Back to Tea Time Part 1

Getting Back to Our Roots

It has come to our attention that we have been neglecting the first part of our blog title and for this we apologize. We love tea...hot or cold...even as ice cream. (Green tea ice cream is really good and refreshing.) Tea parties are the best. So today we are going to talk tea.

New Brand

Saturday, when Xyra was out with Maree and Ami, they stopped for a refreshing iced latte from Saxby's coffee. Each tried a different flavor. Ami's tasted the most like coffee. Maree's was the lightest in color. Xyra had the raspberry mocha. She said it still had a coffee undertone, but not too strong to negate the nice raspberry. However, she also picked up 4 different tea bags. The tea at Saxby's is from Two Leaves tea company.

She picked up an Earl Grey (of course), Assam black, Tropical Green, and Mountain High Chai.

The bags are in clear plastic sleeves. The bags are triangle shaped so that the leaves have more room to expand and brew.

Loose, Bagged, Tinned

Tea bags are the most popular form of brewing tea (at least in the US) as it is easy and mess free. [Did you know tea bags are compost-able? Especially the ones without tags and the loose leaves.] You can get square with tags, square without tags, circles, and triangles. They can come in paper, plastic, or foil pouches or without a pouch.

If the bags are not protected by a pouch or they have a paper pouch it is best to store them in an airtight container like loose leaf.

You can reuse your tins, but wash them carefully and don't mix your "flavors" as one can overcome the rest. For example if you store an herbal blend with your English Breakfast, then the English Breakfast will soon take on the flavor of the herbal. Not a horrible thing, but could be disappointing on the day you are looking for a nice cup of English Breakfast and it tastes more like chamomile, mint, or vanilla.

Two Leaves Tropical Green Tea Review

We decided to try the Tropical Green tea. 

We gathered everything we needed, but instead of using the stove kettle heated the water in a small 4 cup coffee maker. [It has never brewed coffee, so no lingering coffee taste in the water.]

Then we poured the water over the bag in our glass pot and let it steep for 5 minutes.

Sadly, there are no brewing instructions on the plastic pouch. But it didn't make a difference to us because we wanted to try making hot AND iced. 

This looks great! the bubbles on top are from being just poured. White cups are perfect for showing off green tea's color.

Making the iced tea. The glass is filled with ice, a little bit of sugar in the raw, and a metal, iced tea spoon. The metal in the spoon protects the glass from the heat and cold. Unprotected...the glass would crack and break. [Xyra lost a really neat pitcher that way.]

Iced is done. The ice will melt really fast. Add more if you want it to be colder.

Even with the extra brewing the color was nice and the flavor awesome in both styles. Not bitter and not grassy. This is a mild green tea that everyone should like.

That's all for today, more tomorrow.
Best wishes,