Jackie O select Send Message

Oh my goodness. So last night I tried to make french macarons. Fail. I still wanted some delicious tea cookie treat and I had the ingredients for shortbread cookies.

I got to the part with a tsp of vanilla, opened the cabinet and yelled “NO VANILLA!” because I ran out last weekend and forgot to get more. However…I DID have banana extract. So I tried banana shortbread cookies. To complete the odd cookie, I sandwiched them together with some nutella between. BAM! Banana shortbread nutella cookie sandwiches. THE PERFECT thing to accompany a smooth, strong, simple cup of tea.

With sweet things I tend to want a plainer tea, instead of my regular dessert tea. So the earl grey was the perfect touch. This is also the best earl grey I’ve ever had.

OH! The shortbread cookie recipe:

2 sticks of butter softened (I wrapped them in parchment paper and smooshed them around with my hands on a cutting board, then microwaved for 20 seconds)
1/4 Cup of white sugar
2 Cups of flour
1 tsp of flavor extract

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix the softened butter and sugar until well blended. Add extract and mix. Add flour and blend it all together (I use my hands for this). Grease cookie sheet, roll dough into 1 inch balls and flatten. Bake for 10 minutes, let cool on tray for 10 minutes, move to cooling rack for 30 minutes…then they are ready to make into sandwiches if you want.

one more edit this makes about 2 dozen cookies. The original recipe called for double all this and that was just too much for me.

I didn’t think I could love this tea any more than I already do but then I made it into a latte. I found the recipe for the latte on DAVIDsTEA Pinterest and you can find it at this link:

http://thebakingbird.com/how-to-make-a-bowl-of-soul-tea-latte/

I used almond milk instead of soy milk and WHOA was it incredible. It had the perfect amount of creaminess and the delicious sweet flavor of the tea that I love so much, plus I topped it with a little nutmeg like the recipe calls for and it blew me away. An amazing bathtime treat in my opinion.

I sent the link to my stepmom because I bought her 100g of Birthday Cake Rooibos for her birthday and I thought that she would really enjoy a Birthday Cake tea latte to curb sweet cravings and could top it with colored sprinkles instead of nutmeg. I encourage everyone to experiment with this tea latte recipe and you favorite teas and decorative toppings. I also ended up needing about a cup and a half of milk because my mug was too large.

DO IT. do it.

First things first, I love my tea friends. I love that I have tea friends and I love talking to you, swapping with you, reading about every tea you drink. I hope I get to met every single one of you someday because you make my work days easier and my off days relaxing.

Into this tea, I’ve always been a fan but I learned today that if I brew it a little longer I get a creamier caramel flavor and a buttery type of mouth feel. If you’re one of the people who is under pleased by this tea, steep it like a minute longer. Yummmm, I want more now.

Just logging this, I’m up at 230am ET feeling nauseous but this tea and my snuggle hungry boy cat are making me feel better already

So about a month ago, maybe more, I wrote to Simpson and Vail. I had a sample of DAVIDs Cocomint Cream not expecting to like it and I fell in love. It reminded me of home and cured my constant homesickness, the coconut reminded me of putting on sunscreen before going for runs to the beach on the coast in CT where I served for a year, and the mint reminded me of my dad making me peppermint tea after hockey games in the winters when I was little. It only made sense to reach out to a local family owned company in my home state to top it off with perfection.

I sent a sample of Cocomint Cream to Cyndi at Simpson and Vail and she said they would try to come up with their version of it. They promptly sent me back their own sample of their blend and BAM…I’m obsessed. The only difference (and it’s one I love) is that SV uses unsweetened coconut while DAVIDs uses sweetened.

After telling Cyndi that this is my favorite tea I’ve ever tasted (freshest mint, smoothest flavors, light coconut aroma- would be GREAT iced), I asked her when and where I can buy it. It is now on the website but you have to search for it…type in either “jaclyn” or “cocomint” to find it. I immediately ordered a pound of it and cannot wait to drink it without having to savor each last drop because it is a limited tea.

SV, and Cyndi in particular, offered and displayed the absolute top of the line best customer service I have received in any setting. It felt like I was talking to my family about this idea. If you have never tried a Simpson and Vail tea, you will NOT be disappointed with your order (try my cocomint one!!).

And my name is in it…it’s JACLYN’S. best day of my life.

I’m going to re review this one. At first I loved it, I tasted the cake. Now I get kind of a weird flavor with roasted mate. I think I’ll mix this with some of my adagio flavored black teas instead…

ummm YUM. I sip this and I get the blueberry of course, but you know that pure sugar coating they put on donuts and danishes that you know was once liquid and they just poured it over…GLAZE, it’s called glaze. I can taste the glaze and it’s freaking crazy awesome. I can taste the cream cheese vanilla-y icing that adds a creaminess to the flavor of the tea. The body is still a beautiful Assam so you don’t forget you’re enjoying a cup of tea, but you remember that you’re enjoying one of the best teas you’ve ever had.

This smells way more just like pure sweet blueberry than it tastes, the flavor encompasses everything you imagine about a danish, like I said from the glaze to the cream cheese filling. I don’t think I can get enough of this.

I ordered 2 bags of this and only 1 came in the mail :( Anyway, I tried it this morning, I love to keep flavored mate on hand for waking up in the morning and I’m obsessed with dessert teas so something cake flavored with a jolt in the morning is my dream.

I’m impressed! it is definitely cakey, this is going to sound odd but you know how there’s a difference between the smell of cake baking and the smell once it’s done? Like while it’s baking it smells moist and once it’s done it’s drier? This tastes more like done cake, and I like that, it’s chocolately and cakey and I can even taste the cream cheese frosting which I did not expect. This may need to be stocked a little higher on my shelf so when it runs out I still have plenty.

I don’t have much to say about this, my teas all got tainted by the flavors and smells of the other teas in the package so this just kind of tasted like a weird mix of fruit and flowers. All of them tasted the same so I had to get rid of them. Also my desk drawer smells like the fruitpourri too.

I’m not a Dr. Who fan, I’ve never watched Dr. Who, I’ve never even Googled Dr. Who…I once walked by the BBC section of FYE and saw the DVD case but that’s it. I am however a huge dessert tea fanatic and buttered toffee caramel corn black tea sounds like heaven to me.

I steeped it at 212 for 3 minutes, and I find with 52teas I have to let the tea cool a bit before I get the flavor. But on the first sip I get some caramel and a fabulously delicious black tea base, I have totally fallen in love with 52teas black tea base. As it cools I get a more buttery feeling and flavor. I’m not sure I can taste the toffee, either that or caramel and toffee are too similar in a tea to be differentiated. Or they just combine and complement so well that it doesn’t matter.

This is a tea that I really enjoy, and I will be happy it’s in my desk drawer for a while, but I won’t reorder it. I really like it, but I don’t LOVE it.