We are also introducing our Brewt Loose Leaf Teapot.  Not only does it steep your tea, but it lets you watch through the clear body how the loose leaf tea plumps up to offer you the best flavour.  This is an awesome present for the tea lover on your list as it is portable and can sit on an office desk to brew.  To dispense the tea, all you do is set the pot on top of a cup.  This allows the user to control the amount of tea into the cup while the rest continues to steep.

Tickets are $10 by Dec 1, 2011.  If we do not have enough  tickets sold by the date, we will postpone the tasting until a later date.  So come and grab your tickets soon.  it promises to be a fun-filled afternoon with a multitude of new experiences!

A good way to try to alleviate feelings of isolation is to reach out to friends and family.  Meeting friends and/or family gives you a chance to catch up. It is truly amazing what a difference a quick meeting can make to someone who is feeling down. There is a feeling of connectiveness with the contact.

Joining an exercise group, book club, or even just volunteering can give us a different experience and help us to focus on someone or something other than ourselves. Daria Black also has a list of things to try to alleviate the feelings associated with loneliness and isolation.  She has some very good suggestions and her blog is definately worth a second look.

When all is said and done don’t we all just want to be our best?  When we are performing at our best we reflect that onto other people.  A simple smile can make the difference between a really crappy day and one that really isn’t so bad. So, next time your are starting to feel down, reach out and touch someone else’s life.  The difference will be immense.

Until next time….

We have big plans for the new menu boards.  There will both be a new look and new ideas.  We looked a lot into the loose leaf tea market.  There is a large following (bigger than we originally thought) that leads to really cool products.  New steeping tea pots that let you watch as the loose leaf steeps is awesome.  It is definately a market that is worth watching.  We learned so much about the different teas and we are really stoked to introduce them to our regulars!

So, once again this year, we bring back new ideas and knowledge.  We can’t wait to start to implement the changes.  Mike and I are hoping that our clientelle will be as excited as we are to embrace a different way of seeing things.

Until next time……

There are a great many debates over whether caffeinated coffee is good for you and in what amounts. One of the latest argument is that it can help to ward off  Alzheimer’s Disease.  As our population ages, this could be a monumental finding.  There will always be argument over the benefits vs. side effects, that is a given.

I guess what it all boils down to is everything in moderation.  We must pick through the information given to us and choose what we believe.  One thing that I do know for sure is that it willl have to be something earth shattering that would ever make me even think of giving up coffee.

Until next time……..

On reflection, we are very happy with the decisions that we have made over the past year.  The paint and our slate wall made a huge difference.  We have scaled down the giftware and added our red chairs.  Mike and I have even played with the menu a bit.

At the end of the month we are back to The Coffee and Tea Show.  This year it is being held in Vancouver and we have signed up for some awesome seminars.  It is two days packed with information that we digest once we get home.  The show allows us to meet with other cafe and coffee owners and share experiences.  It is phenominal the variations of difficulties that can be run into depending on where in the country you are.  We are confident that we can bring our little cafe up to some higher standards without alienating anyone.

This is the one time of the year that we are excited about leaving our cafe.  We feel that in the end it will benefit everyone.  Mike and I get to recharge and it gives some of the locals a chance to get behind the counter for a couple of days.  We will be taking lots of pictures so make surer to watch for updates and new things that we found at the show.

So until next time…….

A good compost can mean the difference between an ok garden and a flouishing garden.  The compost allows extra nutrients into the ground that many plants both want and need. With both a passive or a managed compost, the coffee grounds make a welcome addition.

So when you are trying to think of different ways to recycle,reduce and reuse, keep in mind the compost.  It makes clean up a lot easier and much more eco-friendly.  And also keep in mind that if you need some coffee grounds to add to your compost, bring in a container and we will gladly fill it.

If you have any composting tips, please feel free to add them here.

Hope you have an awesome day!

Sunflower Festival

Once again this is the week to plan, organize, and try to guesstimate what Saturday will bring.  It is one of Sundridge’s busiest days and encompasses much of the town.  We have things going on at the waterfront, the arena, and of course up and down Main St.  We are stocking up on cups, lids, smoothie mixes, coffee and our fabulous espresso.  We are checking and rechecking our giftware assortment.  I think that it is safe to say that we are ALMOST ready for the influx.

Friday night at dusk will bring in those who want to watch the family movie at the community centre.  Bring a lawnchair and sit back, relax and be totally immersed into  The Neverending Story.  We are looking forward to seeing many different faces during the movie.  Saturday will find Main St. super busy with the Main St. Market and the Main Street Stage.  The Market runs from 10 – 4 and the Main St Stage runs from 10 – 5.  A Boot Sale is being held at the arena as well as helicopter rides for $50.  And we mustn’t forget about the Street Dance on Saturday night beginning at 7pm on Main Street.

The SSJ Firefighters are hosting a Pancake Breakfast from 7 – 11am at the arena.  The Harmony Guild is hosting a sandwich lunch from 11 – 1:30 at the community centre.  The Lion’s are hosting a BBQ at the Lion’s Park at noon.  And the Legion is putting on a Roast Beef Dinner from 5 – 6:30.

The Red Brick Cafe & Gift House looks forward to greeting more new friends this weekend.  May your coffee always be warm!

Well, I guess that it was inevitable in the grand scheme of things.  We were the last to know that one of our flavours had been discontinued.  We will no longer be running Elmer Fudge unless we can figure out the recipe.  It was a shock to us to find this out because of the number of followers we have with this flavour.

But, there is good news!  Tomorrow, July 15, we will have a test run of Butter Pecan.  We are always striving to keep things fresh, so tomorrow our customers will have their say.  Mike and I have not tried this flavour yet so it will be a surprise to us as well!  We will also be bring in Blueberry Pie for our customers to try in a couple of weeks.

So as to cater to our fans, we will be having a survey on our Facebook Fan Page.  We got an updated list as to what flavours are offered so we are going to let you decide what we should try next.  The survey should be up in the next couple of days.  If you are not yet a fan, please join our group for daily updates on the flavours we are running and anything that is going on at the cafe.

Until we get a chance to say hello in person, have yourself an awesome day!  May your coffee always be warm.

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee…You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again. 

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the
first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma the daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?”

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its insides became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her daughter.
“When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavour. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

May we all be coffee!

And for those who did not realize that we had our travel mugs in, here is a picture of one.  We are hoping to see a great deal of these on the street this year.  They have a very unique design that allows you to see the stainless steel through the label.  These are available in store now for $18.00 total.  They are a 16oz cup so they are exactly the same size as our take out cups.  For our out of town friends we will post your photos of you with our cups on the website so we can track how far away our cups have  travelled.

Until our next post, have an awesome day!