Take it easy with Green Tea

Let’s take it easy today, huh.

This past week has been a bit morose here; I’ve gone to a memorial service and discovered one of my cats has severe heart disease (she’s now on hospice care at home, which means around the clock supervision and medicine 5xs a day). That means not only have I not really been up to baking, but I also haven’t had much time. I’ve been trying to stay positive and maintain my calmness, so I thought tea was appropriate.

Last night was the first night in a long while it’s been chilly, where I am at least, and I snuggled in bed with a nice hot cup of tea. Any of my friends at my old job remember me always toting tea bags around with me, even during the summer when it was hot. For a while I chatted about tea and where I bought the new flavor I was sporting and how much I loved tea. I received tea as gifts (and still do!) because it was pricy sometimes if you wanted something unique. While there is nothing wrong with fancy teas, I wanted to talk to you all about how to make your own fancy teas at home. (Thanks a million Judy for the idea!).

All the tea recipes below are based on me using a medium sized teapot with a build in steeping section to put loose-leaf tea into.

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Green tea is great because it merges well with so many flavors, which is also why you see so many choices when you go to the grocery store. Take you generic green tea and transform it without having to purchase several different little boxes with slightly different flavors in them. It’s all green tea on the inside, so be the boss of your flavors.

 

Baking Adventures

Green Tea

• two green tea sachets or two tablespoons loose-leaf green tea, brand of your choice.
• 10-15 fresh mint leaves
• ½ lemon, used is perfect!

 Directions

1. First get some water boiling.
2. Take the mint leaves and tear them apart with your fingers. Place them in the steeping section of the teapot on the bottom.
3. What I like most about using fresh lemon in my tea is that I usually have it one hand from cooking or baking. When I bake something, my citrus drizzle cake for example, that requires I juice and zest the lemons I’m left with the rind and seemingly lifeless pulp, which still have beautiful lemon flavor within them. Just slice the rind into small strips and leave the pulp intact. Place them over the mint leaves. *If you have not juiced the lemon for another recipe then only add a little of the juice to the tea so as not to overpower the green tea flavor.
   
4. Last place the green tea sachets on top and slowly pour the boiling water over everything. Let the mixture steep for at least 5 minutes. I usually prefer 10 minutes for a nice robust flavor.

Other Twists & Turns

• Add 1-2 tablespoons dried berries, crushed, your choice. I usually opt for blueberries because I like the amount of sweetness it brings as well as the fact that it makes the tea a little purple. Strawberry and raspberry work well, too. If you only have fresh lying around, that’s perfectly fine! Chop the berries fine and add only 1 tablespoon.
• Replace the lemon rind with ¼ orange rind. It will make your tea sweeter so you won’t feel the need to add sugar.
• Not a fan of mint? Replace with 5 fresh basil leaves. Basil and lemon work really well together and are used in both sweet and savory dishes for cooking and baking, so it’s worth a go if you’ve never tried the pair.

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