Summer's here!

On June 21 at 7:28am EDT (11:28am GMT) summer will finally be here!
What better way to celebrate than a bowl of delicious frosty ice cream!


Green Tea and White Chocolate Ice Cream

8 ounces white chocolate, chopped into pieces, about 1/2 inch
2 cups light cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp pure vanilla
5 large egg yolks (be sure they are at room temp)
3/4 cup light brown sugar (more if you like sweet ice cream)
2 Tbsp matcha

Directions
1. Mix the creams and extract in a saucepan and heat to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks.
3. In a small bowl mix the brown sugar with the green matcha making sure to completely incorporate the matcha.
4. Add the brown sugar/green tea mixture to the egg yolks and blend.
5. Add 1/4 cup of cream at a time to the egg/tea blend and whisk until fully incorporated. Pour it back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat until the custard is thick, at about 170°F.
6. Remove the custard from the heat and strain through a fine mesh strainer into the bowl of chopped white chocolate pieces. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Let the custard cool to room temp and them cover and chill in the fridge overnight.
7. The following day, processing in an ice cream make according to the manufacturers instructions.

Enjoy!

Spiced Iced is so Nice!

Who said iced tea has to be fruity, or spicy tea can only be served hot? Spiced teas make surprisingly good iced teas!
Spiced Iced is so Nice!

Ingredients:

3 TBSP loose leaf black tea
4 cups water
12 whole cloves
12 allspice berries
A 2-inch cinnamon stick

Directions:
1. Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a simmer,not a boil. (When steam is slow and lazy and small bubbles have started to appear on the bottom of the pot, remove from the heat)
2. Add tea, cloves, allspice and cinnamon.
3. Cover and steep the mix for about 5 minutes. Strain out all the spices and tea leaves, and then put in the fridge to chill thoroughly. Serve this spiced iced tea over ice. Garnish with lemon slices.

Classic Southern Sweet Tea

Yes, Classic Southern Sweet Tea is loaded with sugar, but it's still far less sugar than any sweetened bottle product contains, and you can control how much sugar is in your iced tea. This recipe is a little less sweet than a deep south sweet tea, but perhaps plenty sweet enough for the Yankee palate.

For each quart:
Ingredients
2 cups near boiling water (175°F-185°F)
2 Tbsp loose black tea (in a large tea ball, Tsac or cheesecloth)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups cold water
1 pinch (1/16 tsp) baking soda

Directions

1. Heat 2 cups of the water to just below boiling. (175°F-185°F) 2. Steep the tea with the baking soda in the 1 cup of the hot water for about 3-4 minutes. 3. Dissolve the sugar in 1 cup of hot water. 4. Remove the tea leaves from the brewed tea concentrate. 5. Add the hot tea and the dissolved sugar to the cold water. 6. Chill until ready to serve. Serve over ice. Garnish as desired.
For best results, SensibiliTeas recommends Java Malabar or Assam 1947 for this recipe. Large TSacs for making larger quantities of tea are available at SensibiliTeas. These TSacs are also great for making mulled wine or cider later in the year.

The Basic Iced Tea Recipe

This is the basic iced tea recipe. In any recipe I provide you in the future that makes reference to brewed tea, this is the recipe I mean! Takes only a few minutes and packs 10 times more antioxidants than a bottle iced tea!

For each quart:
Ingredients
2 cups near boiling water (175°F-185°F)
2 Tbsp loose black tea (in a large tea ball, Tsac or cheesecloth)
2 cups cold water

Directions
1. Heat 2 cups of the water to just below boiling. (175°F-185°F)
2. Placed the tea leaves in 1 cup of hot water and cover and steep for about 3-4 minutes (or as otherwise recommended by SensibiliTeas)
3. Remove the tea leaves.
4. Add the hot tea to the cold water.
5. Chill until ready to serve. Serve over ice. Garnish as desired.

Enjoy!

Large TSacs for making larger quantities of tea are available at SensibiliTeas.
These TSacs are also great for making mulled wine or cider later in the year.

It's National Iced Tea Month

Yes ... that's right! National Iced Tea Month!
Did you know that iced tea is made from ... TEA!
You wouldn't know it by reading the labels of the bottled stuff many people drink:
water, sugar, citric acid, tea extract, trisodium citrate, Vitamin C.

Gee ... know what's in my iced tea?
water, tea and sometimes sugar.

or diet iced tea ...
water, citric acid, tea, sodium hexametaphosphate, natural flavors, phosphoric acid, potassium sorbate, potassium benzoate, citrus pectin, sucralose, caramel color, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium EDTA and Red 40.

Know what's in my diet iced tea
water, tea

I don't need to add preservatives because I make my tea fresh and I'm likely to drink it within a day or two. Bottled tea has to be preserved for many weeks, if not months, before it ever makes it to your grocery basket.
I don't need to add colors. It's already the right color.
And if I want a flavor ... I'll use a flavored tea, preferably one with an organic flavor.
And diet tea? Really? It was already calorie-free ... why is the ingredient list longer for the diet product? Shouldn't it be less?

Does bottled tea have antioxidants?
Yes ... it has more antioxidants that a bottle of water, a sports drink or a soda. However, The Univiersity of Oregon did a study that showed that bottled tea had only 10% of the antioxidants of freshly brewed tea.
This could be for two reasons. First, commercial teas my be cold brewed. That means tea leaves are soaked in a cooled environment for a long time. The result is smooth, non-bitter tea. However, the antioxidants in tea need heat in order to be released. Additionally, the antioxidants in tea may be coming from the citric acid and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) that is often added to a bottled product.
Antioxidants may also be lower because antioxidants in tea are reduced over time. So all that time the tea is being packaged, shipped, stored and sold ... it's losing whatever antioxidants it had.

Making your own iced tea is incredibly fast and simple. And if it will give you control over the sugar you add, and your variety is infinitely greater then every before.

Getting good iced tea, if you're not making it yourself, is really a matter of knowing what a label says. If you can't pronounce it, you probably don't need it.
If it says sucralose, understand that means Splenda.
If it says Nutra Sweet, Equal, or Canderel, it's aspartame.
Sugars, like High Fructose Corn Syrup are hidden under a bunch of aliases too -- fructose, crystalline fructose, glucose, glucose-fructose syrup, dextrose, corn syrup, cane juice, high maltose syrup, invert syrup, corn syrup solids, sugar, sucrose... it's not unusual for a ready-to-drink product to contain two or more of these sugars.

There's really nothing wrong with sugar, providing it's used in moderation. But I prefere real sugar. Honestly, if your iced tea is good enough to start with, it likely doesn't need sweetening.
At SensibiliTeas, when we desire a sweeter cup of tea, we steep stevia leaves with the tea leaves for a sweeter result. If using honey, we stir the honey into the hot water before applying to ice. Honey just kinda of seizes up on top of the ice cubes. We keep a simple syrup on hand too, for those wishing to sweeten with sugar after it's been made cold.

Future posts this month will provide recipes for iced teas and iced tea punches.
I hope you have the chance to enjoy some freshly brewed iced tea soon!