Summer is approaching – can you feel it?

Yeah… it’s slow coming. I took a walk in the woods today and found a patch of snow! eek! It’s no Saskatchewan, but what can I say? It’s still white and cold.

Well, what can I say? I’m an optimist! I’m already deciding which summer teas I want to stock up on for iced tea! Right now I’m drinking a cup of Watermelon Xylophone from Butiki Teas – I know it will probably be my favourite iced tea this year. I think my favourite teas to ice are white, herbal and green!

That brings me to the feature website this week: Iced Green Teas!

Iced-Green Tea.com is an encyclopedia meets cookbook! Filled to the brim with green tea recipes, information, health facts and discussion, as well as reviews! Green tea can be finicky, as we remember from my past post How Green is Your Tea?

You can get some great tips on how to perfect your iced tea brewing (How to Make Iced Green Tea), how to make your own fruit infused iced green tea, or my favourite: What to do if you do not like Green Tea! Many people want to include more green tea into their diet for health reasons rather than just another tasty beverage.

Perhaps the best tip is that, if you don’t like Green Tea – ice some Black tea instead! I’ll take that even further and add in herbals tea or even rooibos! I always try to ice teas I love and see if they will make the cut in the summer. Funnily enough, I also do this with teas I hate! You would be surprised at how delicious  a perfectly horrible tea can be when you ice it with a bit of simple syrup. Or an iced latte? Personally – Cold brew is always the way to go:

So join me in getting ready for Summer and start icing your Green Tea! Definitely check out Iced-Green Tea.com and see if you can get inspired too.

Thanks to Iced Green Tea for allowing me to review their website and take a gander! It’s definitely bookmarked for when the warmer weather hits.

Hey honey bun!

Oh hello Spring – it’s still chilly enough that you can stuff yourself with filling, aromatic, good for any meal oatmeal honey buns infused with Verdant Tea’s Earl of Anxi. Yep, no joke. This is the good stuff folks.

I used local honey and a big bag of old-fashioned oats from the supermarket. A little from column A, a little from column B. Use what you have at your disposal – and believe me when I say that you will end up with a hearty bun to please most any palate.

Earl of Anxi Oatmeal Honey Buns

Ingredients:
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
2 3/4 cup unbleached flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/4 cups Earl of Anxi from Verdant Tea
2 tbsp safflower oil (or oil of choice)
1/4 cup honey
1 egg for brushing (optional)
Oats for topping (optional)

Mix white sugar, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add flour and oats and mix well.

Set the dry ingredients aside and brew your tea: 1 1/4 cups boiling water with 3 tsp Earl of Anxi tea for 5 minutes. You’re making a nice strong aromatic brew to add creaminess, depth and flavour to the finished bread. When tea is finished brewing, strain the tea leaves and melt in honey. Stir in oil and add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Knead until you have a smooth dough ball.

Place dough ball in an oiled bowl and cover with saran wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Form dough into buns and let rise once more for 30 minutes.

When dough has finished rising, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush tops of buns with beaten egg, sprinkle a few oats on top and bake for 13-15 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Enjoy with a pat of butter, a drizzle of honey or a teaspoon of marmalade!

A HUGE thank you to Verdant Tea for having me as a guest chef and allowing me to play with some seriously amazing tea. I’m so lucky to have worked with them on this three part series. Happy Spring everyone!

The tea formerly known as Amore! This post was scheduled to post on Valentine’s Day, but then it never posted! I’ve been having WordPress troubles that need some serious Spring cleaning – along with the rest of  my house.

The name of this tea was changed to Rose Mojito by The Persimmon Tree – and rightly so. It’s a white tea blend with rose petals and peppermint – just the right amount of mint to be refreshing and mellow instead of sharp and intruding. A relaxing blend that makes me feel like I’m at a spa – I’ll have to remember to drink this hot when I use my next fresh face mask from Lush.

A little tidbit from the website:

“Featuring a beautiful blend of organic flower-scented white loose-leaf teas, wild roses, organic peppermint and seasonally selected botanicals; the Rose Mojito is a great after meal pick-up or for sipping in the evening with someone you love due to the refreshing and aromatic qualities.” (The Persimmon Tree – Rose Mojito)

The gentle mint allows the quality white tea to shine through. I think I spied a blend of silver needle and bai mu dan, but the silver needles were plentiful and floral! A great companion tea for a library visit or a walk in the park.

Where this tea will really shine in the summer is Iced. Since I’m desperate for some warm weather, I did come experimenting. Here is the recipe I came up with:

2 tsp Rose Mojito
muddled fresh mint leaves
zest and juice of one large lime
1 tsp sugar
1 oz. liquor of your choice (I used Honey Jack Daniels)
Sparkling Water

In a tall glass muddle fresh mint with sugar. Add zest and juice of lime and liquor (optional). Fill glass with ice. Steep tea in a separate vessel and pour over ice. Top with sparkling water and sip your cares away, mmm good. Let me tell you – it was perfection.

 

Thank you to The Persimmon Tree for allowing me to do this series of reviews. The Persimmon Tree is a tea company located in sunny California with high ethical standards regarding the environment, organic product, fair-trade and health! Check them out on Facebook, and keep sipping my friends!

My journey with Green Tea has been an interesting one! There are certainly some green teas that leave a lot to be desired – but when you find that one that pleases your palate – oh it’s worth the journey! For me, a lot of it had to do with learning how to brew green tea. Some greens can be quite finicky, but I find it’s best to start with a low water temperature and go from there. The company you order tea from can give you some brewing advice, but there’s nothing more satisfying and efficient than your own experiments – and experience!

This brings me to Steve, the author of How Green is Your Tea? He’s been drawn to green tea as a beverage for different reasons than most people. Here’s a tidbit of his story:

“I have always been a tea drinker as I never acquired the taste for coffee like everyone else around me. But my love for green tea really started when I was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or CLL.  CLL is the most common type of leukemia. Most people are diagnosed without symptoms as the result of a routine blood test that returns a high white blood cell count, as was in my case. I’m still in the early stages in what is called “Watch and Wait” mode, and my goal is to stay in this stage and never have to be treated!” (Source: How Green is Your Tea? About Me)

Visiting Steve’s site, you can see he is on a journey of discovering new and better ways to consume his tea – like him, I am a fan of Starbucks Green Tea Lattes. I also have plenty of matcha recipes on my site as well! Matcha Iced Latte, Matcha Icing, Matcha Cookies! My favourite so far on his blog is the Matcha Ice Cream recipe – holy wow – it looks so deep dark green and creamy. What can I say, I like my edibles The great part is, the more you experiment with and try at home, the less you need to spend on pricey coffee shops!

If you’re interested in learning more about green tea, why not pop over to How Green is Your Tea and find the perfect tea for your tastes and your health, such as: Did you know you can eat your green tea? A bunch of great techniques for brewing your tea – and my personal favourite: The advantages of loose tea over tea bags! Join Steve to help make the switch!

Thank you to Steve from How Green is Your Tea for letting me feature his budding website – it’s going to keep growing and evolving, so while it does, why not join him on Facebook?

I’ll drink to that!

Another chilly day for a hot cup of tea. My personal favourite days, that’s for sure! This photo above is in a long path about a 5 minute walk from our house! Paradise!

Yes, it’s time for my third review from my Persimmon Tree series: Honeysuckle Puerh.

This tea definitely appeals to the coffee drinker in me. It brews up to a deep dark brown and is full of rich, earthy tones that wake you up – but instead of being super acidic like coffee, puerh helps to calm your stomach. I love puerh after a big meal or unhealthy snack-fest. Honeysuckle is an especially nice treat after dinner – being naturally sweet and floral. It somehow manages to be both light in texture and deep in flavour, quite the contrast and quite the treat!

Puerh is one of those types of tea that some people swear by for weight loss. I can’t speak to that – but I can speak of it as an aid in digestion! I have acid reflux and can sometime have an upset tummy – after a few cups of puerh like Honeysuckle, I’m back on my feet and don’t even realize I don’t hurt anymore. It’s always nice to keep some around, again, especially if you’re a coffee lover.

The Persimmon Tree’s website offers steeping suggestions: 205 degrees for 3-5 minutes. This tea is an especially good resteeper – I suggest starting with 3 minutes, increasing the time by one minute for each subsequent steep. It’s also amazing to enjoy as a latte with a pinch of brown sugar and hot frothed milk of any kind. A warm hug on a cold day!

Thank you to The Persimmon Tree for allowing me to do this series of reviews. The Persimmon Tree is a tea company located in sunny California with high ethical standards regarding the environment, organic product, fair-trade and health! Check them out on Facebook, and stay tuned for one more gorgeous tea, I can’t wait to romance you with this one!

 

 

If you are a lover of smoky teas but haven’t found a green to please your palate, Gunpowder Green from The Persimmon Tree may just be the tea you’re looking for.

This is the second review in my The Persimmon Tree review series!  Here’s a snippet from the website of the benefits of Green Tea, Gunpowder specifically:

“Studies show that green gunpowder tea organic (due primarily to its anti-oxidizing properties) can help in the following ways:

• Countering fatigue, laziness, sleepiness and lack of energy
• Improving blood circulation
• Boosting immunity
• Toning muscles and skin (anti-aging)
• Eliminating toxins from the body
• Reducing chances of cancer
• Reducing cholesterol
• Increasing cardiac and arterial health
• Reducing blood-glucose levels (good for diabetics)
• Aiding weight loss (enhancing the rate of metabolism)
• Boosting stamina and endurance” (Source: Organic Green Gunpowder Tea by The Persimmon Tree)

Many people want to drink more green tea for it’s anti-oxidant and other health benefits. I personally am not much of a “drink tea for the health” person – I love the taste! It’s my drink of choice, if it’s healthy, that’s just the cherry on top! If you can find the perfect green tea for your tastes, it’s a joy to brew a cup (or many!) a day.

Green tea can be overbrewed if you steep for too long or with water that is too hot! That causes some people to dislike green tea, well, try brewing this tea (or other greens) at 175 degrees for 2-3 minutes. Take a sip and see if you can taste the delicate sweetness and the vegetal astringency. A bite on the tongue rather than a bitter mess! Try it, it’s worth it.

Lately I’ve been craving teas with a smoky character. Gunpowder Green is not as smoky as a campfire (Lapsang Souchong) but has a gentle warming quality that reminds me slightly of a Genmaicha, without the rice flavour. It’s hard to describe, but every sip fills the senses and warms from the inside out. It’s a lovely winter/spring tea, but here’s how I like to drink it in the summer:

Make your own Moroccan Mint! Add 1 tsp fresh or dry mint to 1 tsp Gunpowder Green tea. Brew at 175 degrees for 5 minutes, add 1 tsp sugar or sweetener of your choice. Pour over ice and enjoy – the smoky sweet minty iced tea is SO refreshing – I can’t wait for warm weather so I can brew some up! Until then I will snuggle up with a hot cup of straight Gunpowder Green.

Thank you to The Persimmon Tree for allowing me to do this series of reviews. The Persimmon Tree is a tea company located in sunny California with high ethical standards regarding the environment, organic product, fair-trade and health! Check them out on Facebook, and stay tuned for more!

Lately life has been moving so fast! Leaving the house is lovely – we’ve been eating healthy and going outside when it’s not blizzarding haha. Is it Spring yet?

Mike and I were talking the other day about how the best thing about having a disposable income would be going out to eat! We can’t go out a lot, maybe once a month, but we love it! It’s a nice official date, or a chance to eat some food and be waited on, or get it right away. It doesn’t have to be a sit-down restaurant to be a night out!

That brings me to my website feature: Fast Food Coupons !
When we do get out it’s usually a case of: how much will it cost? I’m always looking for coupons or deals – what can I say, I’m a Scot! It’s in my blood to get a good deal. Fast Food Coupons is an example of a website that has all my needs in one place – helps us choose where to go as well. It has a lot of US only places, but if you’re in Canada like moi, there’s Applebee’s and even Dairy Queen or KFC – from sit down restaurants to fast food, and you don’t have to subscribe to newsletters or run all over the internet looking for deals.

Handy! I’m already deciding where to go for my birthday supper in August haha.. but first – Spring! One step at a time.

Still deciding whether I should post a recipe or a review on Wednesday! I think recipe – I need to get some pumpkin recipes out of the way before it’s true Spring!

The other day I had a bad dream, couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up and watched the sunrise outside! Invigorating!

I am so pleased to be able to bring you this review of an amazing tea from The Persimmon Tree! Eli from the company was kind enough to give my readers a coupon code for 15% off Banana Dulce – if the review makes your mouth water, enter the coupon code: DCBananaDulce

 
If you’ve never had the pleasure (yet), The Persimmon Tree is a tea company located in sunny California with high ethical standards regarding the environment, organic product, fair-trade and health! Here’s my favourite snippet from their about page that is very important to me personally:

To me, ethics in a tea company make the drink even sweeter. But how does it taste?

This post features The Persimmon Tree’s Banana Dulce. I chose this particular tea to review because I was on the hunt for a certain kind of iced tea – particularly caramel banana! I don’t want to ruin the ending, but this one didn’t disappoint!
The first thing that caught my eye and made me fall in love was the packaging. The tins are 1 part cute: 2 parts classy (all parts economical). They keep the tea fresh while being gorgeous. I haven’t hid them in the tea cupboard – they are proudly displayed along a wall in my kitchen!

Banana Dulce is a chamomile, coconut and banana blend with a rooibos base. This makes it perfect for a late night caffeine-free treat, but like I said – I wanted an iced tea!

I brewed up two teaspoons with boiling water in my steeper and let it steep for 7 minutes. Added a tiny squeeze of agave and poured over ice. First sip? Perfection! The rooibos base is a perfect naturally sweet base, that I usually don’t care for, but really works with this blend. The banana flavour comes out smooth and clear like a fresh cut banana caramelized with some brown sugar. The coconut and chamomile add depth and, again, sweetness that round out the tea and make it into a true dessert blend. For my second cup I didn’t add any agave – just as I thought – it’s perfectly sweet without it. A lovely blend!

I can’t wait until summer so I can truly enjoy a nice, sweet, fruity dessert iced tea! There’s still snow on the ground though, so I did try it hot before bed! The chamomile put me right to sleep. I steeped a mug with boiling water and used a filter bag for 1 tsp of tea. Instead of taking the bag out I just kept it in while I sipped – delicious! I love the versatility of herbal blends – they’re no nonsense and a great evening treat if you’re sensitive to caffeine like I am!

Thank you to The Persimmon Tree for giving me the chance to review this blend! I have 3 more to review in the coming weeks – I can’t wait to experiment and share my reviews with you. Until then, check out The Persimmon Tree on Facebook! And don’t forget about the coupon code for 15% off! (DCBananaDulce)

Hopefully I can get my posts back on track! Work is picking up now that slow January is over, but I never stop baking and drinking tea, what can I say? I’m back!