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TeaTourist Subscription Box Review

12th May 2017

One of my favourite parts of the month is always when I wake up to find my monthly TeaTourist subscription box on the doormat! I always rush to open it, excited to see what tea adventures I’ll be going on this month 😀

April’s box has a lot of caffeine free blends which suits me perfectly as a lot of my tea drinking occurs in the middle of the night (student life/insomnia!). Be sure to read on to find a voucher code for 30% off your first TeaTourist subscription box! 😀

Time for the review!

Hibiscus Flowers – Tugboat Brews

First up is a special hibiscus blend that I really adore. The tea is a deep purpley red colour with huge big hibiscus flowers, it looks really special in nice glass teaware with the flowers dancing in the deep red liquid.

The flavour is equally as fantastic! I love the deep floral flavour but it’s accompanied by addictive fruity notes. I always enjoy the zingy aftertaste of hibiscus tea but it can sometimes be too sharp, especially in cheaper tea but the zing is perfectly balanced with the sweeter flavour. All round this might be the best hibiscus blend I’ve ever tried! 😮

Pumpkins Go Bananas – Leaves of the World

This is one of those blends that I literally could not imagine tasting nice, especially as I hate bananas! Adding pumpkin to the mix could only be a bad thing, at least that’s what I thought before I tried it.

It’s always interesting to read the TeaTourist notes that accompany every tea in their subscription boxes, they have all the info about steeping time, temperature etc. This blend was described as being similar to banana milkshake, despite my bananaphobia I’ve always loved McDonald’s banana milkshakes.

Crazily the banana-pumpkin combo really works, the banana is a sweet banana flavour and doesn’t taste like fresh bananas, it really does taste of banana milkshake (with a fraction of the calories). The tea is really fragrant when it’s steeped and gives off a cake-like aroma, another awesome tea!

Shades of Grey – MDTEA

I think I might be the only tea lover that doesn’t love earl grey, I just can’t understand what the fuss is about! 😳 I like the malty tea flavour but the citrusy flavour really isn’t my favourite at all but obv I had to try it! 🙂

The floral notes of the rose petals are a really nice addition and definitely help to sweeten the flavour. I liked that the citrus flavours were a tad more refined in this blend and the black tea flavours were more evident. I’m not sure what a good or a bad Earl Grey is as I’m not a huge fan in general but this is one of the better ones I’ve tried and I’m sure you’ll love it if Earl Grey is your thing 🙂

Peppermint Tea – Maiservas

Although I don’t get particularly excited by mint tea it is always quite enjoyable and great for an upset stomach! This mint tea is made up of large nice quality leaves, with a fresh scent. It’s fantastic to wake you up in the morning, as soon as the water hits the leaves a minty aroma breathes a breath of fresh air in to the room.

This blend has a really nice sweetness to it, it’s not the overpowering menthol type of mint tea and has no bitterness. An all round good mint tea 🙂

Thieves’ Brew – Bev’s Tea Company

Thieves is the perfect tea for people who enjoy a more traditional cuppa! I adore flavoured tea, I love exciting blends with cool names but sometimes it’s nice to have a good quality natural tasting tea.

Thieves’ Brew has a deep dry malty flavour with a comforting fragrance that produces a nice golden liquid. I always invite my mum to try the more traditional blends as she’s in to natural tea with milk and she definitely enjoys this one!

Chocolate Ginger – Shibui Tea

I was really excited to try this tea as I love Shibui Tea and it’s not flavours I’ve seen combined before. I love finding new and exciting tea, it’s all part of being a TeaTourist! 😎

I knew this tea would be special as soon as I began steeping it. The chocolatey aroma with the warmth of the ginger smelt fantastic. Upon tasting it I was glad to find that chocolate was the dominant flavour and the ginger was a nice sweet cake-like ginger, I hate ginger teas that have more of a medicinal flavour which this doesn’t at all. This is without a doubt one of my favourites this month!

Conclusions

This month’s TeaTourist box has been another fantastic selection of tea with something for everyone. Banana Pumpkin was the biggest surprise for me and Chocolate Ginger and hibiscus were AMAZING.

If you’d like to try a TeaTourist subscription box for yourself you can get 30% off your first box using the code RUSSTEAS30 on their website. You really won’t regret it!

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and thanks to TeaTourist for making it possible! ❤️

Come find me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook for more tea related fun! 😀

Join my newsletter below to keep up to date with all my posts, competitions and news.

Bye for now! xXx

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Black Tea Fruit Tea Tea Reviews

Bluebird Tea Co. Christmas Review

1st December 2016

When it comes to Christmas I love the little things, like the weather changing, people’s excitement building, Starbucks limited edition treats and new bath goodies at Lush but most of all I look forward to the Bluebird Christmas exclusives!

This year sees the return of Christmas Cake & Snowball, which also has a much appreciated vegan option this year!

The new products in this year’s Christmas bundle are Mulled Cider, Sugar Plum & some Bluebird crackers which I’m insanely excited about. Review time!

Sugar Plum

Sugar plum is a sugary sweet berry filled infusion with a nice warming hint of cinnamon. The blackcurrant in this blend really comes through, along with the hibiscus. The cinnamon is definitely there in precisely the right quantity, it’s warming and festive, without it being overpowering.

It’s a beautiful coloured blend once prepared, that’s perfect to show off in glass teaware on the big day. The sweet cinnamon scent really travels and is sure to add a festive aroma to any gathering! 😀

Left to right: Snowball, Sugar Plum, Mulled Cider

Mulled Cider

This is a less sweet tea that I find super refreshing, it gives off an almost peppery scent with cinnamon notes but the apple & lemon peel create a drier more savoury vibe. Mulled Cider is perfect for cold Christmas evenings when you’ve devoured all the chocolate in sight but still want a little extra treat to snuggle up with.

I generally steep my tea multiple times during long work days and by the end it’s often been a bit steeped to death but I found this tea is actually really enjoyable as quite a weak infusion, hot or cold.

Bluebird’s Mulled Cider & Sugar plum are both caffeine free making them perfect to drink on those late night Christmas Netflix sessions, while remaining able to sleep.

Christmas Crackers

These really are too cute! I love the silver foil effect against the brown and the rectangular shape is far more interesting than more traditional cylindrical crackers.

Each cracker contains an individually wrapped Bluebird tea bag, party hat and tea related joke. I decided I’d unwrap one of these without the ‘snap’ and have a look inside for the purpose of the review, then put it back together and save them for Christmas day, no one will ever know! Just like presents under a Christmas tree 😉

Final Thoughts

One of the things I admire most about Bluebird is their ability to capture the essence of an event or completely non-tea food in their blends. Mulled Cider & Sugar Plum really are Christmas through and through, with snowball as a chocolate-coconut treat and Christmas Cake completing their Christmas line up.

If you’d like to read a more in depth review of Snowball, Christmas Cake or many of the other Bluebird Tea Co. Christmas teas you can find most of them covered in last years hamper review.

Take a look at Bluebird’s Christmas range to find the perfect treats for the holiday season, you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review.

Happy Christmas to everyone over at Bluebird HQ and to my readers! 🙂 xXx

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Black Tea Chai Green Tea Rooibos Tea Reviews

Bluebird Tea Co. Autumn Tea Haul Reviewed!

2nd October 2016

I LOVE Bluebird Tea! If you read my blog on a regular basis you’ll have seen that I review their tea more than any other brand. Why? Because it’s simply awesome!

Bluebird were lovely enough to send me their new Autumn products! With three new matchas and Autumn teas all dropping at once it’s an exciting time for any Bluebird fan! I’ll be reviewing the tea now and follow up shortly with the matcha review, just because it’s a big bundle worthy of two posts 🙂

The four blends Bluebird sent me are Rooibos Earl Grey, Choco Pops, Lapsang Chai and Spiced Pumpkin Pie.

Review Time!

Rooibos Early Grey

I’m excited by this blend! Earl Grey is awesome and rooibos is my drink of choice at night when I can’t sleep (happens A LOT), so this is perfect!

I received this tea as teabags, as always you get high quality pyramid teabags from Bluebird, with a generous serving of tea. This means multiple mugs from one teabag, perfect if you have company or just need something to binge drink 😉

The flavour is really unique, I love the sweet floral flavour from the bergamot as it dances with the sweet and slightly nutty rooibos. It’s a really soothing blend that’s perfect for the colder months ahead 🙂

Spiced Pumpkin Pie

I was a bit unsure about this initially, pumpkin isn’t really something I’m amazingly fond of but after one sip, my view of the Jack-O-Lantern vegetable had been changed, drastically!

This blend is so warm but without being spicy or burning your throat at all and it screams Autumn! With Halloween and Bonfire night coming, this tea is perfectly timed and sure to go down well with anyone you share it with. It has just a gentle warming feel but is overall a sweet blend, with a slightly spicy tickle after every mouthful.

It’s one of those flavours you really want to savour and swirl round your mouth, the only way I can describe it is a cuddle in a mug. You need this tea in your life!

I’ve seen a lot of talk about a famous Bluebird Pumpkin Spiced Latte that can be made with this tea so I just had to give it a try! OMG it was amazing, the most Autumnal drink ever! This tea is really great all round and the Pumpkin Spiced Latte adds to it’s greatness, get some of this tea while it’s still available! 🙂

Lapsang Chai

This is a combo between Lapsang Souchong, Assam and chai, the result is a beautifully unique and perfectly blended cuppa! I usually find that the smoked flavours of Lapsang Souchong are exciting but often overpowering, this blend keeps the smokey excitement but with a flavour that isn’t at all overpowering.

I like the addition of the chai flavours, it adds a slight warmth to the experience, while diluting the smoked taste. The tea is so pretty loose, with it’s warm fiery flecks of red against the dark black tea. Overall I found this blend highly enjoyable, I love that it’s not a flavour you’ll find anywhere else and the result is a complex and thoroughly enjoyable.

Choco Pops

I’ve been holding out on you a little bit and decided to save this one until last, basically because it’s incredible! The smell when I opened the packet blew me away, I’ve never smelt tea this good before. It’s so good it might actually be my favourite Bluebird blend, possibly ever! 😮

It smells like a packet of melted chocolate and isn’t like other teas that claim they’re chocolate and then the flavour disappoints, it really is chocolatey, thanks to cacao bean, chocolate chips, fat reduced cocoa powder AND chocolate sprinkles 😀 When the water is added the chocolate smell takes on a slightly herbal scent from the tea leaves but the flavour is so good! I like that this tea is made up from a blend of Sri Lankan black tea and sencha green tea, it gives the tea a lighter flavour than if it was all black.

I really love Coco Pops, especially the chocolate milk that’s left at the end and you really do get that same chocolatey taste from Bluebird’s latest blend. The toasted rice adds a genmaicha twist to the brew, which works amazingly to create a cereal-like vibe alongside the chocolate. I love this tea!

Closing Words

That’s my review of the latest blends from the Bluebird HQ, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

A big thank you to Bluebird for being so awesome and sending these fantastic new products to me!

If you’d like to check out the new Autumn blends from Bluebird you can find them here.

Make sure you join my mailing list below and follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to get more from my blog, including my upcoming review of the new Bluebird flavoured Matchas!

Bye for now! xXx

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Black Tea Fruit Tea Reviews

T2 Tea Black Forest Bliss & Terrific Toffee Review

2nd September 2016

I’m a huuuge fan of T2 Tea, I’ve been in love with their tea ever since I wandered past one of their stores in London. They have an incredible range of tea but I particularly enjoy their fruit teas, especially in these summer months when I’m getting my cold brew on!

I was thrilled when they sent me some of their flavoured matcha to review and equally delighted when they sent me some of their best summer teas as well! Read on to find out what I thought of Black Forest Bliss & Terrific Toffee from T2 Tea.

I often enjoy using tea as a replacement for naughty calorific food (mainly chocolate), so I was particularly excited to try these dessert-like teas 🙂

Terrific Toffee

I absolutely adore toffee flavoured tea! Black tea and toffee are a match made in heaven, they pair so well and this tea is a fine example of this. It smells so so good, it’s sweet and really has a cosy feeling to it. I could imagine just curling up with a mug of this as the colder nights drift in here in the UK. I like that this tea isn’t overly sweet but still has a deep satisfying flavour, one I’ll be enjoying for a long time!

Terrific Toffee is EXCELLENT for pudding replacement, I can skip the calories and have something sweet and delicious after dinner or pretty much all the time, as it’s been since this tea arrived. A little bit of this tea goes a real long way, especially in a tea bottle of some kind where it has longer to steep, for more on tea bottles check out my Top 10 Tea Bottles post 🙂

Black Forest Bliss

This is technically a tisane as it contains no tea and is primarily made up of cocoa husks with some fruity ingredients too. The packaging is fantastic, T2 really know how to make their customers feel special! They steered away from their trademark orange boxes and went with a super pretty red, white and black box, just like the colours of Black Forest Gateaux!

Before I’d even opened the sealed plastic packaging I could already smell the chocolatey, “cherryey” fragrance, which only increased once I’d opened the packet. This tea really does smell so good once it’s been prepared, and the taste is equally exciting. It starts with a mainly chocolate flavour and then a slight fruity zing from the cherries kicks in, the two flavours are paired perfectly. Amazingly this tea really does taste of Black Forest Gateaux, minus the cream which is probably a good thing!

T2’s Black Forest Bliss is also great iced or cold brewed but as it’s so strongly flavoured less is more! 😉

Merrier Tea Infuser

I also received one of T2’s Merrier Tea Infusers with my tea, which I’m really thrilled with. It has bright green rubberised handles, with a matching lid to hold the flavours in when infusing. A really nice touch is the pattern the holes on the infuser make up, super cute! The lid also doubles as a drip tray making this perfect for getting your tea fix when you’re at work, without making a mess. It’s also available in a load of colours so there’s one for everyone!

I have various infusers but I always come back to my infusers that are this kinda style, they’re easy to wash and allow the leaves to really open up and release their flavour. This will definitely be one of my most used infusers, my old one was a tad trashed so this is a welcome replacement! You can take a closer look at the Merrier infuser here.

Final Words

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my review of T2’s Black Forest Bliss & Terrific Toffee teas, I really recommend trying them or basically any of T2’s tea! 🙂 Black Forest Bliss is out of stock online at the moment so I can’t link directly to it but it’s available in T2’s UK shops and will be back in stock online soon!

I’m really grateful T2 sent me these teas to review, I’ve enjoyed reviewing them and photographing them so much!

If you’d like to read more of my tea reviews and other tea related posts you can subscribe to my newsletter below or find me on social media (Twitter, Instagram or Facebook).

If you haven’t already entered my competition to win over 260 teabags head over and enter here 🙂

Bye for now! xXx

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Matcha Tea Reviews

Review of Azuma Chocolate, Ginger or Yuzu Flavoured Matcha Latte Mixes from Yunomi

26th June 2016

The last few months I’ve been loving flavoured matcha and really excited how it’s blown up in the UK this year, so I’ve been on a mission to find all the flavoured matcha I can and put together a big comparison. I’ll cover these again in my comparison post but I wanted to give them their own post as well as Yunomi were generous enough to send me them.

After posting a photo of my matcha collection on Instagram I was messaged by Yunomi, offering me the chance to try some flavoured matcha latte mixes 😀 obviously I jumped at the chance and I’m really excited to share my experience with you.

Yunomi sent me chocolate, ginger and Yuzu (Japanese Citrus). These mixes are a combination of matcha, sweetener and powdered milk with a couple other ingredients. They basically allow you to make a quick matcha latte like the ones slowly popping up at all the good tea shops at the moment but easily in your own home.

The Review

The parcel from Yunomi arrived which was super exciting, tea all the way from Japan is pretty special 🙂 All three mixes arrived in such beautiful vibrant packaging, the packaging is heat sealed for freshness. You get a good amount in one packet, for around the $10 mark, which is pretty reasonable compared to the price of a matcha latte when out and about in London! 😮

I found all three latte’s had the right amount of sweetener, I did worry if they might be too sweet like they sometimes are in tea shops but they’re not at all. It’s really never been easier to make a matcha latte at home, you simply heat the water, then you add a few teaspoons of the mix and stir. It’s really impressive how milky the latte actually ends up being, without any extra milk being added.

The powder blends well and doesn’t have any lumpy issues or sink to the bottom like a lot of hot chocolate powders do. A little also goes a long way so you’ll get a lot of lattes from each packet.

On to the flavours!

Yuzu (Japanese Citrus)

I hadn’t heard of Yuzu before so I did a little reading and found that Yuzu is a citrus plant originating in east asia. I kind of assumed it would be more of an orange flavour but it’s most similar to a grapefruit taste. It is a little less bitter than grapefruit and not crazily strong in the matcha latte mix but it does have a tart flavour.

I found this was refreshing and I really enjoyed the opportunity to try a flavour I’ve never tried before but I did find the grapefruit-like bitterness slightly too strong but that’s probably just me.

This was a really good breakfast drink, which I guess is kinda like people having grapefruit for breakfast. It’s a refreshing flavour that’s good for an early morning wake up and again the matcha taste is still the dominant flavour, which is definitely a good thing.

Chocolate

I was really excited about the chocolate, two of my top 5 favourite foods combined! 😀 The first thing I noticed when I opened the packet is a smell very similar to powdered hot chocolate but with a matcha hit. When you add the water the smell goes from great to outstanding, literally smells of melting chocolate!

I wondered how well the chocolate and matcha flavours would go together but I have to say I needn’t of worried. The chocolate and matcha are there in equal amounts without one being too strong. The sweetener in the latte helps the flavours to blend, without it the sweet chocolate taste and vegetal matcha flavour might not of been such a good match. This was by far my favourite of the three, I just adore chocolate!

Ginger

This is one I was a little apprehensive about trying but it turned out to be really good. It’s not a sweet gingerbread-like flavour, it’s more of a spicy ginger which goes well with the matcha. I did it slightly too gingery for me but if ginger’s your thing I’m sure you’d love it. Again it’s very economical and made a really good thick milky drink with a lot of froth.

I found this latte smelt really great and the fresh gingery aroma really clears your airwaves when you take a sip. I’m sure if you also found the ginger a little too strong you could sweeten it, especially if you prefer a less natural, sweeter matcha.

So that’s my review of these fantastic matcha latte mixes from Yunomi, I really hope you enjoyed reading it and that you choose to try the chocolate, ginger or Yuzu matcha latte mixes for yourself 🙂

A big thanks to Yunomi for sending me these products to review, it’s such an honour to be sent products all the way from Japan so I really appreciate it 😀

As always, please share if you know anyone that will enjoy this review, join my mailing list below and find me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Thanks for reading!

Bye for now xXx

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Matcha Tea Reviews

Ethicoco Matcha Flavoured Vegan Chocolate

20th June 2016

A few weeks ago me and my boyfriend took a trip to Bristol for Vegfest, we figured the London and Brighton ones are awesome so we decided to check out Bristol’s too and it didn’t disappoint! I did hope there’d be some tea companies there but sadly there wasn’t, luckily I was able to at least get my matcha fix in the form of matcha flavoured chocolate from ethicoco. The first thing I wanted to do after trying it was write a review, so here it is! 😊

One minor annoyance was the chocolate actually got left in my boyfriends glovebox which is refrigerated but it turns out that’s only when the car’s moving so the chocolate got melted. Thankfully it did set again and didn’t seem to look any different so hopefully it was still tasted in its full glory!

The Texture
The first thing I noticed is the chocolate is really creamy, often I find vegan chocolate is a bit watery and as I’m not actually vegan I tend to like my chocolate more with milk in it. Every time my boyfriend mentions me going vegan I always say chocolate and ice cream would be the things I couldn’t live without so my challenge has always been to find vegan chocolate that I enjoy as much as non vegan chocolate. Ethicoco’s matcha chocolate really does have that enjoyable melting chocolate quality to it, which I haven’t found in much other vegan chocolate, apart from Vego.

The Taste

The other issue I always have with vegan chocolate is it often tastes like cooking chocolate tastes. This is another one of Ethicoco’s strong points, it does have a nice chocolate flavour and the strength of matcha in their matcha chocolate is perfect. You know the matcha’s there, with the slight dryness it adds but without it being bitter or vegetal. It’s also got enough matcha in it to be blatantly green which is pretty exciting and the matcha kick is really addictive!

Conclusion

I’m pretty pleased with Ethicoco’s matcha chocolate all round, it’s great tasting with a consistency that’s very very close to milk based chocolate. I’m interested to try their other flavours at some point and see how the milk chocolate compares to regular milk chocolate so I’ll add to this review when I get the chance to try them! 😊

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Matcha

Matcha Halloween Zombie Cake Pops Recipe

27th October 2015

I wanted to make something horrific for halloween and I decided cake pops would be perfect. You can eat them yourselves, make them with your family or even give them to trick or treaters!

I made white chocolate chip vanilla cake and covered them in matcha white chocolate, matcha is a fantastic natural alternative to green food colouring and tastes divine. I use Kiss Me Organics Culinary Grade Matcha, as it has a great taste and is also really green and it gives the brightest green colouring I’ve found, it’s also cheap for over 100g!

You’ll also need a cake pop mould, I used this Sweetly Does It mould.

Originally the plan was to use orange food colouring to make orange chocolate and decorate them as jack o lanterns but the food colouring I bought was awful and wouldn’t make the white chocolate anywhere near the orange I wanted.

I also decided I wanted to get some matcha involved somehow and while watching the Walking Dead premiere I decided that the perfect combo would be matcha green cake pops with zombie jack o lanterns! I had one white chocolate cake pop that I made before adding the matcha, so I had an idea to have the white chocolate one as a human. The finished result is the display of the women running from the zombies. It might not be that good (I’d never written with icing before) but they tastes fantastic which is the main thing! 🙂

So here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, room temperature

150g unrefined caster sugar

4 tbsp of milk, also room temperature

180g of self raising flower

1 bag of white chocolate chips

Culinary grade matcha, to taste

Method:

1. First thing you’ll want to do is cream the sugar and butter in a bowl

2. Add the eggs one at a time and beat gently with an electric whisk and add the vanilla extract

3. Sieve the flour and baking powder in to a bowl and combine

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix thoroughly

5. Add the milk and stir until the batter mixture is smooth and your desired amount of white chocolate chips.

6. Grease your cake pops mould thoroughly in all the holes and spoon the mixture in to the holes, add the lid of the mould. You can use a cocktail stick to prod the cake pops through the hole in the mould, to check if they’re cooked.

7. Place the mould on a tray to stabilise the cake pops while they cook and cook for 15-20 mins

8. Remove the cake pops when they’re ready and leave on a wire rack to cool. Take the top of the mould off and you should have perfect cake pops!

9. Last step is to melt some white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, add the amount of matcha you like. Dip the cake pop sticks in the white chocolate and leave them to set slightly, this will help to secure the cake pop in place on the stick (you can see my fallen cake pops as zombie heads in the background lol).

10. Stab your first cake pop with the stick and dip the cake pop in to the white chocolate, I used a fork to help lift the cake pop out, which greatly reduced the amount of cake pops falling off their stick. Put the cake pop in the holder and allow to set before decorating, repeat this for the rest of the cake pops and you’re done! 😀

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a fantastic Halloween! 😀

If you try these I’d love to hear how you get on 🙂

xXx

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Matcha Recipes

Matcha Halloween Zombie, Sugar Skull & Pumpkin Chocolates & Lollies

17th October 2015

With Halloween approaching I decided I’d do some Halloween themed cooking with matcha. Matcha makes the perfect green colour when added to white chocolate which is convenient for zombies and it’s much healthier than food colouring!

I love sugar skulls and zombies, ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ & the return of ‘The Walking Dead’ has made me even more zombie obsessed recently which inspired these chocolates.

There’s not really much of a recipe to be honest, basically just melt some white chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan full of water and then add matcha until the chocolate is the right colour and taste. I’m actually really quite pleased with the results, only downside is some of the matcha chocolate is dotty, not sure why :/

Here’s the finished matcha chocolates and lollies:

The two colour chocolates were made by pouring the matcha chocolate in first and leaving it to firm up (but not totally set) and then pouring the milk chocolate on top.

I also made some normal white chocolates and orange white chocolate, in a selection of more child friendly shapes:

Anyway that’s the first of my Halloween creations, I have matcha cake pops and doughnuts coming up, both with a Halloween twist! 😉

I used Kiss Me Organics Culinary Grade Matcha which I highly recommend for taste and also to produce vivid green colours in your cooking. We used Dr. Oetker food colouring gel for the pumpkins which was worthless, we used an entire tube in the chocolate for two lollies and it was nowhere near the colour we wanted 🙁

The moulds used are these Sugar Skulls and these Zombie moulds. You can get the lolly sticks from loads of places but I recently found these Halloween Coloured Lolly Sticks which I kinda wish I found before I made these!

Thanks so much for reading, I’d love to hear from anyone who makes these and if you have any questions just hit me up!

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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!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

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Tea Reviews White Tea

White Chocolate & White Tea? Yes Please!!

29th April 2015

Yesterday I had a wander round Whittard of Chelsea looking for something new and exciting. I’ve been loving the originality of the flavours from Bluebird Tea Co. but mainly just bought fruit tea in Whittard’s, which is awesome but I’ve got soooo much fruit tea!

So I saw white chocolate, obviously a winning ingredient, paired with white tea. I wondered how the sickly sweetness of white chocolate would pair with tea but it’s perfectly blended with the delicate flavour of white tea. The smell is incredible, as soon as the shop assistant poured the tea on to the scales it smelt like we were in a chocolate shop! 😀

I always find that Whittard’s tea lasts a long time and this is really true with this tea. To avoid too much of a tang from the white tea, you want to have this tea quite weak and also use 80 degrees water instead of boiling (otherwise the white tea gets burnt and bitter!).

This tea is great when you’re craving something a little naughty, I had my first mug alongside some chocolate fudge from The Fudge Kitchen so mine was a lot naughty (Shhhh!).

If anyone can suggest any other tea that’s a little different in the comments below I’ll be sure to take the plunge and review it <3

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Hi there, welcome to my blog about my biggest passion, tea!

My name’s Russell, my lifetime nickname has always been Rusty or Russtea as my friends now call me (my surname even begins with T!).

Not much beats the feeling of taking a moment at the end of a busy day and relaxing with your favourite mug, filled with sweet fruit tea, or waking up with black tea infused with vanilla shortbread.

Why not take a moment now, make your favourite tea and join me as I share my tea related experiences?