Today's Tea: Mom's Apple Pie

Mom's Apple Pie from DAVIDsTEA

Description: This tea will bring you right back to your childhood. Thanks to the spicy aroma of cinnamon, the sweet smell of apples baking in the oven and the fresh green tea blend. Don’t remember that last part? Okay, so we added the green tea. It’s a great way to bring all the nostalgic flavour of mom’s dessert right to your mug. So wherever you go, you’ve got the warm memories…but not the calories. Mom would approve.

Ingredients:Green tea (China), apple pieces, cinnamon, artificial flavouring

Caffeine: 2 (Medium caffeine)

How to Brew: 1.5 tsp    82°C/185°F      3-4 min

(From DAVIDsTEA: Mom's Apple Pie)


Steph's Thoughts:

Today is FALL TEA DAY at DT, which is what brought me in to the store. That, and "my favourite and my best" TeaGuide was working, and I haven't seen her in a while.
So, with the advent of the amazing Fall Tea Collection, I was excited to try something new. I bought a tin of the Pumpkin Chai (oh my WORD, worth every single cent!), and hubby got a mug (and a bag!) of the Cocoberry (a black-maté blend with berries and coffee beans, with other things thrown in). Sugar and Spice (a black tea that smells like spice cake) smelled a little too strongly of cloves for my taste tonight, so it was a toss-up between Pistachio Cream (pistachio and mulberry leaves) and Mom's Apple Pie.

I was very hesitant to try the Mom's Apple Pie, because as you all know, I'm not a big green tea fan, but the smell of apples won out.

The aroma is the perfect blend of apples with a hint of cinnamon and sweetness. It smells fresh and invokes memories of harvest. It brings to mind images of an apple orchard during the fall harvest in days of yore, with luscious ripe fruit being picked by the whole family, with a pie-baking spree to follow in the country kitchen.
And that's just the smell!

The tea is sweet to taste, and unlike some greens, doesn't get bitter with a longer steep time. I've had my bag in the cup for over an hour, and it's just a strong apple tea, rather than *spit out* bitter.

The flavour is the perfect ratio of apples to cinnamon - you can taste the cinnamon, but the spice doesn't overpower the sweet apple flavour. The tea leaves are present, but again, not overpowering.
I added a bit of agave, which provides a more pie-like flavour. I can see myself drinking this straight for a bit of a "healthy treat."

According to my TeaGuide, this was one of the fall teas from several years ago, and they've brought it back. It's a good thing too, because with flavour like this, it'll be flying off the shelves.

Verdict: Green for GO! (really, I think I'm going to pick up a tin of this. Nom Nom Nom, and that's saying something for me to like a green tea!)

Today's Tea: Redberry Tonic

Redberry Tonic from DAVIDsTEA

Description: Ladies and gentlemen, step right up and get a taste of our revitalizing, tantalizing, exhilarating, invigorating tonic. Put some zip in your sip with tart and tangy hibiscus, rosehips, lemongrass and immortality-boosting goji berries. But that’s not all! We’ve harnessed the power of the legendary sea buckthorn wonder-berry, prized for centuries in Chinese, Indian and Tibetan medicine. You’ve got to see it to believe it folks, so get your hands on a cup today.

Ingredients: Apple, rosehip, hibiscus, lemongrass, sea buckthorn, goji berries, natural sea buckthorn flavouring

How to Brew: 1.25 tsp      96°C/205°F   5-7 min

(From DAVIDsTEA: Redberry Tonic)


Steph's Thoughts:
I stopped by DT today to pick up something new. The lovely and always effervescent Claire (I really hope I got your name right!) guided me to this tea. It's one of the new teas that DT has brought to market.

Apparently, it's very very healthy, as it's all-natural. Sea buckthorn (or hippophae) is supposed to aid in digestion (always good for me!), has very high concentration of vitamin C, and can also be used as a skin softener. I was also told that if you don't intend to resteep the leaves, you can use the brewed leaves as a facial mask.

Hippophae is also currently under research to test its effectiveness in treating inflammatory disorders as well as in cancer treatments, especially relating to bone marrow. According to Wikipedia, it's been used in traditional Chinese medicines for eons. AND - get this - research has proven that hippophae rhamnoides (common sea buckthorn) leaf tea reduces high-fat diet-induced obesity (in mice.... BUT STILL! HOW COOL IS THAT?!).

It steeps a vibrant red colour, most likely due to the hibiscus and rosehips. The smell reminds me very much of a very ripe, dark red apple. I wonder if the apple is a red delicious, because it's giving off a very red-delicious-y smell.

I've chosen to try this cold, and it's very refreshing. The hibiscus cuts through, but you can't taste the lemongrass at all. It's a little on the tart side, but not in a negative way. I could see making popsicles with this one with no sweetener at all. You could also make a cocktail out of it by adding gin or vodka, but I'm perfectly happy without.
There isn't quite as much ZING with this one as with some of the other hibiscus teas, which is good. It's a little more mellow.

All in all, it's a good summer tea. Hubby suggests it might make a good TeaPop; I'm inclined to agree, though I think you'd want to add a bit of sweetener if you were doing so. If you drink it straight, it doesn't require any sweetener at all.

Verdict: Yum. The hubby calls it "palatable." I think he's just tired and can't appreciate it.

Today's Tea: Yerba Mate!

For many years, I've been TRYING to be able to drink straight, unflavoured yerba maté. I have been grossly unsuccessful, until this weekend.

Traditional Yerba Maté is sipped from a guampa (a horn or a gourd, also known as a tereré) using a straw with a filter on the end, called a bombilla. 

One fills the guampa 3/4 full with maté, and then one has to invert the guampa and shake it so that all the teeny little stuff goes to the top. That way, it takes a while to get to the filter. 

Once you've shaken the guampa upside-down, you turn it right side up. The instructions on my package of yerba maté said that you wet the maté on the edge in one spot, and once the maté has soaked up all the water, you insert the bombilla all the way to the bottom. Once the bombilla is in, you fill the guampa up with water, and sip everything. 

Some say that when preparing the maté for the straw, you should use COLD water and let it sit and absorb for about 2-3 minutes before adding the straw.

 

The very first few times you add water, it may be very bitter.

Now, the VERY IMPORTANT thing about yerba maté is that you CANNOT use boiling water. If you use boiling water, the maté comes out even more bitter. 80°C is ideal. Also, resist the urge to stir this stuff. I know it's tempting with a straw in it, but don't. Just.... don't. 

The reason I've decided to do this is because for Christmas, we received a guampa, bombilla and a brick of maté from my brother-in-law. We got Pajarito from Paraguay.

We went camping this weekend, and I figured that it would be the perfect opportunity to try this out.

It would've gone a little better with someone who drinks maté on a regular basis to help us out, but in the end I think we did not too badly.

The first few sips were VERY bitter and I was a little concerned that I'd hate it. But after several turns with the bombilla (the hubby and I shared, as you are supposed to do, as maté is a communal drink) it started tasting a lot better. Either our bitter taste buds were so disgusted that they turned themselves off, or the taste changed to be a little bit more sweet.

Yerba Maté does have quite a kick, so it's not a good evening drink. It is also a bit bitter, though it can be sweetened. Refined sugars cut down on the health effects of maté (it's been suggested that maté aids in digestion, reduces certain types of cancers, helps with weight loss, combats fatigue, as well as a host of other things) so it is suggested that sweeteners like agave or honey be used.

The hubby suggested cupping your tongue around the bombilla and putting it further back in your mouth, and sucking the whole guampa dry (our guampa is really small!), which helps with the bitter taste. 

Also, the more cups you drink, the smoother and less bitter it becomes, while still being very flavourful. Ours tastes a little woody. 

All in all, I think our first experience with our brick of maté wasn't so bad. I'll ask for some help from a seasoned veteran and we'll go from there. But.... I think I might be a maté drinker. Not quite like some of the people I know, but .... getting there!