Price Adjustsments - Good News?

Our prices have changed - effective about 1:30am (yes, it was a late night). Volume discounts have been improved dramatically. Previously, our highest discount rate was 12%. We have now boosted this to 25% for case quantities.You can even order in increments above the case quantities and still enjoy the fully discounted price per pound.

As many of you know, most of our blends are available in your choice of conventional or organic ingredients. We noticed that our front page was defaulting to show the price of the organic version. This has been changed to show the conventional price. This makes it easier to view how the organic version adds a premium, as opposed to the conventional version providing a discount.

Beat the Winter Doldrums

Sunny San Diego isn't sunny today. It's cold and wet. We're all still licking our wounds from the Chargers loss / blunder.

What kind of tea should I reach for today?

Rooibos White Chocolate. I'm in the mood for something comforting and satisfying. I don't want caffeine, as my head's in a little bit of a funk today.

The white chocolate is light on the palate, but enticing in its aroma. Sometimes I just want something simple, not overly flavored. If I were serving this with food, I would think of a lighter snack, perhaps a small raspberry sorbet with fresh mint or a pear tart with a light vanilla cream sauce.

On the savory side, perhaps along side sliced melon and prosciutto. Any lightly cured, smoked sweet or semi-sweet ham should go nicely.

I think my headache is subsiding. Thanks for reading.

Receive emails automatically when out of stock items are replenished

Previously when an item was out of stock, that item was removed from the website.

Now we are showing out of stock items on the website and you can add your email address to automatically receive an email when the product is back in stock.

We hope this will help keep our customers notified of the latest shipments.

Antioxidants in Tea

There are four widely accepted methods of measuring the antioxidant potential in beverages:

1. TEAC. Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity. See Reference #1 below.

2. ORAC. Total Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. See Reference #1 below.

3. DPPH. Free Radical Scavenging capacity by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl. See Reference #2-3 below,

4. FRAP. Ferric reducing antioxidant power. See Reference #4 below.


These methods are used to measure the antioxidant capacity in vitro, or out of the living system (eg in a test tube). The use of multiple assay methods is preferred because antioxidant molecules have their own affinity (preferential interactions) with the predetermined reactive species dictated by each assay.

While many marketing departments may tout the total antioxidant benefits of a particular commercial beverage, it is the inherent set of active antioxidants - both their overall free radical scavenging properties and their ability to remain in sufficient quantities over time throughout the organism that may ultimately dictate its benefit over an extended period of consumption. In tea, EGCG appears to undergo a form of polymerization which may also influence its stability and activity.


References

1. Seeram,N.P.;Henning,S.M.;Lee,R.;Niu,Y.;Scheuller,H.S.; Heber,D.Catechin and caffeine contents of green tea dietary supplements and correlation with antioxidant activity. J.Agric.FoodChem. 2006, 54,1599–1603.

2. Malterud,K.E.;Farbrot,T.L.;Huse,A.E.;Sund,R.B. Antioxidant and radical scavenging effects of anthraquinones and anthrones. Pharmacology 1993, 47,77–85.

3.Nenseter,M.S.;Halvorsen,B.;Rosvold,Q.;Rustan,A.C; Drevon,C.A.Paracetamol inhibits copper ion-induced,azo compound initiated, and mononuclear cells-mediated-oxidative modification of LDL. Arterioscler.Thromb.Vasc.Biol. 1995, 15, 1338–1344.

4. Huang,D.;Ou,B.;Prior,R.L.The chemistry behind antioxidant capacity assays. J.Agric.FoodChem. 2005, 53,1841–1856.

Happy New Year - 2010

We wish everyone a Happy New Year. No doubt you're in the midst of reordering following the heavy holiday season. We are embarking on some new offerings and changes to the website.

1. Kopius Teas website. We performed a system upgrade this past week. You can now show more easily by adding products to your cart without having to constantly view the cart itself. Instead, a small popup window with your cart contents will appear and it will update as you continue to shop. Way cool!

2. Price changes. We haven't implemented planned price changes, but know that they are coming. We expect prices to increase for smaller quantities and decrease for larger quantities. In addition, we will be posting some very attractive buys for those resellers buying in intact case quantity sizes.

3. Teas, teas, teas. We know you want more pictures and better descriptions. We have many new teas to post to the website and we will be eliminating some older products that we will no longer carry. Having said that, we often can help you source both unique teas and herbs not found on our website, provided you wish to order in somewhat substantial quantities (eg more than 20 lbs for herbs, and more than 50 lbs for teas).

4. New blends. Do you have any blends you felt we just had to offer, but for whatever reason, we don't? Let us know! With hundreds of blending ingredients and flavors and base teas, our unique blends often start with your ideas.