Memorial Day Weekend and Pineapple Tea

Memorial Day weekend is here again and I always have to have a party. It usually involves lots of food, drinks and friends. I usually load up the smoker and make magic from some type of meat but the current weather has me wondering if I should make a backup plan so we don’t all go hungry. Oh sure I make sides and desserts but the meat is always the main event. Well sometimes the drinks are the wind beneath the meats wings and this year will be no different as we tap our first keg of homemade beer. Beer you say? I bet you thought I was only good at blending and flavoring teas. I actually have many hobbies that I am very good at including being a musician, chef, fisher, gardener and most recently beer crafter. The one thing people always count on at my party beside the excellent food is lots and lots of delicious iced tea. My tea selections are always a topic of conversation and I usually have to send a few ounces home with guests who now have a new favorite tea. This year’s selection is my featured tea this week at Culinary Teas our Pineapple Tea. Pineapple is one of those great fruit that just seems to pair with everything and is also a culinary wonder because the acid in it will tenderize any meat. I use pineapple juice in many of my grill marinades or brines and the flavor is a nice addition to everything. This Pineapple blend has a black tea base which brews smooth and flavorful and pairs so well with the sweet and tart flavor of pineapple. To bring out the full flavor add just a bit of sweetener and maybe serve with some pineapple mint as garnish.  This week Pineapple Tea is our featured tea and is priced at 20% off and you can win a 4 ounce bag of this weeks featured tea by going to our Blog or like us on Facebook and leaving a comment on this weeks giveaway.

Giveaway Ends: 05-31-2011
Number of Prizes Available: 1
Max Entries Per Week: 1

OFFICIAL RULES: Your email will not be shown and will be kept private. Giveaways open to readers 18 years or older with U.S. or Canada shipping addresses only, unless otherwise stated. For my international friends, you may enter and if you win, I am happy to send the prize to person of your choice with U.S. or Canada shipping address.

Blue Mango Green Tea and Cold Brew Teabags

Last week I realized that the last few weeks of school for the kids is a gauntlet for me. For some reason the 

schools schedule 50% off all the events for the entire school year in the last 3 weeks of school. Those events plus my eldest is in track and softball means I get to make at one maybe two trips each night if I am lucky. It feels like I am on the go constantly. I am not a soda drinker and I can’t stand bottled teas because I don’t like my drinks sweetened and if they are not sweetened you can taste the nasty preserved tea flavor. I typically just carry a couple bottles of water with me or start will a travel cup of tea and then switch to a bottle of water. Last week we got in these new Cold Brew Green Teabags and I immediately grabbed a 10 pack of each type and stuffed them in my purse. So far my daughter has stolen one of the packets and I have given another to my mom. Last week I had a zoo trip with my youngest so I added a teabag to my water first thing in the morning and ended up filling that water bottle 4 times and still had delicious green tea. I was so happy to find that I could make one teabag last me all day long which makes them very cost effective. I cannot live without my green tea to keep my energy levels up during they day so the discovery of these teabags have made me very happy.

The green shirt is my youngest

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My eldest daughter loves the flavor of mango more than anything else. She will beg for one every time she sees one. Anytime a new mango product is introduced she has to try it and can list off all the good and bad products she has tried. One item that I have to keep stocked at the house is our Blue Mango Green Tea for her. The flavor is not quite as sweet as most mango teas but the slight bite compliments the sweet sencha base quite well. I must admit I don’t care for this tea hot very much but when it is iced it becomes wonderful. This week Blue Mango Green Tea is our featured tea and is priced at 20% off and you can win a 4 ounce bag of this weeks featured tea by going to our Blog or like us on Facebook and leaving a comment on this weeks giveaway.

Giveaway Ends: 05-24-2011
Number of Prizes Available: 1
Max Entries Per Week: 1

OFFICIAL RULES: Your email will not be shown and will be kept private. Giveaways open to readers 18 years or older with U.S. or Canada shipping addresses only, unless otherwise stated. For my international friends, you may enter and if you win, I am happy to send the prize to person of your choice with U.S. or Canada shipping address.

Cold Brew Green Tea Teabags and Mint Green Tea

We are based in Indiana and once the heat finally kicks in around here it will be paired with horrible humidity. I am rarely seen in the warm months without a bottle of water or tea in my hand. Last year I just added a scoop of Matcha to my water bottles but this year I have something better. One of our Japanese vendors introduced Cold Brew Green Tea Teabags and after trying them, I fell in love. They are silk pyramid teabags filled with premium Sencha and Matcha that brew in cold or cool water. You just pop one of these beauties into your bottle of water and give it a shake and within a few minutes you have delicious green tea. I have tried plenty of bottled teas and they all taste flat or have artificial sweeteners and preservatives that just destroy the flavor and negate all the health benefits. What made me even happier was that these teabags are available in Plain, Mango, Mint and Peach flavors without any sweeteners added. I have loaded up my purse with a pack of each so I am just a bottle of water away from delicious green tea.

One of my fall back green teas is our Mint Green tea. The base tea for this blend is a light gunpowder green that is made from whole leaves of tea that fully unfurl when brewed. The older whole leaves brew a fuller flavored cup of tea that is complimented very well by the bright flavor of the mint. This tea is aways a great after dinner tea but iced it becomes a delightful anytime tea. I had several friends who chose to serve our Mint Green Tea instead of Mint Juleps at their Kentucky Derby Parties.
This week Mint Green tea is our tea of the week and that lets you save 20% off the normal retail price and you can win a 4 ounce bag of this weeks featured tea by leaving a message here or on Facebook and leaving a comment on this weeks giveaway. Make sure we have access to your email address so we can contact you.

Giveaway Ends: 05-17-2011
Number of Prizes Available: 1
Max Entries Per Week: 1

OFFICIAL RULES: Your email will not be shown and will be kept private. Giveaways open to readers 18 years or older with U.S. or Canada shipping addresses only, unless otherwise stated. For my international friends, you may enter and if you win, I am happy to send the prize to person of your choice with U.S. or Canada shipping address.

Bad Water and Long Island Strawberry Sencha Green Tea

 I was reminded again this week how important good water is to good tea. I have a triple osmosis filter in my house so my water is usually great for tea or just drinking pure. This weekend one of filters decided it was time to die and the system is putting out like a cup of water per hour and the flavor of the water has gone off. All the little faults in your water will have a huge impact on the flavor of the tea. II must admit that the off tasting filtered water is still better than the unfiltered water but as soon as my replacement filters arrive today my husband is going to get the orders to put them in immediately. I am craving a good cup of tea so bad and when I try to make it with this water I can still taste that off-ness and it seems to stale the flavor of the tea. There is just no way around it bad water makes bad tea so if you don’t enjoy drinking your water fresh from the tap then I don’t suggest you make your tea from it. If you have any doubts about the quality of your water than you should get some good bottled water and do a test brew of your favorite teas and see if you notice a difference.

This week I need to work on transplanting my runaway strawberries into a new row. If you have grown strawberries than you know they are almost as invasive as mint. Strawberries put out runners that start new little plants and they can quickly overtake any other vegetation including weeds. My currant strawberry bed consists of two rows that are 50 feet long and about 3 feet wide and they have almost over taken the row in between them. All of those plants came from 3 plants I planted 10 years ago. Those plants grow some of the sweetest most flavorful strawberries I have ever tasted and they always make me thirsty for our Long Island Strawberry Sencha Green Tea. That lightly sweet Sencha base pairs so well with the sweet and tart flavor of the strawberries. This tea is the favorite of our family and our neighbors and I have already had to bring home 3 pounds of it to fulfill the requests. This week Long Island Strawberry is our tea of the week and that lets you save 20% off the normal retail price and you can win a 4 ounce bag of this weeks featured tea by leaving a message here or at Culinary Cafe and leaving a comment on this weeks giveaway. Make sure we have access to your email address so we can contact you.

Giveaway Ends: 05-10-2011
Number of Prizes Available: 1
Max Entries Per Week: 1

OFFICIAL RULES: Your email will not be shown and will be kept private. Giveaways open to readers 18 years or older with U.S. or Canada shipping addresses only, unless otherwise stated. For my international friends, you may enter and if you win, I am happy to send the prize to person of your choice with U.S. or Canada shipping address.