There should be some sort of law against nature when it is 95 degrees at almost 6:30 in the evening.
Seeing as there is not, I will give one of my favorite sorbet recipes.
This one has green tea as its base, but you could add to it, such as raspberries or blackberries.
Green Tea Sorbet
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of green tea leaves
2 cups of sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
You could as I said add 2 cups of berries that has been pureed and strained.
Combine the water and tea leaves in medium pot and bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
Steep the tea for about 5 minutes.
Strain and toss the leaves into your recycler or potting soil.
Return the tea to the heat and stir in the sugar. Bring to a boil until sugar dissolves.
When sugar is completely dissolved remove from the heat and refridgerate until cool.
When cooled, you can then add your pureed and strained berries and add the lemon juice.
Pour into a freezer bowl of a 1 1/2 quart ice cream freezer and freeze according to directions.
Transfer the sorbet to an airtight container if the freezer bowl in your machine isn't a container also. Freeze the mixture for 4 hours or until firm.
Serve this sorbet in martini glasses for fun. I make the sorbet with just the green tea and then after freezing and serving into individual dishes, I squirt some raspberry couli over the green tea sorbet.
Serve on a plate that has a few berries and mint leaves around the base of the martini glass.
Brightest tea blessings!
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Summer is long and brutal...Answers to email questions!
The temperatures are amazing here in the low country. I have been spending time in our pool or poking around air conditioned stores in search of teas.
My absence is from a bad health attack and the inability to stay at my computer as long as I need to get my blogs up to date.
I am waiting for some CAT5 cable to be installed from my router to my laptop in my living room and I will be better at the blogs. I promise.
Two bottled teas that I have recently tried out while on the road were Lipton's Lemon Iced Tea and Lipton's Iced Green Tea.
The lemon tea was just that, lemon. That is pretty much all I tasted in that bottle. There was no tea aftertaste or bite, not even a bit of sediment in the bottom that you will sometimes find in bottled teas showing there was actually tea in there!
The Green Iced Tea was weak in my opinion. My hubbers LOVED it!
Now by reading this you are probably thinking, "Well, she just doesn't like Lipton teas."
You would be wrong! I buy Lipton's regular bottled tea whenever we are about to get any kind of storm that knocks power out. During hurricane season, I have a dozen gallon of water and 4-2liter bottles of tea in my storm survival kit!
These newer flavors, though need some help.
I read in a tea article that Lipton's bottled tea called "Extra Sweet" is a popular drink here in the south.
I, myself, still have a remnant of a habit from being in Virginia for a few years that when I go into a restaurant I order sweet tea, when in fact here in the south, if you ask for tea, you will get it sweet. If you want un-sweet tea for the diet conscious among you you will have to ask specifically for that.
That having been said I will tell you that the Lipton Extra sweet is really good if you want a sugar rush, but it is too sweet for me.
I do prefer Lipton's bottled tea to Nestea.
Of course, when I am in Mt Pleasant I head to Earth Fare for my Sweet Leaf Tea. Earth fare is the only store here that sells it and every time I go into the market I get one...sometimes 2 if it is hot enough! You must understand, I take medications for my health and these meds give me a very dry mouth and they dehydrate me terribly. So the more I drink the better off I am.
Good thing I am not an alcoholic, huh?
You can always email me YOUR questions at saphyrerose@paganelements.com.
OK, I have had a few emails all on the same subject. So I can easily answer them all with this post!
To Tanya, Willow, Boobette and wrinkles43, I want to thank you for visiting my blog and reading the recipes. I am glad you have been trying them out and are satisfied with the content of my page here at Saphyre's Teas.
First I should say this question was about steeping times.
Normally, I will steep tea at 5 to 10 minutes depending on the leaf size or its grading. Herbs are steeped longer because there are factors involved concerning whether or not the herb is leaf or stems or bark. Different factors, different steeping table.
The question concerning tea bag steepage is simply if you steep a teabag for even 5 minutes you will get a very bitter and strong brew. If you are into that, great, I am not. Steeping time for bags in my humble opinion is 1 - 2 minutes, no longer.
The reason? Tea bags normally contain sweepings or tea dust. There is a greater surface area exposed to the hot water and the "agony of the leaf" will be shorter.
Even if you have a good quality tea bag, it will still be sweepings in the bag. Hence, the shorter steeping time.
In a previous post months back called "What is a Tisane?" there is a list of herbal steeping times. It may help you in figuring how to steep your tea.
One more hint for you, nver squeeze you tea bag out. It will push out the bitterest extract from the finished dust, plus you will have sediment in your cup. Just FYI for all of my friends out there.
Well, there you have it, I am up to date and caught up with email questions.
Now I have to go finish my cinnamon rolls. I made the log and was waiting for a brief period for the dough to rest before slicing it into the pan. The way my dog is sniffing around the counters I better get a foot under me.
Brightest Tea Blessings to y'all.
Saphyre Rose
My absence is from a bad health attack and the inability to stay at my computer as long as I need to get my blogs up to date.
I am waiting for some CAT5 cable to be installed from my router to my laptop in my living room and I will be better at the blogs. I promise.
Two bottled teas that I have recently tried out while on the road were Lipton's Lemon Iced Tea and Lipton's Iced Green Tea.
The lemon tea was just that, lemon. That is pretty much all I tasted in that bottle. There was no tea aftertaste or bite, not even a bit of sediment in the bottom that you will sometimes find in bottled teas showing there was actually tea in there!
The Green Iced Tea was weak in my opinion. My hubbers LOVED it!
Now by reading this you are probably thinking, "Well, she just doesn't like Lipton teas."
You would be wrong! I buy Lipton's regular bottled tea whenever we are about to get any kind of storm that knocks power out. During hurricane season, I have a dozen gallon of water and 4-2liter bottles of tea in my storm survival kit!
These newer flavors, though need some help.
I read in a tea article that Lipton's bottled tea called "Extra Sweet" is a popular drink here in the south.
I, myself, still have a remnant of a habit from being in Virginia for a few years that when I go into a restaurant I order sweet tea, when in fact here in the south, if you ask for tea, you will get it sweet. If you want un-sweet tea for the diet conscious among you you will have to ask specifically for that.
That having been said I will tell you that the Lipton Extra sweet is really good if you want a sugar rush, but it is too sweet for me.
I do prefer Lipton's bottled tea to Nestea.
Of course, when I am in Mt Pleasant I head to Earth Fare for my Sweet Leaf Tea. Earth fare is the only store here that sells it and every time I go into the market I get one...sometimes 2 if it is hot enough! You must understand, I take medications for my health and these meds give me a very dry mouth and they dehydrate me terribly. So the more I drink the better off I am.
Good thing I am not an alcoholic, huh?
You can always email me YOUR questions at saphyrerose@paganelements.com.
OK, I have had a few emails all on the same subject. So I can easily answer them all with this post!
To Tanya, Willow, Boobette and wrinkles43, I want to thank you for visiting my blog and reading the recipes. I am glad you have been trying them out and are satisfied with the content of my page here at Saphyre's Teas.
First I should say this question was about steeping times.
Normally, I will steep tea at 5 to 10 minutes depending on the leaf size or its grading. Herbs are steeped longer because there are factors involved concerning whether or not the herb is leaf or stems or bark. Different factors, different steeping table.
The question concerning tea bag steepage is simply if you steep a teabag for even 5 minutes you will get a very bitter and strong brew. If you are into that, great, I am not. Steeping time for bags in my humble opinion is 1 - 2 minutes, no longer.
The reason? Tea bags normally contain sweepings or tea dust. There is a greater surface area exposed to the hot water and the "agony of the leaf" will be shorter.
Even if you have a good quality tea bag, it will still be sweepings in the bag. Hence, the shorter steeping time.
In a previous post months back called "What is a Tisane?" there is a list of herbal steeping times. It may help you in figuring how to steep your tea.
One more hint for you, nver squeeze you tea bag out. It will push out the bitterest extract from the finished dust, plus you will have sediment in your cup. Just FYI for all of my friends out there.
Well, there you have it, I am up to date and caught up with email questions.
Now I have to go finish my cinnamon rolls. I made the log and was waiting for a brief period for the dough to rest before slicing it into the pan. The way my dog is sniffing around the counters I better get a foot under me.
Brightest Tea Blessings to y'all.
Saphyre Rose
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