Teapot Diversions--A News Journal of Everything Tea

Hot Chocolate Chai for a Cold Winter's Night

Looking for a fun drink for a cold winter's night or for that Holiday Party?  Here is a great recipe we found over at Veria. It was featured on the show "What's Brewing?".

Accoridng to the Veria website, "What's Brewing explores the ancient backstories of some of our favorite modern-day drinks—like coffee, tea, and beer."  The show airs 11:30 AM ET daily.

Hot Chocolate Chai Recipe

Green Tea Tiramisu

Here is another recipe from one of our readers.  Gary from San Diego sends us a link to a recipe he tried over the weekend. 

Green Tea Tiramisu

Ingredients:

• 9 oz marscarpone cheese
• 3 oz sugar
• 4 pieces yolk
• 8.5 oz whip cream
• 4 oz water
• 3 oz syrup
• 0.5 oz matcha green tea powder
• 0.5 oz gran marineir

Directions:

1. Knead the marscapone cheese until it becomes creamy.
2. Beat sugar and yolk until it becomes fluffy.
3. At first, add 2 tablespoons of (2) into (1) then later, the rest of (2) also add into (1).
4. Whip cream until foamy consistency.
5. Combine (3) and (4).
6. Pour (5) into the mold and put on the green tea cakes which are already cut into 1/4 inch and cover with syrup. After that pour the rest of the syrup into it and repeat the same.
7. Finally, strain green tea powder with powder sugar for garnish.

The website maintained by O-Cha has a few other recipes of intrest including Green Tea Ice Cream and Green Tea Pudding, , so be sure to visit them.

Green Tea ShortBread Cookies

This one from one of our readers.  Roberta says these cookies are wonderful and making a batch for ourselves, we would have to agree.  For a reference, Roberta credits RecipeZaar.

Green Tea ShortBread Cookies

1  lb unsalted butter (room temperature) 
1  cup confectioners' sugar 
1  teaspoon salt 
2  tablespoons green tea powder (matcha) 
4  cups all-purpose flour 

Makes 9 dozen small cookies
1 hour 2 minutes 30 mins prep

1. Cream butter in the bowl of an electric standing mixer using the paddle attachment; add confectioner's sugar and salt.
2. Sift together the tea and flour and add to the butter mixture; mix until just incorporated.
3. Roll the dough out to about 1/3-inch thick between 2 pieces of plastic wrap; transfer to a baking sheet and chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.
4. Heat oven to 300 degrees.
5. Remove top piece of plastic and cut into desired shapes; re-roll excess dough as necessary; transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake for 16 minutes; rotate pan and bake for another 16 minutes, or until they feel firm when scratched with a fingernail; take care not to let the edges brown; matcha shortbread cookies should maintain their green color.
7. Cool, and serve with green-tea or ginger ice cream.

Green Tea Meets Absolut Vodka

While out on the town last weekend, we took some liberty and sampled some drinks made with green tea syrups and Absolut Vodka.  After hitting a few lounges in the Portland Metro Area, we were lucky to connect with a mixologist who was anxious to try out some new tea drinks he had learned. 

One couple that joined us weren't very excited about tea at first, but after tasting a couple drinks they became fans.  Fans of the green tea syrup and ABSOLUT, that is.  Well, some people have to start somewhere. 

Out of the five different drinks we sampled, these two were hands down the favorite choice amongst the group.

ABSOLUT 100 HONEY
1 part ABSOLUT 100
1 dash lemon juice
Hot Earl Grey Tea
1 tsp. fresh honey

Chill a rocks glass with ice or in the freezer. Empty the rocks glass. Pour absolut 100 and tea (hot) into the rocks glass. Add a dash of lemon juice and fresh honey.

ABSOLUT SPICED TEA

2 parts ABSOLUT Vodka
1 part Chai Green Tea Syrup

1 part Lemon Iced Tea
1 part Peach Liqueur
Mint Leaf

Chill a rocks glass with ice or in the freezer. Pour absolut vodka, chai green tea syrup, lemon iced tea and peach liqueur into a mixing glass. Fill the mixing glass with dry ice cubes and stir. Remove the ice and meltwater from the rocks glass. Strain the drink into the rocks glass. Garnish with a mint leaf (leaf).

An honorable mention was the ABSOLUT Chai Green Tea N Honey.

You can certainly make these drinks yourself by getting the ingredients from your local liquor store.  However, any mixologist should be able to create them for you.  Just remember to take the recipe along on your next outing.

ABSOLUT has many other tea based drinks listed at their website.  They even have a page titled 1001 Traditions with Tea  In addition, ABSOLUT maintains a searchable database with many recipes with tea in them.  ABSOLUT-ly Delightful!

Tacoma Newspaper teaches the ABCs of Tea

in the news

The News Tribune from Tacoma Washington brings us a great article titled the ABC's of Tea:  How to brew the perfect cup:

ABCs of tea: How to brew the perfect cup

NIKI SULLIVAN; niki.sullivan@thenewstribune.com

January 9th, 2008 01:00 AM

What makes a delicious ice cream and might help you live a longer, healthier life? Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past decade, you probably know that tea has more than a few health benefits. But if you’ve relied on bagged teas for your fix, you may be convinced that all tea is bitter and expensive.

Thankfully, you’re wrong. A cup of tea, prepared correctly, requires neither loads of honey nor money.

But therein lies the problem: A pile of leaves doesn’t come with directions, and the number of tea gadgets on the market makes you want to run back to the bagged tea aisle.

We consulted tea experts on how to brew the perfect cup – and have compiled recipes for sneaking tea into your favorite dishes. >>continue