Tag: Black Tea

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Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies

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I took part in a cookie exchange at work this year, and nearly everyone there knows that I drink tea. Some people had written down what they were going to be making (sugar cookies! butter tarts! ginger snaps!). I love shortbread and I’ve made it every single year for at least the last 10 years. I really wanted to incorporate tea into my cookies somehow, so I took my usual shortbread cookie recipe and adapted it! The result is a buttery shortbread cookie that has the delightful aroma and flavour of Earl Grey throughout.

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Recipe Yields: 4 dozen. Baking Time: 10-12 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cup soft butter
2¾ cups all purpose flour
1 cup confectioners (icing) sugar
Contents of 4 Earl Grey black tea bags (I used Stash, it worked out to be 8g of fine tea)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Cream butter and confectioners sugar together.
Mix flour and Earl Grey tea together so the tea is evenly distributed.
Blend all the ingredients together. If you’re using a mixer, it will crumb at the beginning but if you continue to mix it, it will form a dough.
Drop about a tablespoon of dough onto the cookie sheet for each cookie, give them space as the cookies will spread (I get about 12 cookies on a standard cookie sheet and there is about 1.5″ between each cookie).
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the bottom edges begin to turn brown.
Remove from the oven, allow them to cool for about 5 minutes prior to transferring to a cookie rack. If you transfer them too early, they’re quite soft and may crumble.

Recipe adapted from SageCrayon.

If you make these delicious Earl Grey shortbread cookies, I’d love to see your photos! Be sure to tag me on Instagram (@onemoresteep #onemoresteep) or comment below with a link to the photo!

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24 Days of Tea: Nutty and Spice

Nutty and Spice by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$9.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

I was super excited to see that Day 7 of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar was an oolong tea! And then I smelled it and I was just overwhelmed with the heavy spice aroma from this little tin of tea. I couldn’t even see the oolong until I started shaking it out into my stainless steel tea infuser because of the giant chunks of fruit. Honestly, the first thought that went through my head was “What’s all this stuff doing in an oolong?!”. There’s a heavy cinnamon smell to this tea blend.

Nutty and Spice’s ingredients are: oolong tea, roasted chicory root, pineapple, papaya, cinnamon, walnuts, ginger, apple, rose pepper, roasted almonds, cardamom, almonds, pistachios, cranberries, rose blossoms, natural and artificial flavouring.

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Preparation

The calendar packaging recommends steeping Nutty and Spice for 4 to 7 minutes in hot water, this is the same as the online product page where hot water is 75-80°C (167-176°F). I steeped my cup for close to 4 minutes.

First Taste

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Nutty and Spice steeps to a nice golden orange, the first thing I could smell while it was steeping was the cinnamon. Unfortunately, the first thing that I could taste when I was drinking it was the cinnamon. I could not make out the oolong base at all – I’m assuming it’s there because I can physically see it and pick it out from the rest of the ingredients. It has a very “warm” flavour profile, the mix of spices is almost comforting in a way with how they just warm you up from the inside out. Unfortunately, that’s not what I look for in an oolong – especially all that cinnamon.

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A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Nutty and Spice a second time and was disappointed as it was kind of this watery messy that sort of resembled a cinnamon stick.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Nutty and Spice. I really like oolongs, generally speaking, and the additives thrown in here don’t do the tea any favours. I find that the spices are very heavy in the flavour profile and effectively drown out any flavour that the oolong base would have added to this tea. On the other hand, I wish that some of these spices had made their way into day 6’s Apple Cider for more of a mulled apple cider flavour.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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24 Days of Tea: Coffee Cake

Coffee Cake by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Coffee Cake smells like what you’d expect a tea called Coffee Cake to smell like – like its namesake. Interestingly enough, there isn’t actually any coffee in the ingredients list. Coffee Cake is comprised of: black tea, candied fruit, pineapple, natural and artificial flavouring. I do love black tea, but the smell of coffee in general makes my stomach turn so I won’t be giving this one a try.

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My Overall Impression

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I did not try DavidsTea’s Coffee Cake, so I can’t give it a proper rating. I’m aware that there isn’t actually any coffee or coffee beans in this tea blend, but I just find the smell of coffee overall off putting on a good day, so I’m not able to try it for fun. If you gave Coffee Cake a try, comment below with your thoughts on it!

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.