Holiday Tea Infused Turkey...

If your turkey turns out like this, you got a problem...

Photo by HaloHaloph

Don't worry, no kids were hurt taking this photo...

If you want a turkey infused with holiday spices and healthy red tea, follow this recipe...

Photo by Christina Perozzi 

Holiday Tea Infused Turkey

Ingredients:

• (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
  

For the brine:

• 1 gallon chicken stock, low sodium
  
• 4 tablespoon Holiday Spice Rooibos Tea (blend of red rooibos and aromatic holiday spices... cinnamon, clove, orange peel, apples, almonds, & rose petals!)
  
• 1 cup kosher salt
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
  
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

Preparation - 2 to 3 days before roasting:

1. Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator at 38 degrees F.
   
2. Tea-Infused Brine: Combine the vegetable stock, Holiday Spice Rooibos Tea, sugar, salt and in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.
3. The night before you cook the turkey, combine the tea-brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. Ensure the turkey is fully immersed, cover and refrigerate 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.
   

For the aromatics:

• 1 red apple, sliced
  
• 1 orange, peeled and sliced
  
• 1/2 onion, sliced
  
• 1 cinnamon stick
  
• 2 TBS Holiday Spice Rooibos Tea
  
• 1 cup water
  
• 4 sprigs rosemary
  
• 6 leaves sage
  

For turkey coating:

• Tea-soning:
  

·      1 ½ TBS Holiday Spice Rooibos Tea

·      1 ½ tsp rosemary

·      1 tsp thyme

·      1 tsp sage

Salt & pepper to taste

Canola oil

Aromatics & Gravy Base:

• 1 lb onion, large dice
• ½ lb fennel, large dice
• ½ lb carrots, large dice
• ½ lb apple, large dice
• ½ cup almond, roughly chopped
• 1 TBS Holiday Spice Rooibos Tea
• Canola oil
• Salt & pepper
• 3 cup dry white wine
• 6 cup vegetable stock
• Corn Starch slurry, mix 1 TBS cornstarch & 1 cup water together
• 1 lemon, juice
• 3 TBS unsalted butter, chopped

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 525° F. Remove the turkey from brine and completely rinse it with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the brine.
   
2. Combine the apple, orange, onion, Holiday Spice Rooibos Tea, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Truss the turkey and coat the skin liberally with canola oil and sprinkle tea-soning. (How to truss a turkey video by Alton Brown: www.foodnetwork.com/videos/how-to-truss-a-turkey/27751.html)
   
3. Mix onion, fennel, carrots, apples, almonds & tea together and coat with canola oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Place mixture on bottom of roasting pan and place the turkey on roasting rack on top of aromatics to make gravy base.
   
4. Place the turkey on lowest level of the oven and roast at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven to 350° and insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast. Roast until an instant thermometer reads 160° F, about a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil for 15-20 minutes before carving.
   
5. While the turkey in resting, place the roasting pan with gravy aromatics on top of stove and heat on high. Add wine and deglaze by scraping the bottom of the pan. Add chicken stock and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Add 1/2 of the slurry and stir occasionally. Cook until thickens and remove from heat. Add more slurry, 1 tsp at a time, if you want gravy thicker. Strain gravy and place back on medium heated stove. Whisk in lemon juice and butter until combined. Season to taste with salt ad pepper. Serve with turkey.
   

Happy Thanksgiving...

Be Grateful & Eat Well...

The Tea Spot Celebrates the Holidays...

Celebrating the holidays since 1986, the Holiday Food & Gift Show in Denver was a fun way for us to meet many existing and new fans of The Tea Spot... 

I personally procrastinate when shopping for holiday gifts, up until now. Attendees of this gift show made me realize how important it is to shop ahead to get the perfect gift for somebody you love. 

Janice (left), Karen (middle) and Janice's Friend (right)

Shoppers like Janice bought the Dripless Teapot and a tin of Earl of Grey for her tea-loving mother. Her friend bought a Tuffy Steeper and a tin of Boulder Blues for her brother, the world-traveler. She also bought the Steeping Mug and a tin of Bolder Breakfast for her hard-working husband.  They were so excited about finding the perfect gift for the people they love; it made me realize how important it was that we were there to help.

For those that missed our booth or didn't make it to the event, don't worry you can visit our website...24/7...

Roasted Harvest Roots served in a Jack-o-latern

Roasted Harvest Roots served in a Jack-o-latern

Harvest roots blanched in tea and roasted in tea-sonings. A great side dish for any holiday dinner.

Yield: 8-10 servings

Ingredients

• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1.5 lb beets - roasted, peeled & cut (large dice, ¾ x ¾  x ¾ )
• 2 TBS Harvest Spice loose tea, for blanching water
• 2 lb Sweet Potatoes – peeled & cut (large dice)
• 2 lb Butternut Squash - peeled & cut (large dice)
• 2 lb Rutabaga – peeled & cut (large dice)
• 1 lb Carrots, peeled & cut (large dice)
• Cheese cloth & string
• 2 cups Maple syrup
• 8 TBS butter, divided into ½ TBS pieces
• Harvest Spice Tea-soning: To make tea-soning, hand blend the following ingredients...
• 1 TBS Harvest Spice, finely grounded
• 2 TBS Brown sugar
• 1 ½ TBS Salt
• ½ TBS white pepper
• Optional - Jack-o-lantern serving bowl: 1 large Pumpkin, hallowed 

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven for 375. Place whole beets on tin foil. Oil beets with canola oil and sprinkle salt & pepper. Cover and place in oven for 30-40 minutes, until soft in center. Take out beets and let cool. When cool, peel with damp tea towel. Cut into large dices ( ¾ x ¾  x ¾ ).
2. While the beets are roasting, blanch & shock the rest of the roots in tea infused water. Place 2 TBS of Harvest spice in cheesecloth and tie with string. In a large pot, bring salted water & tea to a boil. Place sweet potatoes in boiling water and let cook until slightly softened, about 15 minutes. Stain and immediately place in ice water to shock, stop cooking. Take out of ice water bath and strain to dry. Following the same process, blanch & shock the butternut squash (blanch about 8-10 min), rutabaga (blanch about 5 min) and carrots (blanch 3 min) all separately since they cook at different time.
3. In a large bowl, mix all the roots together. Place all the vegetables on oiled baking sheet and drizzle with maple syrup. Sprinkle tea-soning. Evenly place butter pieces on top of the vegetables.
4. Place veggies in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Rotate baking sheet and let cook for another 10 minutes. Season to taste.
5. Optional - Jack-o-lantern serving bowl: While the roots roast, hallow out a pumpkin and place it in the oven for 10-15 minutes to let it warm and soften. Place the roasted roots in the pumpkin and serve.

"A Cuple of Tea" (WINNER of the 2009 Calm-a-Sutra of Tea Scholarship)

The Calm-A-Sutra is a national scholarship given by Tea USA for the most creative tea video, as a means to educate consumers about the delicious taste and the numerous health benefits of drinking tea, specifically black, green, white & oolong which are all from the Camellia Sinensis plant.

And the winner is....

Moral of the story: don't be prejudice; all tea comes from the same plant...

Are drinks made with matcha green tea added as super-healthy as they sound?

The below post comes thanks to a Q&A posted on the Kansas City info zine site!

Matcha is simply ground green tea leaves. As traditionally prepared in Japan, a small amount of these ground leaves were whisked with plain hot water to produce tea. Both in Japan and the United States, it is now a common ingredient in sweets (where it adds a green color to ice cream, pudding and candy) and sweetened milk drinks such as lattés, smoothies and milkshakes. Matcha is generally an very expensive form of tea, although price and quality vary with where it was grown, timing and method of harvest, and the measures taken to keep the leaves from oxidizing. Research is limited on how its health benefits compare to regular green tea. One study from the University of Colorado found that matcha tea contained much, much higher antioxidants than green tea. However this comparison involved high quality matcha and relatively low quality green tea. USDA data on green tea suggests that its content may not be much different from that of matcha. While smoothies and lattes are a popular way to get green tea antioxidants, most of these drinks contain enough added sugar that they are far from low-calorie. For example, compared to 100 calories in the same size coffee latté, a 12-ounce matcha green tea latté made with skim milk from one popular national coffee bar chain contains 210 calories and includes over six teaspoons of added sugar... Sounds like we're talking antioxidant-rich frappucino here!

Thank you Amazon for the "New Tastes in Green Tea" cover shot

Steamed Mussel in Hojicha Wine Nage (Broth)

The perfect appetizer for two...

The wine infuses the dish with hints of sweetness, the Hojicha gives it a touch of earthiness, the mussels balance it with bits of saltiness and the butter brings is all together...

Steamed Mussels in Hojicha Wine broth

· 1-2 TBS butter

· 1 shallot, minced

· 2 garlic cloves

· 1/2 cup white wine

· 3/4 cup fish stock

· 1/2 TBS Hojcha green tea, loose leaf

· 1 bay leaf

· 1 lb mussels scrubbed & debeared (keep over ice)

· 2 TBS heavy cream

· 2 roma tomatoes, blanched & shocked, seeded and diced

· 1 poblano pepper, seeded & diced

· 1 TBS butter,

· Garnish: parsley, lemon (zest & juice)

· Season with salt, pepper, & cayenne pepper

· Toasted bread

1. Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Sweat shallots until soft, 2 min. Stir in garlic until fragrant. Stir in wine Hojicha tea, and bay leaf and simmer for 2 minutes.

2. Increase heat to high and add mussels. Cover and cook stirring occasionally until mussels open 3-7 minutes.

3. Using slotted spoon, transfer opened mussels to serving bowl, leaving liquid in pot, discard unopened. Remove bay leaf.

4. Toast bread.

5. Whisk in butter, cream and lemon until thickens about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes, pepper and simmer. Garnish with parsley and season to taste. Pour nage (broth) over mussels and serve with toasted bread.

Easy to make and tea-licious to eat...

More on Locks of Love...

I feel the need to elaborate a little on my last post...

In accordance with our social mission to donate 10% of ALL sales to cancer wellness & community programs, I finally cut my hair. It took me close to a year to grow it long enough to donate it to Locks of Love. 

What is Locks of Love?

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Their 'mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. The children receive hair prostheses free of charge or on a sliding scale, based on financial need.'

Cancer constitutes the second highest percentage of their recipients. Every year approximately 2,200 children under age 20 are diagnosed with brain tumors. Radiation treatment to the brain stem as a treatment for cancer can cause permanent hair loss. Chemotherapy may also cause hair loss to be long-term depending on the length of treatment needed.

It is amazing, something I took for granted is something a young child relies on for normalcy. Anyhow, I am not elaborating on my experience to toot my own teapot. I am trying to spread the word. It is a great cause that will help kids feel confident, beautiful and like everybody else. 

Just find a great hair dresser.

If you live in or new Boulder, CO go to Zing Hair. They treat their customers like family.

Give Some Love to the Ladies!

With so much around us plastered in pink and ribbons this month (including our homepage) it has become visually striking that people are truly banding together to raise awareness and funding for Breast Cancer. And the exciting part is that the collective efforts seem to be growing each year!

In line with our company's commitment to donating 10% of our sales (not to be mistaken for profits) as in-kind gifts to cancer wellness and community programs, we are doing something special this month. With each STEEP IT PINK set we sell this month (see image), we will give a gift of Snowflakes white tea and a Steeping Cup (valuing ~$27) to the breast cancer survivors participating in Casting for Recovery. This non-profit program is designed to incorporate the sport of fly-fishing and reconnecting to nature to encourage mental and physical healing of the participants as they recover from breast cancer. Participation in their program is free of charge to the women and primarily funded though the generosity of donors. We are so proud to be partnering with them and hope to be able to give generously to these women, with your help of course.

In the spirit of giving, FOODORO, a new gourmet food website that just launched earlier this year, is also doing a great Breast Cancer Awareness Promotion for the next couple weeks. They started carrying our teas and teaware a few months ago in addition to many other tasty finds. Right now they are promoting an array of breast cancer gifts which includes our STEEP IT PINK set on their homepage as well as in their Breast Cancer Awareness specialty shop. Check out all of the gifts and donations that will result. They've even got cute ribbons on the product photos to identify the donation amounts that each company is giving. Collectively, we can make a difference!

I's not a recipe,, it's a call to action...Just cut your hair...

Before the haircut...

After the haircut & still smiling....

All I have to say is...LOCKS OF LOVE...

Is there anybody else out there that wants to cut there hair?

Trip to Hawaii?... really any reason will do!

So maybe I'm just fantasizing about the tropical bliss of Hawaii after getting our first snow over the weekend (I'm a west coast transplant, still out of sorts when the morning calls for scraping ice from my windshield), but nonetheless I've got Hawaii on the mind. So today, we made it easier for our friends in Hawaii to place orders online.

I'm happy to announce that we're now offering shipping from our online tea & teaware shop to Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Puerto Rico, & the US Virgin Islands. The US Postal Service offers the best rates, so we're charging flat rates based on your order's subtotal:

$0 - $49.99 = $11 shipping

$50 - $149.99 = $19 shipping

$150.00+ = $39 shipping

We also offer additional options for Hawaii & Alaska, regardless of your subtotal, to expedite your order when you need it to arrive faster:

UPS "ground" = $33

UPS 2nd Day Air = $39

And in order to get you your products as soon as humanly possible, it's our ongoing policy that all UPS orders placed by 2pm EST are shipped from our warehouse the same day, Monday - Friday.

We're also expanding internationally soon, so spread the word...