Be a Tea-tender

Tea time connotes stuffy afternoon gatherings with finger sandwiches and crumpets, but tea time can be as fun as happy hour with some creative blends and presentations. These are wonderful for kids, baby showers, or any other time when "unleaded" beverages are preferred. 

These two  mocktails are caffeine free, too, so they are great for any time of day. 

Moji-tea

To make this beverage just get a large pitcher and fill with ice and lime slices. Brew a large amount of peppermint tea (or green and peppermint if not avoiding caffeine) and simply pour over the ice and limes. Remember to use about 1 tablespoon per 8 ounces of water. Sweeten with either stevia or agave nectar to avoid a sugar buzz, and serve on a warm day in fun glasses. This is extremely refreshing and goes well if serving seafood or grilled veggies. 

Hibiscus Sangria Sun Tea

This bold red-colored tea has all the flavor of it's alcoholic cousin, but won't lead to any crazy behavior. The ratio for mixing the ingredients is for every 2 cups of water to have 1 tbsp of hibiscus, 1 tsp of rose hips, 1 tsp of lemongrass and 1 tsp of orange peel. A small chunk of cinnamon bark  can also add a nice spice, but isn't necessary. Place a large tea ball or filter with all the loose tea needed to a large pitcher and add sliced fruit. Any stone fruit (peaches, plums, etc) work well, as well as oranges, blood oranges, blackberries, strawberries, etc. A good idea is to buy frozen fruit for this -already cleaned and precut - and often a great value. Fill the pitcher with water and sit in the sun for a few hours until the tea has brewed and the fruit has marinaded in the flavorful brew. Remove the tea filter and serve in pretty glasses. Sweeten to taste with agave nectar or stevia. 

 Enjoy your new tea-tini recipes!

A Tad on Teas

Bagged teas can be expensive and completely unnecessary considering the tasty cost-effective alternatives. While loose teas are available at high end grocery stores or health sections of some markets, The Good Earth located in Broad Ripple off Guilford Ave. sells bulk teas and herbs - many organic - for less than a dollar an ounce in most cases. For anyone desiring to be more in touch with their food, getting a bag of real chamomile flowers or rose hips may elevate the ordinary boxed teas to another level. Teas can be as flavorful as a juice, sweet like soda, and yet as nourishing if not more than a glass of water. It is gaining some popularity at coffee shops because hot tea is often the cheapest beverage on the menu, the price of a few dollars easily buys several cups of tea when buying in bulk. Another benefit is that loose whole leaf teas and herbs are much higher quality than what is often in commercial bagged teas. They take a bit longer to steep, but have richer, unmatched flavor. 

Finding the right way to brew loose teas is important, but by no means difficult. There are baskets, tea balls and even bags to fill yourself. Some bags even come ready to press shut with an iron, or even easier - a hair straightener. Pre-bagged whole leaf tea can be ridiculously expensive, but this option allows the best quality tea to be both portable and affordable. Most coffee shops won't charge much for a cup of hot water. 

Storing loose teas and herbs isn't rocket science, but they will loose some potency just sitting in cinched shut plastic bags. A good investment is to find some airtight containers, either tins or just regular tupperware type containers and keep blends and extra tea in those. Keep cool and dark, and they should get an excellent shelf life. The best thing about teas are that most spices and herbs can go into teas, as well, and because they are steeped they don't need to be powdered. Whole cinnamon bark can stay flavorful much longer than ground cinnamon, for instance.

Brewing hot teas are pretty straight forward. It's good to have anywhere from one to two tablespoons per serving of hot tea, depending on preference. Some teas are more flavorful than others, which affects how much and and how long to brew. If using herbs for medicinal purposes it is suggested to keep them brewing for 10 to 15 minutes, but in general most teas are pretty much done after 5 minutes. Black, green and white teas should steep no longer than 3 minutes in water that is either just short or that has just started boiling because they tend to get bitter. Many herbal blends and rooibos don't tend to get bitter.  If using a tea ball or some other filter system, keep herbal loose tea for brewing multiple cups in a day. Caffeinated teas, however, release 99 percent of their caffeine in the first 60 seconds of steeping, so they should be refreshed. Although it isn't always a practical reality, filtered and purified water makes cleaner tasting teas as opposed to tap water, and is preferred among true tea fiends. 

Some good herbsm spices and herbal teas to ask about. These are all caffeine free and have great medicinal benefits from energizing to relaxing, balancing blood sugar to helping with heartburn:

Hibiscus, rose hips, lemongrass, chamomile, honeybush, red and green rooibos, ginseng and Siberian ginseng, orange peel, red raspberry leaf, peppermint, spearmint, fennegreek, cinnamon, St. John's wort, licorice root, and chicory. '