Iced white?

My daughter and I were out shopping recently, and stopped to get an iced tea. We got a black tea, but she topped hers off with green. It occurred to her she's never seen an iced white. Nor have I, out in public, but I do make iced tea at home using white tea. Today my white is doing double duty. I'm having a white tea with cucumber this morning, but using the rest for later today as an iced tea.

I even used a special cup for my iced.

New mug

I spent the night recently with my daughter so I could accompany her to a doctor appointment. Like the fantastic daughter she is, she made me a cup of hot tea the next morning. After her appointment, we went shopping. Naturally, I bought a tea mug.

Today I sip a lovely vanilla white tea chai.

Family

I've been helping my dad a lot lately. He's quite a character. Total old school, and by old school, I mean thinks men should do things like home repair, car repair, etc. and women should not. So, it is still a surprise to me that he loves a cuppa hot tea. It makes him one of my favorite tea drinking buddies. He is partial to fruit teas, especially peach.

Today is was a white tea with mango and peach.

Book hunts

My favorite used book store had a sale this weekend. Hubby, knowing his wife, offered to take me to a couple. A couple is actually less than what I have managed in a day's or week's time. I'm not even kidding. I've planned vacations around their locations.

So, hubs and I jauntily set off. I did find a couple of books in a series I am reading, but the second store was a bust. You have no idea how unusual it is for me to walk out of a bookstore empty handed. But I will content myself with the two I did find, since they have previously eluded me.

I came home and sewed. Okay, more like repaired. A quilt and a throw both needed some stitching, so I sat and did them while I watched tv. And drank tea. A white with blueberry and pomegranate, to be precise.

Gardening

Fall is coming, and gardening is far from most people's minds. But not mine. I haven't had much opportunity to get my hands in dirt in a long while, and lately it has been much on my mind. I may have to spend some time making plans for the spring, and maybe do more than just cutting things back.

I'll sip my white tea with pomegranate and give it some more thought.

Salted caramel

I have an addiction. Besides tea. And tea mugs. And tea...you understand. Anyway, it's salted caramel. It's pretty serious. My hubby bought me some salted caramel fudge. I have to ration it, otherwise, I could easily eat the entire piece in one sitting. I'd regret it instantly, what with all that sugar. But I wouldn't really. It would be worth it. But then it wouldn't, because it would be gone. You see my dilemma.

So, I'll sip a nice white tea with jasmine and think about tea. And not about that beautiful piece of fudge in my refrigerator.

Still going!

I'm, frankly, a little shocked by how many tea mugs I possess. Delighted, but shocked. I finally organized them in such a way to allow me to post only those I haven't already highlighted. Then place a DO NOT TOUCH sign so my family members won't use them and mess up my new, but temporary, system. Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts!

I'll have a white tea with lavender, please.

Rain...and more rain

Driving back from Austin this past Sunday, we hit some major rain. The kind of rain where you can't really see, so have to drive super slow. The kind of rain I'd rather be at home sipping tea, safe and dry. But, you do what you have to do and get through it the best you can. And we did. We got back home between downpours and were able to unload the car. And then I sipped tea.

A white tea with pineapple and ginger.

The Canadian Way of Tea

The Tea Association of Canada has just this year launched a new campaign, entitled the Drink Tea Campaign. The goals are well, to get more people to drink tea! How cool is that?

They have several links, but this one is my favorite; it has links to recipes using tea! According to the website, Canadians drink over 10 billion cups of tea a year! Another tidbit is that the preferred type is teabags, stating that the average Canadian tea drinker has over 11 types of tea in their cupboard.

They are truly after my own heart!

So, I raise my cup to Canada today!

A white tea with mango and mangosteen.

Teabags and manicures

Years ago I had this little kit for repairing nails. It consisted of glue and strips of a mesh type paper. Imagine my surprise when I realized I could achieve the same results with super glue and teabags!

Yes, really. Since I save all the tea inside of teabags anyway for my garden, having access to dry teabags is a regular thing here. And, since I do love having long nails - even when they are more often than not impractical - because they make me feel very feminine, it has been a big help. The tragedy of long nails is, besides jamming them into things unintentionally, they break. Or chip. Or snag. You get the picture. So, I employ the use of a small snip of a teabag and some super glue, and voila! "Normal" nails. Well, normal as can be once you apply some glittery polish to hide the little rough part from the glue and teabag.

I'm not making this sound like much of a life hack, am I?

But the truth is, it works. It allows me to keep my nails long, and painted. Once the nail grows to a point I can trim or file it, the damage is gone. So it's really worth it, for me at least, in the end.

And I get to sip my white peach tea while my nails dry...

Tea Sandwich Tuesday: Cream Cheese and Preserves Sandwiches

This has got to be the easiest, simplest tea sandwich recipe ever.

Cream Cheese and Preserves Sandwiches

One container vegan cream cheese, softened
Fruit preserves - your choice (I had strawberry rhubarb on hand)

Mix about a tablespoon or two of preserves into the cream cheese, blending well. Spread this on the bread of your choice, and cut into desired shapes. Serve. Enjoy!

Seriously, could it be any easier?

White tea with cinnamon in Herself the Elf mug:

Tea for crisis management

How many times have I said tea is the answer to everything? Several? I'm not alone. A woman I know from England once told me her mother insisted this was true - no matter what the problem, tea was the answer. Mostly, I think, because tea isn't a drink you can sip while standing. It really requires you to sit down and savor. Otherwise, why drink it?

Today all crises will be handled with white tea with cinnamon, orange peel, cloves, allspice, ginger, lemongrass, and lime.

Tea and Aging

In preliminary experiments on 21 different plant extracts, scientists discovered that white tea outperformed all other botanicals in stalling the activity of enzymes that wear down elastin and collagen, two proteins that help prevent wrinkles.

It may not be a fountain of youth, but it can certainly taste like it! Drink up!

White tea with lavender.

White tea and fat cells

According to a report in Nutrition and Metabolism, compounds in white tea may stall the growth of new fat cells, as well as trigger the breakdown of fat in existing fat cells. Because it is also lower in caffeine than both black and green teas, as well as high in antioxidants, it can be safely sipped several times a day.

White tea with passionfruit and guava.

And like the green M&M, here, embrace your sexy!

Fall Means Time To Drink More Tea!

Thank goodness fall has arrived! This summer may have been better than last year, but it was still pretty hot here. We have a few more days of heat yet to come, but knowing that cooler temps are just around the corner makes everything better!

We celebrated the fall equinox with some light fare - salad greens over pumpkin pie spiced cornbread croutons, fruit soup and a cranberry/raspberry sorbet. If you are interested, you can find those recipes here. But more than good food, fall means more hot tea drinking! Summers require iced tea. Fall, winter and spring all cry out for curling up with a cup of hot tea and a good book. In fact, hubby and I were out shopping today and I bought two brand new teas that I can't wait to brew! A chocolate ginger and a hazelnut chai.

Today, however, I began my fall equinox morning with a cup of spiced apple chai in a farm themed mug. Seemed appropriate!

There are so many types of tea out there, and often I get asked to explain the differences. I'll try to explain some of it.

Black tea - mature and fully fermented. Has the highest caffeine content
Oolong tea - fermented half as long as black. Rests in between black and green, caffeine wise.
Green tea - dried, but not fermented. Half the caffeine of black.
White tea - dried but not heated or fermented. Light and delicate and low in caffeine.

Herbal - not really a tea. It's true!

Black, oolong, green and white tea all come from the same plant - Camellia sinensis. When it is picked and how it is treated determines if it is black, oolong, etc. Tea contains catechins, a type of antioxidant.Catechins are highest in concentration in white and green teas, while black tea has substantially fewer due to its oxidative preparation. However, research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture has suggested the levels of antioxidants in green and black tea do not differ greatly.

Herbal teas come from flowers and fruits, but not the Camellia tea plant. They typically do not contain any caffeine.

So what the heck is chai tea? Usually a black, but now can be found in green, white and red teas, that is spiced. The most common spices are cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and pepper. You may have heard of a chai latte? That's chai tea with milk. I don't care for it myself, but a lot of people do.

And now I've thrown in red tea. What is red tea? It comes from another plant entirely, and contains no caffeine. It is also known as rooibos and redbush tea.

Brewing time can make a difference in how much caffeine you get, as well. A two minute difference can double the amount of caffeine. Brew whites for a shorter period than greens, brew greens for a shorter time than oolong, brew oolongs for a shorter time than blacks - otherwise the tea can develop what I call a *bite* and for some people, that is unpleasant. If you've encountered someone who didn't like the taste of tea, this could be the reason. Herbal teas can brew as long as you like.

Now, go find a new tea to try!

Tea, with Cucumbers

I admit it, I haven't been drinking tea much. Not even my beloved ice tea. It's just been so hot outside, I've been drinking mostly water. Yes, yes, very good for me, but I miss my tea. That round of deprivation has ended. I brewed a pot of tea this morning and sat down with a nice cuppa and read.

As I sipped my white tea, blended with cucumber (yes, cucumber!) and lime peel, I thought about, well, what else, cucumber tea sandwiches.

It was Anna Maria Stanhope, seventh Duchess of Bedford, that began the tradition of afternoon tea. It was designed to be a light meal to bridge the gap between luncheon and dinner, which wasn't served until 8 P.M. Sandwiches were intended to be small and just enough filling to prevent overindulgence in the sweet teatime treats, like scones and other pastries.

But cucumber? In a sandwich? According to Wikipedia:

"Cucumber sandwiches contain little protein and so are generally not considered sustaining enough to take a place at a full meal. This is deliberate; cucumber sandwiches have historically been associated with the Victorian era upper classes of the United Kingdom, whose members were largely at leisure and who could therefore, afford to consume foods with little nutritive value. Cucumber sandwiches formed an integral part of the stereotypical afternoon tea affair. (By contrast, people of the era's lower working classes were thought to prefer a coarser but more satisfying protein-filled sandwich, in a "meat tea" that might substitute for supper.)

Some writers have attempted to draw out an association between the daintiness of the sandwich and the perceived effeteness of the British aristocracy. Cucumber sandwiches are often used as a kind of shorthand in novels and films to identify upper class people, occasionally in a derogatory manner. In the first act of Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest (1895), cucumber sandwiches that have expressly been ordered and prepared for Lady Bracknell's expected visit are all voraciously eaten beforehand by her nephew and host, Algernon Moncrieff; consequently he is forced to tell a little lie, with his butler's connivance: namely that "there were no cucumbers in the market this morning... not even for ready money". In addition, the sandwiches were once considered appropriate delicacies to offer to visiting clergy, in times when such visits were still a common feature of English middle class life.

The popularity of the cucumber sandwich reached its upper-class zenith in the Edwardian era, when cheap labor and plentiful coal enabled cucumbers to be produced in hotbeds under glass through most of the year. With the declining popularity of tea as a meal in the United Kingdom, there was a corresponding decline in the popularity of cucumber sandwiches, but they are still frequently served at teas, luncheons, and gatherings. They are now increasingly popular in the UK due to the hotter and longer summers, and the range of variants of accompaniments from take-away sources (e.g. supermarkets) is large; hence they are a popular lunchtime snack for workers. Most English cricket clubs supply malt vinegar and ground pepper to dash inside the sandwich, and this is the simplest form commonly used in England."

Okay, so that explains how cucumbers came to used in dainty, little tea sandwiches.

I have several tea sandwich recipes, a handful that involve cucumbers. I will be making several of them in the next coming days, and will share the recipes and my thoughts on them.

Until then, happy sipping!