Berber Tea Noodles

Minty Noodles.

When I was younger I used to eat noodles all the time! Not just mac 'n' cheese but my mom would make this "green sauce" which wasn't really sauce just butter and basil which was SO GOOD. Nowadays I try to eat as healthy as I can, avoiding an excess of grains and noodles, with the exception of rice. I can't live without my rice!

After doing some research I kept finding "green tea" noodles but these were mostly pre-packaged noodles that were made with green tea. I decided that I wanted to infuse my noodles and although I couldn't find an exact method, I kept it really simple. 

I think that to make this recipe a success, you should use whatever noodle type you want. I used these flat korean noodles that I had in my shelves and they were great but I think this would work with any noodle and here's why. All you do is dump the tea into the water with the noodles and they will cook in the tea! The Berber blend from Tay Tea has Moroccan mint so it gives the noodles this fun minty flavor!

I love every part of tea and when I make recipes I often leave some of the leaves in it for fun because they don't bother me. If you cook the noodles in the tea you will have noodles with pieces of tea leaves on them, I really like this but if you don't you can do it a different way. If you want tea leaf free noodles, I would brew the tea first, strain it then cook the noodles in them! 

Now on to toppings and sauce. This would be delicious with a number of different sauces and I encourage you to pick your own. I like to use whatever ingredients I have so I whipped up a little stir fry of garlic, onions, salt and garlic chili paste! 

Mix your noodles and enjoy! The minty flavor is very refreshing! I Wanted to share really quickly a book that my friend Lu-Ann over at The Cup Of Life wrote, it's filled with inspiration and I often like to read it when I'm enjoying tea! You should also check her out because she recently had me on her monthly "at the tea table" ! 

So there you have it, another fun and simple way to incorporate tea into your day! I want to encourage you to give Sips by a shot, not just because I partner with them but I think that their monthly boxes are seriously a great way to discover new teas if you're into that! Also, this weekend 100% of their sales will be donated to Hurricane Harvey Relief! 

Tea Infused Biscuits & Butter

Tea Biscuits.

One of my favorite things to make when I first started baking was scones! They were one of my favorite foods to have with a cup of tea! When I was trying to decide what to make with my Sips by teas, I remembered that I have never made any biscuits when enjoying tea. The sunset red from teabook was perfect because its a darker tea and has sweeter notes. 

I was of course excited about brewing this tea in my gaiwan! I really love the little packets they came in, perfect for one serving! I wanted my tea to be really strong so that the flavor would be present in the biscuits so I used 3 of the packets but feel free to use as much or as little tea as you like depending on how strong of a flavor you want! 

I did strain the tea but I always like to leave a few leaves in there for fun :) 

This is a really dry batter that makes thick but yummy biscuits! There is baking powder in the batter so these will rise even if the batter is less thick. I think it would be safe to decrease the flour a little bit to get fluffier muffins. Next time I may also either infuse the tea into milk to use in the recipe or simply add milk little by little to loosen up the batter. 

As far as sugar, it's up to you on how sweet you want to make these. I used only one tablespoon in mine which made these slightly more savory and using up to 4 tablespoons would make them sweet, your choice!

Make sure to enjoy these sooner rather than later! I tasted these right when they came out of the oven and also later. They are good in both cases but I really liked when they were warm out of the oven. 

Tea infused butter! I've written about this on my blog before because it's an easy way to get tea into a recipe since most recipes include butter! All you have to do is melt the butter, throw the tea in to brew, strain and then let it cool, it will congeal. As far as brewing time, I always wait until the butter becomes fragrant. 

I used all sorts of delicious teas for my butter, here is the list! 

• Coconut Oolong

• Country Chai

• White Chocolate Somoa

• Lemon Wedge

The tea infused butter is a fun addition and would be a great party appetizer to have the biscuits and the different butter flavors! 

Beer, tea & tequila cocktail

BeerTea!

I find all sorts of fun brands through instagram and I was so excited to come across Owl's Brew which combines beer & tea! I was at a total wine & more and came across this flavor that combines amber ale, darjeeling hibiscus, strawberry and lemon juice. How could I resist?!

Just a little background, I actually enjoy a good beer so the thought of combining beer and tea was really exciting for me. They have a stout coming out in October with chai and I can't wait to try that one too!

After some thought, I decided that the black tea and lemon would be a great combo with tequila. I also wanted to add a little spice so I included some ginger liqueur as well. The great thing about this cocktail is that you should make it one cup and you can control how strong or weak you want the drink to be!

I suggest using equal parts tequila and ginger liquer so that you get both flavors but it's not too strong. 

Once everything is in the cup just fill the rest of the cup with the Owl's Brew! The majority of the drink is the Owl's Brew so it's bubbly and sweet!

I really like the taste of these flavors combined especially because the Owl's brew has the distinct taste of beer AND tea. 

The lime garnish is a great addition to give your drink an extra kick if you'd like!

This is a super easy drink and could be made into a pitcher as well if you have a larger party. 

Do you have a favorite tea cocktail?! 

Darjeeling Pusheen Pops

Pusheen Pops!

If you've followed me on instagram you probably know that I'm a pusheen fan! In the summer pusheen box, I got a bunch of cool items including super cute popsicle molds! On the same day I also go my monthly Sipsy by box and knew that I HAD to create another popsicle recipe. I love the way black tea popsicles so I chose this Darjeeling from Harney & Sons. 

I wanted to give the popsicles a bit of "spice" so I decided on fresh cinnamon and to sweeten them a bit I also added rock sugar. This is an optional part of the recipe and you can put as little or as much as you'd like depending on how sweet you want the popsicles. 

These molds are BPA free but they are made of plastic so you want to make sure your tea is cool before pouring teas into the molds. 

I filled these up not all the way to the top so there is space to pour some milk in later on! 

I kept checking on these and when they were semi frozen I poured a splash of milk in each one. You can kind of see the streaks of white on the pops! I added milk to give these a bit of a creamy taste so they aren't just frozen ice. 

Are these not the cutest popsicle molds??! 

Not advertising for pusheen box, I just loved what I got so much! Not pictured, pusheen ice pack, backpack, vinyl figure, luggage tag and passport holder!

Sage Rose White Rolled Ice Cream

Rose Roll Up. 

I had a familiar friend on the menu recently, Sage Rose White from Wight Tea Co! I used this tea in a post a while ago. This tea is so nice because it's light and floral thanks to the white tea and rose, it also has such a wonderful fragrance!

I know and love Wight Tea Co so much and was super excited that they are now a brand partner with Sipsby!  I mean, check out this tea. It is BEAUTIFUL! P.s. You can use code teathoughts to get 50% your first box! 

This tea is also delicate, so make sure to not over brew it. I have in my instructions to let it sit in the heated milk and cream for 2 minutes. Usually when I cook with teas, I like to increase the brewing time to make sure that the flavor or the tea can withstand any cooking but there is no cooking required in this recipe.   

A while ago I saw a bunch of videos of "rolled ice cream." The ice cream masters (this is my nickname for them) would mix your flavors of ice cream with whatever toppings on a freezing cold flat surface then spread the ice cream very thin and shave it off with what looks like a paint scraper. Of course, I thought that 1) I wanted that ice cream and 2) I bet I can remake it! 

From what I've seen this is a traditional Thai dessert so I did some research to see if the ice cream was made a certain way. I saw a bunch of diy recipes and they all seemed to look like regular ice cream ingredients so I followed suit. 

Next, I decided on salted pistachios. It took me a LONG time to decide on what to incorporate into this ice cream. The tea already has such a wonderful flavor and I didn't want to put something like cookies or chocolate into it and overpower the tea. I had some salted pistachios at home and my Persian roots decided that pistachios and rose make a lovely combo.

I've had salted caramel and also butter pecan which can sometimes have a slight salt flavor from the pecans and I love those both. I thought, why not the same thing with pistachios?! 

When you look at the recipe below you'll see that it's very simple but the rolling part was a challenge for me! I used a regular spatula but next time I want to go out and get something very thin like a paint scraper. If you look at the "roll" on the left, that was my first attempt and the one on the right is my second which came out much better! Some advice about rolling: Be confident in your roll and don't do it too slow because I think that gives the ice cream time to break. 

This is definitely an eat immediately dessert! I wanted to give a few notes about the Almond milk and cream. I used almond milk because it's what I had and wanted to test it out but the cream definitely is the main flavor. This was very creamy and delicious which I love but I think it's totally possible to substitute the cream with coconut milk to get the same consistency but with less cream and no dairy!  

In most cases I've seen the rolls topped with other ingredients like sprinkles, hot fudge etc but I decided to keep this plain and the salted pistachios are DIVINE! What flavors would you like to get on your rolled ice cream?! 

Jasmine Sangria

FruTEA. 

Summer time means lots of fun drinks and although I'm not the biggest fan of wine, I knew it would be good to make a sangria with this jasmine tea from Just Tea. That came in my sipsby box.  

I love that this tea combines the purple tea and jasmine with cornflower blossoms. The cornflower blossoms make the tea so beautiful! 

In my recipe I talk about choosing 3 fruits. I chose peach and blueberry and then cherries for the garnish. I also later threw in a bunch of cherries as well. Soaking the fruit in the ginger liqueur gives the sangria more depth in it's taste. I chose the ginger liqueur because I thought that ginger and fruit are a delicious pair and ginger is also a versatile flavor when it comes to making cocktails. 

I took a trip down memory lane when I chose vinho verde for the wine. As I've discussed I'm not much of a wine drinker but I do enjoy bubbly drinks. Vinho Verde is definitely bubbly. In college, my roommate and bestie introduced it to me and I fell in love. Sometimes we would make excuses to stay in instead of going out and share a bottle while watching movies. I have such wonderful memories of vinho verde and that's why it had to be what went in the sangria!

In my directions I talk about putting in the fruit first but in this photo that's not what you see. This was just a lesson learned after making the sangria. The order of the fruit doesn't matter too much but it's better to put the majority of the fruit into the pitcher when it's empty so that you avoid lots of splashing!

After the entire bottle of wine is poured into the pitcher, you can top it off with a little extra ginger liqueur for taste if you'd like or perhaps add a drop or two to each glass you pour. 

If you want some guidance on choosing fruit, I would say that of the 3 that I used the peaches were the best. They soaked up the flavor so well and it was easier to fish out the pieces to enjoy. The blueberries were also good and cherries as well but If I created this again I would probably substitute the cherries with raspberries!

What fruits would you choose?!

Golden Milk Tea Pops

Gold pops.

Golden milk is all the rage thanks to turmeric! Turmeric is known to have many health benefits, including decreasing inflammation within the body which is important for so many reasons. Growing up in a Persian family, I never drank turmeric as a drink but it's a central ingredients in most dishes and has always been apart of my diet. My favorite ways to cook with turmeric are including it with rice and on meat. 

Turmeric on it's own is a very strong flavor so it makes total sense to make tea blends or to make it with milk! When I got this Turmeric Tonic from the Tea Spot in my sipsby box it was a no brainer to create fun pops with it! 

This is a super basic recipe where you infuse the tea into coconut milk, freeze and tada! While the tea is infusing into the coconut milk that is your chance to put any sweetener you'd like into the mixture if you'd like any. 

To spice these popsicles up I melted a little chocolate as a topping and it was a delicious addition to the popsicles! Make sure to let the melted chocolate cool a tiny bit and that you are only putting them on popsicles right out of the freezer. The chocolate will harden on the popsicle and they are perfect to serve immediately! 

Bourbon Puerh Cocktail

Boozy Tea.

Ok, so I know I just made a similar drink with some bubbly but if you love bourbon you HAVE to try this! I enjoyed the green tea champagne drink so much I decided to tweak it for a different use. Enter, orange drop tea from White 2 Tea thanks to my Sipsby box!

P.s.You can use the code teathoughts for 50% off your first box!

Orange drop is a very special treat that I've been dying to try for some time! This is a  Xinhui Mandarin stuffed with ripe puerh tea. That's right, tea stuffed into a mandarin! This is meant to be brewed, skin and all. The mandarin sparked an idea. Old fashioned drinks often have the peel of an orange and it gives such a great flavor so I decided to try this tea with bourbon! 

You can steep this tea with the skin and in a tradition 4-6 oz pot or a larger pot. I actually decided to used my gaiwan that I love so much! This tea can be re-steeped 10 times so I suggest tasting the tea after the first steep to make sure you like the flavor. You could even keep different steeps separate and use the one where the taste is best. For my drink, I combined the 1st and 2nd steep. 

Why sour cherries? Before I go crazy and buy everything from the store, I often try to create a recipe with whatever I have in my fridge because that is more conveniant and I want these recipes to be easy and low effort! I had some sour cherries from the farmer's market and I remember that sometimes bartenders put cherries in an old fashioned. The less ingredients in my drink the better, BUT this means I know that the flavors more or less work! 

I'm not sure if you've ever had a sour cherry, or if you like sour things but they are absolutely delicious. I thought the flavors of the orange drop and cherries would go well and the cherries would also soak up the alcohol well. I used shot glass measurements for this drink. I used 1/2 of a shot of bourbon, 1.5 shots of tea and the rest was the sparkling wine. Let me tell you, ONE of these packs a punch! 

The sparkling wine brings some sweetness to this drink and you are always welcome to replace it with a dry champagne!

Just like the other cocktail I made, this is bubbly and fun and great for a party or a maybe an intimate celebration! 

BTW: I don't work for Bulleit, I just love their bourbon so much. Ever since we discovered it, its always on our shelf. It's great neat but it also is perfect for a mixed drink! 

Happy Sipping! 

Green Tea Passion Fruit Champagne Cocktail

Tea Crystals.

What the heck are tea crystals?! I didn't know either! Pique Tea reached out to me to try their tea and I was intrigued! I've probably mentioned that I'm somewhat of a loose leaf snob but am always willing to try new things! Before I received the tea I checked out the process and guess what? To get these crystals, the tea is in fact brewed from loose leaves!

I think it's really cool that these crystals are made from actual brewed tea and are able to keep in the benefits and flavors of the tea. Although, I like to enjoy my tea slowly and in places where I don't have to rush, these packets are perfect for people who want tea but can't make the time or for traveling! I also think that these packets make tea more accessible to people and I'm all about spreading the love for tea!  

You're welcome to brew this tea with hot or cold water, I used cold water because I didn't want to wait for the hot tea to cool down. If you're making these for a party I would also suggest cold water so you can make these drinks right away! Once the water hit the crystals, they start dissovling.

I'm not sure if I've ever discussed my process but I do a lot of flavor brainstorming before I create a recipe. I think about the flavor and what I've had it with and what I've liked it best with. I also think about dishes I like and wish there was tea in! I've had many passion fruit flavored things but I'm not sure I've ever eaten a passion fruit by itself so I had to do a little research about what flavors pair well with it. 

In my research, I concluded that raspberries and champagne were a great combo for this tea! I did not sweeten this drink but if you like sweet drinks, simply add honey or sugar to the tea or the finished drink! 

You can kind of play around with the amount of tea vs champagne in this drink. I made mine slightly boozier by adding more champagne than tea. I was thinking that if you had frozen raspberries you could even use those to make this drink even cooler!

This is a super simple cocktail and I think it's great for a party! Pique Tea is affordable and has green and black teas, you can check out their flavors here!

Garlic Jasmine Oolong Rice

Tea Rice.

I've probably mentioned on my blog or instagram before that I LOVE rice. It's pretty difficult not to when you grow up in a Persian household. Like tea, rice is very central to our culture. Rice is an essential ingredient in most dishes and I've always thought it was something that held together our stews. 

That being said, my favorite rice is definitely basmati. Basmati rice is what I grew up eating and it's my favorite to cook as well. A while ago, I got a Blue Apron meal where there was a garlic jasmine rice recipe. I don't often use jasmine rice but it was a simple and delicious recipe that I have recreated almost every time I marinate meat with Japanese inspired spices. Most times when I cook I think to myself, how can I incorporate tea into this dish? ENTER Alishan Oolong from Terroir Tea Merchant! 

I hear so many people talk about how cooking is so difficult and that's why they don't do it. I totally disagree, YOU ARE MISSING OUT! Unlike baking, cooking gives you a lot more room for experimentation and that is the best part. I like to share simple recipes so that anyone can try them at home. This recipe doesn't get much easier!  

Essentially, you are replacing the water used in the recipe to cook the rice with brewed tea. The tea cooks the rice and also infuses it with the oolong flavor.

Again thanks to Sipsby I got to create a unique dish! The Alishan Oolong is described as buttery, floral and nutty. These flavors cut the garlic the perfect amount and give the rice a little more depth than when it's cooked with plain water. 

Pair this rice with your fvaorite dish! I suggest someting either slightly sweet or slightly spicy :)