• Categories

  Select Category ACL  (26) Activities  (79) arts & crafts  (10) Austin, Texas  (164) Celebrities  (17) Chicago  (21) Clayton Christopher  (7) Cocktail Recipes  (11) Distribution  (2) earth day  (5) Epiphone Guitar  (7) Events  (138) Food & Beverage  (87) Guest Blogger  (10) Intern  (34) Live Music  (107) Lollapalooza  (37) Los Angeles  (5) Muddy Buddy  (3) Nestle Waters  (2) Organic  (15) recipes  (1) Relief Fund  (1) Social Media  (19) Sweet Bikes  (15) sweet birthdays  (1) Sweet Consumers  (42) Sweet Contests  (28) Sweet Leaf Dogs  (7) Sweet Leaf Tea Company News  (28) Sweet Leaf Tea Sightings  (8) Sweet Pets  (1) SXSW  (18) teasnacky  (9) Uncategorized  (123) Unwrapped  (2) Vacation  (7)

• Search

  Search for:

• Archives

  Select Month July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008

• Tag Cloud

  ACL-Fest Add new tag Austin Austin TX Bicycles BP-MS-150 Chicago Citrus Green Tea Clayton Christopher Cocktail Recipes consumers CONTEST dogs fixers Fun Fun Fun Fest Girl Talk granny green tea Holidays Home Slice Pizza Houston iced tea interns Knuckle Rumbler Live Music Lollapalooza Mint & Honey Green Tea Mint-and-Honey-Green-Tea mixers music Music Festival Phoenix Sweet Contests sweet leaf sweet Leaf blog Sweet Leaf Tea sweet stories Sweet Tea SXSW teasnacky Texas Tito's Vodka TX Whole Foods Market Yeah Yeah Yeahs

  WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.

By Eliza Cole

Granny loves to give out goodies. The kind of goodies that last long after your first sip of tea. Or at least until you get a good scrubbing in.

Our duty, particularly at our recent Eastbound & Found SXSW 2010 party, was to keep Granny’s Sweet Leaf Tea swagger going by giving everyone a chance to get their hands on some of our latest and greatest swag, including our new Mint & Honey Green Tea and Citrus Green Tea flavored chapsticks.

We also had a plethora of Sweet Leaf Tea buttons, koozies, bandannas, temporary tattoos, and Granny stickers to let you get your own SLT swagger on at Eastbound & Found, as well as the Mess With Texas day parties that followed.

Needless to say, our anthem at the Sweet Leaf Tea sampling stand at both SXSW events became something along the lines of Dem Franchize Boyz’s ‘Oh I Think Dey Like Me’, as we freely handed out Granny’s awesome swag to sweet tea lovers to promote our new 16 oz. cans.

Thanks to everyone who helped promote Granny’s swagger at our SXSW 2010 Eastbound & Found party!

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It’s time Austin children learned the positive outcome of this infamous expression.

On May 2, 2010 kids everywhere will be gearing up for a super sweet nation-wide event called Lemonade Day. We don’t just love this event because it deals with something near and dear to us, LEMONADE, it’s because we know kids, families and friends will love it, too!

Basically, the Lemonade Day event on Sunday, May 2, 2010 takes the classic childhood activity of setting up a lemonade stand and shows kids how they can make it their own unique business venture. Lemonade Day uses the simple lemonade stand as a tool in showing kids of all ages how to set goals, develop a business plan, establish a budget, seek investors, give back to the community and more.

Here’s how it all works: On May 2 young entrepreneurs (all ages are welcome to participate) can set up their very own lemonade stand anywhere they choose to in Austin or other participating cities. Even though the event is coordinated by Lemonade Day the kids get to keep everything that they earn. In the spirit of developing a good business sense, they’re encouraged to open a savings account, repay investors and even donate a portion of their profits to a charity of their choice.

The whole idea of the event is to get as many kids signed up and working on their lemonade stands now so that on May 2 the streets of Austin, and many streets across the nation, will be filled with young lemonade enthusiast. Sweet Leaf is excited to help promote Lemonade Day and help them reach their registration goal of 10,000 youngsters. Hopefully, Austinites can contribute to this goal by individually registering and the fact that all local public and private schools are encouraged to participate. You can check out a local future Longhorn, Clark, share his Lemonade Day story and see for yourself what kids think of it.

If you have a child that might be interested, you can sign up at http://austin.lemonadeday.org/sign-up.aspx.  Once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive an e-mail confirmation which you can then take to any participating RunTex location throughout Austin to receive your official bright yellow Lemonade Day backpack, complete with an informational workbook.  You can also register in person at any of these participating Lemonade Day registration sites:  http://austin.lemonadeday.org/backpack-pickup-locations.aspx.

Or, if you’d like to sip on some Sweet Leaf Tea while completing that registration, stop by the Lance Armstrong Foundation on Saturday, April 17, 2010. This will be a registration event open to the public and definitely not lacking in free Sweet leaf Tea. We’ll post more details about it soon!

The Sweet Leaf tea-mates know what it’s like trying to start a business from the ground up and we fully encourage you to let your kids get a taste of that early in life through Lemonade Day. Sweet Leaf isn’t just encouraging registration but we will also be helping judge the Best Tasting Lemonade contest that will take place prior to Lemonade Day on Sunday, April 25, 2010.

Don’t forget to hit the streets May 2 in your city for a tall, cold glass of Lemonade!

We wanted to let you in on a bit of news. As of this week, we have a new CEO at Sweet Leaf Tea. This does of course mean that Clayton Christopher, one of our founders, is stepping down as CEO, but not to worry…Clayton will still be a part of the company as he takes a place on our board. He has put his heart, sweat and as we all know, Granny’s recipe, into building the Sweet Leaf Tea brand—and thank goodness for that! But, as any entrepreneur knows, there comes a time when one must take a break and catch his (in this case) breath. For all of us here in Austin, this just means we’ll be spotting Clayton a bit more on Town Lake or Barton Springs this summer. (You can still follow him on Twitter @Idea_Clayton to see where the open road takes him on his travels.)

So, who is our new CEO? Well, we didn’t have to look too far for him. Dan Costello has been a part of the tea’m for over a year. And this certainly isn’t his first rodeo. He’s bringing years of beverage experience with him. Something we all believe will come in handy.

In fact, I can officially report that we, the tea’mates and dogs of Sweet Leaf Tea, have taking a liking to Dan. He survived the muddiest of ACL’s this year with a smile, he likes to jam out in the car, and he’s even worn flip-flops to the office (at least once!). But most importantly, he’s been leading the charge to get Sweet Leaf Tea closer to you. We are very proud to have him in the Sweet Leaf Tea family and expect great things for the future.

It’s an exciting time here at Sweet Leaf Tea HQ, and we’re glad you’re a part of it! We’ve got a lot of cool things in the works. From new flavors to new packages and upcoming contests….yes, the sweetest is yet to come.

Thanks for being a fan!

By, Kathryn Gliniany

Well, SXSW 2010 has come to a close and Austin has returned to its original state. Cars are once again allowed to drive down 6^th Street during normal hours of the day, and the sounds of music blaring from bars and clubs downtown is once again most commonly heard only in the night hours. Here at SLT we are all slowly but surely recovering from the fun.

I had the opportunity to work at our tasting stand during the music part of this years SXSW, and let me tell you, it was a pleasure to meet all of you who stopped by to say hi and grab some samples and swag.

All of you who stopped by our stand on 6^th and San Marcos last weekend had some great questions and comments about our tea. The question I was asked most frequently however was what my favorite flavor was. You must understand that every time someone asks me this it’s difficult for me to answer. I like all of our flavors (and no, they’re not just paying me to say that!). I love ‘em all, and I think that the best way to find your own favorite is to try them all for yourself and discover the wonderment that is our array of offerings. It’s like picking a favorite flavor of ice cream: impossible, because they are all wonderful!

Now if I HAD to absolutely reveal the tea that I find myself drinking most often on a daily basis, it would be the Mint and Honey Green Tea. It’s cool and refreshing and perfect for our hot Texas days. General consensus from you SXSW taste testers tended to agree that Mint and Honey is a hit, but it’s baby sister Citrus Green Tea ran a close second. I was surprised how many SXSW goers hadn’t tried our new citrus flavor yet, and was happy to be the first to offer you a taste and see the expressions of satisfaction spread across your faces as the first citrus wonderfulness hit your taste buds (think Will Ferrell-style, “it’s so good, when it hits your lips, IT’S SO GOOD!” style responses here people!).

If you didn’t get a chance to visit our tasting stand during SXSW you may have missed out on the fun, but you can still try all of our flavors by heading out to your local grocery and convenience stores and snatching up some of our tea. If you are unsure where to find tea near you, check out our store locator feature on our website, or shoot us an email and ask us for more information!

Yowza. What. A. Week.

It’s been 4 days, and I think I’m fully recovered at this point after lots of rest and TLC. I’m starting to think that the human body wasn’t meant for that kind of action, but would I do it again? A resounding ‘hell yes’. This being my third chance to experience SXSW, it never ceases to amaze me how exhausting this particular festival can be. I’d like to consider myself an expert on surviving it, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t catch me by surprise, yet again. Do all you want to prepare yourself for a week of intense music and sensory overload, but rest-assured that an overwhelming feeling will eventually take over. I, too, was overwhelmed. And I’d do it again, and again.

Amidst all the events we sponsored, I did get a few chances to go explore a bit and catch some shows and events. Here are my highlights:

Bike Hugger Mobile Social (3/13)
What a fun ride. Hundreds of cyclists biked around town and ended with a day party at Mellow Johnny’s, complete with freebies, booze, and music. Great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Massive Black / ConceptArt.org / The Art Department Present VISIONS at The Mohawk (3/12)
This was probably the coolest party I’ve ever seen at The Mohawk. The entire place was completely transformed, with giant screens all over the place projecting live art being created by artists on-site using Adobe Photoshop, goth-y models and burlesque dancers as subjects, and intense music. Best way to describe what was going on is through this video I found on YouTube. Good times.

Zilker Kite Fest
Not a SXSW event, but it was rescheduled to this weekend due to inclement weather. Ended up being a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon before heading back out into the SXmasses. Thousands of kites above the Austin skyline (and subsequently in trees). Awesome.

The Gowalla Tiki Room featuring Diplo
Gowalla made some incredible strides this year, being the leader in location-based social networking. Amongst their antics throughout the week (including giving away free OneTacos via the service’s platform and swag from their Gowalla-branded mini Cooper), they also threw a pretty sweet shindig at The Belmont. Despite the cold rain, it was probably my favorite SXSWinteractive event. Great music, great people, good times all around. Diplo was pretty amazing on the ones and twos. Yet another reason to get these shoes hoppin’.

ACVB’s Media Reception
The folks over at the Austin Convention & Visitor’s Bureau know how to throw a party. It’s one of my favorite events because it officially kicks off SXSWmusic. They always have it on the mayor’s balcony of Austin City Hall overlooking Lady Bird Lake in all its glory, and invite a few local musicians to gently wave us into the craziness.

Eastbound & Found presented by ZiegenBock, Dos Lunas Tequila, and Sweet Leaf Tea
I’m not featuring this party simply because we sponsored it but more so because our blogger friends (My Old Kentucky Blog, You Aint No Picasso, Ultra8201, Yours Truly, Chromewaves) did an incredible job procuring the lineup. Some of my faves include:

• Freelance Whales: great sound… looking forward to spending more time with their music.
• Ume: a long-time local favorite, gotta love a rocker chick
• Kid Sister: Damn this show was fun. Nice slice of hip hop.
• Here We Go Magic: Another band I’m looking forward to exploring more.
• Danielson: Reminds me of Polyphonic Spree, quirky as hell. I’ll take it.
• Delorean: So what if we’re dancing our asses off in broad daylight? These guys make it happen.
• White Denim: I can’t get enough of these guys. Sure, their album is impeccable, but their studio work doesn’t do their live sets justice. You just have to experience it.
• GZA: Bill Murray made his way over to our party for this. Enough said.

Converse ‘Get Out Of The Garage’ Party at The Levi’s Fader Fort
The folks at Fader have (yet again) done a great job at creating an amazing party space out of nothing. This party gave me the chance to see a few shows, notably:

• Mayer Hawthorne & The County. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him, but I’m glad he got a little more soul with his newer stuff. Kinda has a big brass feel to it. Well played, gentlemen.
• Passion Pit DJ set: You can’t go wrong. Let’s dance. Okay, go.

The Rumbler Lounge (3/17 – 21)
The folks at Knuckle Rumbler don’t only know how to put together a great showcase, but they really know how to throw FOUR DAYS of showcases. I stopped by for the following sets:

• Glitch Mob (My Old Kentucky Blog’s Bumps & A Pump Party): Seeing these guys do their thing is pretty fascinating. They record samples in the studio of various instruments and sounds, then use touch-screen computers and other gizmos to make music live. It’s hard to explain, but they blow my mind. Every time.
• Dominique Young Unique (Rhapsody.com Party)
  This was unexpected for me, but this little lady from Tampa has got talent. And she’s young. And unique. Keep an eye on her.
• Woodhands (Rhapsody.com Party)
  I have to admit that I’ve been pretty obsessed with their sound ever since I got my hands on it. I missed my chance to see them at Monolith 2009 (poor logistics including thousands of people trying to cram into a 200 person room), so I was glad to finally catch them up close and personal. Two guys, and one plays a keytar. Sold.
• Casxio (Rhapsody.com Party)
  My friends from Austin Eavesdropper told me I shouldn’t miss them, and I’m glad I didn’t. Easily my favorite ‘new’ band of the whole week. They have a fresh sound that’s bound to raise some eyebrows. You can check out Austin Eavesdropper’s coverage here.

Hexdecagon at Whole Foods (3/19)
The Octopus Project was at it again, but this time equipped with a huge tent, speakers surrounding the space in surround-sound fashion, 8 projectors shining choreographed video clips on the ceiling, a mini-arena style stage (set up in the middle of the crowd), and brand new tunes produced just for this event. It was a multi-sensory experience that is pretty tough to describe, but I was in some serious awe. Another toughie to explain — I think they do it best themselves on their site.

Perez Hilton’s One Night in Austin (3/20)
Despite some logistical woes (mostly the porta-potty situation… seriously), they brought some great talent to an exclusive crowd. It was great to see V.V. Brown, Snoop, Alphabeat, Marina & The Diamonds, and Hole. You better believe we was shaking some things. Something tells me all the complimentary Tito’s Vodka might be to blame.

____________

I do want to thank a few folks for making my experience all that it was: Knuckle Rumbler, Brown Distributing (Ziegenbock & Dos Lunas Tequila), PureVolume, Gowalla, the #HTM, GARY! for voluntarily helping sling some tea, WOXY.com, Transmission Entertainment, Giant Noise, my Sweet Leaf Tea’m and interns, and a whole bunch of other folks (this list could go on for days)… so, THANK YOU. THANK. YOU.

There you have it, folks. Until next time…

keep looking »