Elevate Your Culinary Experience! This week we're featuring a delicious digestive blend that pairs beautifully with meals AND exploring the art of tea and food pairings. Discover how the right tea can enhance your favorite foods and create magical flavor combinations! Meet This Week's Blend: Digestive Harmony Tea This aromatic blend features fennel seed, peppermint, ginger, cardamom, and lemon balm. It's designed to support healthy digestion while offering complex flavors that complement a wide variety of foods. 🌟Herb Spotlight🌟 - Fennel Seed (Foeniculum vulgare) Sweet and licorice-like, fennel aids digestion and reduces bloating. Its natural sweetness pairs beautifully with both savory and sweet dishes, making it perfect for after-meal sipping. - Peppermint (Mentha piperita) Cool and refreshing, peppermint stimulates digestive juices and soothes the stomach. Its bright flavor cuts through rich foods and cleanses the palate between courses. - Ginger Root (Zingiber officinale) Warming and spicy, ginger enhances circulation and supports healthy digestion. Its heat complements both sweet desserts and savory spiced dishes. - Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) Aromatic and slightly citrusy, cardamom is a traditional digestive aid. Its complex flavor profile bridges sweet and savory, making it incredibly versatile for food pairings. - Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) Lemony and calming, lemon balm soothes digestive upset while adding bright, citrusy notes. It pairs wonderfully with both light and rich foods. Benefits of the Digestive Harmony Blend This blend supports healthy digestion while offering a complex flavor profile that enhances meals. The carminative herbs (fennel, peppermint, ginger, cardamom) reduce gas and bloating, while lemon balm adds calming digestive support and bright flavor. 🍵How to Prepare Digestive Harmony Tea - 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (lightly crushed) - ½ teaspoon dried peppermint - ½ teaspoon dried ginger root - 4-5 cardamom pods (lightly crushed) - ½ teaspoon dried lemon balm - Pour 1 cup hot water (200°F) over the herbs - Steep covered for 8-10 minutes - Strain and enjoy warm or iced - Perfect 30 minutes after meals or as a palate cleanser

I have created a podcast on my Substack. Link is below. I hope you listen and enjoy!! In this foundational episode of the April Joy Wellness Tea Blending Series, we kick off our 28-day journey into the art and science of tea blending. We begin by dismantling the common misconception that blending is merely mixing ingredients, revealing it as a thoughtful practice that marries creative intuition with scientific understanding of botanicals. You'll discover the three primary techniques professional blenders employ: the delicate, prolonged process of scenting (like with jasmine tea), the post-harvest addition of flavoring agents (think spices and fruits), and traditional blending which involves combining various teas and herbs. A key takeaway is the "blending blueprint"-a proportional hierarchy of base, supporting, flavoring, and finishing herbs-which serves as your guide to creating balanced, therapeutically effective, and delicious blends. We also differentiate between appreciating single-origin teas and leveraging the power of blended teas for diverse benefits and enhanced flavor experiences. This episode empowers you with the core knowledge needed to embark on your intentional blending adventure, setting the stage for deeper exploration into crafting wellness in a cup. Stay positive and kind. Small steps lead to big transformations! 🌿✨ Podcast

🌟 SURPRISE! Chit Chat Happy Hour is Coming! 🌟 Hey beautiful souls! Guess what? I'm off work on Monday, January 19th, and I am SO excited to spend some quality time with all of you! 💕 I'm hosting our very first "Chit Chat Happy Hour" - think of it as grabbing coffee with your favorite wellness-loving friends, except we're all in our cozy clothes and can chat about absolutely anything that's on our hearts. When: Monday, January 19, 2026 at 10:00 am CST Where: Right here in our community! https://www.skool.com/live/GSHMTZ32yyb Why: Because you amazing humans deserve to be seen, heard, and celebrated! Plus, I have a feeling we're going to learn SO much from each other. Come as you are - messy hair, morning tea in hand, kids running around in the background - it's all welcome here! I'll have some fun conversation starters ready (because sometimes we all need a little nudge to get chatting), but honestly? I'm most excited to hear what's really going on in your world. Whether you want to share a recent win, ask for advice, geek out about your latest herbal discovery, or just say hello - this is YOUR time to connect and be part of our beautiful community family. Can't wait to see your lovely faces and/or hear your voices (no pressure to turn on your camera)! Stay positive and kind, April Joy 💜🌹

I have been silent for the past few days because I am in mourning. My father passed away on Thursday (October 23), and I have been in shock and grief ever since. Today, I am returning to work as a school teacher, but I cannot promise that I won’t cry. I am focusing on self-care because it is essential for my health. I'm taking care of myself by making teas, sleeping when my body needs it, crying, and making sure I eat regularly. I have also taken a break from creating for this group and posting to engage with all of you wonderful people. I want to express my gratitude to all of you and apologize for being silent and distant. I will return to normal eventually, but I can't put a date on that. Please do me a favor: hug your loved ones tighter and longer the next time you see them because it could be the last time. If you can't hug them, then call, text, or write to them.