If you are following along with me in drinking and revealing the 12 Teas of Christmas, grab the 3rd Day of Christmas pouch and lets see what tea we have in store for us.
The 3rd Day of Christmas is . . . . . . .
Snickerdoodle Reimagined
For me, this is a flavor that is really hard to nail. I’m quite picky with my Snickerdoodle cookies and that same level of snobbiness exists when you talk about teas that are supposed to be like anything Snickerdoodle related. Either the spices are too strong or too weak.
But not in this blend. . .
This Snickerdoodle blend is the perfect marriage between those cinnamon spices and a baked good vanilla warmth through each and every sip. I couldn’t put my cup down. I found myself re steeping the leaves several times over to get that soul soothing warmth again and again. This tea is that delicious.
What I loved most was how you could tell that was some serious thought into this tea. The black tea gave you that breaded baked good tone while the cinnamon and vanilla flavors really sold you on the Snickerdoodle flavor.
Again, I have to report that I completely took this pouch down in no time at all. With the weather turning ridiculously cold, icy, and snowy on us, this tea really spoke to me and gave me all the love I needed, infusion after infusion, pot after pot. I can’t tell you have many times I resteeped the leaves.
Another fabulous tea from this 12 Teas of Christmas! I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this year’s offering three teas in. I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings!
Here is the official description of this tea. Please note that I write my review before seeing the description.
Happy 3rd Day of our Christmas Tea Countdown, everyone!
I was really happy that this tea did so well in the poll. While it was a reblend – it was one that I took a great deal of liberTEA with when I recreated it – and so I was happy to know that people enjoyed my reinterpretation of this classic favorite!
Snickerdoodle – Reimagined Black Tea!
Tea Description: I was just going to go with my previously composed tea description for this tea, but my recipe changed slightly from my first reblend. My original description went like this:
This tea was reblended to fulfill one of the “You Choose the Reblend” rewards purchased on our start-up Kickstarter. The backer had mentioned to me that she wished that the original blend had more of a cookie-like flavor and when I agreed with her, she asked if I could maybe reblend it but add some cookie-ness to the tea, I said I’d give it a try.
I used my go-to black tea base of Chinese and Indian teas and added pieces of cinnamon and minced vanilla bean and all-natural flavors. The result is a yummy tea with prevalent notes of cinnamon and vanilla and a delicious cookie flavor. You’ve gotta try it!
Since I was looking to enhance the cookie note even further from my first attempt at this blend, I added some organic Vietnamese black tea to the blend (this rounded out the flavor of the base just a little more) and changed the recipe slightly to bring out the cookie flavor. By offering a smoother, more rounded tea base, the cookie notes seemed to pop a little more! The result is more yum with every sip!
All Organic Ingredients: Black Teas, Cinnamon, Vanilla Bean and Natural Flavors.
After I reblended this tea last year, I called it “Snickerdoodle – Reimagined” because I took some creative license with the recrafting of this tea. Instead of going with the simple, straightforward combination of vanilla and cinnamon that the original tea was, I wanted to give the tea a freshly baked cookie taste because when I think Snickerdoodle, I think cookie. I heard from a few tea drinkers that they weren’t really getting a whole lot of cookie-ness to my first reblend of this tea so when it was a high vote getter in the poll, I saw that as an opportunity to work on that cookie flavor.
And while I did taste some cookie flavor in the previous reblend – I taste more now – so here’s hoping that you guys taste it too!
To that end, it is important to give this tea a little bit of cooling time. Really, this is important of all the teas I create. The flavorings that are used begin to emerge when the temperature of the tea drops a little. That’s not to say that the tea needs to be chilled – but let the temperature cool to a drinkable temperature. Let it cool for at least 10 minutes (or even 15 minutes) before you start sipping. This will encourage those flavors to come forward.
The black tea has a really nice, well-rounded flavor. It’s invigorating and bold but not aggressive. I’m not getting bitterness. I’m not getting a lot of astringency either. Just a strong yet smooth black tea flavor. The cinnamon isn’t overpowering (cinnamon has a tendency to get that way!) There’s a nice vanilla note that softens the cinnamon note. The cinnamon and vanilla are the two most prominent flavors in this cup but I am also getting a background of cookie.
To brew: Don’t overleaf this one (I find that with too much leaf, the tea becomes astringent.) A slightly rounded teaspoon of tea to 12 ounces of boiling water – and let it steep for 2 1/2 minutes. Strain and let cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy!
Good without sweetener but a teensy bit of sugar will enhance the overall ‘cookie’ taste.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Flavored Black Tea
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea – as well as the others from the 12 Teas of Christmas box – will be available on the website on December 28th!
Learn even more about this tea company here!
Elevating Your Tea Game: 5 Tips For A Great Tea Party
Have an abundance of tea? What a great excuse for a party!
Tea parties are the perfect blend of mellow and fun. Plus, you get to drink tea, so it’s win-win. I’ve thrown several. Bridal showers? Birthday parties? Baby showers? All good reasons to have one.Here are some tips for smooth sipping:
1. Supplies, supplies, supplies! I’m not just talking about the tea. I’m talking about the ways to serve the tea. Make sure you have plenty of teacups available, a kettle with a lot of capacity, and a few steeper balls or reusable silicone bags.
2. Offer decaf options. Not everyone can handle caffeine! This is doubly important if your party has any young children. Please just take my word on this. Also, have some ginger tea on hand. There’s always at least one of my friends who feels a bit off. Tummy soothers are a good idea.
3. Incorporate dessert. Every single human being on this planet loves dessert. Encourage guests to bring their own favorites. You’ll have a smorgasbord of treats.
4. There’s no shame in incorporating non-tea or even (gasp!) alcohol. As gauche and horrifying as this is to mention, some people do not like tea. You may have such a monster in your friend group. Supply soda, coffee, juice, water, and booze.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can sneak tea into people by mixing some tea cocktails. Pictured above: rock & rye & rum punch. We added hibiscus flowers to make the drinks look cool.
Those gorgeous nails (above, right) are absolutely not mine.
5. Let people take their own goodie bags. Supply little “snack-sized” resealable bags and sharpies, and let people take home a few scoops of their favorites.
Whenever they sip, they’ll remember what a blast they had with you!
It’s a Halloween Tea Party Time Giveaway! #SunshineCottage #Nandy’sNook #BlueCrabb
Happy October to all of our readers! It’s time for all things pumpkin, fall like, and spooky! We at SororiTea Sisters have teamed up with three amazing Etsy stores to give you a chance to win a Halloween Tea Party gift pack!
Included in this prize pack is a delicious flavored tea from Sunshine Cottage, a gorgeous stamped teaspoon from Blue Crabb and to top off the Halloween theme, a mug cozy from Nandy’s Nook. There is’t a better way to welcome in the holiday so enter today!
Happy Witch Tea Blend: Make your inner witch happy with this wonderful flavored black tea. Hand blended it’s full of sweet apples, cinnamon and spices, with a touch of vanilla for smoothness – It’s magical!
Halloween Mug Cozy from Nandy’s Nook– Crocheted with 100% cotton yarn, this cozy is sized to fit most standard size coffee mugs with a circumference of 10 to 10.5 inches.
Beautiful Vintage Hand Stamped Silverplate Spoon from BlueCrabb
What a wonderful way to enjoy the season! Good luck to all our readers! This is one great prize pack!
It’s a Halloween Tea Party Time Giveaway! #SunshineCottage #Nandy’sNook #BlueCrabb
Festive Garden from Palais des thes
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Palais des thes
Tea Description:
A delicious herbal tea of fruits and plants, Festive garden blends cocoa, orange, and grapes and tastes like a candy store at Christmas.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have to say, steeping- this tea has a unique aroma coming from it. The description fits it perfectly. It smells like a candy store where there are a bunch of sweet treats all mixed together. Just from the dry leaf alone I can pick up what smells like bubble gum, cotton candy, and suckers with a grape and orange twist. Very unique indeed!
This is my first experience with Palais des thes. I’ve always wanted to try tea from them in the past but have never really come across it or think about the company when I’m looking for my next tea fix. I was excited to see this offering in my last set of teas to review.
This unique blend consists of 7 different fruits and plants and is just so much fun to look at. This is one of those teas that just put you in a happy mood while you are steeping it. I brewed this up with water prepped at boiling and allowed the herbal tea to brew for about 5 minutes. The tea was a lovely light pink or rose color. This tea just screamed for an afternoon tea time with proper biscuits and cookies. Or even to be served at a little girl’s tea party.
I allowed the tea to cool for a few moments and took a sip. What I am greeted with is a flavor that really reminded me of the aroma I was getting from the dry leaf. I swear this tea tastes like a bubblegum cotton candy mix with a slight hint of a chocolate undertone. A very unique herbal tea. That taste tho doesn’t seem like one that fits a hot tea very well so I tossed in a few iced cubes to see how this tea would play out as iced and also a lemon wedge.
The iced cubes seemed to really intensify the chocolate flavors. Those seem to be the first ones I’m now greeted with instead of the bubblegum cotton candy mix. That being said, the iced tea with lemon didn’t work out so well so I took the lemon wedge out and just enjoyed the unique cuppa I had. I wish this would be a great iced bubble gum cotton candy flavor like I was getting from the hot tea but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Regardless, this is one unique cuppa tea that takes you on a tasting adventure for sure!
Mother’s Day Fun with Litehouse Foods
Information:
Where to Buy: Where Litehouse Foods are sold.
Description:
Because Taste Matters
Taster’s Review:
Recently, LiberTeas asked if anybody was interested in doing a review on Litehouse Foods product line in conjunction with Mother’s Day. I jumped instantly at the opportunity. My mom is a huge foodie! She is an amazing little chef and baker in her own right. My childhood memories are flooded with happy times with family members and there was something fantastic to munch on. My mom was thrilled to participate and so was my dad. We had a ton of incredible spices and dressings to play with.
We started the day out with making up some dip. Salmon dip. Salmon dip with these amazing freeze dried spices that Litehouse Foods provided. My mom gave me a face when she saw the jar and I told her that all she needed to do was add water. She was a good team player and went with it. it I think she is addicted to them now. Litehouse Foods has an array of different freeze dried spices from cilantro to ginger. All you do is add water to the spices and Viola! You have instant fresh spices. The taste fresh too. Just like you bought them fresh from the local market.
Salmon Dip
1-can pink salmon
1 pk cream cheese
pinch of garlic powder (or to taste)
Litehouse Foods Freeze Dried Chives- 2 tablespoons (or to taste)
Litehouse Foods Freeze Dried Dill- 3 tablespoons (or to taste)
We took a can of pink salmon, a package of cream cheese, Litehouse Food Chives, Litehouse Food’s Dill, and garlic powder. Mix all of it up in a bowl. We basically added the spices in to taste. Wowza! The dip turned out so good. Rich and creamy with a hint of tang from the dill and chives. The dill and chive spices tasted so fresh and bright.
Since we used so much cream cheese, the salmon flavor was very light and subtle. Such a delightful treat to start our day with. We all said we could see this being a spread that you could put on break for finger sandwiches. Since I have an issue with carbs, we stuck to this being a dip instead.
I think my dad single handedly took down half of this dip. We dipped veggies and crackers into this delight. Yum!
We also opened Litehouse Foods’ Cucumber Dill Dip. We are the family that always has the veggie tray at these festivies. My mom ate half of this dip on her own with carrot sticks. She proclaimed this to be the best veggie dip ever. And she has always been a lover of the Ranch Packet dip.
Next, we made my Buffalo Chicken Street Tacos. A recipe I can come up with one day for dinner.
1 can of Buffalo Chicken (I get mine from Costco)
1 can of corn-drained
1 can of diced tomatoes-drained
1 green pepper-diced
1 pkg of taco seasoning
Dump all ingredients into a pan or combine all into a crock pot for ease. If you want the mixture spicy, add in some red pepper flakes or jalapenos. Warm up the mixture and allow the ingredients to simmer together.
Take either soft tortillas or hard shell shells and pour some of the mixture in. Add in any kind of cheese you would use for tacos.
Since this is Buffalo Chicken, I was hit with “inspiration” for this dish and thought, Litehouse Foods has my favorite Blue Cheese dressing- Chunky Bleu Cheese. The best part of this dressing, it is Gluten Free! I try to go as Gluten Free as possible. So, after we made up the tacos, we added in some of the dressing instead of using a salsa or sour cream. Oh mama! Were these ever delicious! We gobbled them down like you wouldn’t believe! The creamy blue cheese dressing calmed the spices in the mixture just a bit and brought out an amazing buffalo chicken flavor.
We are huge salad eaters at our family functions. One of my aunt’s duties each get together is to bring the salad. She was so excited to see an Litehouse Foods’ Organic Ranch dressing. She adored it! She said it was rich and tangy with an incredible texture. All she could say was Yum !Yum! A Yum!
To end our Mother’s Day luncheon with a dessert my mom makes with crushed pineapple, chunks of angel food cake, layered like a parfait with sliced strawberries on top. It is a MUST for my family. My 9 year old destroys a bowl full in a matter of seconds. Too add a bit of a fresh twist, we added in a couple of pinches of Litehouse Foods Mint. When we received the Litehouse Foods box a few days before Mother’s Day, I was the most excited and looking forward to was trying this freeze dried spice out. I couldn’t wait to add the mint into teas, dessert, yogurts, smoothies, and possibly an adult beverage or two. One bite of this dessert and it was this fantastic array of flavors. . the sweetness of the pineapple and strawberries and the fresh mint compounded with the vanilla sponge cake. . just so good! We all were in heaven.
We had a great time with the Litehouse Foods and spices, dips and dressings. I can honestly say that I have bought Litehouse Foods products in the past and have enjoyed them. But for one reason or another, just never seemed to pick those products up again. I can say after this Mother’s Day luncheon, Litehouse Foods has renewed customers out of us. I am dying now to pick up the Cilantro and other herbs they offer. And I can say without any kind of hesitation that I will never run out of this Bleu Cheese dressing. Thank you Litehouse Foods for giving my mom and I a fantastic lunch!! We appreciated the products and can’t wait to get our hands on more!
When we got back home from my parents, my boyfriend handed me a bag and said “Happy Mother’s Day”. He gave me the most thoughtful gift I have ever received! I just had to share.