Hibiscus flower/tea

I love hibiscus tea!  And this plant is gorgeous too. I am going to try to grow one next year by seed.

I love this flower!  I love that God had made so many flowers, I have to say this is one of my favorite flowers.  It's big and bold...kind of like me- hahahaha

Here is some tried hibiscus flowers I bought, these flowers make the best iced tea!!!  I like the tart and sweet flavor of the tea. 

I put the loose flowers/tea in the Eranthe tea bags and run it through my iced tea maker.  I just use about 1/4 cup of sugar with the tea and water and it makes my all time favorite tea.  It is just like the Passion Tea that Starbucks and Tazo sells.

See how beautiful the color is!!  I am able to run the water through twice and make 2 gallons of tea.

Bird and Blend Tea

Oh happy day!!!  I got an assortment of Blue Bird Tea.- now called Bird and Blend tea.  I love this tea, my only issue is the tea company is in England and the shipping is pricey.  This company is great, they have a ton of flavors.  

I love to watch their website- they are always doing fun things with tea.  Even if you don't buy their tea, you should follow them on social media.  They also do mixology workshops and have fun recipes posted on line.

I have contacted them several times when I have purchased tea and let them know if they ever come to the states to let me know.  I want to work for them!!

https://bluebirdteaco.com/us_en/shop/tea.html

This is my BlueBird Cold Brew container. 

I did a one month tea subscription, I wish I could continue the subscription, but the shipping is too much.  You get 3 teas for $17.95, but with US shipping it was more like $22.  I then purchased other teas too.  

Muggswigx Coffee and Tea

https://www.muggswigz.com/

My friend, Paula, was given two gift cards for Muggswigx tea in Canton.  She said she never goes there, and thought I may like them.  I never had been thee, but I was thrilled to try it.

These are the loose leaf teas that they sell in the store.

With my friends gifts cards I was able to buy some loose leaf tea- Tropical Tisane Tea, and some chai tea.  100g for $8.90- a bit pricey, but since I have a gift card it was free.

This is a very nice, clean place.  Again, reminds me of the tea shop I want to have some day. 

The staff was super friendly.  There were not many people in the shop the day I was in, but I hope it stays busy!!

This was a very nice chai.  It had a nice spice to it.

I also really enjoyed the tisane tea.  I would shop here again.  Prices of loose leaf tea where a bit high, but overall I would recommend this tea shop.

Real Vanilla Bean Kombucha

A co-worker does some work with some vanilla farmers in Mexico. He hooked me up with this vanilla bean.  They sell for $6- if you are interested.

I never knew that vanilla beans were bendable and almost soft like.  They smell amazing!! I decided to make some kombucha with the vanilla.  I also am making some vanilla extract with the pod.

Look how a good pod bends.



I made the kombucha base- with only black tea.

    These are the seeds- they are so tiny!

I sliced open the pod and scrapped out the seeds,  I also never knew the seeds were so small.  I added the seeds to each gallon of kombucha.

Then in 8 days after the kombucha was ready to bottle and make it carbonated.   When I took the mother out of the F1 Kombucha, I could see all the vanilla beans attached to the mother- it was a bit odd.    But, I tasted the F1- before the kombucha carbonated and it was really good.  You could totally taste the vanilla in the kombucha!  I had no idea how it would turn out, but the flavor was wonderful.





Now, I have bottled it with apple juice for a week to make it carbonated, and the real test will be how it tastes then!  I will let you know how it turns out!

I finished the kombucha on Saturday evening but I waited until Monday morning to try it until I got together with my tasting buddies!!  I have been having fun trying flavors with Scott and Doug.  Doug is the one I got the vanilla seeds from. 
It was hard to wait to try the kombucha, but I really wanted to wait for the guys to try it.  The results are in- we love it!!!  My boss bought 3 bottles of it.  

We said that the vanilla flavor is suttle and you taste it at the end.  I am so very pleased with the results!! 

But first, Tea

 

Enough Said....

 

Thanks to my pod pal for the fun gift!!

Dragonfly Tea Room, Canal Fulton, Ohio

856th Tea Blog Post!!!!  I have been tea blogging since 2013 and this is my 856th post!!!  Thanks for joining me in this journey.

https://www.dragonflytearoom.com/

I have had a great summer at my job.  They tried compress work weeks.  I have worked 4 ten hour days and had Wednesdays off.  I have loved it!!  They just did this for the summer and today was my last Wednesday off.  I am going to miss those mid week days off!!  Fingers crossed they do it again next year!!

I asked a few ladies from my church if they wanted to go out and celebrate my last Wednesday off and have tea. So the six of us went out for tea, fun, and food...and lots of laughs.

I had the coconut Oolong tea again.  I love that tea. Normally when the Dragonfly serves tea they put the loose leaf tea in the pot and serve the pot to you.   I asked the server to put my tea in a tea ball so that the tea would not over steep.  She was not familiar with the process of that but was happy to do so. She thanked me for teaching her something new. I thanked her for understanding.

I would recommend when you get tea to always put loose leaf tea in a tea ball and not directly into the tea pot- unless you are pouring the tea into a bunch of cups and you will use all the tea at one time.  Otherwise, the tea sits in the pot and over steeps and then it becomes bitter and only your first cup is good.  Herbal tea does not matter, you can leave the loose leaf tea in all the time and it does not get bitter, this is because it is not "real tea" and it does not have the tannins in it.

I like this idea of painting the middle of a platter or plate and writing on it!  Very clever.  I have also seen a mirror glued in the middle as well.

Fun mantle! Also not sure if you can see at the end of the mantle is a glass teapot terrarium. I love that- I want to ask for one for Christmas.  It would be fun to hang in a window.

I ordered the Victoria Tea for $16.95- I splurged and I also had left overs!

We were served quiche, soup and toast, a pot of tea, finger sandwiches and desserts.

So much good food!!

The soup was a ham chowder with cheese and the quiche was mushroom.  

We each got one chicken sandwich, one dill cucumber, and one pimento sandwich.

They were all great!! The dill cucumber may have been my favorite.

We had peach pie scones, blueberry lemon bread, a strawberry, a pastry puff, and a chocolate truffle. 

Oh my- so good.

My cousin Jenni and I.

The tearoom was very busy, and I love that!  It shows me that people come to places like this.  I really need to find someone to be the money for my tearoom!  My dream, my passion would be to run a tea room.  So, if you read this and have the money to back me, let me know.  I promise to make it the best tea shop in the area :) 

tea at the grocery store in africa

 

I was pleasantly surprised mall in Conakry Guinea that there was so many kinds of tea!!! This was more in the city, maybe 20 minutes or so from where we were staying.  I wanted to try them all- lol!!!  I ended up getting a bagged tea for my Kombucha and a peach tea to try.

This tea is made in Conakry!  I was super excited to take it home and make Kombucha with it!

 

I also purchased this peach tea.  It was not bad.  And when you are having the heat and humidity like they have anything is refreshing!!