/news/article.asp?id=13472

The second article discusses how tea could prevent heart attacks, due to the naturally occurring compounds in tea known as flavonoids. It is believed that these tea components may control inflammation in the heart.

Click the link below to view this article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1186073/Three-cups-tea-day-cut-heart-attack-risk-70.html

PG Tips embarking on higher sustainability standards

For close to two decades now, we have been importing PG Tips from England. It has always been a hot seller for us, primarily sourced by ex-pats looking for that famous cuppa that they grew up with in the UK. Established as a tea brand in the 1930's, Arthur Brooke launched his tea in the UK market under the name of 'Pre-Gest-Tee'' - suggesting that the tea could be drunk before food was digested. Grocers quickly abbreviated it to PG, and the company adds 'tips' to highlight the fact that PG uses the top two leaves and a bud to make its tea, hence the name that is still in use today.

Over the decades, PG Tips has been at the forefront of forward thinking regarding their products. In the 1950's, they introduced "The Tipps Family", a creative ad campaign that focused on a family of chimps taking tea! Since 1956, it has become the longest running advertisement campaign in the UK. In the 1960's they introduced the teabag to what they refer to as "the stunned British tea drinker" and in 1996, they revolutionized the simple teabag by creating a pyramid bag. This style teabag, with more room inside it, acts like a miniature teapot and gives the leaves more room to move when brewing. This has allowed for an overall better cup of tea.

But perhaps their biggest accomplishment in the tea community was started in 2007. At that time, they began a revolutionary partnership with the Rainforest Alliance to make sure that by 2010 all PG tips tea suppliers meet a new high sustainability standard. The core of this program is to ensure that the thousands of farmers who grow their tea must make sure that their hard-working staff are getting a decent wage as well as access to housing, education and health care. They also have to commit to protecting the environment from which they make their living, by introducing environmentally-sound farming techniques.

By 2010, all the tea plantations where PG tips buy their tea will be Rainforest Alliance Certified™, which means the tea inside every single PG tips tea bag will be sustainably harvested. By choosing PG tips, you and I will be supporting them in improving the incomes and livelihoods of tea farmers and their families.

This is an amazing undertaking by a large company and one that should act as a blueprint for all other tea manufactures around the world. It is an undertaking that would not be feasible financially for many, but it is a goal that all others should strive to meet.

Tea Memories

One of my favorite tea blogs is by one of our customers, Katrina. She writes a great blog called Tea Pages, where she reviews all sorts of teas from every vendor and local tea purveyor she can find. It is fascinating to see the varying teas above and beyond what we carry. She wrote a great article about our company last year and I have been viewing her work on-line ever since.

I recently noticed that she was undertaking a new venture that seems very interesting. Katrina is writing a new anthology, "Tea Memories: Living Life One Cup at a Time," and is in need of original, non-fiction essays to add to her anthology. If you are interested in contributing, here are the specifics:

"Have you "taken tea" in a unique place or under unusual circumstances? Do you have a story about sharing tea with someone special in your life? Have you made an important decision over a cup of tea? Whether humorous or touching, serious or inspiring, your stories of events, experiences, and transformational moments are welcomed. The most important criteria is that the stories be true and that tea plays a role in your essay.

Our intent is to show that tea is far more than something that quenches your thirst. Tea provides comfort, a time for reflection, and a starting point for conversation. Tea plays a supporting role in the stories of our lives. "Tea Memories" aims to share the ways that tea has changed our lives, one cup at a time."

Published and unpublished authors of all ages are encouraged to submit essays for consideration. The best essays will be selected for inclusion in the "Tea Memories" anthology.

Please visit http://teamemoriesbook.googlepages.com/ to learn about the submission process.

A glimpse of the Mark T. Wendell Tea Company warehouse operations

With so many of our customers located all over the country, a small portion of our fan base is actually located near our warehouse and offices in West Concord, Massachusetts. Those that live near by tend to stop by and purchase their tea requirements directly from us. Unfortunately, our current office space does not allow for a stand alone tea shop dedicated to walk in customer traffic. Since we sell our packaged products right from the shipping departments main room, those that come in for their tea fix get to see our operations up close and personal. For all our other customers, here is a glimpse of our facility.

Our offices and warehouse are carved out of part of what used to be a large lumber mill that chiefly manufactured split rail fences back in the early to mid 1900's. We moved here from the Boston waterfront in 1977 and have been packing our fine teas in this historical community ever since. The images above show one of the main bulk tea storage areas that dot the old, wooden planked warehouse floors. Almost all of our loose teas come in a sturdy packaged corrugated box, bag or sack of some kind. They can range from a kilo (2.2 lbs) all the way up to the big 120 lb bags! Many of the green, scented and white teas come to us in a vacuum sealed foil bag placed inside a corrugated tea chest. Long gone are the days of bulky wooden chests with metal edges, steel strapping and lots of sharp nails holding it all together! While these types of tea chests may be romantic and make a great conversation piece, they were very tough to ship and dispose of. Once our loose teas are opened, we store them in the large gray food storage buckets shown above and then pack the tea into our specialty tins as needed. This allows us to manage our inventory very carefully so our customers receive only the freshest teas available.

The rest of our warehouse is filled with shipping boxes, tea tins, all our pre-packaged imported teas, teapots, tea brewing accessories, sugars and some great old tea packing equipment. You can also see above the stocked shelves from where we fill our daily orders. Always filled with the great smells of whatever tea is being packaged that day, our warehouse is an aged commerce center that has been thriving for decades.

The Elegance Of The Tea Tin

As our need for more usable work space in our warehouse keeps growing, I was recently forced to make an effort to clean out some old files and boxes of antiques that have been tucked away for years in the back of the warehouse. I was pleasantly surprised to find some unique looking tea tins that we had lost track of over time. They have made a great addition to our ever expanding tea tin archives.

Our longevity has allowed us to really create a modest collection of tins from varying tea blenders and merchants. Some of these tea merchants are still in business and some have been gone for decades. We have tins from Lipton, Ridgway's Jackson's of Picadilly, Twinnings, Monarch, White Rose, Melrose's, Tetley, Chase & Sanborn's and one from a small Seattle tea company called Starbucks! Yes, that Starbucks. Before it became a coffee giant, it was a small company called Starbucks Coffee and Tea. During an era where tea was a luxury, the tins used for packaging were very colorful and very elaborate. Many of them had hinged lids and were available in unique sizes. Today, it is rare to find such hand crafted details on tea packaging's. The cost is simply to great.

Since our company has been packing tea for over 105 years, the style in which we have presented our teas has changed significantly. What was once packed in carefully hand crafted wooden boxes with ornate decorative painting on all sides has evolved to decorative tins with sealed lids for ultimate freshness. A common theme on all of our company's tea tins and containers over time is our simple black, gold and red color scheme and depiction of Chinese fauna and birds. If you look carefully at one of the first Mark T. Wendell wooden Hu-Kwa tea containers from the early 1900's and we find the same logos we use today on them. It is a great continuity for such an old, luxurious product. We have tins in all varying sizes for each decade we have been importing teas. We are thankful to those before us for the foresight to save these simple Mark T. Wendell Tea containers for future generations of employees and tea drinkers. So, whenever I see a great looking tea tin, I put it on display or stash it away. Who knows what it may represent in another 105 years?

The Boston Tea Party, a first hand account

December 16, 2008 marks the 235th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. With our business roots dating back to the Boston waterfront of decades past, this event and it's local lore have been a common talking point for us here at Mark T. Wendell Tea. Interestingly, our offices for many years were located in view of the waterfront docks where the Boston Tea Party took place. These connections have always given us a unique historical perspective of the history of tea, Boston and our nation.

The other day I was able to locate a first had account of that fateful night, recalled by George Hewes, a Boston shoemaker, who was among those who boarded one of the ships dressed as an Indian. Sixty years after the Tea Party, as one of the last surviving members, he recalled the events of that night and his participation in that historic moment. Author Alfred Young in his book "The Shoemaker and the Tea Party" described Hewes as "a nobody who briefly became a somebody in the Revolution and, for a moment near the end of his life, a hero." As a participant in the Boston Tea Party, here is George Hewes' eyewitness account of that milestone event in Early America.

"The tea destroyed was contained in three ships, lying near each other at what was called at that time Griffin's wharf, and were surrounded by armed ships of war, the commanders of which had publicly declared that if the rebels, as they were pleased to style the Bostonians, should not withdraw their opposition to the landing of the tea before a certain day, the 17th day of December, 1773, they should on that day force it on shore, under the cover of their cannon's mouth.

"On the day preceding the seventeenth, there was a meeting of the citizens of the county of Suffolk, convened at one of the churches in Boston, for the purpose of consulting on what measures might be considered expedient to prevent the landing of the tea, or secure the people from the collection of the duty. At that meeting a committee was appointed to wait on Governor Hutchinson, and request him to inform them whether he would take any measures to satisfy the people on the object of the meeting.

"To the first application of this committee, the Governor told them he would give them a definite answer by five o'clock in the afternoon. At the hour appointed, the committee again repaired to the Governor's house, and on inquiry found he had gone to his country seat at Milton, a distance of about six miles. When the committee returned and informed the meeting of the absence of the Governor, there was a confused murmur among the members, and the meeting was immediately dissolved, many of them crying out, "Let every man do his duty, and be true to his country"; and there was a general huzza for Griffin's wharf.

"It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me and marched in order to the place of our destination.

"When we arrived at the wharf, there were three of our number who assumed an authority to direct our operations, to which we readily submitted. They divided us into three parties, for the purpose of boarding the three ships which contained the tea at the same time. The name of him who commanded the division to which I was assigned was Leonard Pitt. The names of the other commanders I never knew.

"We were immediately ordered by the respective commanders to board all the ships at the same time, which we promptly obeyed. The commander of the division to which I belonged, as soon as we were on board the ship appointed me boatswain, and ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys to the hatches and a dozen candles. I made the demand accordingly, and the captain promptly replied, and delivered the articles; but requested me at the same time to do no damage to the ship or rigging.

"We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water. In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.

"We then quietly retired to our several places of residence, without having any conversation with each other, or taking any measures to discover who were our associates; nor do I recollect of our having had the knowledge of the name of a single individual concerned in that affair, except that of Leonard Pitt, the commander of my division, whom I have mentioned. There appeared to be an understanding that each individual should volunteer his services, keep his own secret, and risk the consequence for himself. No disorder took place during that transaction, and it was observed at that time that the stillest night ensued that Boston had enjoyed for many months.

"During the time we were throwing the tea overboard, there were several attempts made by some of the citizens of Boston and its vicinity to carry off small quantities of it for their family use. To effect that object, they would watch their opportunity to snatch up a handful from the deck, where it became plentifully scattered, and put it into their pockets.

"One Captain O'Connor, whom I well knew, came on board for that purpose, and when he supposed he was not noticed, filled his pockets, and also the lining of his coat. But I had detected him and gave information to the captain of what he was doing. We were ordered to take him into custody, and just as he was stepping from the vessel, I seized him by the skirt of his coat, and in attempting to pull him back, I tore it off; but, springing forward, by a rapid effort he made his escape. He had, however, to run a gauntlet through the crowd upon the wharf nine each one, as he passed, giving him a kick or a stroke.

"Another attempt was made to save a little tea from the ruins of the cargo by a tall, aged man who wore a large cocked hat and white wig, which was fashionable at that time. He had sleightly slipped a little into his pocket, but being detected, they seized him and, taking his hat and wig from his head, threw them, together with the tea, of which they had emptied his pockets, into the water. In consideration of his advanced age, he was permitted to escape, with now and then a slight kick.

"The next morning, after we had cleared the ships of the tea, it was discovered that very considerable quantities of it were floating upon the surface of the water; and to prevent the possibility of any of its being saved for use, a number of small boats were manned by sailors and citizens, who rowed them into those parts of the harbor wherever the tea was visible, and by beating it with oars and paddles so thoroughly drenched it as to render its entire destruction inevitable."

---- George Hewes

Tea and the United States Presidency

With the buzz of the presidential elections still fresh in my mind, I began thinking about how unique it must have been to live in the White House. The residence of the president, first lady and their children is a grand building, one that has been constantly evolving over the decades and centuries. During this great expanse of time, so much of the world has changed. However, there are a few items and traditions that can be linked to all of the US Presidents. One of the most prominent is tea! When foreign dignitaries were invited to Washington, they would often have tea at the White House. Many important presidential decisions were no doubt made over a nice soothing cup of tea.

Our library of tea books and literature contains an interesting book, Tea with Presidential Families, written by Pearl Dexter and Beulah Sommer. I began reviewing this book this morning and would like to share some interesting information about tea and the President. Did you know that:

• Almost every President and First Lady had a commissioned tea service or favorite teapot that they used to entertain. Many can now be seen in their respective Presidential libraries.
• Over the years, many unique and elegant tea sets have been given to US Presidents as gifts from international heads of state. Some of the most unique include: an Art Deco tea set presented to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by HRH Prince Olav and HRH Martha of Norway, a Rose Medallion tea set was sent as a gift to Woodrow Wilson and Edith Bolling Galt from the Emperor of China. John and Jackie Kennedy were presented with a Cloisonne tea service from the Khruschevs at the beginning of the Kennedy presidency and finally, Richard and Pat Nixon were given tea sets from France, China and Russia during their time in Washington
• Eleanor Roosevelt entertained so often that 8 teas a week was not unusual. In 1939, 9,211 people had been to tea at the White House!
• During Woodrow Wilson's administration, the official White House set of china was first purchased from an American manufacturer, Lenox.
• One of the gifts given to attendees of President and Mrs. Taft's silver wedding anniversary was an elegant silver teapot.
• In 1897, President McKinley was depicted "taking tea" with Queen Victoria on the back page of the Ladies Home Journal. This was one of the first attempts of the tea industry to advertise their product.
• Every day, Andrew Johnson brewed tea in a teapot shaped like a locomotive. The boiler received the tea and brewed it, then discharged it through a spigot. A miniature steam-whistle and a little bell indicated when the beverage was ready.
• James and Elizabeth Monroe's daughters had a lovely, hand painted porcelain tea set that they used for children's tea parties at the White House.
• John Jacob Astor would frequently give James and Dolley Madison packages of rare teas that he brought back from China.
• Thomas Jefferson regularly purchased tea all his adult live. He would usually obtain 20 pounds of the finest Hyson, Souchong and Congou (tea grades, during this era) teas each year. It is fascinating to think that on the small lap desk in his Tea Room, he wrote and edited the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
• The White Houses first First Lady, Abigail Adams, used her own tea recipe blend called Rose Petal Tea to serve at the first social tea gatherings.

One of my favorite Presidential tea stories involves our 19th President, Rutherford B. Hayes. During his term his commissioner of agriculture, William LeDuc, learned of experimental tea plants being grown luxuriantly in the south. He was so impressed that he applied for appropriations to carry on further tea experiments in the southern US. LeDuc took tea samples from these plants to the A.A. Low Bros. Company, a leading New York tea firm, to try to ascertain the best southern locality to grow tea. At the time, the firm had a fleet of 16 clipper ships. The most famous was the fast and unparalleled ship, Houqua. Now this ship has important meaning to our company. It was from this ships tea runs that the origins of our company was founded. Our company's roots began with Mr. Wendell's uncle, Richard Devens. Mr. Devens began importing tea and other goods from China during the Clipper Ship era. Many of these items were sailed across the ocean to Boston on the Houqua. For us, this is a unique connection to a long distant era.