Thursday, August 17, 2017

Zhena's Fig & Flower green tea

At my local Publix recently, I noticed some teas on the clearance table.  I saw the Zhena's tea in the little glass jar with an attached wooden spoon.  I'm usually drawn more to black teas, but I thought the Fig & Flower blend sounded interesting and the price was right ($4.50 for 2 ounces or 25 servings). 


I was happy to see that this tea is organic and fair trade


The green tea is blended with green apple, figs and cornflowers.  It has a lovely fragrance and appearance.


It was odd that the jar said use two teaspoons of tea in 8 ounces of boiling water.  I'd always thought that you brewed green tea at temperatures between 165-185 degrees.  I steeped it at 165 for about two and a half minutes. 

I found the tea to have a faintly fruity, subtly sweet flavor that was pleasantly soothing.  This tea has low caffeine (20mg) and will be nice to have on hand for a late afternoon cuppa, when I don't need the high caffeine in the robust black tea that I drink in the morning.

Have any of you tried one of the many flavors of Zhena's Gypsy Teas. 

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Calla Lilly cake



It is taking me a long time to go through my massive book and magazine collection and decide which titles to sell and which to keep.  The problem is that something on the cover will catch my eye and then I just have to take a peek inside.  That's what happened with this Hoffman magazine from 2012 "Celebrating Cakes". 

Calla lilies have always been my favorite flower, so I found this bridal cake to be quite lovely.  Maybe I'll pass the magazine along to my younger daughter who is a talented baker.  One never knows, she might bake it for one of my birthday or anniversary celebrations. 

At this rate it could take a while to finish the sorting.   ;-)