So we are proud to announce that tea shots have been added to our online store. What exactly is a tea shot? Well i’m glad you asked! A tea shot is a sampling of some of our more popular blends of tea. They contain enough tea for a large teapot and is perfect if you want to test out a blend before committing to a larger quantity of tea. It’s been extremely popular at our location in Mapleview Mall and we will be expanding our selection of tea offerings in the near future.

Because the tea shots are so compact you can now easily carry some great loose leaf tea with you wherever you go- throw it in a backpack (they are made of food grade plastic so no worries of it breaking), in your purse, car, or take it to grandma’s house. I know that Grandma will absolutely love it.

We also have our matcha green tea powder available in tea shots. You get 6 grams of premium matcha tea. What exactly is matcha? It’s green tea that has been ground into a fine powder at a stone mill. Instead of making a tea out of green tea leaves you are actually ingesting the entire leaf therefore getting many more of the health benefits than you would from a cup of tea. For those that may not be familiar with the world of matcha, this is a great way to explore this great Japanese tea ceremony tradition.  Also because each shot is sealed you can pick up multiple matcha shots and only open as much as you need – keeping the rest of your matcha stash nice and fresh.

These days matcha can be found in a plethora of recipes. I’ve had matcha pancakes, matcha cheesecake, matcha muffins and of course my all time favourite: matcha green tea ice cream. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Try adding a teaspoon of our matcha to some softened vanilla bean ice cream for an incredible homemade matcha green tea ice cream. Tip: I find using a spatula and folding over the ice cream and matcha works best.
• Make a hot (or iced) matcha green tea latte
• Add a dash of matcha to yogurt or your breakfast cereal
• Give your post workout smoothies a supercharged kick with a teaspoon of matcha
• Bake a matcha cheesecake
• Serve up some matcha pancakes
• And anything else you can think of!

Really the possibilities are almost endless with what you can do with matcha. Do you have any great ideas you want to share? Maybe a recipe that you tried and was fantastic?

 Respond and let us know how you are using your matcha and we’ll pick three random people to receive a free matcha tea shot! Our contest will close Feb 28th at midnight, so make sure you respond here by then!

So it’s cold & flu season. Bleh. I’ve already survived a run in with H1N1 (aka swine flu or Hamthrax) back in October…it was a mild case but still would have preferred not to get it. And over the weekend I noticed a little *tickle* in the back of my throat. Uh-oh. Time to take some precautionary steps. I already take multi vitamins, drink lots of fluids, excercise on a constant basis but sometimes it’s inevitable. Well not this time…nope. No way. Like the great Jesse Ventura (in Predator) once said ‘I ain’t got time to bleed’.

False alarm. Must have been my constant chatting as of late. Well it gave me the opportunity to test out a mouth rinse that I came across that incorporated tea.  I dug into my vaults and retrieved this great recipe that uses chai tea. The spicy notes of the chai (cardamom, anise, ginger) really help to freshen your breath.

Chai Mouth Wash

• 2 drops clove oil
• 2 drops cinnamon oil
• 2-3 tbsp vodka
• 1 1/2 cups distilled water
• 1/2 cup brewed chai tea

Combine the clove and cinnamon oil with the vodka in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Pour in the water and chai, then mix well. Use about a tablespoon at a time and refridgerate the rest. Can be stored for about a week in the fridge.

Yeah I know, the title is a mouthful – but believe me it’s a fantastic mouthful! I was tasked this past weekend with bringing a dessert dish to our annual Thanksgiving dinner (for our American friends: here in Canada Thanksgiving arrives in October).

Since pumpkin pie is to dessert what turkey is to dinner the obvious winner here was pumpkin pie. I decided to get a little creative though. The result? Well lets just say the jury came back demanding seconds and even thirds (we won’t mention names)

The trick here is to use real chai tea

That’s right- use chai tea (not only the spices) to really make this dessert stand out. Oh and as an added bonus you get all the great benefits that are inherent in the tea leaf since its baked right into the pie.

For this recipe you will need:

• 1 pie crust (unbaked homemade or frozen pie shell)
• 1 egg
• 1 can of pumpkin filling or the real deal (pumpkin squash puree)
• 1/3 cup (75 mL) evaporated milk
• 2 tbsp vanilla chai tea (its gotta be loose leaf!)
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
• dash of cinnamon

Directions:

In a medium bowl beat the egg lightly.  Then add in your pumpkin filling and evaporated milk.

At this point you want to take your vanilla chai tea and grind it.  I used a hand coffee grinder and found it to work really and ended up smoothing out a few larger pieces with a mortar and pestle.  Either could be used to do the job, it just depends on how quick you need the pie (did I mention we were running late for dinner? ).

Add the cinnamon, ground chai tea and vanilla bean (scoop it!) or extract to the bowl.  Blend everything together really well and the pour your filling into the pie shell

Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 15 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F (190°C) and continue to bake for about 40 minutes.  I checked in on it every so often by poking a toothpick in the middle- if it comes out clean you’re all done!

Cool*

*while your pie is cooling this a great time to check out our other blog on how to make a London fog latte (popularized by Starbucks) or to whip up some whipped cream for your pie.  We ended up adding a dash of the ground chai to the whipped cream and it really went well with the pie.

Enjoy!

(Serves 8 so you may want to enjoy with some friends)

A few years back I had the pleasure of visiting the West Coast with my wife.  Since we were there for a wedding and had some time to explore BC we seized the opportunity to take in as much as we could.  It was there that we had our first London Fog Latte, and I was hooked!  London Fog has been prepared a variety of ways but has a few basics in common- a tea base, steamed milk, and sweetened.

It’s exciting to see that larger tea houses are now promoting the benefits of tea and showcasing some creative infusions including tea lattes and infusions.  I am not so excited however that they cost so much compared to what it would cost to do it at home.  The great news is that all it takes is a few minutes to prepare.

This version of the London Fog (aka Earl Grey Vanilla Misto) is more like a hybrid of the Seattle Fog since we use a tea concentrate derived from steeping loose leaf tea in a small amount of water.

Oh and since we’re not a fan of the sugary syrups we scrapped the vanilla syrup and replaced it with Agave nectar and a dash of vanilla extract

Here is a list of what you will need:

• Loose Leaf Tea – Dorian Grey Blend (its our version of Earl Grey but along with Bergamot contains apple pieces, elderblossom, linden and mallow flowers, daisy white, cornflower petals, and a subtle caramel finish) or Buckingham Palace (black tea, jasmine, cornflower petals, and bergamot).  I find both to be not as overpowering as straight Earl Grey and have a few more layers of complexity to them.
• tea infuser/pot
• whisk (I found one at my local dollar store that works surprisingly well)
  
• agave Nectar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 cups water

For a garnish I like to add the following:

• 1 Honey Stick
  
• cinnamon powder

First things first- get that water to a rolling boil.  Once its boiling add the loose leaf tea to your teapot and allow it to steep for 3-5 minutes. This is also a good time to add the agave nectar and vanilla extract. Take 1 cup of milk and heat it (stove top of microwave).  Whisk until you get plenty of bubbles.  Take your steeped tea and pour into your mugs (I shoot for about half way- this is my preferred ratio of milk to tea!) followed by the steamed milk.  Scoop some extra milk foam on top and garnish with half a honey stick (1 stick = 1 tsp) and cinnamon (I’m almost neurotic about putting the honey on first before the cinnamon as I find the milk froth stays longer if you put a thin layer of honey on top).

Serves 2.  About 100 calories each

Share your comments with us and let us know how it turned out , or if you have tried this with other types of tea.  I have had it with peppermint and also substituted almond extract (the nutty-ness of the almond extract pairs well with Earl Grey)