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Published by John C. on
August 25,
2020

Tags:

Saftea Liner,

Iced Tea,

food safety,

tea urn liner,

iced tea urn liner,

fresh tea,

fresh brewed iced tea,

iced coffee,

iced beverages

It was Dolly Parton in the movie, Steel Magnolias, that called Southern Sweet Tea, “the house wine of the South”. Talk about the South and sooner or later sweet tea comes to mind. In the South, sweet tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it before you can walk. Sweet tea makes Southerners think of home, tradition, picnics and hot afternoons “sippin” sweet tea while “swayin” in the swing on the front porch.  Summer is a time to sip the cool, refreshing taste of your favorite iced tea. So raise a glass of your favorite iced tea and celebrate!

While sweet tea may be the quintessential southern beverage, the popularity of this tasty drink has exploded in recent years, and is a favorite among tea lovers regardless of geographic location. If you haven’t tried sweet tea yet, then what are you waiting for?  You just might find your new favorite summertime (or anytime) beverage! 

Why Restaurants Choose Saftea® Liner 

With iced tea on virtually any restaurant menu, more food service establishments trust Saftea® Liner to ensure optimum freshness, flavor and safety to their valuable patrons.  Saftea® tea urn Liner safeguards against harmful bacteria that can form inside the tea dispenser, and the zip top locking seal protects any accidental contaminates, all while providing a consistent fresh tasting flavor, free from any aftertaste left from residual cleaning solutions.

How It Works

Saftea® Liner comes complete with an integrated tube that slides through the spigot opening on the tea urn. Simply place the liner inside of the urn, and feed the tube through the spigot until it protrudes outside.  Carefully drape the liner of the sides of the urn, and you are ready to either pour or brew the tea directly into the urn. Liners can be refilled throughout the day, but should be replaced every 24 hours.  Replacing liners can be done in less than 30 seconds, and eliminates the need for cleaning chemicals and scrubbing the urns, which is both time and labor intensive.  So not only do your employees benefit from using the liners, but your patrons will notice fresher, and better tasting iced tea as a result! 

Order Online

Our web store is available 24 hours a day, so you can shop and order replacement liners whenever it is most convenient for you! Contact us with questions or for more information on how Saftea® Liner can help your beverage program.

Iced tea is normally brewed hot and then cooled with both air temperature and of course, ice. But, did you know that you don’t have to brew tea hot in order to make the tea? Cold brew tea is beginning to gain some traction in the marketplace, but it’s a style of brewing tea that has been done for quite some time, and is fairly easy to do!

The cold brew method reminds me of sun tea, since you’re just steeping tea in water for hours, but cold brew takes place in the refrigerator instead of the back porch. The heat in the brewing process results in bringing out the tannic, bitter flavors of tea but when you cold brew your tea, that bitter taste is removed, and you’re just left with a sipping tea that isn’t bitter in the slightest. This is a similar process to how cold brewed coffee is made and many believe the cold brewed coffee phenomenon may soon be moving to tea as well.

So, how do you make cold brewed iced tea? It’s actually pretty simple (much more simple than I thought it would be when I started researching for this article). Just combine loose-leaf tea or whole tea bags and water in a pitcher and let the tea infuse the water for 6 to 12 hours in the refrigerator. Strain, and you have cold-brew tea that will taste great for days! The process seems to work best with lose leaf tea, however, some companies are beginning to come out with a cold brewed option for food service at restaurants and convenience stores. One such company, Tiesta Tea, actually sells both lose leaf packets for home cold brewing and larger packets for foodservice cold brewing. Either way, it’s a different taste and twist on an old favorite and one that might just be coming to your favorite restaurant or convenience store.

A customer of ours is looking into using this type of cold brew tea in their stores, and they came to me to ask if they would still want to use the Saftea® Liners in their urns with this kind of tea to protect the tea and keep contaminants out. After researching with our Quality Control department we were able to determine that despite the absence of both the heat and the bitter tannic flavors, mold, bacteria and fungus can still grow. Therefore, if you’re going to start using cold brew tea in your stores or restaurants, using the Saftea® Liner is still the best way to make sure that tea is safe to drink. Try these liners risk free! Request your free samples of Saftea® Liner today! Ready to buy? For your convenience, Saftea® Liner can be purchased online by visiting our web store!

Bacon and Eggs…Steak and Potatoes… Peas and Carrots. Some things just go together, but most people wouldn’t put tea and ice cream in that category. However, July is National Ice Cream month and is the perfect time to try a tasty new treat.

With more and more trendy frozen concoctions to choose from than ever before, it’s not uncommon to find an Earl Grey, Chai, or Matcha flavored option in your local store’s freezer section. Tea flavors tend to make the ice cream lighter tasting and more refreshing than your traditional flavors, making it the perfect option for those of us looking for a pallet cleanser instead of a full-on dessert.

Green tea is believed to be the first tea used in ice cream. Its exact origins are unclear, but the most popular theory is that it originated in Japan sometime between 1868-1912. It was not until the late 1970s that it began being served in the States, mostly in Japanese restaurants and markets.

Daring to be a little bolder than tea flavored ice cream? A tea float might be for you. Just as its predecessors, root beer and Coke mostly, tea is becoming the “it” drink to add ice cream to and unlike traditional floats, the options for flavor combinations are endless. Maybe a scoop of cinnamon in chai, or lavender in your earl grey. When it comes to combining two of the most diverse flavor spectrums, your imagination and taste buds are your only limit

Tea and ice cream combinations are popping up all over the country in many different forms. Is your business keeping up with trends? Summertime is a great time to introduce some sweet and chilled variety to your repertoire and Plascon is here to help you bring your new ideas to life with several packaging options.  It’s easy to set up a tea float station with Saftea® Urn Liners and switching out the tea flavors with a liner means minimal cleaning time and no weird flavors left behind from the previous tea! Contact us today to learn more about Saftea® iced tea urn liners or to request your free 7-day trial of liners!

Published by Alan Hansen on
July 16,
2020

Tags:

Box Liner,

Saftea Liner,

food safety,

biodegradable,

cook chill,

cook chill packaging,

tea urn liner,

BRC Certified,

sous vide,

biodegradable packaging

Walk into any back yard in the summer and you will most likely see a grill ready for use. There is nothing better than being surrounded by family and friends enjoying this smoky, tender meal. It really is an American pastime. Have you ever wondered how to make this even more enjoyable?

Introducing Sous Vide

French for “under vacuum”, sous vide is a cooking process that involves sealing food in a vacuum pouch bag, then cooking to a precise temperature using a water bath. This results in consistent cooking throughout the food, while retaining the natural juices for better flavor and tenderness. Starting with sous vide, and then finishing by tossing on the grill adds the delicious smoky taste for a classic BBQ flavor. Sous vide in the past was a trait that was exclusive to professional chefs, however, it is now just as accessible and simple to small organizations or even the at home chef. Adding sous vide to your BBQ rituals is very similar to the low and slow process that America already loves.

If you are thinking of trying this method in addition to your established BBQ routine, here are some tips to making the delicious merger:

• While this sounds a bit backwards one method is to smoke the meat first at the lowest temperature possible, between 150°-180°F. In doing so, this will help the smoked flavor to reach all the meat while in the sous vide bath.
• It is important to remember not to let the smoked meats internal temperature exceed the desired sous vide bath temperature.
• Sous vide temps will vary depending on the type of meat but the average temps for common barbecued meats is a range of 132°-165°. This applies to meats such as beef, brisket, ribs, etc. This step, like smoking meats is a long process and can last anywhere from a few hours to days depending on the chef’s preference.
• Once you have achieved your desired tenderness, removing it from the sous vide and placing it back on a hot grill will help to revive the crust on the outer edge and enhance the smoked flavor.

Although this method may take a little while longer the result will make you wish you would have tried it sooner!

At Plascon we are happy to offer our own sous vide bags made from a 7-layer blown film that results in a very durable bag. Our bags are also FDA compliant, BRC certified, and BPA-free. Contact us today to learn more!

4^th of July celebrations might be a bit smaller this year but can be just as fun and special!  A refreshing and colorful 4^th of July Iced Tea Float is an excellent beverage option for children and adults.  This drink combines vibrant summer strawberries and blueberries with hibiscus tea and cool vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt to create a delicious dessert.

Ingredients

• Hibiscus loose-leaf or bagged tea
• Honey
• Fresh or frozen blueberries
• Vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt
• Frozen fruit strawberry popsicles

Instructions

1. Boil pot of water and steep loose-leaf or bagged hibiscus tea for at least twenty minutes.
2. Add raw honey until you reach desired sweetness while the tea is still warm. Refrigerate.
3. Add one scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream and handful of fresh or frozen blueberries to chilled tea, and a frozen fruit strawberry popsicle.
4. Serve immediately or freeze overnight.

Give this recipe a try during your 4^th of July celebration!

Plascon is a leading manufacturer of flexible packaging solutions, including Saftea® Liner iced tea urn liners.  With Saftea® Liner, the tea never comes in direct contact with the tea urn, eliminating harmful mold and bacteria from forming (a common problem with all teas). As an added bonus, there is never an aftertaste of cleaning chemicals from an improperly rinsed tea urn.

The results are only the freshest and highest quality iced tea!  Where do you purchase fresh brewed iced tea?  Restaurants, cafes, caterers, convenience stores, and more are switching to Saftea® Liner to ensure only the finest ice teas are served in their establishments.  Next time you buy a fresh brewed iced tea, ask them if they use Saftea® Liner! 

Managers, ordering Saftea® Liner is now easier than ever before!  Our web store has both 30 and 150-pack cases to choose from, as well as additional pinch-tube spigots for expanding or replacing existing factory spigots.  Be sure to check out our webstore or contact us for more information!

It’s no secret that here at Plascon, we love iced tea!  We talk about it all the time, and we have even dedicated a product to help our food service friends ensure that their iced tea is of the highest quality and sanitation: Saftea® Liner. 

As part of National Iced Tea Month, this June we have been blogging about all things tea!  We have looked at the history of tea, and shared some delicious recipes, so why not have a little fun and take this tea quiz?  

Create your own user feedback survey

So how did you score?  Here is a little more information about the questions and answers:

QUESTION 1:  Who documented the first recipe for Southern Sweet Tea in the US?
ANSWER: Marion Cabell Tyree was the first to publish a recipe for Iced Southern Sweet Tea in her famous cook book, Housekeeping in Old Virginia.

QUESTION 2: Which American movement during the 1920s, gave way to serving strong brewed iced tea due to its bold flavor and caffeinated kick.
ANSWER: During prohibition, drinking establishments found comfort in serving strong brewed iced tea as a substitute for hard liquor.

QUESTION 3:  Drinking iced tea could have certain health benefits because tea contains free radical fighting ______________.
ANSWER: Among other healthy ingredients, tea contains antioxidants, which help remove damaging oxidizing agents living in our bodies.

QUESTION 4: In 1904, more than 20 million people attended this event in St. Louis, where iced tea was popularized and commercialized.
ANSWER: At the World’s Fair in 1904 in St. Louis, iced tea was introduced to fair goers from all corners of the US at an average of more than 100,000 each day.

QUESTION 5: What labor-saving device was an accidental invention in 1904 by Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant?
ANSWER: In 1904, Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, started to send samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags. Some assumed that these were supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers, by putting the entire bag into the pot, rather than emptying out the contents. It was thus by accident that the tea bag was born!

QUESTION 6: Who holds the Guinness record for the largest pitcher of iced tea ever served?
ANSWER: Lipton served up a mammoth 12.5-foot tall pitcher of iced tea in October 2015 that Guinness marked as the largest ever dispensed. The giant-sized receptacle needed eight large bags of tea, 2204 gallons of water

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Restaurant operators, don’t miss out on our Saftea Liner June promo in honor of National Iced Tea Month! Take $20 off your purchase of $100 or more using promo code ‘JUNESALE’.  Hurry, offer ends June 30th, 2020! Available exclusively at our webstore! 

Every June, we celebrate National Iced Tea Month!  For tea lovers, it is a great excuse to try a new flavor or recipe as there are so many options available. Chai Tea has become a very popular coffee shop order recently. This homemade recipe is rich and simple, with lots of exotic spice for authentic flavor. If you haven’t tried Chai Tea yet, follow this easy to make recipe, or experiment with a spice of your own for an alternate variation.

Indian-inspired chai combines black tea, spices, and milk. Notes of black pepper and cardamom in this version give it bold aromatics.

INGREDIENTS

• 2-inch piece fresh ginger, cut into thin rounds
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 10 whole cloves
• 6 cardamom pods
• 6 cups cold water
• 6 bags of black tea (preferably Darjeeling)
• 2 cups milk. (for a dairy-free option, try oat, almond or coconut milk)
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

PREPARATION

Combine first 5 ingredients in medium saucepan. Using mallet or back of large spoon, lightly crush or bruise spices. Add 6 cups water; bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover pan, and simmer gently 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Add tea bags and steep 5 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add milk and sugar. Bring tea just to simmer over high heat, whisking until sugar dissolves. Strain chai into teapot and serve hot or chilled.

Restaurant operators, If your restaurant serves fresh brewed iced tea, be sure to take advantage of our June promo to receive $20 off your $100 purchase when you order Saftea® Liner from our webstore using promo code ‘JUNESALE’.  Using Saftea® Liner to dispense your iced tea provides maximum safety for both your employees and customers.  Since the liner never comes in direct contact with the urn dispenser, harmful molds and bacteria which are common to tea cannot buildup inside the urn.  Our patented liner is the only tea urn liner with a zippered closure, preventing accidental contaminates from entering the urn.  In the end, the tea served in your restaurant is not only more sanitary, but it actually tastes better without risk of molds or residual cleaning chemicals.  Conventional cleaning of tea urns involves disassembly, cleaning chemicals, and reassembly, all which takes time.  With Saftea® Liner, changing liners takes less than 60 seconds with no cleaning chemicals, and can be done once every 24 hours.  Hurry, offer ends June 30, 2020!

Things are crazy right now huh? The coronavirus, riots in the streets, murder hornets…2020 certainly has been an interesting year so far.

Food safety at a time like this is paramount for any restaurant in order to maintain their business and keep diners coming back for more. Now more than ever it is extremely important to show your customers that you care about their health and safety. Looking around your restaurant, you will likely find dozens of items that need to be taken care of in order to provide a clean and safe environment for your customers.

But, that all costs money.  In fact, I was just speaking with a new customer yesterday, and they mentioned the main reason they are buying our liners is to provide a safe environment for their customers. They want to show their customers that they care about them, and want them to be safe. This customer figured out that if he sells just ONE iced tea per day, he has already paid for the liners since his tea program offers him the largest profit margin that he has. Many others are coming to the same conclusion. While most vendors who work with restaurants saw drastic decreases in activity during the last couple of months, our sales actually increased as a result of this inexpensive solution that proves to your customers you mean business.

Plascon is a manufacturer of food grade flexible packaging, and has always operated under the strictest BRC requirements for maximum food safety and sanitation.   Saftea® Liner is designed to keep mold, bacteria and fungus from forming inside the urns and spigots. This is something that can happen in as little as 2 hours after your initial brew of the day, which means the tea is just sitting in that stuff all day long. If the urns and spigots are not properly cleaned every single day, bacteria can build up and get people sick. Nobody wants that. So, enter Saftea® Liner to prevent all of that from happening, and offer a solution that won’t break the bank.

Restaurants and convenience stores all over the country are finding out just what Saftea® Liner can do for them and their operations. Improve the quality and flavor of the tea. Improve food safety. Save money on water, cleaning chemicals and most importantly, labor because by using the liners, you never have to scrub and clean an urn again.

Try Saftea® Liner Free – No Strings Attached!

We are always happy to send you some free samples to try out our liners because we are confident that this is the best option available to prove to your customers that you care. Just fill out the information here, and look forward to clean, fresh tasting iced tea that your customers will both notice and enjoy.

We all know drinking tea (hot or iced) has some amazing health benefits, but did you know you can repurpose the tea leaves for other everyday uses?  Here are the unexpected ways tea leaves can be reused in household and personal care.

 

Household Uses

Cooking

Tenderize Meat Prior to Cooking:  Marinating the meat in cooled brewed tea before cooking makes the meat more tender and easier to digest.  Use black tea for an enhanced taste and add your favorite seasonings!

Cleaning

Clean Windows and Mirrors:  Brew a pot of tea, cool it down and dip a cloth in the liquid, wiping the mirrors and windows, then use a dry cloth to ensure a perfect shine.

Clean carpets and rugs:  Apply dry, used green tea leaves directly on your carpet or rug and allow them to release their active compounds for a couple of minutes. Vacuum the leaves and your carpets will look fresher and cleaner.

Polish Furniture or Floors:  The high amounts of tannins found in tea are known to enhance the color and shine of wood flooring.  To clean the furniture, dip a soft cloth in black tea and wipe it normally. To restore the shine and color of the wood floor, dip a cloth with brewed tea and rub it against the floor, but make sure to remove the excess liquid before applying the cloth on the wood flooring. Clean the surface normally and then let it air dry.

Gardening

Fertilize Plants:  The tannins in tea provide nutrients for plants and flowers.  Spread used tea leaves around the plants and flowers if they like acidic soil.

Clothing

Fabric Dyeing:  Using tea to dye fabrics is natural and inexpensive.  The colors produced are earth-tones, varying shades of beige, taupe and brown depending on what type of tea leaves you use.

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Personal Care Uses

Health

Relieve Tired Eyes:  Apply wet teabags on your eyes to help reduce puffiness and soothe pain. If you do not have the time to brew the tea and wait for the teabags to cool before applying them on your tired eyes, you can use unbrewed teabags in the freezer for 1 minute, then apply them on your eyes.

Soothe Burns and Blisters: Wet teabags or tea baths can replace sunburn creams for soothing the pain of sunburns. Canker sores and fever blisters heal faster if covered with warm teabags, and razor burns can also be relieved by applying wet tea bags on the damaged skin.

Reduce Pain and Swelling from Injections:  Place a wet, used teabag on the injection site after receiving an injection to reduce the discomfort and swelling of an injection and speed up recovery.

Improve Oral Health:  For bleeding gums, place a cooled teabag in the mouth, and wait for a couple of minutes. It should stop the bleeding and reduce the discomfort as well.  To refresh your breath, drink peppermint tea. It removes unpleasant smell and contains menthol which acts as a natural antiseptic, relieving mild toothaches.

Beauty

Rejuvenate Your Skin:  Use brewed tea as a skin toner.  It will look smoother and radiant, as tea is known to calm redness, help in removing acne spots, relieve irritation and inflammation, reduce the swelling and restore the even coloration of skin.

Restore Your Hair and Scalp:  Tea is an excellent treatment for hair.  If you suffer from increased scalp and hair dryness, freshly brewed and cooled tea can be an good vehicle for hydrating and conditioning the hair and scalp. Rinse your hair with the cooled tea and allow it to dry naturally.

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Now that we have explored alternative uses for tea, you will likely want to test these applications for yourself. Moist tea bags can be kept for one day at room temperature, up to a week if refrigerated, and nearly indefinitely when re-dried properly.

This is only a small selection of the vast variety of uses for tea. Have you tried any of the ideas on this list or any other eco-friendly ways to use and reuse tea? Share your favorite with us in the comment section!

Are you a restaurant or convenience store owner or manager who serves iced tea?  Then you know how difficult it is to clean those commercial grade tea urn dispensers!  Learn how Saftea® Liner can save time and labor by taking the scrubbing, and cleaning chemicals out of the equation.  Use Saftea® Liner inside your tea urns to provide a hygienically superior system to serving your iced teas.  Consistent, fresh tasting tea will make your patrons happy and come back for more!  Get your FREE 7-day supply of Saftea® Liners and try it out!