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If you thought I only had three obsessions–books, Ryan Gosling, & sushi–you’d be wrong. I have four, okay? So, what is this elusive fourth obsession? It’s tea, but more specifically loose leaf tea. If you already knew that because I wrote about it in my sidebar, shut up, I already love you. I’m obsessed with tea. I collect it, consume at least 3 cups of it daily, & I’ve accrued lots of fun facts on tea. Tea originated in China & is the second most consumed beverage in the world, only trailing water. Although green tea has less caffeine & is praised for its health benefits, 90% percent of tea sold in the West is black tea. So what’s the difference between the two? Fermentation! That’s right, black tea is fermented green tea & has a longer shelf life than green tea. Black tea is also richer in flavor, higher in caffeine, & also has many health benefits such as cancer prevention, stress relief, & immune system boosts to name a few.
Tea Time Thursdays is a new series in addition to Musical Mondays & Foodie Fridays that I hope some of you will look forward to, if not for the tea, then maybe for the snacks that accompany the teas. This Thursday, I chose a nice & light green tea from Taiwan, which I paired with two different open faced sandwiches that are vegetarian & can be made vegan. In the future, I’ll provide the company & website so you can buy from them if my post peaked your interest. Since the tea I’m featuring doesn’t have a website, you can find high quality loose leaf green tea from American Tea Room, Mountain Tea, &/or Tea Chai Te. Loose leaf tea is worth your money, trust me.
Taiwanese Green Tea Pairing
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Taiwanese Green Tea is a lot lighter in flavor than Japanese Green Tea, which can often taste a little nutty. Since this tea is light with significantly softer notes, I paired it with equally light sandwiches. I’m not big on sandwiches–I know this is strange for all you sandwich people–so, rather than the traditional simple English teatime sandwiches, which consist of cucumber & buttered white bread, I made open faced sandwiches with more complex flavors.
Avocado & Hummus Open Faced Sandwich
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I’m not going to make separate recipe pages for these sandwiches because they’re supposed to just inspire you to mix & match spreads & vegetables. This sandwich is simple: a nice tomato basil hummus, aged Swiss cheese, alfalfa sprouts, & avocado. Replace the cheese with its soy substitute or just remove it completely & you’ve got yourself a vegan friendly sandwich.
Avocado Cucumber Tzatziki Open Faced Sandwich
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Josh isn’t big on vegetables (weirdo), but I’ve recently gotten him to include more avocados & cucumbers in his diet; mainly because one tastes like a light & creamy green butter, while the other, crispy water. I took a risk & made him an English Muffin with similar ingredients so he’d have lunch the day after he got back from one of his academic trips. If my (weird) picky, vegetable hater boyfriend liked the combination, hopefully you will too! The ingredients are simple: tzatziki, cucumber, & avocado. To make this vegan friendly, enlist the help of my best friend Google to find a delicious vegan tzatziki recipe. I went ahead & found one for you in case you distrust my BFF.
Here’s to inspiring your future teatime adventures with these sandwiches. You can even slap the two open faced sandwiches together. I did & let me tell you, it was delightful. If the flavors are too light for you, try adding maggi, marmite, vegemite, or soy sauce. So, what’s your favorite tea?
I LOVE TEA OH MAN. Yeah, I am excited for more Teatime Thursdays. I need to try more loose leaf teas. I usually just have this green tea my mum has. Otherwise I have a lot of Twinings tea. xD
Also that sandwich looks scrumptious. I like that you suggested Marmite. I have been having Vegemite with rye crackers with my tea and I thought it was odd. Goes nicely with Earl Grey I think. Hahaha.
Oh I also meant the second sandwich. I don’t really like alfalfa sprouts haha. 🙁
I’ve had Twinings a few times, but I generally try to avoid satchel tea because the quality & flavor is lacking in comparison to loose leaf tea. It misses out on the freshness & other complexities of loose leaf tea. Hope you get to try some loose leaf tea!
The avocado and hummus sandwich might be my favorite one. No, wait, the idea of using tzatziki as a spread is great… well, gotta try them both, right? As to your 4 obsessions…. ehehehe they totally make sense to me!!!!
Thanks, Daniela!! 😀 Tzatziki is so good, why not use it as a spread, right?! Hope you try them both!
I really love tea. I just finished drinking a cup of chamomile tea from Trader Joe’s!
I didn’t know the difference between black and green tea, so I thought that was interesting 🙂 Those look like tasty sandwich combinations! I love using hummus to make a vegetarian sandwich, and I’m a fan of tzatziki too. I haven’t been able to get into tea, unfortunately, but I still like reading about it 🙂
If you ever do want to try to get into tea, I’d highly suggest the fruity teas or any of the teas with a bit of flavored creamer. It’s a nice transition into tea (think boba!) that will gradually move you into the less sweetened territory. 🙂
Yay for Taiwanese tea! 🙂 I love open faced sandwiches, they are prettier than just sandwiches, where you can’t see the filling!
Yes, absolutely agree! More open faced sandwiches in the future. 😀
I LOVE TEA. I especially love loose leaf tea too. One, because it always feels like a more formal occasion when I get my loose leaf tea out and the fancy schmancy leaf strainer.
I’ve never had an actual cucumber sandwich but I think I would prefer something similar to the sandwich you presented here. I keep telling myself to add more avocados to my diet. Everyone I know seems to love them but the texture is offputting for me. I only have them in a blue moon. But we’ll see, my tastes have changed so much over the years. I’ve been forcing myself to eat more foods that I once found appalling and oftentimes, I find myself liking them more.
Love all the green in this post. Matches your site layout a lot 😀
It’s off putting for you? How so? Is it because it’s nature’s butter & you feel like you’re eating a block of fat? hahaha, I assure you it’s a healthy kind of fat!
Like you, I eat specific items multiple times before completely making an assessment of them such as uni, oysters, & Spanish Mackerel. Clearly those are all seafood items haha, but also beer. That took me a long time to get used to, but now I don’t mind it so much. You just have to keep trying things over & over again just because you don’t want to be THAT person that’s so irritably picky over the most commonly loved food items. But hey, if you don’t like avocados, you don’t like ’em & that’s that. You could always just use guacamole instead because that is just pure deliciousness.
Praise the tea! Being British, tea is like 99% of my diet. I’m not even joking. My favourite kind is good old fashioned English breakfast tea.
I’ve not really had much chance to try green tea but it if it has less caffeine in it then it will be great for me. I seem to have real issues with caffeine . Too much, as in one cup of coffee, makes me sick.
It’s too bad you get sick after just one cup of coffee! You should definitely move on over to the loose leaf green tea because it has less caffeine, is much lighter in flavor, & still very very very healthy for you. Additionally, oolong or white teas are even lighter in caffeine & are still healthy for you. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this post! I’m looking forward to reading Thursday teas!! I love green tea! A few weeks back when I got sick and because I was breastfeeding I read up on natural remedies and one included black tea. Between black and green, I would much more prefer green for sure. I hope you do a post on Korean green tea soon! That’s the other one that is my favorite.
I never thought to do open face sandwiches with avocado. I’m definitely going to try. I just bought some avocados too, perfect opportunity.
Korean tea! Hmm, I’ll have to go down to a Korean grocer to find some of that, but I’ll keep that in mind for you, Tess. I still have so many other delightful teas stocked up all over my house that I have to feature them before I buy more tea.
Tea is the answer to all of your problems hahaha kidding, but it’s a great soothing drink for lots of remedies. Cold? Blueberry green tea. Stomachache? Ginseng + Ginger green tea. Caffeine boost? Black tea.
You can do open faced sandwiches with anything really, so get creative!
I really need to drink more teas. I used to be such a tea drinker before I moved to the USA(rather back to the USA since I was born here). Slowly but surely caffeinated, carbonated drinks took over my tea and that probably explains why I gained a few pounds. I’ve basically cut myself off carbonated drinks after reading some very unpleasant things about their effects on health though.
I’ve tried a few teas with a spot of honey recently, but can’t find “the perfect tea” yet. We are getting a new health food market opening in August, so I am hoping they will carry some good ones!
Deciding to devote a “Tea” day is awesome, because I can try some of the teas you talk about and find one I love =3
TEAM BLACK COFFEE /runs away
I kid, I kid. I like tea as well, but growing up in a coffee-obsessed household, I’m afraid I’ve never been well-versed in tea. It was a tiny culture shock when I married into Michael’s family and tea seemed to be their solution for everything. Have a fever? Drink this tea. Cramps? Drink this other tea. Having some people over? Great, let’s brew some tea.
Haha love it!! My parents drink more coffee than tea, but I fell in love with drinking it as a kid & just continued to drink it daily with my loose leaf tea hoarding. It has so many healthy properties! Definitely my go to drink when I’m sick. There’s a tea for everything haha.
I used to just drink plain old PG tips, but I go through phases of loose leaf tea and it is so much nicer and refreshing. I don’t feel grumpy or clogged after I’ve had some…but then I always fall back to PG Tips!
The images looked so fresh, with all the greenery! I’ve a terrible craving for cucumber now, might have to make a little salad before I go to work! I’ve never had an avocado. I will change that!
Never had avocado? Not even guacamole with tacos? *shocked* buttery goodness from a tree!
Ah, interesting. You should definitely fall back on loose leaf tea. Since the product is better quality, its antioxidant potency is also higher. 🙂
Shoot, I just came back from the grocers and I’ve been asking myself if ‘I’ve forgotten something’ and now that I see this post: the avocado! :c
Anyway, great sandwiches inspiration really c:
Xx
Thank you! Maybe next time you’ll remember. 🙂 It’s one of my favorites.