Blog - Miss TeaSmith

How to Make Herbal Tea

Tea that can be customised to your tastes. That’s what home made herbal teas are. The hot stuff is made gently. There are two ways of making herbal tea; an infusion and the other is decoction. An infusion is like making ordinary tea; you steep leaves, flowers or tender steams of herbs. Whereas a decoction…

Vadai

Savoury pairing with tea is as common as sweet pairing. Vadai is gluten-free and when just as it comes out of the frying pan or oven, its irresistible. Ingredients 250g urad dhall 2 green chillis, finely chopped 1 teaspoon salt Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, finely grated 1 large onion, finely chopped few curry…

Pumpkin Chai

Sunny, spicy and warm. Quick and easy recipe for the autumn Ingredients 100ml oats/almond/dairy milk 120ml of filtered water 1 teabag Chai Half a stick of Ceylon cinnamon 1 teaspoon of pureed pumpkin Sugar to taste Method In a pan, warm the milk and water with the Chai tea bag gently. When the milk and…

Over 50

I Launched my Tea Business Why not? Women and men set up a business at 55 or 60 or older than that. I think experience, wealth of knowledge and the desire to do so trump any concerns. To be honest, there were/are things to worry about. About 10 years ago, when I was working towards…

Sri Lankan Tea – Ceylon Tea

What is Sri Lankan Tea / Ceylon Tea? If you are going to do one thing, then make that one thing you do the finest. Ceylon Tea, a brand all on its own is recognisable for this long tradition. This reputation is based on growing and making the best black tea in the world. This…

Workers in Tea – Tea Plantation Workers

Speciality Tea – Part 7 – Women In the Tea Industry in Sri Lanka The quintessential picture of Ceylon tea is this: Yes, it’s still very much the same, as it has been for more than a century. This is even more common, (watched over): In of the tea estates that I visited this year…

Speciality Tea : Part 6 – Handmade Tea

Blink and you might miss it! It’s so quick; the assessments of the tea leaf, deft movement to select the perfect leaf, pluck the bud or tender young leaf and skilfully hand roll. Their experienced eyes will access the bud for: Quality Age Size (all the buds would need to be the same length). This…

Speciality Tea – Part 5 – Tea Tasting

Tea Tasting Part 5 – Tasting Tea Slurp, swirl and spit. Slurp – you are taking in lots of oxygen along with the tea, which releases more of the tea’s flavours. Swirl – moving tea around your mouth gives you the chance to get to know its complexity. Watch a master blender and taster do…

Specialty Tea – Part 4 – Sorting and Packing Tea Leaves

Tea Leaf Grading – Sorting by This is a good a place to talk about tea leaf grades. Tea leaves begin to get sorted at the rolling stage and it culimenates at the sorting stage. Handmade or rolled by machine, the leaves will be sorted by type of leaves, size and thus graded accordingly. This…

Gluten Free Pudding – Plum and Rose Water

Armfuls, bagfuls and car boot full of season fruit pickings!! I can’t seem to keep up with all this jamming! These purple wee rugby balls are from my sister’s friends’ garden. What was left went into this Almond, Plum and Rose Water Pudding. Ingredients 115g butter, at room temperature 115g caster sugar 2 eggs 115g…