Tea Tea Tea

Although I love tea, I feel that I have been neglecting posting anything on my blog in the past month or so about the wonderful topic! I have been incredibly busy at my amazing place of work and have created some delicious tea recipes.

Here's an extremely easy and fast recipe I have created.


Herbal/Rooibos Tea Shake

Ingredients:
A form of loose rooibos or herbal tea (about 2 tablespoons), below


-Try to get one that is very red, deep in flavor, and fine
-You can find these types of tea in many places (from a local grocery store to a specialized seller)
-If you get tea in a tea bag, just open multiple bags up and use that
1 cup Ice
2 cups milk
-You can substitute this for soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk, etc.
1 tablespoon raw sugar
-You can use regular sugar or honey as a substitute

What you'll need:
A shaker
A glass

How to:
Quickly rinse the tea in HOT water for one or two seconds to start opening up the flavor.
Put the ice, milk, raw sugar, and rinsed tea in the shaker.
Shake very violently for about 15 minutes until it foams and fizzes, and it will.
Pour in the glass and drink up!
You can top it off with some strawberries or raspberries if you like!



Also, I've been dying to try TAZO's new Chai Latte....

Day out on the town (Part 2)

Destination two? The Ferry Building. Built in 1898, it was the absolute focal point of bay area boating transportation. If you were going anywhere in or out of the bay by water, you went here. The bell tower was meant to welcome visitors into the bay. And it welcomed us as we went into the building, which has now transformed into office spaces and an amazing retail area. I like to believe that it's just a permanent indoor farmer's market. My boyfriend and I went on a Thursday, which just so happens to be one of the days when the farmer's market and arts & crafts faire occurs out front of the building. We enjoyed ice cream, cheese, tea, and coffee, just not all together.
View their website here.
And look at just a few of the photos we took while at the Ferry Building.


Alex wearing a hand-crocheted knit cap outside at the arts & crafts/farmer's market area. What a looker!




Mushrooms and some employees at the Far West Fungi shop. The shop has tons of beautiful mushrooms and the truffle salt is completely amazing. View their website here.




Imperial Tea Court. Amazing Jasmine Oolong tea. First time I had ever drank out of that kind of cup.



Blue Bottle Coffee Company has some great caffeinated drinks.

I highly suggest going to the Ferry Building in the near future.

Samovar in Zen Valley

I have been to the Castro Samovar Tea Lounge and the Yerba Buena Gardens location as well (since I work there) but had never been to the newest location in Zen Valley (also known as Hayes Valley) before. Since I needed to check up on my tea lounge-ness, I took a nice trip up into the city to try some tea at Samovar.

These were only two of the pots of tea I ordered.
In the realm of teas, I suggest the Moorish Mint Herbal, Mandarin Pu-erh, or the chilled Shizandra.
If you're looking for some food, I suggest the Indian Service (best tofu curry ever), Japanese maki bowl, or the chocolate bread pudding.

The location is beautiful. If you sit up the stairs at the community table, there is a place to take off your shoes and put in little cubbies. Also, there is a gorgeous fireplace in the back, as well as some nice pieces of art and statues.

Check out the company's website here.
Look at their Yelp! page here.

Tea Time

I love sun-steeped iced herbal teas!

It's a mouthful to say, but delicious when made! On a lazy morning last week I was making some tea in my new pitcher when I realized how sunny it was outside for San Francisco. Instead of steeping the tea separately and then putting it in the pitcher like I normally did, I decided to put the herbal tea (and a bit of raw cane sugar) in the pitcher with the hot water over it and let it sit out in the sun for a few hours.


The tea I brewed: One of my favorite herbal teas - a peach tea made with pineapple, rosehips, Roman chamomile, and sunflower petals. I let it sit out in the sun for about 3 hours and when it was done, drained the loose leaf tea bits out and refrigerated it.

I recommend all you guys to do something similar! Here's a nice recipe on Simply Recipes about how to make Sun Tea. Here's a good recipe on About.com on how to make some Sun-Steeped Tea as well. It's super easy to make and amazing to drink.

Enjoy!

Photos: Gabby Battista

I dream of Samovar Tea Lounge

Last night, my boyfriend brought me to a tea bar lounge called Samovar in the Castro, nestled between 18th and Ford St.
As I walked into the restaurant, I felt like I was walking onto the set of a vintage 1920's film. The huge pieces of art, Buddhist statues, dim lighting and Asian vibe definitely helped the chill feel of the place. I got the Samovar Moorish Mint Herbal Blend accompanied by the Fudge-Matcha Brownie with Green Tea Mousse.

The mint tea was extremely refreshing. When the glass pot of tea comes out, it looks small, but it had lasted about 5 cups between us. The mousse and brownie were infused with a matcha green tea (matcha is a powdered form of tea) and was delicious as well.

The menu is full of black teas, green teas, white teas, herbal teas, chai teas, rooibos teas, mate teas, and some pu-erhs. The restaurant also has good brunch and lunch food on the menu. The small bar also sells cast iron or glass tea pots, teas, calendars, and tea sets, in case you were looking for some fun stuff to buy.

The company also has sister bars on Howard St in Yerba Buena Gardens and on Page St in the Hayes Valley.

View their website here.
View their Yelp! page here.