Recipe: Strawberry Iced Tea Syrup

It's been a while since my last post! The reason why is because of finals last week, and AP exams this week. I'll post more when I get a chance, but it looks like I'll be busy for just a bit longer. Anyway, this recipe is one I adapted from Foodwishes– it's a strawberry-tea syrup you can use in drinks, since Summer is on its way. I tried it yesterday, and it actually tastes pretty good as a soda or juice.

Ingredients:

Ripe strawberries, 3 lb

Honey, 1/2 cup – you want a light tasting honey for this; I've made it with stronger tasting honey and it overpowers the strawberry flavor a little bit

Water, 3 cups

Tea, 5 grams – your call what kind of tea (I'd suggest green or black); experiment with the ratio of water to tea and brewing parameters to get the best flavor

Instructions:

1. Rinse your strawberries with cold water.

2. Hull and chop the strawberries into 1/4ths (depending on the size, you might want smaller pieces).

3. Heat the water, and brew the tea. Remove the leaves by straining and let cool.

4. Once the liquid is cooled, add the strawberries. Bring the water to a boil.

5. Stir once, and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

6. Strain out the strawberry pulp (you can do this by pouring the liquid into a strainer with a new pot underneath). 

7. Add the honey to the liquid. There are two ways to do this: either pour the honey straight into the pot (might need to microwave it to make it easier) or add some liquid to the honey, stir it together, and pour it into the main pot.

8. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and heat for 5 minutes.

9. Take it off of the heat and let sit for 15-30 minutes (or until cold).

10. Pour the liquid into a container/bottle (optional: strain again to get rid of any other material).

11. Serve by mixing together with water and ice in a 1:3 ratio. To make fizzy, just add sparkling water or club soda. 

Recipe: Royal Milk Tea

If you don't know what Royal Milk Tea is, it's pretty much the Japanese version of milk tea. Most recipes call for a mix of two types of black teas– usually from Ceylon, Assam, or Sri Lanka– with quite a bit of sugar and milk. It's like chai without the spices. Experiment to your liking!

Ingredients:
Black tea, 7.5 g - I'm using a 3:2 mix of Sri Lankan black tea to Azores black tea.
Sugar, 70g - White sugar here, I'd imagine you can also use honey or brown sugar (but in the case of honey, it would be harder to control sweetness
Milk, 750 ml - Any type is OK
Water, 250 ml - Go for a 1:3 ratio with the milk; it's milk tea, so you want more milk than water

Instructions:
1. Boil your water in a large saucepan and brew the tea for about 5 minutes.
2. Add your milk to the tea until it boils. Stir constantly.
3. Like with chai, let the mixture boil up and take it off the heat. Once the bubbles fall back down, place it back on the heat. You want to do this about 3-5 times (look at the color of the tea to decide strength) while stirring.
4. In a heatproof container, pour in the tea (you might want to let it cool down first) and strain off the leaves.
5. Add your sugar and stir it in to dissolve.
6. Chill and serve cold.

Review: Milk Tea - Ito En

Tea Info
Type: Sweetened, Canned, Black Milk Tea
Producer: Ito En
Origin/Base: Hawaii
Brewing Parameters: N/A
Appearance: N/A
Rating: B | 86/100
# of Brews: N/A

Tasting Notes and Thoughts
Oh hey, first time reviewing tea in a can. I've actually had this before, and I think it's one of the better ones. Interestingly, it's a "Hawaii Exclusive" and I've only been able to find it in the Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose (the place where I get all of my Lupicia tea). I think I actually based a milk tea recipe I made on the flavor of this, but I don't know where I actually put it– in fact, I'll try experimenting again and post it on here today since I have nothing else to do.

Anyway, I don't really think there is much to say about this. It's not too sweet, with the earthy flavors of the black tea first and a creamy flavor afterwards. It's slightly fruity, too, probably because of the tea base. Compared to other canned milk teas I've had, this doesn't taste too watery or deathly sweet. Oh, and in all of the cans I've drank (which I admit is quite a bit), the milk isn't curdled or anything, which is nice. Overall, best milk tea in a can I've had so far.

Other Notes
First weekday of spring break! Started off with getting a diagnosis of Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, which is always fun. Apparently I'll have to start taking painkillers for a week or two.

Other than that, today I'll just be making a recipe for Royal Milk Tea, reading/finishing A Confederacy of Dunces, and studying for AP classes (also maybe the SAT Bio/Math/USH tests and the ACT). I don't really have much to do over spring break.

Recipe: London Fog French Toast

First day of spring break! Not really feeling up to reviewing a tea today, so here's what I made for breakfast. Pretty easy recipe overall, and it can easily be adjusted if it's too sweet or not sweet enough, cooked too much or not enough, and so on.

Ingredients:

Earl Grey Black Tea, 1 teabag or 3g of loose leaf - I used Trader Joe's brand tea bags

Honey, 1.5 tablespoons - Local wildflower honey here

Milk, 0.5 cups - Doesn't really matter what type, I used 2%

Bread, 5-6 pieces - Same as the milk, white or whole grain, doesn't matter

Salt, 1 pinch - Sea salt

Vanilla Extract, 0.5 teaspoons
Eggs, 2

Butter, 1 stick - Can be replaced with oil

Makes 5 pieces of french toast; recipe is adapted from Alton Brown's french toast

Instructions:

1. Microwave/heat your milk to boiling before it boils over. Add your tea and let it brew for 5 minutes.

2. Remove the tea by straining or throwing away the tea bag. Add the vanilla extract and honey.

3. Whisk in 2 eggs, one at a time. 

4. Pour the mixture into a bowl or a container that will allow you to cover the bread.

5. Take a slice of bread, and cover both sides by dipping it in the mixture. Let it sit on each side for about 30 seconds so it absorbs the liquid. Place on a wire rack and let sit for about 10-15 minutes. Repeat for all of the slices.

6. Once the bread has rested for a while, heat a pan. Cover the surface of the pan in butter so the bread won't stick.

7. Brown both sides of each slice of bread. Return to the wire rack.

8. Preheat oven to 375°F. 

9. Place the wire rack/bread into the oven for 5-10 minutes.

10. Serve warm, adding syrup/fruit/cream to taste.

 

Review: Summer Rose - Teazillo

Tea Info
Type: Flavored Black
Producer: Teazillo
Origin/Base: Ceylon
Brewing Parameters: 2.8g, 100°C,  3-5 minutes
Appearance: Black, broken leaf base (larger than fannings) with large, pink-orange rose petals
Rating: B | 86/100
# of Brews: 1

Tasting Notes and Thoughts
I actually got this tea a long while ago (long while as in last year, July) as a 1 oz. free sample from Teazillo. I did post a review on their site after I got it, but I never was able to review it here. It turns out I packed a small amount (~3 grams) to save in a small plastic bag, but the bag was a bit open and the tea might now be stale or have other scents mixed in (like chai). Teazillo, the company that sent me this tea, actually sent me 2 oz. in really nice metal tins, but it looks like they went under a while ago. Oh well, they had a pretty decent flavored selection.

To be honest, I think this is one of the better rose teas I've had. The tea has large rose petals with a pinkish, orange color and a very dark black tea base. It smells a bit like potpourri, but it's not too overwhelming. After brewing for three minutes, the color was a dark, coffee color. The smell was sweet and earthy, with very light floral notes.

Surprisingly, the flavor wasn't as light as I'd expected it to be (considering the tea is a year old and not stored in an airtight container). It was a bit bitter, but not as much as yesterday's. The flavor starts off with a strong, dark chocolate taste and ends with a coffee flavor. Halfway through, the rose comes in with a tart flavor, which lingers after drinking and complements the chocolate pretty well. It's mostly smooth, but also has a little bit of a drying sensation in the throat after drinking. Overall, it's a pretty good rose tea; I suggest trying it with both milk and honey, but it's also enjoyable on it's own too.

Other Notes
Well, no school today, and I got nothing to do. All I've done is watch fencing videos, read a bit of A Confederacy of Dunces (pretty good book), and eat food. I'm probably just going to catch up on homework and study for all of the tests at the end of this week. You know why? Because spring break is next week! Woo!

Review: Mango & Strawberry - Dilmah

Tea Info
Type: Flavored Black
Producer: Dilmah Australia
Origin/Base: Ceylon
Brewing Parameters: 1 tea bag, 100°C,  3-5 minutes, 220 ml H2O
Appearance: Standard white/bleached paper tea bag with black tea fannings.
Rating: C | 74/100
# of Brews: 1

Tasting Notes and Thoughts
Wow! Long time since my last review. I'm reviewing a bagged tea today because I've actually reviewed everything else, and I'm saving money for now (even though I made $700 off the science fair, I just bought a ticket to prom and a set of fencing gear for sabre fencing). This tea is from my mom, who got it in Philippines.

Both dried and brewed, this tea smells a lot like fruit rollups– you know, that sweet, artificial strawberry flavor. I can't really notice the mango at all. As for the color, the tea brewed up very dark, reddish brown in only three minutes. I followed the brewing parameters, and to be honest, it's kind of shit. It's pretty bitter, with the fruity, medicinal taste following. Again, I couldn't taste the mango at all. In the back of the tongue, there's a sort of biting tart flavor that lingers. Unlike most black teas from Ceylon, this isn't earthy or chocolatey or anything at all; it's just bitter and a bit astringent. Maybe adding some milk and honey will work?

Well, milk and honey improved it only a slight bit. Milk does a pretty good job at masking the bitter taste, and complements the artificial fruit pretty well. Overall, it's passable with milk and a decent amount of honey. I'd recommend it as a daily drink or a tea to drink with people who usually don't drink tea.

Other Notes
Welp, yesterday I broke that small tea pot I recently got– I was cleaning it, and the lid tapped the handle, and the handle just snapped off. Also, I got rejected from both SIMR and the Arthritis Foundation internships. Oh well, shit happens.

Other reviews I have coming up the pipeline are Trader Joe's English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, and Earl Grey, Touch Organic Green Tea, Red Sun Japan Green Tea, Twinings Lemon & Ginger Tea, and a few more. All of these are bagged teas.

What's Going On? (Life Update) 3/24/16

So, I'm about to go to sleep but I thought, hell, it's been awhile since I've written a post and don't really have anything else to do.

It's actually been a pretty eventful month so far (March was my super busy work-work-work month, so now that it's almost finally over, I can relax). The main things that have happened are the science fair, mock trial, science alliance/club stuff, and field trips. I'll go over them super quick and probably make another post expanding on them later.

Science fair was surprisingly very successful. On the set-up day, I ended up covering my board in torn up garbage bags and taping it together, and walking through the pouring rain to get to the fairgrounds. On the way there, I met an old Asian man dragging some soaked luggage, and he asked for directions. Weird thing was, he was trying to go to an area super far away from where he was, so I offered to walk with him there, but he refused. After I got rid of my board, I tried finding him again but couldn't.

As for the actual science fair presentations, the judges were really nice (one Indian judge actually came back after judging and said he'll be looking forward to my work in the future), and I got into the second round. For some reason, I didn't really get that many questions about the actual processes surrounding my project– unlike last year– but general consensus from judges and students was that it's a very interesting concept and is "genuine" because I did it all at home without anyone's help (a lot of the projects that got into the second round or won big prizes were done in research labs).

I ended up getting first place in my category ($100 prize) and the Chevron scholarship award for $600. Honestly, I don't know how, but I'll take it. Oh, and I saw this girl I met last year again, which was nice (she won runner up again, which is no surprise since she's been winning science fairs since middle school apparently).

Mock trial, on the other hand, was less successful, but still fun. We left to drive to Sacramento on a school day, got food (grilled cheese with bacon, mozzarella sticks, and fries, oh my), signed in, and hung out in the hotel room for a while. We had our workshops, where we learned about the inverted triangle and news article writing, and then I ended up walking around downtown Sacramento at night with the people from my team. It was a bit ghetto, but we got to see the capitol building and accidentally went to Old Sacramento (which was nice).

Competition day was alright– essentially we went in, took notes, went to Starbucks (a lot of homeless people shoot up in Starbucks bathrooms in Sacramento), wrote articles, and went home. I didn't win anything, but that's okay. I wasn't really expecting to, considering the fact that absolutely everyone except me at the competition were editors on their school newspapers.

Lastly, there's been a bit of club stuff and field trips. Science Alliance (the problematic club) had its first meeting, and barely anyone went. However, I did set up a volunteering thing with Catharine Baker (local assemblywoman), Lawrence Livermore National Labs, and Sandia National Labs helping elementary kids learn science. Of course, the officers all bailed on me last minute, but the one member that came to our meeting also came to the event and was super cool. At the event, there was one kid who did the funniest shit ever: one experiment was to draw something and put it in water to demonstrate chromatography, and he drew anything and everything, from the Great Chicago Fire to "smoke weed everyday". I also got to talk to one of the guys from Lawrence Livermore, who suggested colleges (keep career choices open, and community college isn't bad at all), internships at LLNL (have to be an undergrad though), and skills to learn (take English and Public Speaking classes– they'll help tremendously in the industry).

According to my sister, I'm really good at PR/outreach, so I'm tempted to just drop being co-president of the club (because I'm sick of dealing with the other president's shit) and only take outreach officer. The thing is, if I drop co-president, the club will probably fall apart since I'm the one doing most of the work. As for the field trip, we went to Genentech. Fun place, and it looks like the career I'm interested in (biostatistics) is becoming really big in the biotechnology industry, so I might luck out after college. Only issue with that is I'll need to learn programming, and I admit I'm pretty behind on that.

Well, that was a long block of text. It's been an interesting month. I'll update on other stuff– two of the big summer internships I applied to will send out acceptances tomorrow, so I'm excited– later. As for tea, I'm kind of in a hard spot right now because I think I've finished most, if not all, the teas from Japan, and I have nothing that I haven't reviewed other than tea bags from Trader Joe's or something. I'll probably figure something out since I actually have money now (but first, I need fencing equipment since I'm kind of a big part of the club at my school now).

Thanks for reading! I'll try to make more posts during spring break in a week or two.