What are you drinking today?
At work. Mariage Freres Darjeeling Kalej Valley Monsoon Flush. Will definitely not purchase this tea again.
At home, Mariage Freres 2014 Arya FF. One of the better teas from 2014 and among my wife’s favorite. Also debating on whether the Mariage Freres 2015 Puttabong Supreme FF is worth the premium in price. And the 2015 Ambootia FF is almost gone.
Homemade Vanilla Chai
Getting gooooood. This is a spicy one. On my 4th round and it’s about where I like it. If you want a little fun project and are craving something warm, here you go…
Combine the following in a small saucepan- Makes one serving
I cinnamon stick, bashed into pieces
Pinch ground cloves, pinch ground allspice
1 inch piece vanilla bean, split Seeds scraped and thrown into the pot along with the pod
7 black peppercorns, cracked
2 green peppercorns plus 2 red, cracked
3 slices fresh ginger peeled and bruised (bashed with the handle of your knife)
3 green cardamom pods, cracked open; seeds crushed Seeds and pods thrown into the pot
1 tsp raw sugar
Simmer for at least 10 minutes…longer if you have time. Turn off the heat.
Add 1c milk of your choice. I use 2 percent organic… Read that you need at least some fat for the best chemical reaction… Turn the heat back on.
Add 2 tsp Lipton yellow label loose tea (or whatever you prefer). Bought the yellow label at an Indian grocery. I like my chai with a strong tea base.
Bring to a boil. Don’t walk away! Boiled over milk is no fun to clean up! Turn off heat and steep a couple of minutes. Turn heat back on and bring to boil. Don’t walk away!!! Strain into warmed mug. Hope you like… If you don’t like it spicy… scale way back on the pepper.
My tea consumption was fairly light today. Ta oolong from Tea from Vietnam in the morning, Yuuki-Cha sencha and Thai iced tea in the afternoon, and a soothing mix of jasmine silver needle and white rose teas after dinner.
I’m currently pregnant, which limits my options and means I’m drinking mostly bagged tea since its less work, and pregnancy makes me really tired. I’m drinking quite a lot of roasted barley, green rooibos, honeybush, a few different varieties of rooibos chai, and Bengal Spice from Celestial Seasonings.
I choose to consume caffeine while pregnant but I’ve kept it to a cup or maybe two a day (well under Health Canada limits, which works for me – but I completely appreciate that others aren’t comfortable with that). I often have none at all, mostly out of laziness/tiredness. Lots of plain bagged mint, because I don’t enjoy many other herbals. Rooibos chai is a good idea. I like chai in winter but guessing it’ll be a heartburn trigger – but nearly everything is at this point. I hope you get more energy soon. I’m nearly 22 weeks and have the most energy I’ve had since pre-pregnancy. Still sleeping 9-10 hours a day though, and when that sun goes down I’m pretty zonked. Congratulations though, haha!
I’m normally pretty sensitive to caffeine, and pregnancy makes me even more sensitive to it. Even decaf has a noticeable effect right now. And it was making my migraine’s worse So, entirely a personal thing. I really like mint, but unfortunately it triggers my heartburn (mint is weird in that it makes it better or worse depending on the person). You might look for spearmint or try Stash’s Merry Mint, which tastes like wintergreen. I definitely recommend looking for a rooibos chai. Black tea is a heartburn trigger, but rooibos isn’t, and is actually recommended for pregnant women. I don’t think the spices should bother you too much either, unless it’s heavy on the orange peel and ginger.
Ugh, caffeine sensitivity would not be my friend. I am actually the opposite, I have no discernible reaction to caffeine. Nice most of the time, except when I could use an energy boost. Mint can cause heartburn for me too, which stinks as I looooove it! I find my heartburn hit or miss now but I’m sure it’ll become more consistent as time goes on. Sometimes the tannins in black tea do it, but I suffer through. I cut back spice though. Silly spice.
Drinking A&D Octoberfest and dreaming of the JW keemun I had yesterday morning. Maybe my next cup.
I have a stack of oolongs at work and I always get lazy and just toss more lead in my Kamjove instead of starting over… in other words, I’ve been drinking TieGuanWuyi and The Black Dragon is really a Chameleon
Surprisingly, a used TieGuanYin still gives off a buttery texture which is wonderful with the roasty rock oolongs :)
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