Monthly Archives

July 2015

Matcha Recipes

Recipe for Matcha White Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake Bars!

28th July 2015

I’ve been perfecting this recipe for a few weeks now and finally feel that it’s perfect. The green tea flavour provides a delicate and refreshing flavour alongside the velvet smooth cream cheese, white chocolate and matcha are a matcha made in heaven (couldn’t resist!). These cheesecake bars are beautiful to have on a warm summer day, with the cool slightly sour cheese flavour bouncing off the super sweet oreo white chocolate base.

I used matcha from Bluebird Tea Co. but if you wanted to keep the cost down you could use culinary grade. I’ve heard fantastic things about Vitalife matcha so this is also a good choice. I used 1 tablespoon in this recipe and I think it’s perfect for sharing with people that aren’t matcha freaks as the hint of tea is quite subtle. If you’re a regular consumer of matcha then you may want to add a little more, up to about 2 teaspoons.

The ingredients are easy to double up which I’ll be doing from now on, these cheesecake bars don’t last long once my family notices them in the fridge, even our cats come running when they smell them!

Ingredients

Preparation: 20 mins  |  Total 30 mins

Serves: 10

Ingredients:

1 – 2 teaspoons of Matcha

1 packet of white chocolate chips

1 packet of oreos (the standard tube sized pack)

1/2 a cup of chilled heavy whipping cream

80 oz/225g of room temperature cream cheese

3 tablespoons of sugar

Blueberries, for prettyness (optional)

 

 

Method

Foil lined tray

1. Line a 9×9 inch tray with kitchen foil, ensuring the sides are covered.

 

Melted white chocolate

2. Melt the white chocolate chips in a bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring regularly.

 

Oreos and white chocolate combined

3. Use a food processor to finely grind the Oreos. Add 2 tablespoons of the melted white chocolate and blast it with the food processor again.

 

Base

4. Firmly press the Oreo chocolate mixture in to the bottom of the foiled tray, use the back of a spoon to cram it in so it stays together as the cheesecake base. Chill the base in the fridge while you make the topping.

 

Matcha and white chocolate

5. Stir the matcha powder in to the white chocolate until smooth. I use a little mini sieve to keep lumps to a minimum.

 

Whipped cream

6. Use an electric whisk to beat the whipping cream until peaks form.

 

Sugar and cream

7. Use a new bowl to combine the sugar and cream cheese, beat until smooth.

 

Topping combined

8. Next add the white chocolate matcha combo and slowly fold in the whipped cream.

 

Finished

9. Spread the mixture over the Oreo white chocolate base. I used a spatula held vertically to get the finish as flat as I could.

 

Close up

10. Return the cheesecake to the fridge and allow it to firm up. I left mine overnight, mainly because I was making it at nearly midnight! (gotta love a middle of the night bake off 😉 )

A couple of hours in the fridge is probably fine. Use the sides of the foil to lift the cheesecake out of the tray and then cut it to your desired size. I finished mine off with a few blueberries but they’re not essential 🙂

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my recipe and would love to know how these turn out if you decide to make them. You really won’t be disappointed, these are delicious and are the perfect treat for every occasion!

If you’d like more recipes, reviews and general tea information then you’ll love my newsletter!

You can win matcha and a load of other fantastic tea in my competition to win a luxury tea hamper full of awesome tea! Check it out. Thanks for reading!

Tea Comp

 

Teaphernalia

Top 10 Tea Infusers Guaranteed To Add a Dash of Character to Your Next Tea Break!

21st July 2015

web ready kitty

My boyfriend recently bought me this kitty tea infuser which has made my tea breaks even lovelier! Which made me wonder what other cute infusers are out there, so I went on a mission to find out! Here’s the results, the top 10 best tea infusers I found 🙂

1.NOKI Pug in A Mug Silicone Tea Infuser

Pug in a Mug!

 

 

 

2. Kitchen Craft Le’Xpress Stainless Steel Novelty Monkey Tea Infuser

Monkey Infuser

 

 

 

3. AdHoc Floatea Floating Tea Infuser Green

Ad Hoc Floating Infuser

 

 

 

4. Sharky Shark Tea Infuser

sharky

 

5. iNeibo Kitchen Silicone Colorful Tea Bag Shape Tea Infusers

Silicone Coloured Teabags

 

 

 

6. SUCK UK Goldfish Tea Infuser

Goldfish Infuser

 

7. Kikkerland Stainless Steel Owl Tea Infuser

Owl Infuser

 

8. Kikkerland Stainless Steel Rocket Tea Infuser, Silver

Rocket Infuser

 

 

 

9. Luckies Tea Sub Infuser

Tea Submarine

 

10. Slow Brew Sloth Tea Infuser

Sloth Infuser

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed these top 10 tea infusers, my only trouble now is resisting buying them all! Which ones are your favourites?

If this is the kind of thing you enjoy reading you’ll have fun with my newsletter, you can join below. Thanks for reading! xXx 🙂

Fruit Tea Iced Tea Tea Reviews

Virtue Ice Tea Flavoured Iced Tea Review!

14th July 2015

Recently I was sent a couple of cans of Virtue Ice Tea to sample, keep reading to find out what I thought!

I received one can of each flavour, which is Lemon and Strawberry & Peach.

The Facts

  • A Source of vitamins and minerals (Vitamin C, B-Vitamins, Magnesium and Zinc)
  • Only 63 calories per can
  • Naturally sweetened
  • No refined sugar
  • Nothing artificial
  • Natural antioxidants

The Look

The cans are really nicely presented with a slightly matte finish and nice modern fruit imagery, finished off with a coloured band at the top of each can. The cans are skinnier and taller than a coke can which makes them a really nice size in the hand, they’re a similar size to a Red Bull can.

 

The Taste

Lemon

The lemon flavour is really sweet and vibrant, it’s quite strong but without being sharp. What’s impressive is that this moreish sweetness has been achieved without using any refined sugar, the sweetness in Virtue Iced Tea comes from steviol and the sugars that naturally occur in the fruit used to create the lemon flavour.

The tea flavour isn’t as noticeable as it is in some other iced teas I’ve tried, which actually isn’t a bad thing, especially if you just want a sweet and fun drink but without the calories.

One thing I must say is that you must drink these chilled, have them ice cold on a hot day and it’s bliss!

Ingredients:

Water, fruit extract, citric acid, natural flavouring, tea extract, vitamins, minerals and natural sweetener.

 

Strawberry & Peach

The tea flavour in the strawberry & peach is much more evident, it has a slightly dry quality which is really refreshing. This iced tea has a really gorgeous sweet smell that entices you in as you take a sip. The first flavour you get is a sweet strawberry taste, which is followed up with a slightly tangy but massively fruity, peach flavour. It’s really nice to taste the tea primarily but have that sweet strawberry flavour balanced alongside it.

Again I’d say this iced tea has to be chilled, it would be a waste to drink it at room temperature when it’s this legendary chilled!

Ingredients:

Water, fruit extract, citric acid, tea extract, natural flavouring, vitamins, minerals and natural sweetener.

 

Where to Buy

Virture Ice Tea can be found at a good assortment of stockists, the largest high street stockist is probably WHSmith. You can also get Virtue Ice Tea online from Amazon, a pack of 24 is £24 (£1 a can!). You’ll find the Lemon here and the Strawberry & Peach here.

 

Overall

These iced teas really are great, it’s so difficult to find iced tea that isn’t loaded with sugar and that doesn’t leave your mouth and teeth sticky afterwards (yuck!). I was sent these teas by Rahi the creator of Virtue Iced Teas, after reading the story behind Virtue Iced Teas and trying them myself, it’s easy to appreciate the care that’s gone in to developing them. I’d definitely say give them a try, they taste great, are good for you and are extremely reasonably priced!

I’d like to say a big thank you to Rahi Daneshmand at Virtue Ice Tea for sending me the sample. I hope you’ve enjoyed this review, if you have then you’ll like my newsletter, you can sign up below!

 

Featured Image portrait

My competition to win a beautiful luxury tea hamper full of my favourite tea is up and running, you can enter here.

 

Green Tea Iced Tea Reviews Tea Reviews

Do I LOVE Tg Green Teas Iced Tea & Pyramid Teabags?

7th July 2015

Recently Tg Green Teas asked me if I’d like to try some of their products, obviously I jumped at the chance and was sent a selection of items. These included 3 flavours of Bottled iced tea and 3 packs of green tea teabags. Keep reading to get the low down on these teas from Tg Green Teas!

All 6 products are green tea, the bottles all have ginseng added alongside a choice of mandarin, jujube or standard green tea.

Iced Green Teas

Cold Bottles

The iced green teas are ready made and bottled so they’re always ready to go, the bottles are a comfortable shape with a bullet proof non leaking lid. They contain less than 30 calories each and have just enough sweetener, no less, no more. I love the taste of good quality natural green tea that these iced teas have and the sweetness is perfected with great precision, often bottled iced tea is LOADED with sugar but not these beauties!

Mandarin & Ginseng

I adore this iced tea (good thing I received 2!), the mandarin fragrance explodes from the bottle as you remove the lid and the flavour doesn’t disappoint. The mandarin is very clearly there sitting happily alongside the green tea but it doesn’t overpower it, I’ve had orangey iced tea from other companies that literally tastes like Fanta (eew!). The mandarin flavour is also sweet rather than sharp and all this with only 30 calories!

There also isn’t too much of a dry green flavour to the drink, I expect because the mandarin is so expertly blended with the green tea in precisely the right quantity.

 

Classic Green Tea & Ginseng

I shamefully expected this to be the least exciting but in all honesty it is by far my favourite Tg product, truly gorgeous. It’s so refreshing chilled and really invigorating to drink during the hot weather we’ve had recently. With just the right amount of sweetness, this is an extremely well rounded iced tea that I’ll be sure to be coming back to again and again. The only downside is I finished the bottle in a matter of minutes, and was a tad devastated when I realised!

If you only try one of Tg’s products this is the one. I’ve tried to recreate something even remotely similar myself using iced loose leaf green tea and agave nectar but it just can’t be done! Buy a couple of bottles of this classic green iced tea and pop them in your backpack next time you’re out for the day, bliss!

 

Jujube & Ginseng

Finally I tried the Jujube & Ginseng, the most noticeable difference to the mandarin flavour is that the flavour’s stronger. The Jujube takes more of a centre stage position in this iced tea, again the sweetness is perfect and there’s none of that sugar coated teeth that other iced teas leave you with (I’m looking at you Lipton!). It was so hot the day I drunk this so I got my favourite glass out, poured the pinky tinted liquid, added ice and kicked back with my laptop and got through a sweltering afternoon of work.

The Jujube really sits alongside the green tea flavour perfectly, neither flavour is over the top and both complement each other wonderfully. This iced tea was the only one that ended with a slightly dry taste, but this was a real positive quality on a boiling hot day! 🙂

 

Teabags

 

Next up is the teabags! The teabags are pyramid teabags which is great to see, pyramid teabags improve flavour by giving the leaf more room to expand and move around. I found I could easily get two mugs out of a single teabag which makes these incredibly good value at £4.15 for 15 teabags. The leaf across all 3 flavours is of good quality and much larger than you would usually see in teabags, none of that dust filling that a lot of teabags have!

All 3 flavours taste great, the green tea tastes really pure and is delicate and not too vegetal, the flavours are also just the right strength. I found these teas were better with a sweetener, Tg suggest sugar or honey but I used agave nectar to sweeten mine which made it fantastic! The expiry dates of the packets I received are all 18 months away, and the packets reseal fantastically so your tea will stay fresh for a long time. The matte black packaging features vibrant colouring, which I find really alluring as the colours pop out on my tea shelf, against a backdrop of the usual brown tea packaging.  Keep reading for my thoughts on each flavour 🙂

Ginger & Lemon Zest

Upon opening the packet I was pleased to find that the lemony fragrance wasn’t overpowering, I often find blends featuring lemon to be overly zingy. Alongside the refreshing lemon fragrance I could detect the ginger undertones peeking out.

I was easily able to get two infusions from each teabag and actually found the second infusion tasted better as the green tea is a little more subtle and allows the other flavours to take the spotlight. This tea was the one I found most in need of a sweetening, just to lightly soften the ginger flavouring. I really enjoyed just sniffing the mild zingyness of the lemon as I took a sip. This would be a great morning tea to get you feeling refreshed and energised!

 

Jujube & Osmanthus

The jujube & osmanthus teabags have a nice earthy but sweet smell, the kind of smell that makes me think of curling up on the sofa for a Netflix session! 😉 Once brewed I found the flavour was quite savoury but with a sweet fruity smell accompanying the green tea. These teabags also easily do 2 infusions, so what could be better than sharing a teabag and a chat with a friend?

Again the quality is top notch with large leaf, good quality pyramid teabags and none of the dust that you find in inferior teabags. The thing I found really convenient about these teabags is they do offer you loose leaf quality without the hassle. Admittedly, I do find it quite fun to prance around the kitchen preparing my loose leaf tea and getting my gadgets involved but if I’m in a rush these are the first teabags I reach for!

 

Classic Green Tea

Again I left the classic green tea for last, I found the flavoured teabags more compelling to try, but the unflavoured green tea is actually really relaxing and comforting. With all the crazy flavourings of tea I have, I sometimes forget just how nice straight unflavoured tea is. The classic green tea from Tg is LUSH, when you taste it unaltered you can really appreciate the quality of the leaf that goes in to their teabags. The classic green tea has a slightly dry vegetal flavour, with that healthy feel, but it’s also great lightly sweetened.

 

Final Thoughts

I had such fun trying these products and found it especially exciting to try some new iced tea! I’d like to say a massive thanks to Tg Green Teas for sending me such a generous selection of products to try. I strongly suggest you keep an eye out for these teas or even better, buy directly on Tg’s website.

If you’ve found this review useful you’ll enjoy my newsletter, you can join below:

 

FREE TEA !My competition to win a luxury tea hamper is still running, you definitely don’t want to miss it! 😉

Enter here.