Tea Rex and other tea party reads.

From Goodreads

There are some really amazing picture books out there. Here is one that I think is tea blog worthy. Tea Rex by Molly Idle. It is about two little kids having tea with a t-rex. Tea with t-rex. Tea Rex. It's awesome. The illustrations are lovely-- so crisp and what I think is a very muted color palate. It's just beautiful. And funny to imaging teaching a dinosaur tea time manners. Molly Idle has written and/or illustrated other picture books on my favorites list: Zombelina and Flora and the Flamingo. It looks like she has one about camping with a t-rex called Camp Rex (of course!) that just came out in April.

This is what you should use to steep your tea from this little shop in preparation for reading Tea Rex.

Last year I had a royal tea party program at the library. If I hadn't mentioned, I'm a librarian. Anyway, I was able to get the local coffee shop to donate kid friendly tea and cookies. We set up tables with pretty table cloths, I used silver platters (from the dollar store), and encouraged fancy dress. We had girls in princess dresses and even boys in suits! The kids were beyond cute. I told them about what tea is and where it comes from, all the different kinds of teas and what high tea and afternoon tea are. I was surprised that I kept their attention the whole time. I think their favorite part, besides the tea and cookies, was the tea themed stories and songs. We sang "I'm a Little Tea Pot" and read a couple cute books. Below are some of my favorites.

 

Tea for Ruby by Sarah Ferguson The Duchess of York
Ruby must tell everyone she is meeting the Queen for tea. This would be me if I received an invitation to tea with the Queen... or even an invitation to tea with my grandma.

Tea with Grandpa by Barney Saltzberg
A little girl talks about her grandpa's tea time ritual. This will be Jay when we are in our 60s.

Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk
All Miss Spider wants to do is have the other insects over for tea, but they're all scared of her! Maybe that's why I never get anyone to show up for tea parties. Now I know.

Fancy Nancy: Tea for Two by Jane O'Connor
Nancy and Bree have a tea party where tea pots and friendships are broken and mended. This happens at all tea parties. O'Connor also has a tea party book on how to throw a tea party. Pretty cute book.

Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham
A young girl goes to the tea plantation to help earn money to pay the doctor caring for her mother. Some mysterious monkeys lead her up the mountain to pick the some of the rarest tea leaves in the world. Fascinating story about the elusive Cloud Tea. Definitely for an older child, but a great picture book nonetheless.

The Tea Party Book by Lucille Recht Penner
This book was my favorite party book/recipe book/manual for life when I was a kid. I think I had my mom do every tea party with me. When I flip through the book, which I still own and is now on my daughter's shelves, I have distinct memories of flipping through the book years ago and still get the same giddy feelings. Favorites: Rainy-day tea and Teddy bear tea.

Are there any tea party picture books I'm missing? There are some honorable mentions that I've marked on GoodReads. Speaking of GoodReads, do find me. I love finding new things to add to my ever growing list. I recently checked out a couple adult non-fiction books on tea that I hope to share with you here. Stay tuned!

How to Make Chai Tea

Earlier this week we made the masala, or spice mixture, to make chai tea. Today we're going to make the actual tea. This procedure is a bit more involved than just boiling water and brewing tea leaves. A cousin of J's makes a good cup in the microwave so one day I'll have to have him tell me how he does it. This way of making chai takes a good 15-20 minutes, but it's so worth it.

What you need:

- a pot
- mug
- teaspoon and tablespoon
- tiny sized grater (a zester?)
- cup sized strainer
- loose black tea - J uses this brand
- chai masala
- milk - this recipe works best with real milk. I'll post the recipe for non-dairy milk later.
- fresh ginger - I keep it in the freezer and grate it in frozen 

Measure a ¾ full mug of milk and pour into the pot. Add ¾ mug water. Turn on the heat to medium high. 

Next add the masala. I like it on the spicy side but if you're new to this authentic chai business start with ¾-1 teaspoon of masala. I think I add probably 1 ½ teaspoons per serving. 

Grate in some ginger. You don't need much. 

Once you add in the masala let the mixture heat until it starts bubbling up. 

Immediately turn it down to low and add a tablespoon black tea per serving. 

Not quite.

Ready!

Let the tea simmer for about 10 minutes, until it turns a nice golden color. Turn off the heat. (And turn up the beat.) Using the cup sized strainer, slowly pour the tea into the mug. It is best to do this in the sink just in case the strainer gets clogged and tea misses the mug. 

Drink up.

Now all you have to do is add your favorite sweetener and sip the delicious spiciness that is real chai. Add only a little of the sweetener at first and taste it. Like I said, I love a spicier chai but a spoon of honey really takes the edge off. 

I was making Babycakes NYC banana bread while enjoying this fine cuppa chai. With chocolate chunks, of course. I'd love to hear your chai making experiences. If you have questions, just ask!

Mama K's Chai Masala

I've been wanting to share this recipe for a long time. This is how the magic happens. Since Jay and I have been together I've been able to enjoy a cup of his mom's hot chai-- even when I wasn't approved of yet, his mom still made chai for all of us to share. There are so many chai combinations out there. Starbucks even has two now. But none of them compare to chai made from a recipe straight from the homeland. Most are way too sweet, not enough spice, not strong enough. Before she showed me how to make the masala, or spice mix, I tried various methods from whole spices to pre-blended teas. The real trick is to use ground spices directly in the milk/water mixture. This allows for the fullest flavor in my opinion. Our multicultural family loves spicy chai. My mom enjoys watching Jay make all of us a big pot of chai in the morning on our visits. Jay's mom loves being treated to chai once in a while, although she lives to feed others.
Today I share the chai masala recipe. Later this week I will fully explain the chai making process with step by step photos. (It's really not that hard, but I like a little mystery.)
Use fresh spices. Or be adventurous and grind your own in a spice grinder.

Mama K's Chai Masala
makes approximately 20 servings

4 tbls. + 1 tsp. ginger powder
4 ½ tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. cinnamon
¾ tsp. cloves
1 tbls. cardamom

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together. Store in a sealed glass jar for maximum freshness.

And that's it!

Tea Time Tasties - Pistachio, Cherry and Toasted Coconut Granola

granola + vintage Ball jar = love

Granola. The most versatile snack/breakfast food ever. It's like trail mix, or pasta salad . Millions of combinations. Seriously, millions. I like granola with milk (flax milk, coconut milk, almond coconut milk), homemade yogurt, or by the handful. It might even be good on ice cream, an idea that I just realized and will be trying shortly. When I realized I had to go gluten-free I thought my granola days were over. But NO! Oats don't contain gluten. They can be contaminated during the growing or processing process, but they carry that little gluten protein. Thanks to Bob's Red Mill I can have oatmeal and granola forever. 

I've tried a few combinations in the past few months. Last time I really just put a bunch of random ingredients together. Today I took a suggestion from a recipe my mom sent me from Power Foods: 150 Delicious Recipes with the 38 Healthiest Ingredients. This granola recipe called for egg whites which seemed very odd to me. Although I have been eating eggs again thanks to my daughter -I just wanted to eat omelets the whole pregnancy- I do not think they belong in granola. It also used a ridiculous amount of oats, like six cups. So I combined my go to granola recipe à la A Beautiful Mess with one of the suggested combinations in Everyday Foods, and created this delicious granola. I used both recipes as starting off points and went with my gut. As all granola making experiences should be.

A few months ago I toasted coconut so hopefully it is still eatable. Because I'm eating it. I've also had a variety of dried fruits in the pantry and I think the jar I finished was full of dried cherries. We'll go with that. Dried fruit never goes bad, right?

So now I'm currently snacking on this while drinking Mother's Milk Tea by Traditional Medicinals and watching the Orioles play the Pirates. And my husband isn't even home to see me watching baseball without him. (He's at the game.)

Pistachio, Cherry and Toasted Coconut Gluten-free Granola
Adapted from the A Beautiful Mess and Power Foods recipes

2 cups gluten-free oats
¾ cup pistachios
¾ cup sunflower seeds
⅓ cup hemp hearts
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
pinch of powdered ginger
⅓ cup olive oil
⅓ cup honey (I have convinced my better half that local is the only way)
splash of vanilla extract (Nielsen-Massey is gluten-free)
1 cup dried cherries
½ cup toasted coconut

Preheat oven for 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Stir together all of the dry ingredients, except for the cherries and coconut. Add in the oil and honey and mix well. Spread in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for ten minutes, stir, bake for another ten minutes. If you want it extra crispy leave in for another five minutes, but it should be pretty well done by now. Transfer to a large bowl so it isn't in contact with the hot pan and let cool for five minutes. Add in the cherries and coconut and mix. Allow to cool completely then put in your favorite granola holding vessel. I like old, giant Ball jars. 

Snack on with a cup of your favorite tea.

Grab a cuppa and let me tell you a tale.

a cup of coffee. Franklin's.

Wow. It's been quite a year. The biggest thing? I had a baby. I had all these tea posts lined up in my head, all the tea I wanted to drink and experiment with and then pow! I was pregnant. At first I didn't have any caffeine. But I gradually started drinking a cup a day. And then came the coffee. I've always enjoyed super sugary espresso beverages but while I was pregnant and since she's been born I've had a coffee obsession. [insert horrified gasp here] My coffee tastes matured from sugar syrup with a splash of coffee and some sort of milk to full on coffee or cappuccino and maybe some homemade fancy syrup or honey. Then, being the Anglophile I am, I had to try the biggest coffee beverage craze in the UK/NZ/OZ: the flat white. It's like the best ratio of coffee, tiny bubble foam and espresso. Not too milky, not too espresso-y. It's creamy espresso. Confession: today I had a meeting at our headquarters so I attempted to plan my trek around hitting up the only coffee shop around here that has the flat white on their menu. Once I left the house and dropped my daughter off at day care I did not have time enough to go to that one coffee shop. But I did go to my favorite coffee shop for a latte instead. And that was probably better. 

Wait. This is a tea blog. Not a coffee blog. 

Now that I'm back to tea again -although I never truly left it- I have some fabulous plans for this blog. I will be sharing my recipe (or rather my mother-in-laws recipe) for chai masala straight from the homeland. Then the proper way to brew a perfect cup of chai. And of course, how to make that perfect cup of chai with non-dairy milk. Some tea reviews, tea related reading, tea travel, hopefully some tea crafts and random musings. Maybe some coffee talk thrown in. Until then, enjoy a cup of your favorite brew, whether it is coffee or tea. 

EPIC FAIL and OMG!

Wow. I fail at blogging. I was so excited to start talking to the ether about tea and then April hit and I retreated into a cave. A tealess cave. THE HORROR!

Here are my plans, and hopefully things you will look forward to...
Homemade Chai Masala! Homemade Chai - Mama Kapadia Style! A NYC mini tea adventure - in which I make an obscene purchase on very little! More tea reviews! A San Francisco tea adventure this summer! More recipes! More shenanigans!

The Chai Masala recipe should be up very, very soon. I believe I have perfected it after a bit of trial and error, but more on that later.

From Republic of Tea

Last week I was at one of my favorite grocery stores, MOM's Organic Market, and they have a little coffee/tea stand for shoppers. Well, that day I went over to get a cup of anything really and saw they had samples of Republic of Tea's Red Velvet Cuppa Chocolate Tea. Now, I've seen this on their website and in their catalogue before and shied away from it because I am not a fan of red velvet cake. [standing on soap box] I don't understand why I would want to put a bunch of food colouring in a perfectly good cake. It doesn't make it taste any different. Maybe the original red velvet was coloured with something other than Red 40? [stepping down to sip tea] But I figured, hey I'll give it a try! And obviously I know that the red velvetyness in the tea is not the same as the cake velvetyness. This red velvet is a rooibos based tea with beetroot bits (nature's red dye!), sweet blackberry leaves, chocolate and vanilla flavoring. And it's gluten free. I made my self a little compostable cuppa, put a tiny bit of hemp milk and honey and got back to grocery shopping. Then I took a sip. And I stopped the cart. Took another sip. Then said, "OMG!", in my head I hope. Note, I did not say "OH MY GOD!" I said, "OMG!" It was that good.

Perfect bit of sweetness... almost fruity but hints of chocolate. This would make the best dessert tea! Especially because it's caffeine-free. If you're one to avoid dessert but still want that sweet treat after dinner grab this tea right up. I saved some to have Jay try when I got home. I handed him the cup and said, "TRY THIS! IT IS SO GOOD!" (imagine I said it in Agnes's voice in Despicable Me when she says IT'S SO FLUFFY! thx.) I don't really think he likes sweet teas, or heavily flavored teas, but he did like this one. I am very tempted to buy a canister of this tea to have on special occasions. Who am I kidding? Do I save anything for special occasions? Nope. Also, the tea turned red.

Sweet and Spicy Makes Everything Nice

You know what, it sucks when you are so engrossed in a story and you think it's going to end well but then, BAM! Tragedy. And then you think, "What the--!" Yes, I know not all stories end in happiness and bliss. But when two characters finally realize they love each other, or other characters deal with unimaginable horror, their tales should end well for them. They deserve that, don't they? But what did I have to get me through the heart-wrenching tales of woe? A good cuppa tea.

It's been an odd week and you know what makes that better? Tea! I've had a lot of Strawberry Ginger tea. When I first saw it I thought, "Strawberry and ginger? Does that go together?" But I thought I'd give it a try. And you know what? It actually does work! The sweetness of the strawberry balances out the spiciness of the ginger. I would totally drink this as an afternoon pick me up, when I really shouldn't have caffeine or I'll be up all night but need a little kick. The bit of ginger will surely boost your brain with its awesomeness and the strawberry will satisfy your sweet tooth. You know what else adds to the sweetness? There's apple and blackberry, two more of my favorite fruits. 

I just checked out the David's Tea website and saw that they have an interesting chai called Bollywood Chai. It has chai spices (included peppercorns!) but also has candy covered fennel seeds. Indian restaurants usually have these by the door as a breath freshener. I will have to try this and report back! 

Towards the end of April, Jay and I are heading to NYC for a weekend. I have a whole list of tea establishments we will have to go to. Seriously. Like 8 places. I'm looking forward to it! Not to mention our hotel is 5 minutes walk from Babycakes.

What is your favorite tea of the moment?