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I’m trying to use up the rest of my 52teas Gingerbread Chai to make more room (almost there, one round of brewing left), so I decided to brew some up, let it cool, and combine it with some Red Leaf Pumpkin Pie black matcha for a cold latte. This was my randomly thrown together recipe:

1/2 tsp Red Leaf Pumpkin Pie black matcha
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup steeped Gingerbread Chai
3 ice cubes
1/2 tsp vanilla agave nectar

The result is much better than drinking the Gingerbread Chai hot with some milk and sugar. The black matcha base grounds the spices in the Gingerbread Chai, in my opinion. Without the matcha, I find the Gingerbread Chai to be a little too heavy on the ginger, thus making it more two-dimensional. Now, the spices meld together with an earthier base to create a bold, yet much smoother result.

Because I had not much DT Pumpkin Chai left, I thought I’d add some 52teas Gingerbread Chai to the mix. Approximately equal portions.

Added some vanilla agave and coconut milk.

The result is super yummy. The Pumpkin Chai smooths out the slight harshness of the Gingerbread Chai (which I find can sometimes be too straight up gingery) and the Gingerbread Chai gives the Pumpkin Chai a bit of a kick, since I sometimes find Pumpkin Chai lacks spiciness.

I would sooner describe it as a smoothed out Gingerbread Chai than an amped up Pumpkin Chai, though. Either way, they complement each other and create a better balance of flavours.

Since this is already here I shall use it for my magical tea.

From Sweet Hut: Jasmine Milk Green Tea with Honey Boba and Lychee Jelly.

I’ve created quite a floral drink! Normally I don’t stray from a coconut milk black tea but someone told me to try this one…I think. All I remembered was milk green tea and jelly. Well they have 3298752 jellies. I figured lychee would best match, and it does.

So good. Taking away all the problems I had driving home. Everyone sits in this left lane even though the right lane continues to exist for a good third of a mile. So I go in it if nobody else is there. Well the person first in the left lane, who has been slow the entire way accelerating after red lights decides they’re going to try to block me. Hilarious. I’m in a little car, they’re in an SUV…so guess who can go faster. And surprise, after I got over they were nowhere even near me. I really wanted to give them a Hot Fuzz “jog on” gesture :(

I wouldn’t usually put this drink in as a tea log but it’s a hot drink using spices and fruit and useful in the cold season so I thought I’d share.

Today, I found myself sneezing more than usual and constantly trying to soothe a scratchy dry throat. No other symptoms have emerged thus far, but experience tells me that I may soon be facing a cold. In hopes of nipping this in the bud, I made this drink called “sujeonggwa” which is traditionally a Korean drink served cold, but it strikes me as a wonderful drink to have hot when feeling under the weather. It also tastes amazing if you like cinnamon and ginger. Here’s a link to the recipe I like to use:
http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/sujeonggwa

Now, I realize dried persimmons are not easy to come by, especially not right now. They are easier to find in the middle of winter, but even then, you’ll have to visit an asian supermarket. Rest assured that even without the sweet date/yam flavor of dried persimmon, this drink is still mighty tasty. Maybe trying subbing in some other fruit. I imagine raisins, fresh peaches, or fresh apples would work! It also makes your whole apartment smell like cinnamon. Awesome.

I just had a mugful of this hot with some fruit bits. Sipping it from a spoon makes it feel more comforting somehow. It also makes the drink last a bit longer, allowing the soothing liquid to have more time going down my scratchy throat. Hot and slightly burny from the spice and ginger. I can almost imagine I’m burning some viruses as I sip. :)

If you’re not in need of a hot drink, try this iced, which is how it’s actually meant to to served. Float a few kernels of pine nuts on top and enjoy a lovely digestif after dinner. Ginger is great of settling the tummy after all.

Stay healthy in this coming cold season!

Black Cherry-French Vanilla Matcha from Red Leaf Tea

Oh so good. Made two lattes of this for Hubby and me, and it’s the favorite for both of us so far! With each sip I tasted the French Vanilla first, then the Black Cherry followed by more vanilla. It was like the cherries were actually covered in vanilla cream. Fantastic!

I really wanted Lupicia’s Chocolate Strawberry Puerh today, but my guest really doesn’t like puerh. I really think she would like that one because the puerh flavor is really muted and all you taste is rich desert-y chocolate covered strawberries. I mixed two of my teas to try to get the flavor I wanted.

Did I succeed? No. My guest loved the resulting tea, and I liked it fine, but it really was just strawberry tea and I could not smell or taste chocolate. I guess if I try this again I will go heavy on the chocolate flavored tea and just use one teaspoon of strawberry black. It did not satisfy the longing, but it was good with our cupcakes! (And cookies, don’t forget the cookie plate!)

So I never said I was a sane person.
So I decided to mix Adagio’s Sylvari’s Awakening blend with Teavana’s White Ayurvedic Chai. I’ve said before that the Sylvari’s Awakening had to much chai, but I just wanted to see how these would go together. I used 1 and 1/2 tsp of the Sylvari’s Awakening and 1 tsp of the White Chai. I steeped this higher and longer than Teavana suggests for the white tea, but I’ve had no problems with doing so with the chai/chai blend.
This smells like some kind of faintly wassil type Christmas treat. I wish I had something orange to add to this as I think it would compliment it well. There are citrus notes in the Sylvari’s Awakening, but it’s too faint in this. Mmm, this is pretty damn tasty together! I think that I’ll use most of my stock of the Teavana tea to drink this way because alone it is a bit too Big Red gum-like to me.

So, you know those custom blends on Adagio? Well I want to make some so I’m testing some stuff out today. I want to make a Dune blend (from the Frank Herbet books, I finished the first one a little white ago).

So I’m testing out teas with some rooibos vanilla chai, a bit of lapsang souchong, and maybe spiced mate. Not sure yet, I need that cinnamon flavor though. I think the lapsang might be overpowering everything though, so I might have to take that out. Hmmm.

I found myself distinctly in the mood for shu pu’er today, which doesn’t happen often, so makes for a very good reason to drink it. I wanted the earthy grounding flavor, the complexity, and the sense of well-being that usually follows drinking it; I wasn’t feeling too picky beyond that. Browsing the pu-erh shelf of my tea cupboard, I found a forgotten tin of cheap loose shu: perfect. I was also craving something spicy and warming, so this would be just right to mix with an herbal chai blend (Adagio’s Thai Chai in this case, which was sent along as a random freebie with my latest Etsy order).

It is everything I wanted: rich, dark, warming, mood-lifting… just the thing for a cold and cloudy day at home.

I used 1 tsp pu’er and .5 tsp chai in my 3.5oz glass pot, steeped just a few seconds until the color was right. 3 steeps so far, many more to come I’m sure

I’ve been down with a cold for most of a week now, on the upswing (I think), so tonight we’re going from tea to hot toddies. This one started with a cup of Harney’s Decaf Hot Cinnamon Spice, then got a spoonful of honey, a dash of Apple Pie liqueur, and a large splash of apple cider. Good for soothing the throat and clearing the sinuses!

Lime + cheesecake matcha! Not exactly was I was hoping for (key lime pie) but still quite good – more like that opaque green jello you get sometimes, in the jello salad or the layered jello desserts :P

Prepared hot, with milk and a dash of honey. Matcha seemed finicky to me at first, with all the whisking, but now that I’m used to the prep I love how quickly I can get my caffeine fix in the morning, compared to waiting for tea to steep :D

This is my own combination – not one that was custom ordered from Red Leaf… I used 1 part Boysenberry Matcha from Red Leaf and 1 part Cheesecake Matcha from Red Leaf, and enough hot water and just a bit of warmed half & half to make a tasty boysenberry cheesecake Matcha latte. YUM!

Surprisingly, my order from Red Leaf did arrive yesterday, although I had come to the point where I wasn’t expecting it to. It arrived rather late in the day, but, that’s OK. It still arrived!

But rather than opening one of my new pouches, I decided to have one of the Matcha that I already have opened (Rather than having 739 open packages of Matcha in the house) and save the new Matcha for another day.

This combination is one that I’ve been anxious to try since I tried the boysenberry (it really is amazing on its own!) … and it works as a cheesecake too. For all-out boysenberry flavor, go with the boysenberry alone though, because the cheesecake does mute some of the strong boysenberry notes, but the tart tingly taste of boysenberry tickles the tongue in the aftertaste and it’s yummy! All the flavors are represented here, the boysenberry, the cream cheese, even the buttery pastry, but, I notice them more in the aftertaste than I do the actual sip. It’s yummy, but I think I prefer the boysenberry on its own, and the cheesecake is better with the caramel Matcha than the boysenberry.

This chance combination comes courtesy of tattooed_tea, who, for their contribution to the 12 Days of Christmas swap had Day 6 – Six Geese a’Laying. This brought to mind “eggs,” which brought to mind “breakfast.” So, we were sent a bounty of tea samples today! This is a combination of Pancake Breakfast and Maple Bacon teas, both from 52Teas. I’ve been wanting to try these two teas together because I’ve been bugging Frank for a blend that is pancake, bacon, pecan and caramel. Yes, I realize that sounds crazy, but I think that Frank could pull it off. I have faith in him. But he hasn’t yet accepted the challenge. :(

So, I combined both the pancake and the bacon teas into my teapot, and now have a yummy pancake and bacon breakfast tea. I added a pinch of salt (this brings out the bacon-y taste) and a drizzle of maple syrup – because I had it in the cupboard and thought some maple is good, more maple is better – and I’m loving what I’m drinking. I have my new little mug cozy on my cup (thank you Em for this lovely and useful gift!) and even though it is almost 9 am on my daughter’s first day of winter break and I could be sleeping right now, I couldn’t sleep and sipping this tea is the next best thing.

Thank you tattooed_tea … I’m loving this!

I didn’t drink a lot of Matcha while I was sick … and I realize that it was probably the best thing I could have consumed while I was sick, but when I’m down and out like that, I was just too lazy to actually do the preparation. Sounds silly because there’s not a whole lot to it, but, there you have it. I wanted something as easy as possible, so thank goodness for my breville which is basically one step tea making. Measure the tea, push some buttons and walk away… a few minutes later, there is tea.

But, I’ve missed Matcha. I had some Matcha every now and then, mostly in smoothies … but, not as often as I probably should have while I was under the weather there, so this is almost like a welcome back Matcha for me.

I combined, in equal ratios, the Bavarian Cream Matcha and the Strawberry Matcha, and I also combined it with equal ratios of hot water and warmed milk to make a yummy, luscious, strawberry Bavarian Cream treat in my chawan. Love it!

My bowl of Matcha for the day is a combination of Cinnamon Matcha from Red Leaf Tea and Peanut Matcha from Red Leaf Tea. I did a ratio of 2:1 with the Matcha (2 parts peanut Matcha and 1 part cinnamon) because I remembered how strong the cinnamon Matcha was. This is really tasty, it reminds me a bit of a cinnamon candied peanut. Sweet, cinnamony, but just enough peanut taste too. And a lovely Matcha taste coming through as well. I notice more Matcha taste here than I would with the cinnamon Matcha on it’s own, but less than I would have with the peanut matcha on its own.

Yummy… not my favorite combination, but it’s certainly tasty.

Today’s Matcha was a combination of the banana and the caramel at a 1:1 ratio. I also used a ratio of 1:1 hot water to warmed milk to make this a latte. It was so yummy that I finished the bowl before I had a chance to sit down and write about it, so technically this is a backlog. This may be my favorite combination with the Matcha yet.

My Matcha of the Day today is a combination of Bavarian Cream Matcha and Strawberry Matcha, both from Red Leaf Tea, of course! And the combination today just tastes stunning… the strawberry is deliciously fruity and sweet, and the bavarian cream is sweet and creamy. YUM! I think that the strawberry goes much better with the bavarian cream than the boysenberry does… maybe just because I love the boysenberry so much on its own.

Today’s bowl of Matcha is a combination of caramel Matcha and Hazelnut Matcha, both from Red Leaf Tea. I combined these at a 1:1 ratio, whisked with hot water, and then added a tiny splash of half & half just to up the creaminess a bit. And after I put the half & half back into it’s spot in the fridge I realized that I still had some Holy Kakow! Sauce still left in there… so I added a drizzle of that in the bowl too. Now, I have a Caramel-y, Hazelnut-y, creamy, chocolate-y drink that is absolutely amazing. It tastes a bit like a Hazelnut Turtle. YUM!

Today’s Chance Combination/Operation Drink More Matcha blend is a combination of the newly acquired Bavarian Cream Matcha and the Strawberry Matcha, both from Red Leaf Tea, of course! I went with a 1:1 ratio here, and it is amazing. Creamy, vanilla custard and strawberries… need I say more?

Have I mentioned lately that I love Red Leaf Tea?

My second bowl of Matcha for the day! But, I am justifying it this way (yes, I justify everything that I do): first of all, I have a lot of work to do, and I’m still not doing it. I’m hoping that more Matcha will motivate me to get some work done! second, I opened a new pouch of Matcha with the Cotton Candy Matcha, and I’m supposed to be trying to finish off the already opened Matcha… so I thought, if I am going to open a Matcha I need to at least have some of the already opened matcha. yeah. So there.

Today, I combined the Watermelon Matcha with the Strawberry Matcha in a 2:1 ratio (2 parts Watermelon to 1 part Strawberry) and I think that this may be my favorite watermelon combination yet! The strawberry and watermelon go together beautifully! Sweet, just a hint of strawberry tartness, and absolutely delicious. Nice vegetative tone and I like the way the watermelon and strawberry interact with the vegetative notes of the Matcha. Sweet, hints of bitter and a tart aftertaste, and a very smooth, rich texture. Nice… very nice!

I finally got my Red Leaf Tea order from Saturday. My previous orders from Red Leaf were much quicker, within a couple of days, three days max, but, this one was slower, but I don’t think Red Leaf is at fault with that… I think that it was held up in the postal system for whatever reason… just glad it arrived! Hooray for Bavarian Cream!

Today’s Matcha combination is a revisiting of the Watermelon Boysenberry Matcha combination. But, today, instead of a 1:1 ratio, I went with a 2:1 ratio: 2 parts watermelon to 1 part boysenberry. And I like this bowlful (chawanful) so much better than I remember liking the first attempt. The first attempt was good, this is awesome!

And it’s already gone! ha! By increasing the watermelon, I’ve increased the sweeter fruit a bit, which gave it a little bit of boysenberry tartness to the sweet, delicious watermelon. The boysenberry was a little dominating last time, but now, there is a good balance between the fruits. So yummy!

Tomorrow, I think I’m going to try Watermelon and strawberry together and see how that goes. Or… I may actually open a new package of Matcha, since it’s Friday and Red Leaf Tea may have a tea on sale that I need. See how I use the word NEED in there. I don’t want this Matcha. I NEED it. Yeah. There we go.