Its a Gold Peak Christmas

Its a Gold Peak Christmas
Originally uploaded by M. Trimboli

When I first encountered Gold Peak brand tea, I was working at my other job: Publix Supermarkets. I was walking to the front to grab something and I saw it. Sitting in one of those sale bins they put up front to catch the attention of customers. It wasn't lonely, rather, it was sitting with all of its Gold Peak brand tea bottle friends.

But it was new, and thus, shunned by the other groceries.

I realized then that I wanted to write about it, and then it hit me. "Hey Tea, Lets be friends!" and thus we were. I bought four, stuck them next to my fridge and ignored them for a whole semester.

What a friend I am...

Then came the end of the Fall 2009 semester and I decided to continue this blog. I went back to my old friend Gold Peak and begged forgiveness. Boy howdy, it wasn't too sweet to me. In fact, this unsweetened tea has no sugar at all, unlike its companions (More on that later). It does however have an almost perfectly brewed taste, unlike other over-brewed teas I get elsewhere. Most unsweetened tea from restaurants, tea bags, grocery stores, and even Publix's unsweetened tea all have a very bitter and nasty taste. But Gold Peak Unsweetened tea is very smooth and crisp and leaves your tongue with a pleasant, cooling honey aftertaste.

This unsweetened tea smells very similar to that of the home brewed sweet tea that I made back in January. With a hint of lemon and some honey, it smells very refreshing and clean. The amber colored brew inside a tall, inviting bottle, catches your attention in the store, making it stand out from the other products in the soda case. Upon first seeing it, I could already imagine how this product would be a refreshing reprieve from the relentlessly hot summer days in Florida.

According to Bevnet.com, a leading beverage industry website, the Coca-Cola company product is made with hand selected, high quality tea leaves and pure filtered water and served in 16.9 oz. glass carafe bottles.

Offered in five flavors: sweetened, unsweetened, diet, lemon and green tea, this isn't completely mind blowing, but it is good. According to Gold Peak's website, the label was awarded the 2009 Best Taste Award by ChefsBest. But upon checking the ChefsBest website, I could only find a 2008 Best Taste Award for the brand's Green Tea.

Either way, it wouldn't hurt to give this one a try. You can get Gold Peak brand Tea from most national grocery stores, gas stations and shops and it will only cost a dollar or two. It will be well worth it on those hot Florida days. Speaking of which, the Gold Label tea series will be at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in South Beach, Florida on February 25 - 28.

Green Tea Gummi Bears

I decided that I would hit-up Whole Foods to grab some "almost done with the semester, but still stressed out" desert to make myself feel better. After wandering around the bakery area for a bit and looking at all of their amazing pastries, I looked up to see large jars of gummi bears.

Now, I love me some gummi bears. They are just so awesome, who can't love them. Anyway, when I looked closer, I noticed they were green tea gummi bears.

"AWESOME!" I thought! So I bought some, and man are they good.

Such simple little creations; Organic corn syrup, organic sugar, gelatin, citric acid, green tea powder, lactic acid, beeswax and a few other things. Not too bad in terms of ingredients, note that most everything sold at Whole Foods is organic, meaning there are not as many crazy chemicals.

The green tea "pandas" as the market likes to call them taste just like green tea. They would make an awesome side-snack. The market had a few other flavors to offer, including: Blueberry Acai and pomegranate.

So if you want a quick snack, drop into Whole Foods to pick up some green tea gummi pandas! Note, they are a little expensive, but worth it for a quick-sugar snack.

Using green tea as an ingredient

It probably doesn't come as much of a surprise, but I love to cook. In fact, I love finding new ways to use something that might normally have only one, maybe two uses in the kitchen. Tea for example, is mostly brewed then drunk. However, after doing some digging, I found that you can use some teas for uses other than just drinking.

photo: reluctantgourmet.com

The website, amazing-green-tea.com has listed recipes on their website for various dishes, all using tea as an ingredient. Looking at the risotto recipe, it actually doesn't look that hard. I made basic risotto early this week using a recipe from my handy-dandy Betty Crocker Cook Book and it wasn't too difficult. Because all risotto is made essentially the same way, This recipe like others just changes up the ingredients.

Here is what you need:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped
• 2 1/4 cups brown rice
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups brewed earl grey tea

And now the process:

1) Pour the olive oil into the bottom of a large pot. Sauté the onion and garlic together until the onions are translucent.

2) Add the mushrooms, and continue sautéing until they are soft.

3) Meanwhile, it a separate pot, combine the broth and the tea and heat until bubbly. (You need to combine the tea and broth, but the only reason they say to heat it up is so that you don't have to do it when you pour it into the rice. Everything is already hot in the pan full of rice, why cool it down with cold liquid?)

4) Once the mushrooms have softened, add the rice to the pot with the vegetables. Stir until the rice is coated with the olive oil from the pan. (Betty Crocker told me to wait until the sides of the rice was translucent. Also, continually stir the rice! the action of stiring breaks the shell of the rice, releasing starches into the pan. These starches are what thicken up the dish as it cooks.)

- Then add 2 cups of liquid and stir until it is almost entirely absorbed. (It has to be absorbed. Remember, your cooking rice. If you add too much liquid, it takes longer to cook and will get soggy.)

5) Once the liquid in the pot has almost completely absorbed, add another cup of the broth/tea mixture and stir some more.

6) Repeat this process for the next 30 minutes, adding 1 cup of the broth/tea mixture each time. (Just do it till the liquid is absorbed, skip step 7 also, go straight to 8)

7) Good risotto requires patience, but on the plus side, making it will burn some calories and strengthen your arms! It is important not to get impatient and dump all the liquid in there at once. As tempting as that may be, if you give in your risotto won't have the delicious characteristic texture.

8) Once all the broth has been used up, sample the risotto. Add more liquid if the rice is not completely cooked yet. If it is done, season with salt and pepper to taste. (When I made mine, I added some shredded Parmesan cheese. It will melt into the dish and make it very gooey and stingy. Always a plus if you like Risotto.)

That's pretty much it. It seems hard, but once you get into it, you will find it to be a very simple and rewarding dish to make. Good luck, enjoy the leaf.

Tea Parties Resists Government's Economic Plans

American public opinion can have a very big effect on the actions of the American governments. Ever since the beginning of this financial crisis, people have become increasingly upset over who is getting financial aid from the government and who is being left out in, now that the housing market has collapsed, the cold.

photo: TJs Candle Scents

The governmental aid that is being provided to these huge corporations has enraged many Americans, so much so that it is resulting in large, organized protests called "tea parties" from shore to shore. The San Francisco Examiner reports that the protests will occur on April 15, national tax filing day. These protests are in direct opposition to how the Obama Administration is currently handling the financial crisis that has rocked our nation over the last year.

The protests are named after the famous 1773 Boston Tea Party in which Bostonian Colonists threw British tea into the Boston River to show their dislike of the 1773 Tea Act.

Protests have been already been scheduled throughout Palm Beach County, Florida.

Drinking Tea Can Help Your Health

If there is one thing that I have learned from watching as much Food Network as I have, it is that many famous food creations have happened by happy accident.

Nachos, for example, were created at The Victory Club, a restaurant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico by Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya. Nacho, according to the website The Sabatos Network, served the wives of some U.S. Soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan Air Base across the border in Eagle Pass, Texas.

The women showed up after the restaurant had closed, but not wanting to disappoint, Anaya took what he had from the kitchen (tortillas and cheese) and created what we now know as Nachos.

Tea, like nachos, was discovered thanks to a happy accident. According to the website, absoluteastronomy.com, the mythological Chinese Emperor Shen Nong had a pot of boiling water. Heat from the fire was carried up to a nearby tea bush, causing one of the branches to burn and leaves to fall into his pot. the Emperor noticed his water changing color and, out of curiosity, decided to see what the brew would do to him.

Emperor Shen Nong, according to ancient Chinese lore, had a transparent body and could see how into himself, giving him the unique ability of seeing how various things affected him.

According to legend, the Emperor tried many different plants to see how each one affected him, giving him the title of the Father of Chinese medicine.

Tea as it turns out is actually very good for your health, just as Shen Nong found out. In a recent study published by the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, drinking tea can help ward off breast cancer. A study published by the Journal of Periodontology showed that green tea polyphenols can slow the growth of certain diseases that cause gum and tooth decay.

This particular study followed 940 Japanese men aged between 49 and 59 and found that by just drinking green tea, the amount of gum bleeding and recession decreased slightly.

So in case your worried about your health, and really don't think all those crap diets are working, why don't you switch over to drinking tea for awhile!

Tazo and the Giant Peach

For such a well-known Tea company to produce such a convoluted product comes at quite a shock to me, only because this is Tazo w are talking about.

Yesterday, I grabbed some Tazo brand, Giant Peach tea from a local Starbucks. When I read the label, "Brewed green tea with apple & peach juices," I didn't know what to expect. I popped it open, expecting a blast of peach flavor, put it to my mouth and from there, realized that all I was drinking was a very bland, not very exciting, watery drink.

The three ingredients: Green tea, apple juices, and peach juices sound great, but all three flavors are very strong and have their own unique flavors. When you combine flavors like this, they all attempt to overpower each other and end up just making a bland water with no distinct, discernible flavor.

Tazo is a great tea company, don't get me wrong, but maybe they should stick to the loose leaf market

Chinese Tea Eggs, for easter and alike

Around this time of year, all the little kiddies tug at their parents kitchen aprons to make brightly colored eggs that, eventually, will be eaten or hidden or whatever.

Photo: appetiteforchina.com/

Well, for the Chinese, the eggs are made all year round, are not exactly brightly colored, and are eaten rather than hidden away. These little beauties, often eaten as snacks are called Chinese tea eggs. They are like a boiled egg, but not, but sort-of are. More on that later.

The color, as I mentioned earlier, isn't like an Easter egg either. According to the website choosy-beggars.com, tea eggs get their color from the black tea they are normally brewed in. the eggs, as you can already gather from the picture, look rancid and well, toxic. However, they, according to beggars.com, are "hot diggity dang good."

In order to make these tasty little treats, you need to boil your eggs once. Then, pull them out and gently roll on a surface in order to lightly crack the shells. Put the eggs back into very strong, very dark tea at a simmer and let it cook for a few hours. After awhile, the eggs will take on the dark color from the tannins in the black tea and will be done.

Now, if you're still scared to try one of these, and don't actually think they are cooked. I assure you they are. In fact, they are cooked twice! Because they take so long, I will be making them this coming Saturday. Until then, enjoy the leaf.