Tea for two (or more): Pineapple mint tea and tropical chai tea

I’m making good on my promise to give you more recipes in record time. That might have something to do with being at work. In a mall. On a Sunday. If, like a sane person, you do not go to the mall on a Sunday here is all you need to know about what you’re missing: practically the only people at the mall are all under 10 years old and all they do all day is eat McDonalds, chase each other around and scream at the top of their lungs. So in an effort to maintain my own sanity, I have written about 8 blog entries ahead of time, here’s one of them. It is inspired by the cross I bear of sitting in the mall all day, wanting to be in front of the fire at home with a cup of tea and a book while a storm rages outside but instead facing the reality of being assaulted from all sides by the smell of the foodcourt, sound of overeager Christmas songs on the PA (it’s 361 days away retailers, get over it) and hordes of people wanting to know where the toilet is.

Pineapple and mint tea

After trying and being converted by mint and pineapple tea in Australia, plain old mint tea no longer seems as good. I was disappointed to realise the company who makes it (http://www.therabbithole.com.au/) don’t ship to NZ, so I decided to make my own!

Pick your own mint, wash it, dry it thoroughly with paper towels then leave in your oven on the lowest temperature possible for a couple of hours until dried OR buy some dried mint

Mix mint at a 2:1 ratio with freeze-dried pineapple powder

Store in an airtight container (or else the pineapple will get damp – I keep mine inside a resealable bag which is in turn kept inside a preserving jar)

If you haven’t heard of freeze-dried fruits before, you should give them a go even if just for novelty’s sake, NZ company Fresh As has an awesome range.

Tropical chai tea
I would love to give you a recipe for this but to be totally honest I made it up as I went along based on what spices were in my cupboard. I can tell you that the ‘tropical’ part of the name comes from the fair amount of flaked coconut that I included. If I were forced to give a recipe I would probably say you can’t go much wrong with the below:

50% black tea

30% dried coconut flakes
20% of the following spices (equal amounts of each): cardamom seeds, crushed cinnamon, crushed star anise, crushed peppercorns, crushed allspice

 

The glory of this formula is it allows you to make as little as one cup of tea or as much as you could possibly want to give away as gifts. Once you’ve mixed everything together and it smells like it could taste alright (if you mistake 50% black tea for 50% crushed peppercorns or some equally horrible mistake your nose should tell you), the best test is to brew some up and give it a taste. Once satisfactory, store in airtight jars.

 

 

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