Portland Rose City Chai Muffins
Black Tea & Rooibos
Bring on the chai! This Portland rose city chai from Plum Deluxe came in the mail, I had one whiff of it, and I KNEW that I needed to make muffins with it!
The fun thing about muffins is that they have both butter AND milk. I wanted this to be potent so because the amount of milk was less than the amount of butter I decided to infuse the tea in the butter. I think if you wanted the flavor to really come through, you could infuse the butter and the milk.
Ingredients!
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 cups flour, all-purpose
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup Portland Rose City Chai infused milk
- 1 stick unsalted butter. Melt it and cool it.
- 2 eggs, beat slightly
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
This tea is very interesting to me because it has black tea AND rooibos. These two are a great combination and create a rich flavor. The rose and blackberry contribute a beautiful fragrance to the tea. I love the combination of ingredients and totally understand why this is a hit!
Directions!
- Oven should be at 350 -400 depending on hot hot your oven gets. I put muffin liners in the muffin tin and then sprayed the liners.
- Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Once combined, make a well in the center of the mixture.
- In a separate bowl mix the butter, milk, eggs and vanilla. Pour this mixture in the well of the other bowl. Mix all of these together gently.
- Spoon mixture into muffin pan and fill 3/4 of the way.
- Bake 15-17 minutes. I baked mine for 15 minutes and they were perfect!
- Take the muffins out of the tin and let them cool on a wire rack
While these muffins are baking, your home will fill with the most amazing smell. The berry and almond, are strong and fragrant.
This tea blend truly makes these muffins as good as they are. There are no chocolate chips or nuts but the taste of the tea blend makes these delicious!
Brewing Puerh Tea.
Puerh.
Puerh is another tea that I was so intimidated by. After reading different brewing methods I was extremely overwhelmed and thought that I may have found a tea that was too "complex" to get it right. I was SO wrong!
Puerh comes in many forms but I'll only discuss a few. As you can see in the photo above, the pureh comes in a round candy like shape. Puerh is often condensed into either a cake (larger shape), a brick or a Tuo Cha which is like the shape of the one pictured above.
Puerh is fermented and the one I'm trying for this post is from Zhi Tea. It's called sticky rice puerh. This puerh is from trees in Yunnan, China that are a thousand years old! This particular puerh has another special compenent which is an herb called Nuo Mi Xiang (Rice scent herb). The fragrance, especially to a rice lover like myself, is powerful and makes it more appealing. It kind of reminded me when I tried genmaicha for the first time.
I brewed this puerh in my gaiwan 3 different ways. Because this was my first time brewing this tea, I only used part of it. Lesson learned. I should have used the whole thing since I like dark tea. I also poured the leftovers from each brew into a glass that I would then sample as my 4th tea.
Tea wash: As discussed in my post about using the gaiwan for the first time, you need to "wake up" the tea. Pour the hot water into your pot or gaiwan for a few seconds and pour it out.
1st brew - 10 seconds: Most fragrant. Perhaps because it was the first and "freshest" brew but it certainly smelled the best. The fragrance of the "rice" really traveled up to keep my nose company as I sipped.
2nd brew - 15 seconds: Surprisingly, even though I brewed the leaves longer for this round the result was the sweetest. This also may have to do with me not putting all of the tea to brew.
3rd brew - 30 seconds: After 30 seconds, I could really taste the boldness of the puerh. It wasn't quite bitter yet but it was strong and dark. I will opt for this type of brew in the future. Although it wasn't as fragrant, I loved the taste the best.
Combination brew: I thought it might be interested to try the leftovers of each brew mixed up. In reality, this was just an experiment and the tea for this was diluted and weak. Where as each individual brew discussed above has it's own unique flavor, this one was all over the place.
I'm glad that I have now documented this puerh session because honestly, it's difficult to enjoy the ritual, take pictures and write notes. I filmed my session as well, you can check it out on my instagram!
Puerh is said to have some incredible benefits such as detoxifying and lowering cholesterol. It also has a very unique taste and I'm excited to try different ones. It seems that because this tea is coming from ancient teas, each cake or brick will be different.
My lessons + tips from my first experience:
Do not over brew
If using a larger cake or brick, break off the tea gently
If using a smaller "cake" use the whole thing if you want a bolder flavor
Give yourself time and quiet to enjoy the brewing process
Remember to pour out any extra tea from your pot or gaiwan if doing multiple brews so that the tea in the pot or gaiwan isn't continuously brewing
Don't over complicate and enjoy!
Vanilla Rose Pistachio Cookies
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:
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Cream the butter and sugar
Mix in the eggs
Add in the flour, baking soda and salt
Gently mix in the pistachios
Roll dough into 2 -3 in balls and place on a baking sheet
Bake foe 10-12 minutes until slightly golden
Remove cookies from oven and transfer gently to a cooling rack
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!
My First Gaiwan!
Gaiwan.
Since I started my tea blog I've learned SO much about tea culture around the world. Growing up, I was only ever exposed to how Persians brew tea. In my family, tea is not so much about brew time but about brew color and aroma. I love to use glass because then I can see if the tea has brewed to the perfect shade. Is this wrong? Who knows, but it's how I enjoy my tea.
I discovered Bitterleaf teas on Instagram and they create beautiful tea ware! I've been wanting to try a gaiwan so I purchased this gorgeous moka glazed gaiwan.
I've seen many people using gaiwans and honestly I was a little intimidated. I'm not an expert in tea and wondered if I would do it wrong. It also didn't help that when I looked up how to use a gaiwan I saw multiple videos that were 20 minutes or longer. Woah, a little out of my league.
BUT, I decided to take a leap. I started this blog to explore and that's what I'm going to do.
I found several guides that were much easier and clearer to understand and I started brewing! I learned many things that were truly fascinating!
Are you thinking, what the heck is a Gaiwan? Gai = lid and Wan= bowl.
The gaiwan is this cute little bowl with a top. Brewing is actually very simple but I found it to be a very meaningful little ceremony. Like Matcha, the brewing process is more involved and I found it to be so calming and meditative!
First you warm both your gaiwan and your tea cup. This is something I have never thought about doing but it is genius! If the gaiwan is cold then the water you pour in will drop in temperature much quicker.
Before your gaiwan cools down too much put your tea leaves into the gaiwan. Now, at this point I have seen many different practices. Some people turn or swish the tea, but the basic idea is to get it spread out and not all stuck together, this way it can brew more evenly.
The first pour into the gaiwan will be a wash. This is one of my favorite parts. This first rinse or wash is just there to wake up the leaves. This is so poetic and fitting for tea, I love it!
Fill your gaiwan once more and let it brew for a few minutes. Brew time is highly dependent on what type of tea you're using. That's it. Enjoy! My favorite part is using a small tea cup so that every time I fill it, the tea is at a different stage in brewing.
I've looked at some rituals that were more complicated, but I liked doing it this way. It was simple but most importantly, it connected me to my tea!
If you have trouble meditating, I suggest trying this ritual of tea brewing. You will focus on your tea, gaiwan and tea cup. You will be calm and the cup of tea you drink at the end is so much more meaningful.
I feel like different gaiwans may start popping up on my shelves, if you have any suggestions drop me a line please!
Reboot & Recharge Calming Drink
Calm.
A little over a year ago I started my blog and several months later I started my etsy. Although I'm not yet a full time entrepreneur I'm feeling the downsides of it. Anxiety is something that many entrepreneurs and non entrepreneurs alike suffer from. I feel as though anxiety is sometimes a taboo word. It has a negative connotation. But how else can we support each other if we don't talk about the hard things. I've experienced anxiety myself and have seen those close to me suffer from it as well.
As you probably read in my previous post about the turmeric face mask, I've partnered with For Tea's Sake to create healthy recipes with some of their wellness blends.
My good friend Bridgett lives in North Carolina and after a long conversation after work one day where we spilled out hearts to each other, I was inspired to create a calming drink that can help deal with some of the effects of anxiety.
For those of you who don't know, Bridgett is an incredibly talented calligrapher, watercolor artist, letterer and so much more! Check out her beautiful work here.
Bridgette described the effects of her anxiety to me and I was determined to try to find a solution for her and anyone who has similar side effects.
When I have anxiety about one particular thing, everything that I could possibly be nervous about in life starts fueling that anxiety...I start to think of each and every thing that I've committed to that's out of my comfort zone and then worry about failing and how my nerves might be when it comes to that specific moment or leading up to it. Anxiety is traumatizing and can be life controlling. It can make you lose your appetite, make you sick to your stomach, and worst of all, it can make you fearful of taking risks of living life to the fullest.
Have you every felt the same? Luckily reboot and recharge has some wonderful ingredients that help and I decided to add orange peel, fresh ginger and honey (optional). Here is why I chose these ingredients.
Reboot & Recharge: The combination of chamomile, lemongrass and lemon pieces are sure to calm you. Lemon is often noted as a remedy for anxiety.
Orange Peel & Honey: In my research of different home anxiety remedies orange is often an ingredient and the peel can give an even stronger effect. Honey is optional if you don't like your tea sweet BUT because of all it's health benefits it's often used as a remedy, balancing you out.
Fresh Ginger: Bridgett's quote describes it and everyone who I've spoken with about anxiety mentions stomach issues. Ginger is so great for your stomach and fresh ginger in this tea also gives it a little kick !
What you need:
A small glass teapot. You can use something else but this recipe is a one to two person serving. I also suggest glass because seeing all the ingredients combine can be a fun way to connect to your tea and get your mind off what is stressing you out!
Reboot & Recharge Tea : If you use code NAZA15 you can save 15% off your first purchase!
Orange Peel: I used three pieces
Fresh grated ginger: I used more in these pictures but I suggest using 1/2 a teaspoon because it is POWERFUL.
Honey: Again this is optional but I would use 1 teaspoon - 1 tablespoon depending on your taste for sweetness.
Combine all the ingredients and pour boiling water into your pot. Let it brew for 5-6 minutes.
When ready to serve, use a strainer so that you just get the liquid!
I also had my older sister taste test this and she enjoyed it! I hope that anyone out there who is reading this will give this a try. If you do try it let me know how you like it! Keep following along because For Tea's Sake will be making a video tutorial of this recipe so it will be even easier to make!
I recently wrote a blog post for The Rising Tide Society where I discuss how important support systems are for entrepreneurs. I think that is so relevant in the discussion of anxiety.
I truly hope this drink helps so you can say BUH BYE ANXIETY!
Chocolate Honeybush Cake w/ Honey Buttercream Frosting
Honeybush.
Robert's (my guy <3) mother is from South Africa and she introduced me to rooibos tea and the traditions surrounding it. She recently mentioned honeybush which I had never tried but was interested in. Along with the Persian Plum Rose , Blossom sent me a sample of Honeybush as well.
I used one of my favorite recipes for chocolate cake and adapted it to make it extra honeybush infused!
This tea was fascinating, it almost looks like mulch and smells very earthy. From the scent, I did not expect the taste in the cake.
While I was mixing the cake and also while I was baking it, the brewed honeybush had such a strong aroma it was filling the apartment. It was wonderful!
Honeybush infused milk.
Hot honeybush tea.
Two layers of honeybush goodness.
I decided to top this off with a honey buttercream frosting that I've made before and is SO good.
Cake:
2 cups brown sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup milk infused with honeybush
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup hot Honeybush
pinch of salt
Frosting:
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons honey
1 cups powdered sugar*
What I like to do is mix the honey and the butter then gradually add in powdered sugar little by little until I like the consistency of the frosting. So it may be less than 1 cup or more based on preference. Don't forget to taste test too because frosting gets sweet fast!
Cake Instructions
1. Prepare the honeybush infused milk by heating the 1 cup of milk. Do not let it boil. Drop 2 tablespoons or more of honeybush into the tea depending on how strong you want it. Let it sit for several minutes. Pour the milk through a strainer and let cool.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. Add in eggs, yogurt, vanilla and honeybush infused milk.
4. Boil water and pour one cup of boiling water in a cup. Place 1-2 tablespoons of honeybush in a teabag and place in boiling water. Let it brew for a few minutes then pour hot, brewed tea into cake mixture. Gently mix.
5. Pour batter (will be thin) into two 9 inch pans that are greased and floured. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.
6. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes then place on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, frost with honey buttercream. I used a thin layer to make them almost "naked" but feel free to use more!
Do you have a favorite tea infused sweet?!
A love - hate relationship with Jasmine Tea
Pearls.
I'll be honest, I've never joined in on the jasmine tea hype. I've heard so many people rave about jasmine tea and how it's their favorite tea. Most of the jasmine teas I've tasted rubbed me the wrong way for a few reasons.
I think every jasmine tea I've had was brewed too long because it was extremely bitter! One of the other reasons why I haven't had a jasmine tea I've enjoyed in the past is because aroma is a huge factor for me. Jasmine usually has a potent aroma which can heavily resemble perfume which is not a quality I enjoy in tea.
Due to everything mentioned above I was hesitant to try this dragon phoenix tea from Zhi Tea. I was pleasantly surprised !
Not only does these pearls have an incredible scent but they are absolutely beautiful to watch unfurl. No wonder it is a Zhi Tea customer favorite! Watching these pearls which are folded 7 times open up and brew was the perfect way to demonstrate my love for tea. It's all in the process.
The taste of these pearls was surprisingly good considering that I was memorized by watching the tea brew I probably let it brew a little too long. The fragrance of the tea translates into the taste but in a great way, making it smooth and soothing.
Although the taste was lovely, the best part about the dragon phoenix was the brewing process. It's magic. This is the type of tea that I need to brew after a long day at work. After staring at the computer screen for too long. After a stressful conversation with someone.
Watching the leaves slowly let the water open them up and take their essence is the ultimate relaxation. Again, I never claim to be an expert on tea but to me, tea is all about the color. I often don't follow brewing times (ahh, I know) because I like to see how the color of the tea changes. Part of my enjoyment of tea comes with watching it brew.
Even though I know what's going to happen, it brings me calm to watch these little buds wound up all tight relax and open up. It's like my body goes through the process with these buds. All my knots and folds start to untangle and I let it all out. While the tea is brewing, so am I!
Are you a jasmine tea fan?!
Persian Plum Rose Black
Chayee. (Tea in Farsi)
Blossom sent me this Persian Plum Rose black tea to try and OH MY GOSH, it's so good! I always love to try different people's take on the traditional Persian tea. Blossom added in plum favoring which is so awesome to me because plums and fruits in general are so central to our culture!
I've always found it fascinating that many of my family members, specifically some of my uncles, are basically fruit connoisseurs! I know it sounds silly but hear me out. When you go to a Persian household, there will always be a few things offered to you. Among those is tea of course but also fruit! I can't remember going to my aunts or uncles houses and them not having a HUGE platter of fruit. I'm talking pears, plums, bananas, berries, cherries, apricots, grapes etc. My uncles always seemed to have a story about fruits or about fruits that we don't have here in the US. Plums were always a hot topic because you would not believe how many types of plums there are! The addition of plum to this blend was very special to me.
There are many ways to brew persian tea. Some include rose water, some include persian roses but almost always cardamom is a top choice ingredient. I love how this blend has whole pods of cardamom. There are also these hard sugar candies (called ahb nabat) that have pieces of cardamom in them that are often enjoyed with tea.
This blend has a beautiful, fruity aroma where the plum flavor really grabs your senses. The hint of cardamom is also there. A black tea base is common as usual. My personal favorite is ceylon. This tea perfectly captured the tastes from my childhood. The tea is strong but there are notes of sweet from the plum, cardamom and rose. It was really a delightful blend. I can't wait to share a glass with my mom!
The funny thing is that tea was not always the drink of choice for Iranians. Until about the 15th century, coffee was the dominant beverage. This is so strange to say because when I think about Iranian culture, tea is what first comes to mind. Tea wasn't even cultivated inside Iran until much later. It quickly became the drink of choice. It is enjoyed at all times of the day.
My grandfather used to love to drink sweet tea after a meal to settle his stomach and I have also adopted this practice. Sweet tea is a common drink enjoyed at breakfast alongside lavash with sheeps milk cheese and occasionally walnuts (I always add walnuts). Any other time of day tea is also enjoyed. It's always tea time!
Back to rose. Rose is also a central ingredient in many dishes, especially sweets. Most of the time rosewater is what is used to flavor cookies, cakes, sweets and tea too! Rose petals and buds are often used in tea instead of rose water. This gives a much mellower flavor but still the added perfume of the rose. I personally prefer buds and petals over rosewater in tea.
Finally, I want to tell you about how Persian tea is traditionally enjoyed, at least in my household. My family is from Tehran and because Iran is such a large country with many regional differences, It's quite possible that people from different regions brew and drink their tea differently. I don't think it's any coincidence that Persians love strong, black tea especially because they were once a coffee drinking populous.
Not everyone likes their tea sweet, but my family definitely does! I mentioned ahb nabat earlier which is a hard sugar candy sometimes with cardamom. Another very common sweetener is a sugar cube! This was always something that confused my friends when they came over. Why do you have sugar cubes on the table?
The way I was taught is that you brew a strong tea, often times over the "suggested brew time." Take a sugar cube, place it in your mouth and hold it there. As you take each sip of tea, keep the sugar cube in your mouth. Each sip will pass by the sugar cube, sweetening it until the sugar cube is dissolved. It's a fun little trick and definitely makes for sweet tea!
Do you have a favorite way to sweeten tea?
Matcha Candy Experiment!
ChocoMatcha.
I did a little experiment this past weekend and I wanted to share it with you! I created these chocolates with matcha but I wanted them to be greener so I added white chocolate. I wanted to keep the semi sweet since I'm not the biggest white chocolate fan. The chocolates didn't turn out any greener but they were delicious!
What you'll need:
1 package mini semi sweet chocolate chips
1 package white chocolate chips
12 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup light whipping cream (optional)
4 tablespoons matcha
Wooden candy sticks
Heart Candy Mold
Instructions
1) Melt the butter! I would use a double boiler, I just put water in a pot, boil it and put a pan with the butter on top.
2) Place the chocolate chips into the pan and mix it around until it's all melted
3) Add the white chocolate chips to the mix and let them melt. I kept the white chocolate chips a little lumpy, you'll see why later.
4) Sift your matcha into the chocolate and mix it completley.
5) Using a spoon fill your heart silicone molds with chocolate
6) Put it in the freezer for 5 -10 minutes
7) Place the wooden sticks into each mold
8) Keep in freezer for an hour or two
9) ENJOY!
YUM!
I didn't let the white chocolate chips melt all the way so there would be chunks in each heart!
Although these aren't green like matcha, they are certainly delicious and the matcha flavor comes through!
Next, I'll fight my dislike of white chocolate and use only white chocolate so they will be green! Give this simple recipe a try and let me know how you like it!
Tea Time Box
Tea Box.
I had the pleasure of receiving a tea time box in February. Tea Time Box is a new subscription box for tea lovers that combines tea, sweets and honey! This is a Seattle based company providing high quality tea and local goods. With ever box sold, they will also donate a meal to their local food bank.
Such a cute box! I love how the box comes with a card that educates you on the steeping times for all the different teas. Especially if you give this as a gift to someone who is newer to tea, this is really useful!
Ok, so a chocolate covered rice krispy treat was so awesome! I like that the sweet wasn't pure chocolate as I do enjoy cookies and cakes more with tea. I also love how there are tea sachets and honey in smaller amounts that you could put in one cup.
The Tea: This was a good mix. There is one green tea and two herbal type teas. Even though there are two herbal teas, they are two very different herbal teas as one has rooibos and the other has hibiscus.
I decided to try the Apricot supreme tea first. When it comes to enjoying a tea, the scent plays a huge role in whether I like or dislike the blend. When I opened this tea, I have to admit that I was not fond of the smell. I looked at the ingredients and couldn't find a reason why I would dislike the aroma. This tea includes hibiscus, calendula petals, apple, rosehip and apple pieces.
I asked my boyfriend to also smell the tea and he thought it smelled great. I decided to brush this strange felling off and get to brewing the tea, I wasn't disappointed!
First of all, look at this color. As the tea brewed the color became darker in the pot but still incredibly vibrant and beautiful. I don't think I'll ever get over my love of brewing tea in glass so that I can follow along on the tea's brewing journey.
This blend has a lot of chunky pieces so it was fun to watch them fill with water, inflate and disperse their essence into the pot.
Despite my initial dislike of the smell of this tea, I really loved the way it tasted! Once brewed and poured into a glass the smell was much mellower. The taste was both fruity and floral. Probably my favorite part about this tea though was watching it's pink beauty display itself. Loving the creativity of this blend.
I asked the Tea Time Box founders some questions about their journey, read below what Cameron & Zhanna had to say!
1. How did you come up with the idea for the Tea Time Box?
My wife and I came up with the tea time box idea because we both love tea and we are constantly bringing home different flavor for each other to sample. We then realized, why don't we surprise others with a variety of some of our newly discovered teas? Also, as you know you can't have a true tea time without some honey and a sweet treat to go with it.
TOTALLY agree with the sweets and honey part :)
2. I love that each box sold donates a meal, what sparked this idea?
We are always trying to give back up our local community here in the greater Seattle area. Especially with our large population of homeless people around the city. We decided a great way to contribute was to donate a wholesome meal to the food bank for every box we mail out.
3. If you were a tea, which one would you be?
If I was a tea I would totally be a mango black tea. Zhanna says she would be a Russian earl grey.
4. What led you to decide on the tea + cookie + honey combination?
The tea and cookie idea was Zhannas idea, tea with sweets and honey just makes the tea time that much more enjoyable.
5. If you could put together your own personal Tea Time Box, what tea, cookie and honey would you choose?
If I were to create my own custom tea box. Given the current season of the year. It would be cinnamon tea with a cinnamon flavored honey, and a double fudge cookie.
6. What is your favorite way to enjoy tea?
My favorite way to enjoy tea is in a tea party setting with good company.
7. What is your favorite tea pun?
My favorite tea pun is something I saw on a teeshirt. It said "my puns are" and picture of a koala bear and a picture of a cup of tea. (My puns are koala-tea).
Get your Tea Time Box here. Get 20% off your first box with code TEAPARTY