Summer is officially over and the school year is about to start!
Since school is demanding for both students and teachers, we’ve decided to highlight how teas can help you perform your best under pressure and stress.
Unlike coffee, soda or even juice, loose leaf teas are natural, fresh, and packed with vitamins and minerals with no additives. Along with these general nutritional benefits, specific teas can boost your energy, help you stay alert, and keep you focused while also tasting delicious.
So put your best foot forward this school year and try out the four teas we think are especially good for getting you ready for all those new classes:
Soho Breakfast:The unique citrus twist along with the natural caffeine in black tea leaves will keep you awake and ready to go. And unlike coffee, the caffeine in tea is processed slowly by the body and therefore does not give you a huge energy crash at the end.
Genius: A unique blend of green tea, ginseng, dandelion, and yerba maté that helps boost your energy and sharpen your mental focus–perfect for pre-test studying and long classes.
Mind over Matter: One of our favorite herbal teas that has the spice of ginger that will keep you going in the mid-afternoon. Rather than using caffeine to keep you going, this tea shows how the combination of ginseng and ginger can naturally stimulate your blood stream to keep you energetic and focused.
Balance: Plan ahead for those stressful nights with this blend that brings the best of spices and herbs to help you relax and cope with pressure.
So, this school year try trading in your morning coffee or late night energy drink for one of our four Back to School Teas! Click Here for a Back To School Discount Code!
September 3rd, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | No Comments »
To celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of autumn we are launching our second tea-inspired contest. This time, instead of testing your tea knowledge, we will be challenging your creativiTea to incorporate tea into your cooking!
Starting today until the end of September we will be asking for tea-inspired recipe submissions. The winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to our shop and will be featured on our site. The runner up will win a free bottle of T-Dust Seasoning and a 2oz tin of tea of their choice.
So if you’re a teafanatic and love to cook up a storm in the kitchen, then try submitting a tea-inspired recipe. For details on submissions and rules please click on this link: http://www.shopsanctuaryt.com/recipecontest
August 27th, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | No Comments »
We’ve been working hard to come up with new content for our Know section. One idea we had was a Mood Chart, which recommends our different teas for various types of moods. We’re hoping to wrap this one up and get it up on our site soon. But we’d like to know what you think! Are there any other moods we should add?
Click on the chart to see a bigger version.
August 16th, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | 1 Comment »
Although you might be used to enjoying teas as an after-meal libation, teas have historically been enjoyed as a part of the meal in countries such as India, China and Japan. This is because the processing of teas developed to complement the changes in cultural cuisines.
What does this mean if you are a tea lover or a foodie or both? Pairing your tea with certain dishes not only brings out the flavor of the food but also enhances the overall tea experience–just like wine pairing!
While the idea of pairing teas with food may seem intimidating, there is a general rule of thumb you can follow: Lighter teas with lighter foods and stronger teas with stronger foods.
Light teas, such as green teas or white teas, tend to have less tannin and therefore have more subtle flavors that are accentuated by foods such as fruit, salad, seafood, or simple pastries.
Strong teas, such as black teas, have more tannin and therefore pair well with red meats, fried foods, or rich desserts. In short light teas pair like white wines and strong teas pair like red wines.
This rule of thumb is a great way to start out your tea pairing adventures, but it is by no means a law that must be followed. Since there are many subtleties of flavor even in one type of tea, one person’s cup of tea might not be another person’s.
With that said, the most important rule is to follow your palate! That means, don’t think of pairing as a science but as a way to enhance the flavors that you love in food and in tea. However if you would like some suggestions, check out our new monthly selections and their pairing suggestions.
August 10th, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | No Comments »
There is no better way to start off August than by announcing the winner of the final round of Trivia Fridays and the tea trivia champion with the most correct postings over the last four weeks!
But before the announcement, we just want to say thank you to all those who participated. We hope you had as much fun as we did and learned something new about tea. Please stay tuned to future blog postings with tea-inspired topics as well as more contests!
Now to reveal the winner of the final round of Trivia Friday! With the fastest posting time and the correct answers, the champion: Lena Finch! Congrats on the big win, especially since you were a two time runner up!
And with three of the four weeks of Trivia Fridays answered correctly, making her the champion of the most collectively correct weeks of trivia: Morgana!
Another big hip hip horray for our two winners! We hope you enjoy your $50 to our tea shop.
Tea Trivia Answers:
- Oolong are really in a category of their own! And they are actually in between a green and a black tea because of the partial oxidation.
- Imperial Gunpowder (Chinese Gunpowder or Gunpowder)
- High tea is a fairly substantial meal and is generally served at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. It features a hot dish, hefty sandwiches, scones, and heavy cakes. By contrast, afternoon tea is traditionally served around 4:00 p.m. This is a lighter meal — a satisfying “snack” between lunch and dinner — includes scones, thin sandwiches (often with bread crusts trimmed away), and biscuits.
- The invention is attributed to the 1904 world’s fair where Richard Blechynden was attempting to give away samples of hot tea, but because it was so hot not many people took them. So he dumped ice into the tea and got a much more positive response.
- Tapioca.
August 2nd, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | No Comments »
With August only a few days away, it’s time to say farewell to July’s Trivia Fridays. For those Trivia Friday pros, welcome back! And for those who are new to the game, check out our previous blog posts to find out how to play!
Now, for one more shot at $50 to our shop and for the last round of tea-inspired questions…Here are the questions for our final round of Trivia Friday! Have fun!
Final Round of Trivia:
- Theoretically what type of tea is “oolong”? (i.e. black, white, green, fruit, herbal?)
- Which green tea’s leaf is curled/rolled, giving it a longer shelf life? (Clue: It’s in our shop)
- What is the difference between high tea and afternoon tea?
- How and when was iced tea supposedly invented?
- What are the “bubbles” in bubble tea?
July 30th, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | No Comments »
With August heat around the corner, homemade tea popsicles might become your new best friend! They’re easy to make and they’re also healthy since you still get the benefits of a cup of tea but on a stick.
All you need is some strongly steeped tea, a popsicle mold, and a freezer. Our favorite teas for popsicles are Genmaicha, Masala Chai, Phoenix Jasmine Pearls, and Watermelon, but there are no limitations!
Be creative and try blending in some frozen fruit or fruit juice (mango nectar, coconut milk or pineapple juice) with your steeped tea before freezing. And if you enjoy a creamier popsicle, try adding plain yogurt, whole milk, or vanilla pudding to the steeped tea. Just remember if you choose to go creamy, you’ll need a stronger brew of tea so that the tea flavor does not get lost!
Basic Instructions:
- Steep tea with double the amount of loose leaf tea and double the steeping time per cup (like brewing iced tea).
- Add sweetener (juice, honey, syrup, or sugar).
- Add other ingredients (milk, pudding, cream).
- Stir well and pour into molds.
- Freeze & enjoy.
*Depending on the size of the mold, the amount of tea you’ll need will vary.
Green Tea Latte Popsicles
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of hot water
- 6 tablespoons of loose leaf Genmaicha
- Honey or simple syrup
- 1 cup of whole milk
Creamy Masala Chai & Vanilla Popsicles
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of hot water
- 7 tablespoons of Masala Chai
- Instant vanilla pudding mix made with whole milk
- 1/2 cup of whole milk
Refreshing Cranberry Hibiscus Popsicles
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of hot water
- 4 tablespoons of Hibiscus tea
- 2 cups of cranberry juice
July 28th, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | 1 Comment »
It’s Monday so stop steeping your curiosity about the results from Trivia Friday #3 and put your tea cups together for the winner: Mark L!
Mark L. not only got all the answers right, but posted them 5 minutes after the questions were posted! Good thing Mark L. was so quick since there were a handful of people who got all the questions correct. Here are those who qualified as runners up: Lena Finch, Rachel Carter, mrawlins2, kristin, reva skie, Morgana, and M!
Congrats to the winner and all those tea gurus who aced the questions.
And just a reminder, you can win a $50 gift certificate by getting the most rounds of trivia correct over the span of July. So far Lena Finch and Morgana are tied each with 2 weeks worth of trivia correct! That means that this Friday, the final round of our trivia, will be a tie breaker for Lena and Morgana!
So stay tuned for our final round of trivia this friday!
Tea Trivia Answers:
- Cederberg, Western Cape province of South Africa (if you said South Africa, you needed to be more specific!)
- Carnival
- Anna Maria Russell, Duchess of Bedford
- We were looking for CTC or any mentioning of the crushing process (One of our past blog posts featured the answers to this question!)
- They contain no Camellia sinensis. They are called “herbal infusions” or tisane.
July 26th, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | No Comments »
It’s that day of the week you’ve been waiting for: Friday, which means Trivia Friday (and the weekend of course)!
For returning trivia players, this game should be second nature. And for new comers check out our past blog posts to see how to play. Just remember that you need to be the first to answer all of the tea-inspired questions correctly to win $50 to our shop! Let’s have some fun!
Round #3 of Trivia:
- Where is the only region that Rooibos is grown in?
- Which Sanctuary T blend has a flavor profile that is buttery like caramel and has pistachios as one if its ingredients?
- Who invented “afternoon tea”?
- What process do the leaves packaged in tea bags go through?
- Why are chamomile and peppermint teas not really “teas”? What are they?
July 23rd, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | No Comments »
If you are tea fanatic, then you’ve probably tried baking with tea. And you probably know that baking with tea is a bit trickier than it seems.
When you grind the tea and put it in the batter, the tea won’t release its flavor and you’ll have bits of leaves in your food. If you steep the tea into the milk, you’ll get the tea flavor in the milk but after the baking process the tea flavor seems to vanish. So how do you get the tea flavor into your baking? The best method: make tea butter!
By infusing the tea into the butter you get the tea flavor in the baked good while also eliminating the possibility of tea leaves in the food. There are only two things you need: unsalted butter and strong loose leaf tea.
Ingredients:
- Unsalted butter
- Premium loose leaf tea (You need approximately 1 1/2 teaspoons of tea per tablespoon of butter)
Instructions:
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter until just liquid.
- Add the tea leaves.
- Continue heating the mixture for about 5 minutes on low heat.
- Remove from the heat and allow to stand for another 5 minutes or until the butter is discernibly tinted by the tea leaves.
- Pour the mixture through a fine sieve or a cloth. Press hard on the tea leaves to squeeze out as much butter and then discard leaves.
- Let the butter come to room temperature.
- Add to whichever recipe that has unsalted butter (but add a little more than called for).
What’s nice about having infused-tea butter is that you can make any “normal” or “standard” recipe into something truly unique and tea-inspired. From out-of-box cupcakes to pasta sauce, you can use the tea-infused butter to bring the overtones of tea to your dish! We recommend Lavender or Earl Grey for baking, and Ceylon or Lapsang for savory meats.
Using this recipe we turned a normal lemon muffin, into an Earl Grey lemon muffin!
July 22nd, 2010 | Posted by Sanctuary T | No Comments »
