Who took the 'Thanks' out of Thanksgiving?

With Thanksgiving weekend just around the corner, one tends to wonder just how many of us actually take the time to acknowledge the true meaning of the holiday. Little kids bring home turkeys made out of popsicle sticks, magazines & TV specials feature quick & easy ways to make a delicious gourmet dinner, and retailers nationwide try to outdo each other's deals for Black Friday...but what ever happened to gratitude? How many people still take the time to be grateful for their lives?

Who commercialized a fundamentally un-commercial holiday? When did Thanksgiving become "Turkey Day?" And how can we take it back?

Without going into a history lesson, Thanksgiving was intended as a means of expressing gratitude and spending time with good friends & relatives. The holiday simply cannot be enjoyed if we stress over food preparations, worry about bills, or skip the family dinner altogether to line-up at the local electronics store to get Black Friday deals (...is saving a few extra bucks really worth skipping out on a once-a-year experience with your loved ones?).

But this can be avoided. Make a conscious effort to enjoy the present moment & those around you. Even something as simple as taking a tea break can bring you back to a place of appreciation & mindfulness. Simply take a few minutes to relax, sip a cup of warm tea, and make a mental note of five things you are grateful for in the moment. Chances are that you will be tempted to make a longer list, and it's pretty much guaranteed that afterwards you'll feel refreshed & have a more positive outlook.

So this holiday weekend, do yourself a favor: acknowledge that you are fortunate and enjoy your dinner gathering. From all of us at Sencha Naturals, we wish you a warm & enlightening holiday. And please, put the Thanks back into Thanksgiving.
~~~
For an added holiday treat, visit Sencha Naturals for tea gifts & gourmet goodies

SEN CHA Proudly Supports Local Yoga

If you're in the mood for an enlightening evening this Saturday, join Hillary Rubin for her DVD release party at LA's City Yoga studio.Those in attendance will be able to meet Hillary, receive bonus goody bags with the purchase of her DVD Yoga Foundations, sample various products from 'conscious companies,' and participate in a special raffle. Happy to help out, we donated our SEN CHA Green Tea Mints to be amongst other products featured in the giveaways.

Hillary Rubin has taught yoga internationally, and is compassionate about helping others find healing & balance after her own struggle with multiple sclerosis. She is also the founder of I Am Not a Mess, a new company focused on empowering individuals & helping them to overcome life's obstacles. Hillary also generously provides free online yoga podcasts & demonstrates various poses on her Yoga Practice website.

The Yoga Foundations DVD release party will be held Saturday, November 22nd, from 7-10 PM. So head over to City Yoga to meet Hillary, have a few snacks, and grab yourself a goody bag along with the new DVD! It'll be quite the holistic way to begin your weekend...

Whole Foods Now Carries SEN CHA Bars

Exciting news! To all the fans of our SEN CHA Green Tea Bars living in the greater Los Angeles area, we've made it easier to find them locally. Several Whole Foods stores throughout the Southern California region will now carry our antioxidant-rich food bars. This chain of natural food markets currently carries our Green Tea Mints, so now our bars will be enjoying some shelf space as well. For those of you watching your diets or concerned about food quality, rest assured that Whole Foods has very stringent policies regarding any products brought into their stores. Before products hit store shelves, they are scrutinized to ensure ingredients are naturally wholesome, minimally processed, and do not contain artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. Click here for more information about the quality standards set by Whole Foods, and here for a list of all unacceptable ingredients as determined by the markets.

SEN CHA Green Tea Bars meet these standards, and then some. These all-natural whole food bars are vegan, kosher certified, and wheat/gluten/caffeine-free. Each bar contains the polyphenol equivalent of 3 cups of Fair Trade Organic green tea, meaning that one bar provides the EGCG (antioxidant) benefits as drinking three cups of green tea, but without the caffeine!

Our bars are currently available in three delicious flavors: Original, Delicate Pear, and Lively Lemongrass, and you can find all three flavors at your local Whole Foods store in Southern California.

The much-anticipated Morning Lychee flavor will be released early next year, so stay tuned for promotional information once it becomes available!

SEN CHA at Sweets Middle East

While the rest of us held down the SEN CHA fort, last week our CEO David flew away to Dubai for the Sweets Middle East convention. Held at the exquisite Dubai World Trade Centre, this 2nd annual event featured over 100 confectionery companies exhibiting their new products to over 3000 attendees from all over the world.Xpress, a Dubai-based news source, reviewed several products from the show, including our SEN CHA Green Tea Mints & Bars:

Green Tea Health Bar and Mints

Attention Vegans, health freaks and tea gurus: Your perfect snack has finally arrived. Sen Cha Naturals brings you Green Tea Bars. Made from all natural organic ingredients and using only brown rice syrup as a sweetener, green tea flavoured health bars contain nuts and seeds and dried fruit and berries. The bars come in Original Green Tea, Pear, Lemongrass and Lychee flavours. Also from Sen Cha are Grean Tea Mints. “Three mints are equal to one cup of green tea,” said Grace Kim of Sen Cha. The mints come in the same flavours as the bars.

The full article can be found by clicking here.

Some SEN CHA Gratitude...

A few weeks after David --our Chief Enlightment Officer-- spoke to culinary classes at John Marshall High School, he received dozens of hand-made Thank You cards in the mail. When they arrived, all of us here at SEN CHA spent the lunch hour pouring over the personalized messages.

"Look, this one has a smiley face on it!"

"And here---this one's double-sided! She was really thankful!"

"No, no, this one's the best---it says, 'thanks to your product, I will not have bad breath!' "

We laughed at the honesty, appreciated the sincerity, & loved every single one of the cards. If only we all took a few minutes to handwrite personalized messages to express our appreciation for one another (and perhaps even create our own cards--rather than using store-bought versions--by using magazine cut-outs for the covers, as these students did).

It's a simple act of kindness that only takes a brief moment out of our day, but the expression of gratitude is mutually beneficial. David went in to teach these students about business & marketing, but it seems like we are the ones who received an important lesson from the experience. To teacher Andi Philips & her thoughtful students: a big THANK YOU from all of us!

Great Chefs of LA

This Sunday marks the 22nd Annual Great Chefs of LA event. This year's theme is 'Go Green, Go Organic' and will feature some of the top local chefs perparing delicious, eco-conscious fare.

Held at the CBS Studio Center, the event is being sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California, and honorary chairs and spokespeople Ann & George Lopez will be among the 550+ in attendance. This dining event is held every year to benefit & raise awareness for kidney disease, and also helps fund the foundation's annual toy drive. The 'Holiday of Hope' drive will provide over 1,000 children with toys, school supplies, and household necessities for families in need.

Attendees will be treated to a lovely evening of wining & dining, and receive Gift Bags before the afternoon ends. Along with other gourmet goodies, the bags will include our SEN CHA Green Tea Mints, as a way of saying 'thank you' to all those supporting the cause.

Go Green, Go Organic will be held from 12 - 3:30 this Sunday, November 9th. For more information, please visit the National Kidney Foundation's website by clicking here