Bangkok Popsicles

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Bang! 

May's Sips by box has some delicious tea in it! It's been super hot since I got home from my trip to Italy and I thought that tea popsicles were the perfect solution! The Bangkok tea blend from Harney & Son's that was in my box has green tea, coconut, ginger and vanilla. Um.....can you say YUM or what?! These are all light, summer time flavors in my opinion that would go perfect as a popsicle. 

Part of me wanted to just brew this tea, let it cool and then freeze them because it has so many wonderful flavors. BUT, I decided that I needed to add one ingredient to spice things up.   

I chose cardamom because it's not only fragrant but also very flavorful. I used to eat these sugar candies that had whole cardamom seeds in them and they were one of my favorite things to have with tea! Even though cardamom is potent I think it goes well with a lot of different flavors. 

I've seen so many posts about ice cream that have fancy styled shots and I was on the hunt for popsicle sticks and metal molds. My local grocery store didn't have what I was looking for but something even better! These colorful popsicle molds are so cute AND do you see that straw? You can sip the melting popsicle so it doesn't run into your hand, it's awesome!

I let my tea brew for a bit longer than I said in the recipe and they were quite potent but I liked them. I wanted to make sure that they got a nice color because splitting the tea between all these mold would certainly weaken the flavor. 

These are great ice pops, they have a wonderful flavor and aren't heavy. The only thing I didn't like which I'll have to find a solution for is that the bottom of the mold and what turned out to be the top of the popsicle were much more flavorful than the rest of the popsicle. 

I've been enjoying these the past few nights and really like how light and refreshing they are. I didn't use very much honey but they still have sweetness to them to make them feel like dessert. 

Watch out for another ice cream/popsicle recipe coming very soon! Do you have a favorite tea pop?!

Vanilla Rose Pistachio Cookies

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Pistachi Rose.

You may have guessed but I LOVE rose in tea. It doesn't matter if it's buds or petals, I love the flavor and aroma that rose gives to a blend. The Vanilla Rose Tea from Zhi tea is no exception. This blend uses assam as the base tea so it gives it that delicious black tea flavor that I love and that is so good in sweets. 

I wanted to make cookies with this blend and I put my thinking cap on to find what would go well with the rose. Ding, ding ding! Pistachio! It may be because norouz (Persian New Year) is so close but rose and pistachio are a match made in heaven. These are two ingredients that were common to everyday life growing up. 

For this recipe I took an each chocolate chip recipe and tweaked it slightly for my purpose. 

What you'll need: 

  • 1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

  • 2 eggs

  • 3/4 cup - 1 cup slightly crushed pistachios

  • 1 cup Vanilla Rose butter

  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

  • 2 1/4 cup flour

  • Pinch of salt

To make the tea infused butter, you need to melt 1 cup of unsalted butter. Once melted pour 2 - 4 tablespoons of Vanilla Rose tea into the butter. The amount of tea depends on your taste and if you want there to be a hint of flavor or a punch of flavor!  

Let the tea brew for about 5-6 minutes in the butter. Once brewed strain the butter.

Let it sit and harden. 

Your butter should feel like softened butter, you don't want it to be too liquid so make sure you leave time for it to solidify. 

Instructions: 

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

  2. Cream the butter and sugar

  3. Mix in the eggs

  4. Add in the flour, baking soda and salt

  5. Gently mix in the pistachios

  6. Roll dough into 2 -3 in balls and place on a baking sheet

  7. Bake foe 10-12 minutes until slightly golden

  8. Remove cookies from oven and transfer gently to a cooling rack

  9. Scarf down cookies!

My favorite thing about these cookies is that they aren't as sweet as chocolate chip cookies because of the lack of chocolate chips. The pistachios give you a good crunch to contrast with the soft cookie. These are perfect for tea dunking!