Green Tea

Forget Green Eggs & Ham, Let’s Eat Green Pancakes

October 17, 2015 // Posted in Breakfast, Food I Made, Photo Journal, Recipes

October 17, 2015 | Posted in [post_category]

TiffanyBee.com | Pumpkin Pie Matcha Pancakes

It’s October, not St. Patrick’s Day, I know, but I couldn’t resist DAVIDsTEA’s limited edition Pumpkin Pie Matcha, which is what made my pancakes green. I bought 2.5 oz of it thinking that would be a good amount & after making these pancakes, I bought more the next day. I couldn’t resist. I’m that person who loves pumpkin, but to be fair, I love all squash! The shaming of people who love pumpkin flavored things has become so mainstream that it’s now trendy to bully someone who loves autumnal flavors. I can’t tell you how many times people come into work, ask about our pumpkin flavored teas, & then apologize for being that person. Stop apologizing!!! I don’t apologize for being obsessed with sushi or chocolate, why should you apologize for being obsessed with an orange seasonal squash?! Madness, I tell you. /pumpkin rant.

Let’s talk more about matcha because not everyone’s heard of it & let’s face it, green is the new black. That’s right all you black tea lovers, green tea is getting its righteous revival–& I’m not even referencing Selena Gomez’s new album, but there, now I’ve plugged it because it’s pop royalty. Green tea was actually the first tea to be discovered, but black tea was made popular by the British, especially since it fared the journey from China to the UK much better than green tea. Green tea has fantastic health benefits (antioxidants, longevity, antibacterial properties, etc) & although it has a significantly shorter shelf-life than black tea (1 year-ish vs. several years), it’s making its comeback. While black tea is the most popular tea and makes up about 80% of the sales in the West, matcha is changing the game. So imagine a whole pound of beautiful Japanese green tea that has been pulverized & that’s what matcha is: powdered green tea. It’s not artificially colored, it’s just that beautiful & green. Not only are you reaping all the benefits of green tea, but you are now actually consuming entire tea leaves. Amazing, right?

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St. Patrick’s Day Recipes: Matcha All Day, Every Day

March 15, 2015 // Posted in Breakfast, Desserts, Drinks, Drinks I Made, Food I Made, Photo Journal, Recipes

March 15, 2015 | Posted in [post_category]

In my previous post, I mentioned my distaste for purposefully dyed green items for the sake of St. Patrick’s Day. Just as I did last year with naturally vibrant & green vegetables, I present to you some recipes that are green because of their ingredients rather than glowing green because you walked down the “baking” aisle to grab dye. No dyed green beer here, folks, just deliciously healthy green recipes featuring, you guessed it from the title, matcha!

Never heard of it before? Let’s get y’all educated then! Matcha is a type of green tea from Japan & is one of the healthiest teas you can consume because you’re drinking the entire tea leaf. It was first made in China & brought over to Japan by a Chinese Buddhist monk named Eisai. After a hundred years of its introduction, matcha tea ceremonies became a pretty big deal in Japan. So, how is it made? After the tea leaf is plucked, the leaves are steamed & dried. It is sorted meticulously to yield all the best parts of the tea leaf called tencha. The tencha is then pulverized–with care of course–to become matcha, an ultra-fine powdered green tea, naturally green! So, instead of dying your cookies, pasta, or eggs green with propylene glycol, FD&C Yellow 5, FD&C Blue 1, & propylparaben, just add a little bit of matcha, baby!

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Tea Time Thursdays: National Hot Tea Month

January 29, 2015 // Posted in Food I Made, Photo Journal, Recipes, Soups, Tea Time Thursdays

January 29, 2015 | Posted in [post_category]

Tea Time Thursdays: National Hot Tea Month

Did you know that this year, January is National Hot Tea Month? Pretty spiffy, 2015, I like you already. I ended 2014 with a deliciously spicy, but totally not winter appropriate, noodle recipe & begun the year with a completely appropriate winter soup recipe. Since this month is extraordinary as it’s National Hot Tea Month, I thought what better way to combine the tail end of last year’s last recipe with this year’s first recipe? Well, what better way? I’ll tell you: put a bird on it! Couldn’t resist a Portlandia reference – let’s try this again: pour some tea on it! Using tea as soup broth is not some new invention, but it’s underrated & not trendy…yet. Depending on the quality of tea you’re using, green tea is packed with antixoxidants, light caffeine, & so darn healthy for you (lowers cholesterol!). Slurp it up with some noodles & you’ve got one great healthy meal recipe! No need to go on some strange Beyoncé lemonade detox! Drink more liquids (*cough* tea *cough*), eat fresh, seasonal whole foods, & avoid fast food! Boom, detox. & you thought shedding that holiday weight would be hard, pffffffpfpfpfpfpft. Now hit that “continue reading” button to get ahold of my new recipe celebrating National Hot Tea Month!

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Tea Time Thursdays: Green Tea & Sandwiches

May 15, 2014 // Posted in Drinks I Made, Food I Made, Gallery, Photo Journal, Recipes, Sandwiches, Tea Time Thursdays

May 15, 2014 | Posted in [post_category]

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.