Sponsored review: Twinings Moroccan mint tea mojito

 

Both Ro and I enjoy a good cuppa tea every once in a while. Mostly weekends, we try making all these different types of tea and enjoy it with some biscuits and such. I particularly love experimenting with it..like making a macaron flavour with it, different flavours of iced tea's with it, the occasional masala chai and our favourite the mint tea.

I received a couple of boxes of Twinings tea to review and after enjoying some with our biscuits and cakes, I decided to try something new. I had never made a cocktail with tea, and my love for everything cocktail made me try this Moroccan inspired mojito. Its such a cool recipe..i mean it combines my favourite mint tea with rum and really, what's not to like about that?

 

I also absolutely love the whole Afternoon Tea idea. I find it incredibly romantic, to dress up and go to a fancy hotel for some tea. I have been wanting to throw a tea party at mine for a long time, but haven't had the time to do it. But I did whip up some macarons for an afternoon tea-ish session with friends beginning of summer. I served them with Twinings Earl Grey (my favourite), English Breakfast and Assam tea- all great tea's. The English breakfast makes a mean mint tea as well. But be careful to not let it steep too much, or else your mint tea is gonna taste bitter. I have wasted waaay too much tea with that mistake.

Recipe adapted from here (Makes 2 to 3 glasses)

 

Twinings English Breakfast- 2 bags
Boiling water- 1 1/2 cups
Cardamom pods- 20, crushed
Sugar- 3 tbsp (adjust accordingly)
Mint leaves- 10 to 15
Lemon juice- 3 tbsp
White rum- 3 oz
Ice

 

Into a measuring cup put in the tea bags and bruised cardamom pods.
Pour enough boiling water to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid in total.
Seep for about 2 to 3 minutes, remove the tea bags, but not the cardamom and store in the refrigerator till ready to use.
Meanwhile, muddle the mint and sugar together in a cocktail shaker and keep aside.
When ready to serve, add the tea mix to the cocktail shaker, followed by lemon juice, rum and some ice cubes.
Shake away and then pour into individual glasses, top with a sprig of mint, a lime wedge and some ice and you are good to go.

 

Notes: The drink was not sweet at all, so the second batch i made, I used sugar syrup (1/4 cup) instead of sugar and added it to the tea mix when it was still warm. The mint leaves were muddled on its own.
Add more rum if you want it super boozy :)

With thanks to Twinings for the samples

Vanilla-flavoured custard cake

The moment I saw Aparna's custard powder cake, I knew I had to try it out. In all honesty, I love plain cakes and if its vanilla flavoured, I'm sold.

I decided to try out the version with the egg in it and didn't regret. Aparna had mentioned it was a comfortably sweet cake and she was right. Although, just to take it a notch higher, I dusted icing sugar on top. The top was a bit crumbly, but this dense cake was perfect with a cuppa tea on a cold Autumn day. 

The next time I'd probably try it out as the base for an upside down cake or 'jam' it up in a sort of Victoria sponge cake way. Whatever it is, this cake is a keeper because it is absolutely fuss free and delicious and took me about 15 minutes to prepare.

Recipe adapted from here as Aparna mentioned (I halved it)

All purpose flour- 1 cup

Vanilla flavoured custard powder- 43 gms

Granulated sugar- 1 cup

Baking powder- 1 tsp

Butter- 125 gms

Eggs- 2

Milk- 1/2 cup

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Pre-heat oven to 160C

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined, either with a wooden spoon or with an electric mixer which I what I used.

Pour into a greased or lined round cake tin (9 inch) and bake for about 55 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack and just before you serve, dust with some icing sugar and serve with a smile:)

Notes: OK, so just before I started I realized Id run short of AP flour and so I used about 3/4 cup of plain flour and rest was wholemeal flour. Didn't make any difference I'm assuming

The original recipe calls for Self raising flour and since I didn't have that either I used 1 tsp baking powder.

Hot chocolate, a blanket to cozy up and a chick lit in hand

....bliss??? I'd say so especially on a weekday when otherwise I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to finish off chores and deadlines and gym before I take my vacation end of this year. I was thinking of not taking any more freelance assignments this year, but a lil extra pocket money wont hurt right, especially when you are going on holiday.

Hot chocolate at the restaurants and cafes are not really a favourite of mine because I am not a sucker for the bitter dark choc taste and will have to douse so much of sugar into it and Ro gives me the stare. But at home, I made Nigella Lawson's 'Adults Hot Chocolate' with loads of sugar and honey as the recipe called. 

My current obsession are these lovely caramel flavoured tea biscuits called Lotus which I more or less have with anything and everything these days. Dipped them in the hot chocolate, wrapped myself up in a blanket and read to my hearts content the Shopaholic series, in between drifting off to the Prada, Dior and Versace sections at Harrods ;)

Adapted from Nigella's Chocolate Heaven on Nigella Feasts (makes 1 large coffee mug)

Milk- 1 cup (preferably full fat..yeah go all out)

Dark chocolate- 50 gms

Cinnamon powder- 1/4 tsp (or about 1 inch of a cinnamon stick)

Honey- 2 tsp

Dark brown sugar- 1 tsp

Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Dark rum or Kahlua- 1 tbsp or to taste (optional)

Pour the milk into a saucepan and break in the chocolate along with the cinnamon sugar and honey. Stir well on medium heat until the chocolate melts.

Splash in the vanilla extract and rum (if adding) and whisk till it slightly starts bubbling around the edges, but not boiling. It should be a slightly creamy, thick consistency.

Add more sugar at this stage if required.

Take out the cinnamon stick (if using) and pour into a coffee mug and sip on it while its still steaming hot.

Notes: You can add Baileys, whisky or even brandy as your choice of alcohol.

Brown sugar can be replaced with normal sugar, probably need to add a wee bit more.

I preferred cinnamon powder instead of the stick because the flavour was a bit more stronger and strangely I loved it in hot chocolate.

Lemon- lavender Tea

Against my husbands wishes I went and bought a tiny lavender potted plant and love it to bits. Well I should be spanked for saying that cos most of my love is short lived. We have a total of 6 plants on our balcony of which the basil and parsley are actually struggling to live. The daffodils, blue bells etc etc died after they flowered and id like to think that's how their life cycle works. Our orange plant was such a delight when I picked it up from Borough Market last year. I'd paid quite a bomb for it and promised Ro with all my heart I'd look after it. And now, although its not died on me, I haven't seen an orange grow on it after we plucked the ones that came with it. Ro's constant disturbing question, 'you cant even look after an orange plant, how on earth are you gonna look after a kid.' Grinning from ear to ear wouldn't help, I guess :)

So anyways, purple is my fav colour and I've recently developed this obsession for lavender and have been researching it quite a bit, well more on the level of, where I can go and pick some fresh lavender...lavender farms near London etc. But never on what to do after I did pick some up. So after my lovely lavender baby was perched on the balcony sill, I had to prove to Ro I'd definitely cook with it. I posted a status message on FB asking what to do with lavender..Got a few replies, among which PJ's lavender tea made an impression. Well rather it sounded the easiest:)

Today it was raining cats and dogs and tea was just the thing I wanted. Did some research and figured I could make it without drying the lavender. The tea smelt so darn good and tasted just as I thought it would. Thanks PJ for the suggestion.

Like Joey from F.R.I.E.N.D.S says, 'thats like summer in a bowl,' in my case in a cup..but you get the idea right? 

For one cup tea you would need:

Tea bag- 1 (I used  Whittard traditional English tea bag)

Lavender flowers- 1 tsp (or more if you want a stronger flavour)

Water- 1 large cup

Lemon juice- 1 tsp

Sugar or honey- to taste (optional)

Bring a cup of water to boil and throw in the lavender flowers and the tea bag.

Let it boil for a few seconds and then take it of the flame.

After a minute or so, remove the tea bag, add the lemon juice and sugar/ honey and stir well.

Strain and pour into tea cups.

Another method would be to pour boiling water into a bowl with the lavender and tea bag. Steep for about five minutes.

Add the lemon and sugar and pour into tea cups. 

Serve hot with biscuits.

Notes: I'm definitely gonna try some other variations like basil and lavender, ginger and lavender etc :)