Chocolate Mint Tea.
Ice cream anyone?
Mint chocolate chip ice cream is my favorite flavor. I'm not talking about any mint chocolate chip ice cream. I'm talking about the green colored ice cream and shaved chocolate. Taking a whiff of this tea made me dream up that flavor. My mouth even watered a little bit.
The intense smell of chocolate penetrates the air as you're brewing the tea.
I let this tea brew while I was eating dinner and when I poured it I was somewhat surprised by how light the color was considering how long it brewed. I didn't sweeten this tea at all. It's definitely not sweet but I think you'd lose the mint chocolate taste if you added sugar or honey.
The taste of this tea is exactly how it smells! There is a minty flavor that stays on your tongue after you've finished the sip.
This is from Capital Teas here in the district but you can buy online! I wouldn't call this my favorite tea but it was delicious. "Dessert without the calories" they say on the site!
This tea is a combination of black tea and peppermint leaves!
A classic Persian breakfast
Noon o panir o gerdoo.
This right here is heaven, a typical Persian breakfast. I often ate this before school, hmm maybe that's why I was a chubby kid. This is also a great snack. It's very hearty when you put walnuts on it. I usually like to roll it up like wrap and eat it.
I'll tell you a secret. When I was a kid I was very shekamoo and used to sneak downstairs at night and eat this cheese. Plain. Hmm now I know that's why I was a chubby kid :)
I try my best to not eat this every morning but my sweet mom recently got me some and I couldn't resist. By the way...this is no where near as good when it's not paired with sweetened tea!
Bread: Taftoon. Many people confuse this for pita, no offense pita but you don't hold a candle to taftoon. There are many breads in Iran that are made in a really cool way. Here's a video of how Taftoon is made! Apparently you can also buy Taftoon online!
Cheese: Sheep's milk cheese. Many people confuse this for feta but it's softer and richer. I much prefer this to feta, I think sometimes feta can be a bit dry. The one thing that you may not like about this cheese, depending on your taste it that it definitely is saltier than feta. You can buy Valbreso French Sheep's Milk Cheese online, this is the brand I've always enjoyed :)
One pound chocolate brownies
So chocolate, much rich.
I recently got a wonderful baking magazine with a lot of different recipes. I wanted to try something simple, then I stumbled upon a brownie recipe!
Recipe
- (2) 4 oz 70% Cacao bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cubed
- 1/3 cup orange marmalade (I used fig jam which worked fine)
- 1/3 cup half and half
- 2 1/4 cup sugar ( I used packed brown sugar)
- 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- (2) 4 oz 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 and line a 13 X 9 inch pan with parchment paper or grease with butter.
Using a double boiler or having one pot on top of the other melt the chocolate and butter together. Once this is smooth, remove it from heat and add marmalade as well as half and half.
In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together. Add in the chocolate mixture as well as the vanilla. Stir in the chopped chocolate. Bake for about 30 minutes and cool before cutting!
mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Madelines
Absolute yum.
The name of these say it all. Brown Butter Orange Madelines. Are you jumping up and down just thinking about it?? I found this recipe browsing A Cozy Kitchen's Instagram and I had to try them. I was especially intrigued by the orange zest and the way you brown the butter. I have no experience making madelines so I was excited!
Note: I didn't have a madeline pan so I used a cast iron pan I have for making cornbread which is in the shape of corn :)
Check out the recipe on her blog!
I doubled the recipe and put it in the fridge for several hours, it worked perfectly.
Cream Earl Grey Black.
Trying a new tea again and this time I'm reporting my thoughts as well as my mom's!
Today's Tea: Cream Earl Grey Black from
This tea includes a slight hint of vanilla and cornflower petals!
Mom's thoughts: She decided to not use a strainer when pouring her tea
- It has a strong, bold flavor (Maybe I brewed it too long hehe)
- Love the fragrance
- If the petals and fragrance weren't there I wouldn't have liked it as much
My Thoughts:
- Incredible fragrance, it almost smells like perfume
- This is almost like a dessert tea
- The cream flavor is very strong and tastes like you're drinking a cream coffee or dessert
Dragonfruit Devotion
I've been so set in my ways of drinking solely black tea. One of the main purposes of this blog was for me to explore other types of tea and to share my experiences with you! I can't really call myself a true tea lover unless I've tried as many as I can get my hands on. My dear friend gave me some tea from Teavana and because it was fruit flavored I was scared to try it, but I did today!
Brew time: I let this tea brew for about 8 minutes and it was steeped just fine.
Color: The brewed tea was a pink color, like grapefruit colored.
Smell: The aroma was very sweet like sugar and already puts the idea of "sweet" in your head before you even put your lips to the glass.
Taste: I was underwhelmed by the sweetness. I think because I was expecting dragon fruit to be overly sweet I didn't add honey or any sugar. There was quite a punch of flavor when you take your first sip and with the small amount of sweet also comes a bit of a tangy taste. halfway through the glass I kind of imagined it as fruit juice served hot, hot juice. All in all I think it was good but not my favorite. I might a bit of honey next time because I think it would mix well with the fruit.
Look: BEAUTIFUL
Probably my favorite looking tea.
Cast Iron Teapot vs Samovar
Cast Iron Teapot.
This Christmas my sweet guy got me a beautiful cast iron teapot. I love the little flowers on it and how it keeps my tea so warm! Being from an Iranian family, I almost feel like a traitor using this kind of pot instead of the classic samovar. I had my reasons.
Below is an image of each pot. The samovar image I provided is from a google search and you can find more modern, less expensive versions on amazon.
First off, the samovar is usually a much bigger teapot and being the only one I would be making tea for it is somewhat of a waste. I also don't usually drink more than one glass at a time. I try to limit my tea drinking to one in the morning and one in the evening.
Brewing
- Samovar: The samovar provides a much more vibrant tasting tea as you are not only pouring hot water over the leaves but then keeping them warm by putting them on top of a kettle. If you truly want to taste the tea fully brewed this is the best method however it takes time.
- Cast Iron: The cast iron pot provides a much better brewed leaf than the other small travel teapot I had. The metal helps keep in heat and the enamel coat on the inside keeps the metal from interfering with the taste of the tea. Although the samovar brews the tea best, it is a matter of having time to do so. In the morning where I have tea before work to get me going, I would have to wake up at least 30 minutes earlier to get the true brew of the samovar. The cast Iron teapot lets me enjoy a pretty good brew in a timely fashion.
Price
The kind of samovar pictured below or any model that looks similar to it can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand! As mentioned above there are more modern versions of it on amazon with two pots on top of each other that are affordable but I have yet to find a pretty one. That's right my decision was partially shallow as well :)
I would suggest looking up cast iron pot on amazon and you can find many for under $50 with beautiful designs! Make sure to get one with a stand so that it doesn't burn your surfaces, a tea basket included and one with a coating on the metal so you're not drinking metal tea!
Samovar.
Photo credit: dima barsky via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND
Walnut Snowballs
Cure those winter blues.
These are my stepdad's favorite cookie so I decided to make a big batch of them for him for Christmas! They are from Special Desserts by Ann Amernick.
- 1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 1/3 cups confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350. You should line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, I just used a greased sheet which also worked fine.
Cream the butter and sugar together then stir in the vanilla and walnuts.
Sift together the baking powder and flower. Add in the dry mixture in thirds mixing with a rubber spatula after each addition. Form small walnut sized balls and bake for 15 minutes. The snowballs should be set but not browned. Let the snowballs cool then cover them in confectioner's sugar.
Voila!
Yaldā
12/21/15
Persian Celebration of Light.
Monday was shabeh yalda. On the longest day of the year Persians celebrate the triumph of light over darkness and its called yalda. The traditions include staying up all night eating (pomegranate is a must), drinking tea and reading poetry. Many love to read the poetry of the famous poet Hafez. Often people sit outside on a corsi which is like a heated bench.
An important part of yalda is tea, of course! Here's the tea I had last night with some interesting sweet. The little cubes are called ahb-nabat or rock candy. They are sweets you drink with tea often made of sugar, hard at first but dissolve as you drink your tea. The ones I had last night had bits of pistachio in them...so good! I don't think you can find the pistachio ones online but here are the ones with saffron.
Support Your Local Tea Shop - Na Tra Tea's
I have lived in Takoma Park since I was 8 years old. It's a pretty small town so you get to know all the businesses. A month or two ago I was driving down a street I frequent and saw a a new tea shop, only a few minutes walk from my apartment. Na Tra Tea's. I visited one other time as the shop owner made her shop a UPS sure post pickup spot to get more traffic. I walked in to get a package and thought to myself...this is going to be my new spot.
How cute!
This was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Today I took a trip to Na Tra's. It was unusually winter like today so I bundled up tight and started my walk. The shop is only about a 5 minute walk from my house but it felt a little longer as the wind whipped my face. By the time I got there, I was ready for tea!
My best friend from college Ashley recently asked me if I've tried rooibos tea, I had not. Today when I walked into the shop and was overwhelmed! What to choose! I wanted to be adventurous and my eyes fell on "Red Hot Chai." A Rooibos blend of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, chai spices and a kiss of vanilla.
Aster Tefera is the owner and she is a delight! She was so welcoming and warm. Although I ordered the red hot chai she offered me a sample of the house tea which had a very "middle eastern" taste. Cardamom and cinnamon, I think I'll have that next time.
We chatted about Iran and Ethiopia (where she is from) while she prepared my tea, it was a wonderful, genuine conversation. Once my tea was ready I sat down and it was delicious! If you haven't had rooibos you need to try it! More importantly, this small tea shop needs your support. Head on down to Takoma Park and say hello to Aster! Their tea will cheer you up :)
