Steepedteablog.com

Happy New Year!

 

 

I just wanted to thank my readers and wish you an abundant New Year!

P.S. If you overdo it on the festivities, lots of water, including green or black tea may help you feel better in the morning. If your overindulgence is food, you may want to try the Don't Worry Be Happy tea, which can relieve bloating and gas with its peppermint and licorice.

Take care and I'll talk to you in 2009!

Blessings and Happy Sipping - Ann

Wishing You...

- enjoyed a Christmas of blessings, love and peace

- a new year of abundance

Happy sipping & blessings, Ann

P.S. I am sending out a special edition newsletter later today. If you don't subscribe yet, just click on the link to the right. Usually I send a newsletter the first week of the month, with interesting and fun facts about tea, recipes, company specials and coupons for newsletter recipients only. THIS newsletter going out today is great news full of specials for tea lovers, including a Boxing Week sale on great Steeped Tea products, a fantastic customer special, a fantabulous hostess special and more!

Are You Entertaining? Try These Tas-tea Beverages!

I saw a recipe in the Food & Drink magazine that is perfect for Steeped's Chai teas. I'll bet any of them would work nicely.

The Orange Chai

To a heatproof mug, add 1 oz Grand Marnier, 1/2 oz amber run and top with 5 oz hot chai tea. Add 1 oz warmed milk and 1 tsp sugar (optional). Garnish with a clove-studded orange slice.

To make enough for entertaining (8 servings)

• 1 c. Grand Marnier

• 1/2 c. amber rum

• 5 c chai tea

• 1 c warmed milk

• 8 tsp sugar (optional)

• 8 clove-studded orange slices for garnish

Add all ingredients to a thermos carafe. Pour into heatproof mugs and garnish each with a clove-studded orange slice.

Here are a few mar-tea-ni recipes for you:

Black Tea Martini

Makes 1 cocktail – brew and chill the tea in advance, and make these one at a time to order for your guests.

¼ c (1 oz) vodka

¼ c (2 oz) brewed black tea, chilled

ice

chopped black tea leaves

sugar

Shake the vodka and tea together in a cocktail shaker with ice. On a shallow plate, mix together enough tea leaves and sugar for the rim of a martini glass. Moisten the rim of a chilled martini glass with water and then dip it into the tea leaves and sugar. Strain the martini mixture into the prepared glass.

Green Tea Martini

Same as above, but substitute green tea and green tea leaves for the black tea and black tea leaves.

White Tea Martini with Coconut

Same as above, but substitute brewed white tea and dried shredded coconut for the black tea leaves.

 

Cranberry Tea Cosmopolitan

Makes 1 cocktail

2 tbsp (1 oz) vodka

1 tbsp (1/2 oz) triple sec

1 tbsp (1/2 oz) cranberry juice, chilled

1 tbsp (1/2 oz) cranagranate rooibos tea, chilled

splash of lime juice

ice

lime wedge

Combine the vodka, triple sec, cranbery juice and tea, and lime juice in a cocktail shaker with some ice and shake. Strain into a chilled martini glass, garnish with a lime wedge on the rim, and serve.

Yummy warm drink on blustery afternoon!

Want to warm up with a nice hot comforting cuppa? Give this a try!

Gently warm 3/4 c eggnog on low heat. At the same time boil the kettle.

Pour the warmed eggnog into your Shanghai press, and add boiling water to make the press about 1/2 filled. Add 1 Perfect Pot spoon of Christmas Chai mix and let steep about 5 minutes before plunging. Pour into your favourite large mug and enjoy! To make 2 large mugs, just double the recipe - it'll just fit in the Shanghai press.

You likely won't need to sweeten your Eggnog Chai, but you may want to make it even more decadent by adding some foamy milk, if you have the Milk Frother, or some whipped cream.

Happy International Tea Day

Tea workers as a group do a difficult job for little recognition.
Spare them a thought today, which in Sri Lanka and India is International Tea Day.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/12/11/fea002.asp

International Tea Day is celebrated in India, Sri Lanka and other tea
producing countries to raise awareness of the poor conditions that many
plantation workers, especially female workers, endure.

In a declining world economy we can at least drink an extra cup or two to ensure continued employment for them and favour companies that source their teas ethically.

Steeped's Fair trade teas include:

• Irish Breakfast
• Buckingham Garden Party
• Earl Grey de la Creme
• Traditional Earl Grey
• Egyptian Chamomile
• All of our flavoured black teas

Happy sipping & blessings! - Ann

 

Saved by Tea - Part 2

It seems a British shopkeeper defended herself against would-be burglars, thanks to her cup of tea.

Extra extra read all about it!

5FT SHOPKEEPER FIGHTS OFF THIEVES WITH A CUP OF TEA

Mrs Patel threw her tea at the thieves

Friday December 12,2008

By Dana Gloger

A PETITE woman shopkeeper fought off two knife-wielding robbers using her cup of tea.

Varsha Patel, 45, hurled the steaming cuppa into the face of one of the men then threw the empty mug at the other’s head.

Mrs Patel, who is just 5ft, was about to grab a bottle of whisky to throw at them too – but the pair fled with just a scratch-card dispenser between them.

Yesterday she told how she frightened off the balaclava-wearing burglars at the Kensworth Village Store in Beds, which
she runs with her husband Yogesh.

She said: “I was scared afterwards but at the time I just reacted on instinct.

“You don’t know how you will react in these situations until they happen but I have never been one to sit back and let people bully me.

“I am glad they ran away – I don’t know what would have happened if there had been a stand-off.”

Mrs Patel was in the shop on her own when the robbers attacked. She said: “They ran in and I just saw two arms coming at me as he tried to grab the scratch-card dispenser, which is glued to the counter.

“I think he said, ‘Give it to me’ but his voice was muffled by the balaclava.

“I was just about to take my first sip of tea and threw the contents in his face as he came towards me.

“He staggered back a bit and his friend was still hanging around so I threw my empty mug at his face. I stepped back to grab a bottle of spirits and then they backed off and ran out.”
She chased the men out of the shop but they made off in a blue Peugeot. The dispenser had around 1,000 Lottery scratch cards, which Mrs Patel immediately cancelled with Camelot.

Mr Patel, 50, said he was impressed with his wife’s bravery but upset that cowardly thieves had targeted a woman on her own.

He said: “I’m just so relieved she is OK. I get more scared about what could have happened each time I think about it.”

Mrs Patel said it was the first time robbers had targeted the shop, and her husband and children Sheena, 21, and Nishil, 18, were shaken. She said: “We always make sure neither of us are in the shop on our own in the evening but you don’t expect this to happen in broad daylight.

“I suppose you just need to be on your guard all the time.”

Bedfordshire Police are appealing for help with their inquiries into the incident.

If you have a "Saved by Tea' story, don't hesitate to share it by leaving a comment.

Happy sipping & blessings! - Ann

It's Moonlight Madness!

Tonight is Moonlight Madness here in Elmira. It's the night when all the downtown shops stay open late and the town's Christmas tree is lit up.

This year, there is another shopping opportunity for attendees, as the Village Shop building has been opened up to vendors and crafters. Santa will be there, along with a gift-wrap service and hot drinks. I will be there from 5 - 11 pm tonight with my Steeped Tea business. I'll have tea-related gift baskets that can be ordered, there will be packages of loose leaf tea available for purchase, along with a few other items. I'll have a doorprize as well. So pop by and see me, along with lots of other home-based business operators. I'll be set up in the space where the restaurant used to be. See you tonight!

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I'll take definitions for $400, Alex...

My brother-in-law was over for dinner about a week ago and we were enjoying a pot of Vanilla Dreams with dessert. We got to talking about tea and teapots - the one I was using was deceptively large and a funky hand-me-down. I noted that it was well-seasoned and how I never wash only rinse it. And how the taste of residual detergents can ruin the next pot. My brother-in-law tells me that there is a word for that condition - he'd recently read it and would email me with it. So here it is folks: Salween - The faint taste of dishwashing liquid in a cup of fresh tea.

He found the term in a book entitled, The Book of Useless Information and is written by Noel Botham & The Useless Information Society. He's learned all kinds of fascinating things from this book, including "salween". All I know is so many guests reiterate the same thing & their grandmas told them too- don't wash those teapots!

Blessings & Happy sipping! - Ann

Coconut Powder Sweetener Hits the Market

I just read in World Tea News that a new sweetener is hitting the market in the US, which means, we'll likely see it here in Canada before long.

According to Navitas Naturals, the distributor for the product, social responsibility and health were top priorities when the company created its latest product: Coconut Powder. This organic evaporated palm sugar acts as an alternative to synthetic sweeteners and can be used as a 1-to-1 substitute for cane sugar.

Coconut Powder is sustainably sourced from Indonesia, Navitas said. Made from the juices of coconut palm sugar blossoms, the product is organic, unprocessed, unfiltered and unbleached. It contains no preservatives, and is a naturally good source for vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6 and C. It is also high in amino acids, potassium, Magnesium, zinc and iron.

Navitas said money from raising and processing Coconut Powder stays within the local Indonesian communities. This means customers will not only feel healthy in body, but have peace of mind knowing that the sugar tappers used by the company receive fair trade prices, production training, market access assistance and other social support.

So, do you sweeten your tea? Everytime, sometimes, never? Fill in the poll to let us know. If you use something different from sugar to sweeten your tea, why not leave us a comment. It would be interesting to explore the options.

What is that Stuff Anyway?

Have you ever been enjoying a cup of tea and noticed a film on the surface? Wonder what that stuff is?

Nigel at Teacraft shares:

The blue irridescent film sometimes seen at the surface of cooling
black tea should not be confused with oil. It is due to hard water. I
believe that the film is caused by the formation of insoluble Ca and
Mg salts of the lightly acidic thearubigins. If you disturb it with
a spoon the irridescent film fragments with distinct edges like pack
ice - no oil would do this.

So, that is what that film is - I don't know why, when I'm sipping at home and  consequently using the same hard water source, some of my black teas seem to develop it and some do not; do I drink some faster? Quite possibly...

Meanwhile, baby it's cold outside, so go brew a nice hot cup and enjoy!

Blessings & Happy sipping, Ann