Silver Tips Tea Blog » Going Green

Using tea leaves for planting

Anupa — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 12:22:05 +0000

Our Tea Room is in historic Tarrytown, a Hudson River town and part of a nice, thriving restaurant corner. Some of us have outdoor sidewalk cafes in the summer, April – November. Right next to us is Lefteris Gyro, the very popular Greek restaurant. Bobby, the manager, is a great friend and neighbor and helps us with all manner of things – yesterday he put up our new green and white outdoor umbrellas.

He’s also been busy at work getting ready for his vegetable and flower planting and has been collecting our daily used tea leaves and mixing them into his potting soil. This year we’re working with a local flower shop and having them bring in flowers for our planters. Bobby likes a large variety and intersperses his flowers – pansies, petunias, gardenias - with basil, oregano, even pepper plants. I like begonias and marigolds with a few salvia-type plants thrown in for contrast. They’re hardy, last through the season and look great. We have rain for the next few days so this must wait. My aim is to get our planters done by Mother’s Day when we expect a crowd.

Earth Day – April 22, 2010

Anupa — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:04:52 +0000

It’s the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day! Hard to believe. We’re conscious of the individual effort that each of us can make and Silver Tips will participate by raising the awareness of Organic food. We will serve Makaibari Organic tea (Black, Green, Oolong and Silver Tips) at a special discounted price all day and have the beautiful coffee table book, “The Rajah of Darjeeling” available for sale at a bargain basement price of $10.

The earth is ours and we are its custodians. At Silver Tips, we have changed all our copy paper to earth-friendly content, our packing peanuts are biodegradable, our sample cups are green, our paper towels are recycled, our water is from the faucet, not a bottle and our electricity is 100% green. All of us together can make a difference. Celebrate Earth Day – honor it.

We’re in Sierra Magazine!

Anupa — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:58:52 +0000

It’s always nice to be recognized and when it’s by a prestigious journal like Sierra Magazine, it’s even better. Makaibari has a lot of fans and Diana Rosen, author, journalist, is one of them. Sierra magazine did a piece on teas that focused on a sustainable ethic and eco-friendly practices and asked several people to name their favorite and Makaibari was Diana’s choice. We were asked to provide tea to support the story, which we did. Click here to read the story in the magazine. Although the link goes to the Makaibari home page, U.S. readers will be directed to our retail site www.silvertipstea.com to purchase tea. I hope you enjoy the coverage as much as we did.

Doors and Floors

Anupa — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:06:56 +0000

New front doors went in yesterday. The installers kept calling it Bronze but it looked like black to me! Regardless, they are polished and handsome and provide an inviting entryway. I’ll take a picture later today (picture now added!). Many of you know our front door was on its last legs and being held up by a wish and prayer.

The floorwork begins today and what a challenge that’s going to be to keep moving things around to clear enough space to prepare the floors for new tiles. We finally selected a beautiful warm wood laminate for our main area. This one item alone should completely change the look of the Tea Room and give it both elegance and warmth. And it’s durable and suitable for restaurants. The material is 74% pre-consumer recycled content and in its U.S. facilities, the manufacturer uses only renewable, fast growing southern pine as its base. The laminate facility turns the sawdust waste created during production into fuel and any additional leftover wood waste goes into bio-mass fuel for process heating. Sounds similar to the bio-gas units we have at Makaibari.

Panel on Social Responsibility at the World Tea Expo

Not that easy going Green..

Anupa — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:26:40 +0000

We really wanted a new bamboo floor for our Tea Room. In investigating our options, we learned the pros and cons of all kinds of floors – cork, bamboo, vinyl, laminate, hardwood and the adhesives that go into each as well as their suitability in a restaurant. For one thing, we mop our floors everyday. That ruled out several options immediately. Secondly, we join our tables to accommodate larger groups. Another few options went by the wayside because of the wear and tear and the damage that would cause. Finally, spillage and durability. We are a tearoom, after all, and liquid will spill. So we may have to abandon our desire to go with a “green” floor right now. We went through this process a couple of years ago when we discovered the industry was not ready for us with suitable take-out boxes and had to settle for just eco-friendly cups and paper products and here we are again – same situation, different product. We will continue to pursue green avenues in other areas and we will keep you posted.

Iced Tea

Silver Tips — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:30:42 +0000

One of our objectives is to educate our customers on tea and related issues such as organic, fair trade and sustainability. We’ve often extolled the praises of our friend, Samuel Fromartz, author, journalist and blogger extraordinaire. His blog ‘Chewswise‘ has been on our recommended resources list since we started our blog. It is current, informative, fun and explores a host of issues important to anyone interested in living ‘green’.

Last week, he wrote a very useful piece on Iced Tea and the ease with which you can make it yourself with loose leaf tea. As he said, “Use the good stuff”. Silver Tips Tea was included in his blog. Thanks Sam!

Green Power Certificate

Silver Tips — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:52:10 +0000

We opted for Green Power last year at the Tea Room. It came from a combination of wind and low-impact hydro energy. Last week, we received an official looking certificate from the electric company that informed us we had purchased 14,376 kWh in 2008. Not bad! This is clean, emission-free electricity and in our case it includes the wind farms of Fenner, Madison, Maple Ridge, Noble Bliss, Noble Clinton, Noble Ellenburg, Steel Winds and Wethersfield Wind farms. (Don’t you love the names!) Small-hydro generation facilities include the High Falls, New York State Dam, Sissonville, and Walden Hydro Projects.

Small Town Happenings

Silver Tips — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow are part of the River Towns on the Hudson. Quaint and charming, they are also business-minded and progressive. I knew our village had a Planning Board and Council, a Mayor and Trustees. I didn’t know we had an Environmental Advisory Council or an Architectural Review Board.

Last month, I was invited to receive a plaque in recognition of our efforts to Go Green. All of a sudden, I’m seeing our tax dollas at work! Next month, we go before the Architectural Review Board to obtain approval on our awning and outside signage. Some of their work is obvious – road repair, garbage collection, public services but some of it is delightful surprise. In the summer, large pots are planted with flowers; in the winter, holiday decorations appear. Tarrytown 3rd Friday is celebrated with sales, late openings and events. It’s nice to be part of one of these villages. It seems so neighborly.

Tea leaves in Composts

Silver Tips — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:46:00 +0000

Used tea leaves are great for composts. All over England, tea leaves are routinely emptied into rose bushes and gardens thrive. I’ve been searching for that solution for our Tea Room and may have finally hit upon a serendipitous partnership.

While at the tearoom last Sunday, a casual conversation about Going Green unearthed this wonderful opportunity. Jenny and Michael Ambrozek were curious about Silver Tips running on 100% Green Power – how did we do it, where was it available, who did we partner with. After providing them the details, I told them my next step was to find a local CSA (Community Sustainable Agriculture)or similar alternative where our tea leaves could be picked up once a week to be taken to a compost. Voila! My composting family was before me! Apparently, this is how they tend their garden and we’re going to try our first run next week and see how it works.

We also talked about one of our favorite spots across the bridge in Rockland County – Hungry Hollow Co-op which has a biodynamic farm, a Rudolf Steiner Fellowship Community and one of the best little organic/biodynamic stores in these parts.

So, keep tuned. I will update you on our tea leaves and their journey back to the earth.

October is Fair Trade Month

Silver Tips — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Fair Trade coffee is probably better known than Fair Trade Tea but slowly, the movement is gaining awareness. To me, organic and fair trade are related. But organic is for myself and the earth, fair trade benefits other people. Fair Trade helps someone a world away who made the product. In our wholesale company, to date we have not found one customer who buys Fair Trade who doesn’t also buy Organic. In our retail environment, it is exactly the same. Somehow, the demographics have merged and we find that the person who is interested in the environment and in healthy food and lower levels of chemicals and pesticides is also the same person concerned about the worker and whether he is receiving even the most basic benefits.

Fair Trade works simply: When you purchase something that is certified Fair Trade (look for the logo), a portion of your purchase price (a premium) goes back to the workers of that tea estate (or coffee plantation) who decide how they will spend it. The workers are required to form a Joint Body and have a segregated bank account where these premiums are deposited and from which they draw funds to spend on projects of their choice. These have ranged from health clinics to education to housing improvements. Here’s a recent article on this topic; Giving Back to Origin Nourishes the Soul