Tea and a movie

Now some of you may say, "does this really have anything to do with tea" and my answer to this is, "yes, yes it does."

Here are my convincing reasons as to why.

A. It is called the DARJEELINGlimited. What is Darjeeling? oh, it is a type of TEA... Now you might say when they named the movie they probably weren't thinking about the tea but the train they are on in it, which is called the Darjeeling limited...this is probably true... But I bet when the train was named they were thinking about the tea, or more the place where the tea is grown but really, same thing... so in a round about way this movie is in fact named after tea.

B. Through out the movie they are continuously asked if they would like some tea. So they drank a lot of tea throughout this movie. You might say tea was the fourth main character. The three brothers and their cups of tea.

C. This movie is as wonderful, magical, beautiful, quirky and as sweet as every other Wes Anderson movie. What else is wonderful, magical, beautiful, quirky and sweet? Yep, TEA!

I think those are more then enough reasons to show how much the Darjeeling limited has to do with tea.
So go get your favorite cup of tea and sneak it into the movie theatre and see "The Darjeeling Limited" you will be happy if you do and probably be a more peaceful person for the rest of your life. So I would suggest doing it.


...also... well you are at the theatre breaking rules by bringing in a cup of tea you might as well break another rule and sneak into another movie and see "Into the Wild" too... This really has nothing to do with tea... there is no tea... the main character, or any other character are never shown drinking tea...but...i'm sure at one point in their lives they did... so go see it! It really is so good.



Tea of the moment: Vanilla Cream naturally flavored black tea loose leaf

a dash of milk?

So although I have talked a lot about putting milk in your tea I have yet to mention the rules. Oh yes, there are intense rules when it comes to milk and tea, and all avid tea drinkers obied by them.

This recently came to mind when I was given green tea with milk and sugar. I didn't say anything cause I'm not a pretentious tea drinking beast. I quietly drank my couldve been delicious green tea that now tasted like lukewarm dishwater...bah... This is no good, no good at all. Teas like green, white, oolong, jasmine or any kind of herbal should never have milk added to them. They have such a mild taste already that if milk is added it completely drowns out the flavor of the tea. Making it pretty much tastes like you are drinking hot water with a dash of milk, which is just gross, and not tea at all.

Although you can add milk to black teas, and in my opinion should, you have to be careful about it. Lots of people just put in the milk as soon as they add the tea bag, or even worse, before they add the tea bag. Milk stops the tea from brewing, so if you add the milk too quick the tea stops brewing and again you just have hot water with milk... BLEH. Black teas should be left to brew for at least 3 minutes. Once 3 minutes is up add your milk and sugar and it is magic.


So don't make dishwater tea because you couldn't wait for it to brew, dishwater tea is not tea at all.

Danke!






Tea of the moment: jasmine downy pearl tea.... no milk please

bakin' with tea

One of my favorite things about tea is the food that goes along with it. I love cake, and pie, and lemon curd and ginger cookies but really any kind of cookie, and of course I can't forget the savoury little sandwiches. Now if your having a gathering where you are serving tea you can always use the food items I have mentioned above, but you can indeed go above and beyond and not only make things for the tea but make them with the tea. Yes, use tea as a main ingredient for a delicious dish!
The recipe I have decided to share with you is Spicy Coconut Tea Cake... really you can eat it at any time it's just not as sweet as your normal cake but equally as scrumtuous.
Also this is a vegan dish so you can share it with all your animal loving friends.

Spicy Coconut Tea Cake:

This cake uses an Indian Masala Chai as its flavorful base. If you do not have bagged chai tea, then you can make your own by boiling 2 bags of a strong black tea (or 2 tablespoons of loose tea) like assam in a saucepan with 1 stick cinnamon, 4-5 cloves, 4-5 pods cardamom, 5-6 black peppercorns and several thin slices of ginger.

Ingredients
dry-
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup grated coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon each:
clove, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger

wet-
1 1/2 cup strong chai tea
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
2 tablespoons oil or butter subsitute (for an extra coconut burst, you could use coconut milk!)

Pre heat oven to 350
Then combine the wet and dry ingredients in seperate bowls. Next, combine the wet with dry and stir gently and don't stir too much. (whenever baking vegan don't over stir it, it will turn out tough) Then put it in a pan and bake for about 25 minutes, depending on your oven.

Now you have an amazingly yummy cake to serve with your tea. If you like tea and coconut you will love this cake, and since I am a tea and coconut monster it is one of my favorites.
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Tea of the moment: Coconut vanilla twinings.

Chatting So Delightfully!

Although I love all tea oh so very much there is one tea that edges out the rest of the competition. That very beauteous tea is English tea. Now, this is not really a specific brand/type of tea (although always use a black tea), but really just a way of making the tea. I have been making English tea my whole life and at about five to ten cups of it a day, I would definitely say, I have perfected the art of making the perfect cup of English tea.
I could write a step by step approach explaining how to make this perfect cup of English tea… but I could also let this You Tube video do it for me!











Tea of the moment: Mango Black tea from Trader Joe's.

Tea time!

I'm a tea obsessed, tea addicted, all around tea lover.

This being true, I have created a blog that exists for one reason and one reason only, to talk about TEA!

It shall be a great adventure into the magical world of tea!