Green with envy (Teapigs)
Green tea is just so bitter. Right?
It’s hard to drink no matter how darn good it is for us! I have wished for so long that I could be a ‘health freak’ and gulp it with pleasure, knowing that from the inside out I am doing wonders for my body. But years and years of trying to drink the horrid, bitter, dirty green coloured liquid left me with great scepticism on trying yet another green tea. Yet here I was about to try Teapigs Mao Feng Green Tea. The teabag had been staring at me for days and eveytime I went to make a cup I would give it a dirty look and tell it, “not yet”, I just wasn’t ready for another ‘bitter’ disappointment.
Drinking Green tea is just like eating vegies when we were kids.
Remember the times…?
Like the memories I have of being a kid, sitting at the dinner table an hour after everybody else left all because I didn’t like pumpkin. Mum kept telling me how ‘good’ it was for me and how healthy it is and that “until you finish all of it, your not leaving the table”. Humpf!! In the end, I would hold my nose and swallow the very cold pumpkin, as fast as I could. Just like holding your nose and swallowing the green tea, knowing its good for you and that’s it! Only now, I love pumpkin! It is one of my favourite vegetables along with several other ‘good for me’ veggies.
That’s how it felt yesterday morning as I finally plucked up the courage to drink Teapigs Mao Feng Green Tea. I want so much to be as healthy as I can. It has never been more important as it has been since I gave birth to Pickles. Now, the investment in my health is also hers. And guess what? Without going on about how delicate it is, how light green my cup turned (not dirty green) and how smooth it was. I will just let you in on a great secret…
It was really, really nice. And, I finished the cup – without holding my nose!
It still has that ‘green’ flavour that I need to get used to, but it was a pleasure to drink. It was soft, subtle and I felt like I had a Jane Fonda workout in a cup; so healthy!
Go, get some, try it. If you’ve tried to drink green tea before and hated it, and now if the word ‘green’ in relation to tea makes you shiver, don’t panic…the healthy green tea you will enjoy is here. I am pleased to admit, I will be ordering more!
And the other delicacies I tried this week:
Winter red tea – Oh bring on Christmas!
Lemon and ginger tea – A new favourite of mine. With so many other brand teas the ginger is just so overpowering that you feel like your chewing on the root. I drank this tea because I was suffering a little heart burn and voila, 5 minutes after drinking the tea it was gone!
Pure lemongrass tea – mmmm, this was my downfall. I love lemongrass, I love all things lemon, but this one for me was too strong. The flavour was still soft, like most of Teapigs teas but this one and me just didn’t bond like the rest of us have.
Choc flake – OMG!!! How do you get chocolate, in a tea, without it being insipidly sweet and making you feel sick after drinking it. Easy – try this tea. I love my sweet teas after dinner in place of After Dinner Mints, teas like Rooibos and Caramel, or my black Tea2 tea, leaf infused with fudge (from Australia) and this one is just as good! I was so deliriously happy while drinking this tea. I am not a great chocolate eater, but I love the flavour of really good quality chocolate! This tea is my chocolate bar in a cup and I don’t feel any guilt for my waistline while I drink it. This tea left me in a delirious trance totally oblivious to my hubby sitting beside me calling “honey, hooooonnneeeeeeeyy” – “ha, sorry babe what” I responded. ”You haven’t heard a thing” he said. I had slipped into a sultry cup of Choc flake tea!!
and the Mao Feng Green – you know all about that!
I am starting to see a real commonality in Teapigs tea which is beginning to impress me very much. All their teas are subtle (no bitterness), soft, yet very, very flavourful! It’s like drinking the word ” CHILLAXING” in every cup. You just enjoy every drop!
All I need now, is a fancy cup worthy of the tea!
_________________________
Tomorrow I am dedicating the entire day to the Matcha super power Green Tea.
Down the hatch!!
Read MoreThe perfect Gingerbread Men recipe
In twenty minutes you can have gorgeous, gooey centered biscuits. Perfect for the spontaneous guest with kids.
At two and a half years of age Pickles is now like a little adult. It has happened so darn quick!! Only a few months ago she was still only speaking small sentences. Two months ago she was learning about happy, sad and angry and now she has included scared, hurt and understands the difference in her choices. All of this in such a short space of time…and now, we are cooking together! I have waited for this since rubbing her little feet in my belly and her favourite cooking…Gingerbread men and they are scrummy for adults too.
They are gooey in the middle and crunchy on the outside, just like a biscuit should be. And here’s the recipe…
It takes just 20 minutes before you have gorgeous biscuits!
Gingerbread Men
125g (4 oz) butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar (you can use light brown sugar for a lighter flavour)
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees c
Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with electric beaters or use the paddle in your Kitchenaid, beat until light and creamy
Add the golden syrup, flour, ginger and bicarb and mix to form a smooth dough
Refrigerate for 15 – 20 mins until slightly hard
Roll out the dough between sheets of non-stick paper to about 4mm thick and cut out shapes. If you don’t have a gingerbread man cutter any shape will do such as stars, hearts or circles.
If your in a rush and want to make biscuits for guests coming around, particularly those with little ones, just roll up the dough into a thick sausage (about the thickness of a golf ball) and after refrigerating, cut the sausage shape into round slices.
Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown and cool on a tray.
You can of course ice them if you like however they are gorgeous without it and for toddlers it’s a healthier option.
Read MoreTeapigs Herbies go bananas!
The peppermint, the Chamomile, a Darjeeling Earl Grey and a funny little green called Mao Feng. That was what was next on my list to taste from Teapigs.
So what is the verdict?
Firstly, I want to ask, have you ever drunk herbal tea? I have been drinking Rosehip and Peppermint tea for years. I discovered their therapeutic benefits (known for their benefit on the tummy and the digestive system) some years ago. They were my saviors when I suffered IBS and whenever I overindulged on a great night out. But as for Chamomile, well, those little yellow flowers only ever sat in my teacup when I was desperate for calming, which prior to being a Mummy wasn’t really that often. Chamomile tea always seemed to go down with a peg on my nose and a wince on my face. However, venturing further outside those teas was not my gig, until about 3 or 4 years ago.
Venturing into some of the oddly named teas like Oolong or even the fruitier kinds of tea never appealed to me until I drank myself sick of Rooibos tea and was fed up with drinking 5 cups of it a day. I was soooo desperate for variation in my tea diet. So, I ventured forth and fell in love with loose leaf teas with all sorts of herbs in them, like lemongrass and ginger to licorice and mint. They were appetising but hard to find in the supermarkets. You could of course buy loads of different varieties of teas in the supermarkets but the majority of them were fruit blends or infusions, meaning, not 100% tea leaf. This therefore put me off venturing too far and after drinking only a couple of the fruity kinds I refused to drink any more thanks to the deluge left on the back of my throat after each cup. It’s kind of like a thick, horrible taste at the back of your mouth….charming, it is not.
But…
Enter Teapigs and what I am happy to call the ‘Herby goes Bananas’ blends. There are so many to choose from. Thus far the Peppermint proved very ‘minty’ and soothed my tummy immediately after overindulging at a friends dinner party. The Chamomile has never been a favourite as it always tends to be bitter, harsh on the tongue, however I was pleasantly surprised by Teapigs version, it was smooth and had none of the ‘bite’ Chamomile tends to have. And the green…
Mao Feng. Cool name isn’t it? It’s name makes me think of a little Chinese Guru kneeling in front of me, teaching me, guiding me into a meditation each time I drink it. The tea itself has that same effect when you drink it. You somehow feel like you are meditating and cleansing your body each time you drink it and it makes me ‘feel sooooooo good’.
Then, my ultimate favourite…The Darjeerling Earl Grey. Now, I am a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to Grey tea. I know my Earls’ and my Lady’s very well. Each variety has its own particular royalty but I really, really love Teapigs Grey! It is smooth and the citrusy taste of Bergamot dances in your mouth, it is not overpowering either, it is just right and so far it is most definitely my favourite Teapig!
Mmmmmmmm, another cup? Yes please!
So what’s next? Coming soon to a teapot near me are some beautifully exotic sounding teas like Chai (ohh I do love my Chai) and the following:
Winter red tea
Lemon and ginger tea
Pure lemongrass tea
Choc flake
and the Matcha Green (this will be good as I am not a Green fan, will it convert me? Hmmm.)
Will Teapigs end up as Britains next best cuppa?
Stay tuned for more verdict.
P.S. If you haven’t read how the project of finding Britain’s next best cuppa tea started…read it here
Thanks for enjoying a cup with me!
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