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Pumpkin Latte

Here's another great pumpkin tea-inspired recipe, courtesy of one of our newest Manitoba consultants. Tasty and keeps some $$ in your wallet (those coffee pub lattes are expensive at $4 or more a pop!)

Pumpkin Latte (makes 1-2 servings)

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons sugar or sugar substitute – adjust to taste
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup strong brewed Steeped Pumpkin Pie black tea (or 1/2 cup of strong brewed Steeped Volcanic coffee)

Directions:
In a saucepan stir together milk, pumpkin and sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat until steaming. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and pumpkin pie spice, transfer to a blender and process for 15 seconds or until foamy. (I don’t usually bother with the blender and just whip the mixture really well with a wire whisk.)


Pour into a large mug or two mugs if you decide to share. Add the tea or coffee on top.

Optional:  Top with whipped cream and sprinkle pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, or cinnamon on top.


Have a spooktacular Halloween!

Feeling Pumpkin-ish?

As October draws to a close, Halloween just a night away, and perhaps you are feeling in the mood for something flavoured with pumpkin.

Have you given the Pumpkin Pie black tea a try. Smooth and creamy with a hint of those familiar pumpkin pie spices, it's a lovely warmer at this time of year.

Or for something completely different, why not try some matcha pumpkin seeds?

 Save the seeds when you are carving a pumpkin and then toast them - here's how.

Combine 1 tbsp coarse salt with 1/2 tsp matcha powder.

 Rinse the pulp off the seeds and drain them. Line a pan with parchment paper or foil. Toss pumpkin seeds with a healthy cooking oil, and a salt and matcha powder mixture, then put the seeds on the pan and place it in a 250F oven for about 1 hour, tossing every 15 - 20 minutes.

You could try it in your microwave or a skillet on the stovetop.

You could also do this with other types of seeds, like acorn or butternut squash.

If you have matcha-salt leftover, try it on other foods, like poached or fried eggs, or in a grated carrot salad.

Another Tea-Related Halloween Costume

This one's adorable, but if you want to use this idea this year, you'd better get started right away!

These instructions come from Kidsturncentral.com/holidays

This costume was made with paper mache. I used the biggest exercise ball I could find to make the form.

I cut out fabric that had flowers on it and I used Mod Podge to adhere to the form.

I used satin blanket binding for the  ribbon

and bow. I saturated it with Modpodge to make it look like ceramic.

The lid was made out of the bottom of a plastic cake holder and a paper plate on top with a rubberball on top for the knob, then I covered the whole thing in paper mache. Don't forget to attach some holder into the cake holder for the ribbons that hold it onto the head.

The spout was made out of 4 inch dryer vent and the handle was made out of 3 inch dryer vent. Attach these after you have done several layers of paper meche. I used duct tape to attach the spout and handle to the paper meche ball.

I left the exercise ball inflated until all of this was dry. After they are attached you will need to do several more layers of paper meche.

This costume won first place in our town's contest . I hope these instructions are helpful. I made this for my grandaughter. It was truly a labor of love, and it was a lot of work.

Callin' All Hot-teas!

This video was a runner up for the Tea USA Calm-a-Sutra video contest. Isn't it amazing how tea inspires? Lyrics for those interested:Verse 1 Water boiling on my stovetop The tea keeps coming and it dont stop Every drop, drinking every drop Making love to my teapot If you dont drink tea you should give it a shot Chorus Callin all hot teas Black white and green Come warm me up If you know what I mean But if youre too hot for hot tea Put it on the rocks and drink it chilly Verse 2 Sittin here in my white T Sippin on black tea Drinking it as a snack you see You know me Mmm tastes tea-riffic But to be more specific You wouldnt believe how its benefiting me (Chorus) Callin all hot teas I cant get enough of these hot teas Theyre so good for my body But all these are empty I gotta go use the potty

Calm-a-Sutra Winners

We've so enjoyed sharing some of the video entries for this year's Calm-a-Sutra contest at Tea USA. The winner was recently announced. We posted this video earlier this year, and turns out it is the winner. Here it is again - love all the drama and the play on words in this one:

Stay tuned to see the runner-up videos.

Halloween Costume Idea #2

If you don't have the time or inclination to make a costume, you can still share your passion for tea. Check out some of these tea-related costumes, all selling on e-bay. Chip, Mrs. Potts, a Mad Hatter, a tea bag - they're all there!

 
  

  
 
  

Halloween Costume Ideas #1

Are you off to a Halloween masquerade? Why not show off your passion for tea with your costume?

Here are directions for a simple costume - go as a tea bag. Really easy instructions from About:sewing.com

Tea Bag Halloween Costume

Dateline: 10/21/97
An economical Halloween costume made with interfacing and fall leaves.
 

Materials needed:

• Interfacing (light weight, inexpensive but with a little bit of stiffness)
• Fall leaves
• Thread
• Heavy cotton string
• A piece of poster board or construction paper
• Markers to color a tag

Directions

(NOTE: All seams refer to a 1/2" seam allowance)

BODY OF COSTUME:

Measure across the shoulders of the person who will be wearing the costume. This will be measurement A.

Measure from the neckline area to the crotch area. This will be Measurement B.

For a "flow through tea bag" You will need to make two tea pouches, one for the front and one for the back.

Double measurement B. Cut the interfacing (measurement A by two times measurement B).

Fold the interfacing in half so that Measurement A meets Measurement A. Stitch from the folded edge up both sides. Don't turn inside out. Stuff the pouch loosely with fall leaves. Stitch the top closed.

Repeat for both pouches.

Attach heavy string to the top of both bags for shoulder straps. Attach another piece of string from the back of a shoulder strap to come around and hang in the front.

Design a tea bag tag. Attach it to the end of the hanging string.

Creative Suggestions:

If your family is in to herbal teas, create their favorite tag and use colored leaves.

Use your favorite brand of tea to create your tea tag.

Here's the finished product!

Blog Giveaway coming soon!

 The Steeped Tea Blog has been around for just over 6 months and already you've hit us over 12, 250 times. We appreciate everyone who visits here or subscribes in a reader. 15,000 visits is coming up soon and we want to celebrate this little milestonewith you by giving away a Steeped Tea Sampler. Keep visiting and tell your tea-loving friends about our blog. As we approach the milestone number, we'll announce how we're going to do our giveaway! Stay tuned!

Coffee Review

I am so lucky because just about every weekend, my dear hubby cooks up a hot breakfast for us of potato patties, bacon, eggs, and toast. I've had fun trying different teas with my fry up to see what goes with it (so far I like Canadian Breakfast, eh! Queen Elizabeth and English Breakfast).

The hubby prefers coffee to tea, so this weekend we opened a bag of freshly roasted Steeped Tea Volcanic Coffee.

If you don't know much about our decision to carry coffee, and why we selected this coffee to offer, you can read more in this previous post.

Just as there is a huge difference in the taste and quality of loose tea compared to tea bags, I would suggest that there is a huge difference between grocery store coffee and this coffee. When we buy coffee at the grocery store and even those coffee shops (Timothy's , Starbucks, etc.), we don't know when the coffee was roasted. The problem with that is that shortly after roasting, the beans begin to deteriorate, becoming stale, and they will lose their flavour. Store-bought coffee, grocery store whole bean hoppers, and even popular gourmet coffee shop brands have been roasted months ago and have been slowly deteriorating on the shelf. Unfortunately many people do not know how gourmet coffee is suppose to taste because we have become desensitized to accept a below average grade without even knowing it.

  Steeped Volcanic Coffee is freshly roasted in small batches and immediately bagged and sealed, delivering an incomparable fresh taste. 

We used a drip coffee maker to brew our coffee on Saturday. If you use a press, you'll find the flavour nuances will differ a bit. The first thing I noticed was the intense bouquet of the coffee as it was brewing. Our whole main floor smelled of the delicious coffee aroma!

I am admittedly an amateur when it comes to tastings, especially coffee tastings, but here's what I noticed when I sniffed, slurped and sipped my first cup of this new coffee. The coffee smelled somewhat ashy (this is not a bad thing!) and I also detected a slight scent reminiscent of dark unsweetened chocolate. When I mentioned this, my 10 year old daughter wanted to sniff too, and she also picked up on it.

The flavour of this coffee is more intense than the typical grocery store bean. For the first pot I brewed (earlier in the week), I measured a soup spoon per cup of water into the filter, and found the resulting coffee too concentrated for my taste (I don't whiten or sweeten my coffee). For this pot, we used a slightly heaping dessert spoon per cup of water and found that more palatable, for our taste.

I encourage you to try it and taste the difference freshness makes! You'll find yourself falling for a sophisticated cup of coffee! Steeped's coffee roaster says that "great coffee is like baking cookies; they have a shelf life of several months, but they taste best right after they leave the oven." So do use your coffee once you order it!

* Those of you interested in learning more about coffee tasting terms and what to detect when you are tasting fine quality coffees, may enjoy this web page.

Tea Tasting - Gram's Spicy Cake

Gram's Spicy Cake is a green tea that is featured on the Steeped Fall & Winter flyer (click the link on the right if you haven't seen it  yet).

Brewing Temperature: 175^oF

Brewing Time: 2 minutes

Dry Leaves: Dark green gently rolled leaves, with pretty petals, dried orange peel, cardamom pods, chocolate chunks and whole raisins.

Liquor: Pale green-ish yellow

Aromas: The dry leaves have a lovely sweet and spicy aroma, with a smell of fresh baking, almost like brown sugar. When brewed the vegetal quality of the green leaves gently blends with the spicy aromas, and though not as strong as the dry leaf, the aroma of the cup is very pleasing.

Body: Light- Medium

Flavours: Sweet dried fruit are the first flavours I detect, with a brown-sugary finish. As the tea continues to cool, the creamy smoothness of the vanilla appears.

A friend who sweetens all her tea found this to be delightful with her requisite teaspoon of sugar.

This would be lovely with dessert or could even replace dessert - dessert in a cup! I think it could easily be the tea to reach for in the mid-afternoon to overcome that hankering for a sweet!

Last Christmas, Steeped offered a scented soy candle called Old Fashioned Christmas which I loved to burn – it filled the room with a “something yummy’s in the oven” aroma. This tea smells similar to that candle and tastes like what I imagine that candle ought to taste like, if it were edible. All this to say, this is a very enjoyable tea and will provide a tasty cup of comfort beside the fireplace with a good book, or in the midst of festivities with friends! Why not sip it while nibbling on decadent dark chocolate!