Moroccan Mint Tea

Pic courtesy of hostessblog.com

Moroccan mint tea, the country’s national drink, tastes even better than it looks.  Now, this is normally against my principles, but this is actually a green tea.  Regardless, we must give credit where credit is due: this is an amazing beverage.  It is rather simple to make as well.  All you need is some  mint, green tea, sugar and water.  

For more details on how to make Moroccan mint tea just right, as well as some info on the significance of this beverage to the people of Morocco, check out this link: 

http://www.recipezaar.com/Moroccan-Mint-Tea-55799

Irish Breakfast Tea

Our last post was about Assam tea, so it is rather fitting that this one be about Irish Breakfast Tea.  Irish Breakfast Tea is one of the most popular tea recipes in the world and with good reason.  Try it for yourself, if you haven’t already, and find out why. 

There’s a couple different ways they do it and you can find out for yourself which one you like better.  You have your standard cup of black tea (ideally from Assam), you add some milk to give the tea that nice, creamy texture and you drink it while chewing some sugar cubes.  The other format is to take that same cup of tea and, rather than milk, squeeze some lemon juice and honey into it.  The former is, in my most humble opinion, more yummy, but the latter is, as I have stated before, great for fighting off colds. 

Pic courtesy of bettysbypost.com

Russian Spice Tea

If you’re looking for a hot, cinnamon drink that is perfect for keeping you warm during the Christmas season, you’re looking for Russian spice tea.  It has a tasty kick to it as it includes a horde of ingredients such as pineapple juice, orange juice, cloves, and cinnamon.  For precise directions on how to make this treat, click on this link:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,163,133190-252199,00.html

It’s no wonder Russians know how to make teas as good as this one.  Another gift to all tea-lovers that has come from Russia: the samovar!

courtesy of orlandorussians.com

Teahouses in Iran

Following the last post about Iranian tea recipes, I thought it would be nice to show you this slide show I put together of the many teahouses throughout Iran.  I created this video using Windows Movie Maker.   I collected the photographs from the web and strung them together, alternating the “Flip” and “Page Curl, Up Left” transitions between each slide.  This way, the pictures turn to the left for each transition, giving the slide show a rhythm.  Also, I added the “Ease In” effect to each image to avoid presenting the viewer with stagnant pictures.  The audio is a song by Assyrian-Iranian singer Robert Bet Sayad about the beautiful places in Tehran which I found quite fitting.  I used the program Audacity to shorten the song on both ends, making it the length of the video, and to fade in and fade out  at the beginning and end.

Iranian Recipes

http://virgienuhiz.blogspot.com/

Just when I decided it was time to open the world of Iranian tea flavors up for your taste buds, I found a fellow blogger committed to the same cause.  She presents us with four tea recipes sure to keep you satisfied for a long time to come: saffron tea, spearmint tea, black cherry tea, and gol gavzaban tea.  Check this page out and give these recipes a shot, I’m sure you will love them.  Even I learned something new from this blog so I have some tea-tasting to do myself!

http://virgienuhiz.blogspot.com/2009/02/four-iranian-tea-recipe.html

Black Tea Fighting Diabetes

Following my last post about how black tea stacks up against green tea in the health category, I did some research to see how black tea can help diabetes patients.  There is a lot of information on this topic so I chose three of the most informative, concise articles I found to share with you.  The following links show how black tea can help reduce sugar levels and provide other benefits to those with diabetes as well as others who are concerned about their sugar level. 

http://www.tudiabetes.org/forum/topics/black-tea-reduces-glycaemic

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/08/18/Black-Tea-Fights-Diabetes.aspx

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/99292.php

Black vs. Green

It has been a generally accepted notion that green tea provides more health benefits than black tea does.  However, in one new study, the author suggests that this is largely because health research regarding tea has often neglected black tea.  A few such studies have come out recently and they show that black tea is much better for your health than previously believed.  For example, it can help lower cholesterol, prevent heart attacks, burn fat, and sooth arthritis.  As a matter of fact, it holds its own pretty nicely against its green counterpart.  Here are the links to a few studies where black and green tea square off:

http://www.the-color-of-tea.com/health-benefits-of-black-tea.html

http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa021103a.htm

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/antioxidants-in-green-and-black-tea

Assam

   

This video is tribute of sorts to tea production in Assam, a state in India, arguably the tea capital of the world.  Assam is one of the two places in the world – along with southern China – that has native tea plants and over two-thirds of the state’s workforce is employed in the tea industry.  Every tea drinker should be familiar with Assam and its contribution to the tea world because what happens there has a lot to do with your leisurely tea drinking time.   

Pic courtesy of cooksshophere.com

A glass of Assam tea.  Known for its dark color and bold taste, it is often used in countries such as England, Ireland, and Scotland where they add milk to make their famous breakfast teas.  In Assam itself, however, they prefer to drink it without milk, opting to enjoy it with some sweets instead.

Russian Sweets

One particularly delicious, sweet little cake that is used throughout Russia, Iran, and other parts of the Middle East to munch on while drinking tea is perough - there is yet no known English term for it.  However, it is rather tasty as it’s made like your standard cake (i.e. milk, eggs, flour) with one special ingredient: apricot jam.  You can find perough at pretty much any Russian or Iranian bakery or grocery store.  Go on the hunt because it’s the perfect complement for a steaming cup of black chai.

Some home-made perough waiting to be devoured.

Tea in Iran

http://members.iinet.net.au/~ploke/Iran/alcohol.html

Click on this link to read about a woman’s experience with Iranian culture and, of course, her take on the tea (she was originally a coffee drinker) during her visit to the country.  It’s a nice little read with some great pictures as well.  Enjoy!