Cinnamon Chai

There’s something about the holidays – and those weeks leading up to them – that feels a bit magical. It’s a time of year filled with excitement, nostalgia, tradition and, most importantly, family and friends.

In celebration of Hot Tea Month and to help combat the dark and chilly days of winter, we asked our Tea Sommelier, Alicja, for her top five winter warmers from the Shanti Collection

Mint: not only something to brush your teeth with or adorn the tea tables of old ladies playing bridge. This delicious Old World herb has a myriad of uses in cuisine, herbology and medicine, and popular mythology.

There’s nothing quite so comforting as the scent and taste of warm, spiced apples on a cold fall day. Whether in a pie, a sauce, or contained in a mug as delicious organic tea, these scent and flavor sensations have become synonymous with comfort for much of the world’s northern populations.As proven by their long-term mythical associations – like Eve and the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, for instance, generally associated in Western Thought with a round, red apple – apples have been gracing humanity’s tables in many forms for thousands upon thousands of years...

On a meditative fall morning, there is nothing better than to haul out a big bag of pears, fresh-picked from the backyard or the overly prolific tree down the street, and wash, peel, core and chop them for an entire vat of pear sauce. Or, sometimes even more gratifying, to press them into cider or turn them into a delicious pie or crumble. If you’re the type of person who delights in this sometimes humble fruit, then our organic Fujian Pear tea is sure to be a hit.

Try these delicious and easy to make tea-infused cocktails to warm up this season!

A professional scientific study led by molecular biologist Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini and carried out at Caen University in France has found startling results when feeding rats a diet of exclusively GM (Genetically Modified) corn (NK603). The study has been reviewed by independent scientists to gurantee that the experiments were properly conducted, and that the results are valid. The study was published in the US journal Food and Chemical Toxicology on September 18th, 2012.

It is a rare and special tea that comes from land tradtionally associated with coffee. Los Andes is just such a tea, grown on a Guatemalan nature reserve that rests in the shadows of the volcano of Atitlán. The nature reserve is home to abundant plants and wildlife, including Guatemala's national bird, the Resplendent Quetzal.