Goldberry, Ashland Ohio, Apple Cider Chai and Hibiscus Blend Iced Tea

I love a beautiful fall day...and being with friends makes it even better.

My girl friends and I love to make the trip to Goldberry Roasters.  This is our third or fourth trek here.  We live about 35 minutes away, but we find it worth our time to make the trip.

We are big fans of Goldberry and what they stand for.  One of the owners is a consultant for the insurance company that the three of us work for.  

We love the Goldberry is supporting, "Through the medium of coffee, we are part of the life-stories of small-scale coffee farmers and their communities in the Sierra Norte de Puebla region of Mexico. We partner with our sister company, Coffee Growing Community - a non-profit organization - to combine free-market economic initiatives with spiritual and social development that helps coffee-farming families and their communities enjoy a more abundant life."

https://goldberryroasting.com/

I ordered the apple cider chai and the Hibiscus blend iced tea.

As I drank my tea my friends were in their glory doing coffee tastings with Doug, one of the owners.  They loved hearing about the roasting and regions and notes of flavors.

We also had some of their amazing scones.  Doug's wive made the scones and I could have eaten a dozen of them.  They were great.  My favorite was the blueberry.

It is always good to spend the day with friends and we have found that we love spending time in Ashland.  We found drink we love, food we love (South Street Grill), and street art that sparks creativity.

https://www.thesouthstreetgrille.com/

The Hibiscus Blend Iced tea is great and the price is great too.  16 oz for $2.50.  It is a mix of hibiscus, rose hips, lemongrass, ginger, dried orange and dried lime.

I love the tartness and tang of the tea.  The staff is super friendly and the shop is clean and lots of space to sit and drink tea and coffee.

Ohio Tea "product testing" Frost Miser

I love being giving teas to try early.  My friend at Ohio Tea gave me this one to try.  I brought this to my friend, Amy.  We love Ohio Tea.

The first thing I noticed was how great this tea smelled when I opened the packet.  I love the mint aroma. 

With loose leaf tea all you need is a steeper, water, and your mug.  I tend you use my steeper cup or paper bags.  It makes the steeping process really simple.

 This is a green tea, so you want to keep your water around 170 degrees.  If you get  your water too hot you will bruise the leaves and it makes the taste of the tea awful.  You also do not need to steep too long. With green tea I usually stick to right around 3 minutes.

Green tea, peppermint, spearmint, cardamom

https://www.ohioteaco.com/Frost-Miser_p_3134.html

Amy and I like this tea.  At first I got notes of lemon and then mint.  I then got a spice that tickled the back of my throat.  Its light but has great strong mint notes and then the spice.  The cardamon is an unexpected twist in this tea. Not sure I have tasted anything like it, but I really like it.  Also, the green tea in this tea does not come across as earthy and grassy- which I am very happy about.

 

Missions Fest drinks of the Dominican Republic. Hibiscus Tea and Cacao Tea

If you follow me at all you know that telling people about Jesus Christ is very important to me.  I want everyone to know that Jesus loves them and wants a personal relationship with Him.  That the only way to have eternal life is to have accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  You have to acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of God's saving grace.  If you have questions, let me know, I would love to follow up more with you on this.  It is life changing information. 

Once a year, in the fall, we have our missions week at church.  We have our churches international workers come and share about what the Lord is doing in the area where they are working.  To kick off the week we have our international food court. 

We have been doing this food court for years and it is one of my favorite things.  We usually have 8-10 countries represented.  People from the church volunteer to make food for the church to try to get them in the cross cultural mindset.  For years my parents and I made a black bean dish from Thailand.

One year I did France and made crepes. 

Lately, I have decided to bring my love of tea to the food court.  A few years ago I did tea bar.  I had Thai tea from Thailand and Bissap from Africa.

This year I decided to make teas that I had in the Dominican Republic.  Since I was just there in September I thought it was only fitting to make those kind of teas.

I made a hibiscus tea- a lot like the Bissap I made from Africa.  It is hibiscus flowers, sugar, and water.

I made it early and it ready to go in this fun dispenser that I bought.

I had tasting cups for people to try both teas.  I have to say that the kids all seemed to love this hibiscus tea...I think it was all the sugar, lol.  I had a few kids who would drink the entire cup of tea while standing at my table and then fill the cup up again.

I then also made Cacao tea with almond milk.  I discovered this tea this fall and fell in love with it.  It is a lot like a hot chocolate...only tea.

Cacao contains fiber that bacteria eat to create fatty acid chains. These fatty acids benefit your digestive system. Drinks made with cacao might also increase the number of good bacteria in your gut. Research shows that eating dark chocolate can reduce stress, which boosts your overall mental and physical health

I put items on my table that I purchased while I was in the DR.

Below is my tea table.  I served the Cacao tea hot and the Hibiscus tea cold.

This year I was also celebrating being down 50 pounds.  I am shocked when I see a photos of myself last year at this same time.    I am so thankful that I am getting healthy, I have never felt better. It is so worth it.

 

Alitea Warung, Teh Tarik 3 in 1

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Root-Alitea-Malaysia-Breakfast/dp/B083LK8PWN

Power Root Alitea Malaysia Warung 3 In 1 Instant Teh Tarik Classic Pulled Milk Tea Halal Malaysia Teatime Breakfast Drinks 20g.  20 packets for less than a $1 a packet. 

This tea is from Malaysia and having been to Malaysia I really wanted to try it.

This tea got only two tea cups because the main ingredient is not tea.  The flavor is good, but there is a lot of sugar in it for me and I wish it had more of the black tea flavors I come to expect in tea...even instant.  I do love the ease of use and the price was good too.