Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Sparkling Hibiscus Sangria Cooler
Republic of Tea has started making large tea pouches for iced tea, especially geared towards summer flavors. I came across the following recipe using their Hibiscus Sangria Tea.
I have raspberries at home. I think I'm going to try this one, albeit without the sparkling water because I hate fizzy drinks:
Serves: 4 servings
INGREDIENTS
2 cups boiling water
1 pouch Republic of Tea Hibiscus Sangria Tea
¼ cup agave nectar
2 cups sparkling water
1½ cups mixed fruit and berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, peaches)
Ice for serving
INSTRUCTIONS
Steep tea pouch in boiling water for 5 minutes.
Remove pouch and stir in agave nectar. Pour into a small pitcher and add sparkling water.
Mix in desired fruit.
Pour into glasses filled with ice and serve.
Boozy Tea: Darjeeling and gin
Prevention magazine has published on line an article about tea-based cocktails. Since I am limited in my ability to consume alcohol, I rely on you, my faithful readers, to try some of these.
This one looked most interesting to me for a summer heat wave.
3 oz gin
4 oz Darjeeling tea, cooled
1½ oz rose simple syrup
2 oz (1 oz in each cocktail) Perrier sparkling natural mineral water
A few dashes of peach bitters
1. COMBINE first three ingredients in a mixing glass filled ¾ with ice.
2. STIR for 30 seconds to combine.
3. POUR in separate Old Fashioned glasses with one large ice cube in each. Add a few shakes of the peach bitters. Test for sweetness, and add more rose simple syrup if necessary. Stir again.
4. FINISH with 1 oz Perrier in each glass.
5. GARNISH with a slice of peach or orange.
Created by Warren Bobrow, cocktail writer for Foodista and author of forthcoming book Apothecary Cocktails
This one looked most interesting to me for a summer heat wave.
3 oz gin
4 oz Darjeeling tea, cooled
1½ oz rose simple syrup
2 oz (1 oz in each cocktail) Perrier sparkling natural mineral water
A few dashes of peach bitters
1. COMBINE first three ingredients in a mixing glass filled ¾ with ice.
2. STIR for 30 seconds to combine.
3. POUR in separate Old Fashioned glasses with one large ice cube in each. Add a few shakes of the peach bitters. Test for sweetness, and add more rose simple syrup if necessary. Stir again.
4. FINISH with 1 oz Perrier in each glass.
5. GARNISH with a slice of peach or orange.
Created by Warren Bobrow, cocktail writer for Foodista and author of forthcoming book Apothecary Cocktails
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Coconut Mango Colada Green Tea
For some reason, adding tropical flavors to green tea seems enormously popular. I must admit that the combination works. I've liked pretty much every tropical green tea blend I've tried so far.
Tea Forte's Coconut Mango Colada Green Tea works adequately as hot tea, but spectacularly as iced tea. The tang of the green tea prevents the coconut, mango and vanilla notes from becoming overly sweet. Tea Forte claims there's also some lime in this mix, but I can't taste it.
The coconut aroma is very strong, but it does not come out nearly as strongly in the taste. It surfaces primarily in the aftertaste. The most dominate flavor is fruity.
If it were not 90+ degrees out, I would consider drinking this hot with some honey to see what that did to the flavor profile. I'm also wondering what this would taste like as iced tea with some sweet moscato added. Or lime juice. Perhaps I will experiment after work.
Tea Forte's Coconut Mango Colada Green Tea works adequately as hot tea, but spectacularly as iced tea. The tang of the green tea prevents the coconut, mango and vanilla notes from becoming overly sweet. Tea Forte claims there's also some lime in this mix, but I can't taste it.
The coconut aroma is very strong, but it does not come out nearly as strongly in the taste. It surfaces primarily in the aftertaste. The most dominate flavor is fruity.
If it were not 90+ degrees out, I would consider drinking this hot with some honey to see what that did to the flavor profile. I'm also wondering what this would taste like as iced tea with some sweet moscato added. Or lime juice. Perhaps I will experiment after work.
Friday, July 17, 2015
Guest Tea Review
A guest review from regular reader +Jody Livingston, concerning some tea brought back from the Kingdom of the Rat God:
I was gifted with a package of tea from the Joffrey Coffee and Tea Company. Since it's summer, everything is getting made into iced tea so I made a batch of the Tahitian Vanilla Rose oolong tea. I made half a gallon and added a half cup of simple syrup. I tried a couple sips while it was still hot, and all I can say is, I hope it was better iced. It was sickeningly vanilla, and I could barely taste the rose. I like rose tea, I use rose sugar, and I've made rose cookies, so I was really looking forward to this tea. Once it was iced, it was just as bad. Completely unbalanced. I think vanilla should be a subtle taste, and not overwhelming. I thought to myself, What Would Alys Do?
So I added about a half ounce of rosewater that I use for cooking and voila, balance. So now the tea shines, the balance is lovely, and all the tastes compliment each other, rather than the slap fight that was going on when I first tasted it.
I was gifted with a package of tea from the Joffrey Coffee and Tea Company. Since it's summer, everything is getting made into iced tea so I made a batch of the Tahitian Vanilla Rose oolong tea. I made half a gallon and added a half cup of simple syrup. I tried a couple sips while it was still hot, and all I can say is, I hope it was better iced. It was sickeningly vanilla, and I could barely taste the rose. I like rose tea, I use rose sugar, and I've made rose cookies, so I was really looking forward to this tea. Once it was iced, it was just as bad. Completely unbalanced. I think vanilla should be a subtle taste, and not overwhelming. I thought to myself, What Would Alys Do?
So I added about a half ounce of rosewater that I use for cooking and voila, balance. So now the tea shines, the balance is lovely, and all the tastes compliment each other, rather than the slap fight that was going on when I first tasted it.
Monday, July 6, 2015
A sort of tea house review: The Pandorica
It's not quite a tea house, but it has many tea house like qualities. British-themed decor. Vaguely British food. A section of the menu devoted to various kinds of tea. Tea cozies. So what the heck, I'll review it.
The Pandorica is a Doctor Who themed restaurant in Beacon, NY. I went to there on Sunday afternoon with +Christine Dalessio and +Murray Blehart , two of the biggest Whovians on the planet. The walls are decorated with Whovian fan art. The chandeliers vaguely resemble starbursts of sonic screwdrivers. The menu is filled with cute little Whovian puns. The door to the loo is painted like a TARDIS. One TV screen runs Dr. Who episodes with close-captioning. David Tennant was the Doctor for our visit.
The food was pretty good. I had a green salad and a quite solid cottage pie, nicely flavored and hearty. The cheddar on top of the pie added flavor without overwhelming it. They could have used a lighter hand on the vinaigrette dressing on the salad, but I tend to use a very light hand with vinegar on anything that isn't chips. The baked potato appetizer, however, direly needed some sort of flavoring.
For dessert, I had a nice white cake with blueberries and marscapone icing. It was a great idea, but it needed more blueberries or a slightly heavier cake. Not bad by any means, but just a little short of greatness. Chrissy and Murray had "fish fingers and custard" -- which was actually a tiny bit of dipping custard with battered and deep fried french toast-like "fingers."
Rather than trying hot tea on a July day, I opted for the raspberry iced tea, which was splendid. It was fruity without being overly sweet. There was no tang of hibiscus, which means they had to be using a very high quality raspberry tea to make it.
The generally pretty good food was, unfortunately, undermined by simply dreadful service. I asked for a refill of my iced tea three times and did not get it until the entire table was ready for a refill. We waited interminably for our food. A fairly simple lunch with dessert should not have taken over 2 hours. (The downside of having Dr. Who episodes running is that we know how long we were sitting waiting). It was not a particularly busy day and there was no excuse for our waitress's simply disappearing for long stretches of time.
I'd be willing to try the Pandorica again, although on a day that I'm not in a hurry. I hope they get their act together, because there's a gem of a restaurant in there just waiting to get out. Plus, the notion of honey pear tea appeals to me, although perhaps on a day when it is less than 80 degrees.
The Pandorica is a Doctor Who themed restaurant in Beacon, NY. I went to there on Sunday afternoon with +Christine Dalessio and +Murray Blehart , two of the biggest Whovians on the planet. The walls are decorated with Whovian fan art. The chandeliers vaguely resemble starbursts of sonic screwdrivers. The menu is filled with cute little Whovian puns. The door to the loo is painted like a TARDIS. One TV screen runs Dr. Who episodes with close-captioning. David Tennant was the Doctor for our visit.
The food was pretty good. I had a green salad and a quite solid cottage pie, nicely flavored and hearty. The cheddar on top of the pie added flavor without overwhelming it. They could have used a lighter hand on the vinaigrette dressing on the salad, but I tend to use a very light hand with vinegar on anything that isn't chips. The baked potato appetizer, however, direly needed some sort of flavoring.
For dessert, I had a nice white cake with blueberries and marscapone icing. It was a great idea, but it needed more blueberries or a slightly heavier cake. Not bad by any means, but just a little short of greatness. Chrissy and Murray had "fish fingers and custard" -- which was actually a tiny bit of dipping custard with battered and deep fried french toast-like "fingers."
Rather than trying hot tea on a July day, I opted for the raspberry iced tea, which was splendid. It was fruity without being overly sweet. There was no tang of hibiscus, which means they had to be using a very high quality raspberry tea to make it.
The generally pretty good food was, unfortunately, undermined by simply dreadful service. I asked for a refill of my iced tea three times and did not get it until the entire table was ready for a refill. We waited interminably for our food. A fairly simple lunch with dessert should not have taken over 2 hours. (The downside of having Dr. Who episodes running is that we know how long we were sitting waiting). It was not a particularly busy day and there was no excuse for our waitress's simply disappearing for long stretches of time.
I'd be willing to try the Pandorica again, although on a day that I'm not in a hurry. I hope they get their act together, because there's a gem of a restaurant in there just waiting to get out. Plus, the notion of honey pear tea appeals to me, although perhaps on a day when it is less than 80 degrees.
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