Tea-dyed Easter Eggs

Nothing says easter like dipping fresh white eggs into little bowls of colour and watching them change. This year we decided to go back-to-basics and cut out artificial dye by using tea instead! The process is simple, the colours are all-natural, and the clean up is a lot easier, especially when you’ve got little hands at work!

P.S. If you feel like getting extra creative, use our dying instructions with this amazing “surprise egg” method from Not Martha!

The Goods:

White eggs

A safety pin

Boiling water

Tea of your choice (we suggest hibiscus, black teas, or fruit tea with a deep colour like Blueberry Lagoon)

The Method:

1. Boil the kettle

2. While the kettle is boiling, poke a small hole in both the bottom and the top of your egg with a safety pin. Wiggle the pin to widen the bottom hole and break the yoke inside the egg. Blow into the top hole and drain the inside of the egg into a bowl so you can use it for scrambled eggs!

3. When your egg is empty, give it a good rinse with soapy water (carefully) and let it dry.

4. Combine 4-5 Tablespoons (higher amount will lead to darker colour) of tea with enough boiling water to cover your eggs in a small bowl. You’ll need a different bowl for each colour egg you’d like to produce. We did one bowl of black tea to yield a yellow colour, and one with hibiscus and pink dragonfruit for a deep purple.

5. Let the tea steep loosely in the water until the colour deepens to your liking, then strain out the large chunks. You can also leave the chunks in for a marbled result like we did.

5. Place the eggs in the dye and let sit. Rotate frequently but don’t handle too often or they will become splotchy. Let your eggs sit until your satisfied with their colour (You can even leave them overnight) and then remove. Let the eggs dry and decorate or craft with them as you please!

Toasty Almond infused Vegan Pancakes

On a cold winter morning, is there anything more impressive than fresh, warm pancakes? We didn’t think so either. We did however want to give this breakfast tradition our own special cinnamon twist: these pancakes are vegan and tea-infused! Oh, and we made them in the shape of hearts (if you are worried you can’t free-hand a heart, try an egg shaper or squeeze bottle!) Serve these up with maple syrup, whipped cream, sprinkles, fresh fruit, or anything else you might fancy! Oh, and if you’re feeling really romantic, pair them with our Strawberry Sweetie Pie Smoothie!

The Goods:

4 teaspoons toasty almond tea

1/4 cup boiling water

1 cup of flour

1 cup of almond/rice milk

1 Tablespoon canola oil

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1 Tablespoon maple syrup or agave

1 teaspoon cinnamon

The Method:

1. Steep Toasty Almond tea in the boiling water for four minutes. Make sure to squish out the last drops from the tea with a spoon in your strainer to get the maximum pink colour. Let the steeped tea cool about 15 minutes.

2. Whisk all ingredients together in a mixing bowl until smooth.

3. Pour pancakes onto greased pan and cook until satisfied. Top with your favorite add-ons and serve!

Sweetie Pie Strawberry Smoothie

There’s something so decadent about a strawberry milkshake: creamy, fruity, and perfectly pink, it always feels like such a treat. On the other hand, normal milkshakes are loaded with refined sugar and dairy, rendering them, well, not very healthy! But here at Tealish, we pride ourselves on being inventive with flavours, so we meddled around with some of our favorite ingredients to come up with the best tea infused, vegan strawberry smoothie-shake, just in time for Valentine’s Day! The best part? It’s full of antioxidants!

The Goods:

Recipe makes 2 servings

5 teaspoons of Sweetie Pie Rooibos

1/4 cup boiling water

1 Tablespoon Rooibos Latte Mix

1/2 cup of frozen organic strawberries

1/2 cup of Almond milk (or milk of your choice)

1 cup vegan vanilla ice cream (we LOVE Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss in Vanilla Island)

The Method:

1. Steep 5 teaspoons of Sweetie Pie Rooibos in 1.4 cup boiling water for 5 minutes. Let the water cool.

2. Once cooled, add the steeped tea and all other ingredients into a blender or milkshake maker. Blend until smooth.

3. Pour, add some romantic straws and/or garnishes and enjoy!

Matcha Salad Dressing

Happy 2013 tea lovers! Here at Tealish, we’re all getting into gear for a super healthy new year, and that means consuming as much tea as possible! With our new healthy resolutions in mind, we’ve come up with an antioxidant-packed matcha salad dressing recipe perfect for your next lunch, breakfast, dinner… you get the idea. This simple mixture combines the vitamins and minerals found in lemons and honey with the super powers of matcha green tea; matcha is known to support strong immunity, boost metabolism, raise energy and increase mental alertness! So why not take your healthy green salad up a notch with this delicious green dressing? You could even use it to make your weekly round of jar salads  to take with you to work!

The Goods

Recipe inspired by Teaspoons and Petals

1 tsp of Tealish’s organic matcha

1  tablespoon hot water

1 tsp Leitch’s organic Ontario liquid honey

1 tsp Himalayan pink salt

1 tsp grapeseed oil

Lemon juice from half a lemon

The Method

1. Whisk matcha and hot water together in a small bowl. If you don’t have a matcha whisk, try a small metal whisk, milk frother or fork.

2. Stir in the honey until it melts. If you like a sweeter dressing, add a bit extra.

3. Add oil, salt, and lemon juice, stir and store for up to a week in the fridge.

*Enjoy with any salad you like: We love it on baby spinach with cherry tomatoes and cashews!

Vegan Matcha Sugar Cookie trees with royal icing!

There’s nothing quite like the warm feelings the holiday season brings. Carols are in the air, families come together, and treats are everywhere. And really, what better to go with treats than tea? But we thought we could take this a bit further: why not use tea in our Christmas treats? We decided to use the gorgeous jade green of matcha to make our sugar cookies more festive naturally: behold, matcha sugar cookie trees! This recipe makes about four rolls you can stash in your fridge over the holidays for easy baking, and just to make them more shareable, they’re vegan too!  Enjoy them plain, topped with vegan matcha royal icing (like we did), and/or alongside our rich and creamy Matcha hot cocoa! You can even give an extra log or two away as gifts if you don’t eat them all first…

The Goods:

Adapted from Chez Bettay

5 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup almond milk (or any other milk substitute!)

1 Tablespoon organic vanilla

1 tub of earth balance soy-free buttery spread (whipped works great too!)

2 Tablespoons of Tealish’s Matcha latte mix

1 teaspoon of Tealish’s organic matcha powder (for an extra green colour)

The Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar together until smooth using a hand mixer or stand mixer

2. Add baking powder and continue to mix until it’s well blended

3. Slowly add the milk alternative of your choice and your vanilla extract

4. In small parts, add the 5 cups of flour. mixing well before adding each cup. Stop mixer when all the flour is well mixed and a dough forms.

5. Roll the dough into logs, wrap in plastic and craft or parchment paper, and refrigerate until you’d like to bake (at least 30 minutes!) You can then simply cut the log for quick circle cookies, or go the extra mile and make shapes!

To Bake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

1. Roll out the dough on a clean surface lined with a bit of flour. Use cookie cutters to make shapes: we suggest green things, like trees, wreaths or holly!

2. Place shapes (or circles) on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

3. Bake for about ten minutes, or until the edges start to look just a bit crispy. Remove and cool… then get ready to ice!

Icing:

When the cookies have cooled completely, ice them! We followed this super handy video by The Sweetest Vegan and simply added 1 heaping Tablespoon of matcha mix at the end to make it green! You can use other colours to decorate your trees with icing lights and tinsel, but we kept it minimal and natural.

Happy Holidays from the Tealish team!

Matcha Hot Cocoa

Nothing warms us in the winter quite like a creamy cup of hot cocoa. Sadly, this hot bevvie isn’t usually the healthiest choice on the menu. With a bit of experimentation, we’ve come up with a simple recipe that combines the goodness of hot cocoa with the health benefits of matcha green tea!

The Goods:
1 tablespoon Tealish Matcha latte mix
1 tablespoon Organic cocoa powder from The Spice Trader
3 cups milk of your choice (we used True Almond’s vanilla almond milk)

The Method

1. Pour milk into a small saucepan. Warm on low heat.

2. Stir in matcha and cocoa. Use a whisk to dissolve the two powders into the milk as it warms up.

3. When the cocoa has all melted and the temperature is to your liking, remove from heat.

4. Serve in mugs with a peppermint stick and enjoy by a warm fireplace!

*Tip: add a drop or two of organic peppermint extract to add a little more holiday cheer to your bevvie!

Happy Holiday Sippin’

Hibiscus iced cubes: beautiful blocks of health!

Hibiscus is all the rage lately, quickly climbing the health trend ladder to become one of our most bought herbal teas. On top of lowering blood pressure and high cholesterol, it also has a super high vitamin C content (which makes it a great addition to tea time during cold season!) This recipe makes adding the goodness of this rich purple flower easy and gorgeous to boot! Try popping them in lemonade, juice, fruity tea, or even a glass of water for a boost of wellness benefits and a tart taste explosion!

The Goods:
Tealish Loose Leaf Hibiscus Tea
Boiling water
Teapot/infuser and bowl

The Method:
1. Steep 3 teaspoons of hibiscus flowers in 500ml of boiling water for 5 minutes. Strain and let cool completely

2. In the meantime, fill an ice cube tray with hibiscus flowers. Try to put at least on flower in each cube.

3. When the hibiscus tea has cooled, pour it over the flowers in the ice cube tray. Freeze overnight.

4. Put a cube in your favorite bevvies for a sour hit of vitamin C! The flowers will melt out and float to the bottom of your cup while you sip!