Flavored Sugars...

I know 2 posts in ONE day! WOW!

My favorite additive in the world and believe me I have tried every one I could get my hands on, is sugar.
You are going to say it is just a sweetener. OH, how wrong you would be! Sugar can be a flavor enhancer and a flavor carrier.
With a few simple additions, I can make flavored sugars that not only make a great addition to your tea drinks, but to your baking as well.

Recently, I made my family Vanilla egg custard. I use vanilla beans for this dish. While the bean is split and some of the seeds scrapped out into the milk while it is heating, there will be a lot of flavor left in the bean.
After tempering the eggs and then straining the custard through a sieve, I got the bean out and left it on the counter to dry a bit. after dishing the custard for a rest in the fridge, I split the bean again and scrapped out as much seeds as I could and put the bean and the seeds into a quart jar I keep full of white granulated sugar with other remnants of vanilla beans gone by.
This will add to the flavor and aroma of this particular sugar. As I use the sugar I add more to the jar as it loses its volume. Because I keep adding beans to it, I have a ready supple of vanilla sugar whenever I need it. Granted the oils from the beans make the sugar lump, but a vigorous shake will get the sugar flowing again.
If you are going to make this sugar from scratch, I would suggest that you put the bean into your sugar and then let sit for a few weeks, shake it every day or so to distribute the flavor that is leaking out of the bean into the sugar.

Another flavored sugar around here is mint sugar. It is the oldest sugar on my shelf as it has been added to and freshened with more mint for the last 2 years.
I took a quart jar and I filled it half way with raw sugar. I then put a bunch or fresh spearmint leaves in the jar and then covered the mint with a mix of 50/50 white sugar and raw sugar. In the beginning, I left the jar alone for about a month and then checked the mint. It needed to be dry in the sugar, if it got damp or the lid of the jar allowed in too much air, it would rot, but it didn't it dessicated the leaves down to a dried form. I took the mint out and added a few pinches of freshly dried mint leaves to the jar. I lidded the jar tightly and then shook it every day for another month. It was ready to be used after that. The leaves in the mint sugar doesn't bother me because it just becomes part of the dregs of tea leaves in my cup.
Over the years I have added a drop or two of mint candy oil to the jar whenever I couldn't get mint leaves. The jar has turned itself over several times. I have given out the sugar as gifts to friends and would use it in mint juleps.

There are other combinations as well. Lemon rind in a jar of sugar would take a bit longer to leech the oils from the rind, but it would taste lovely.
The next trip to the market I will be purchasing yet another coconut, I think I will see how cocnut meat reacts with sugar. Yum, coconut sugar! Oh, Boy!
Add some of that to Scent By Spirit's Super Coconut Tea and I will think I have died and gone to the Summerlands!
Let's not get me started on the other sugars I have on hand! Lavender, Violet I could go on!!!

Brightest Tea Blessings!