Category: Food

Delicacies, recipes and recommendations. Because we all have to eat.

October 29, 2014 Food Post a Comment

BASILUR FLAVORED TEAS – Review

Wonderful Flavoured Teas to Seduce, Soothe and Make You Smile

Basilur tea

By now, no one is surprised to see another blog post from me about tea. I love flavored tea. A splash of milk or (unsweetened) soya milk, and you get heaven in a cup. Shake the soya milk first, and I call the result a teaccino. Its benefits are well know, too. Tea contains caffeine, but not as much as coffee. Just three cups a day can apparently help fight the bacteria that are linked to tooth decay and gum disease, according to a study published in the British Nutrition Foundation’s Nutrition Bulletin. Of course, I drink it for its wonderful taste.

I’ve previously declared my love for Nothing But Tea’s Coffee Cake and Scotch Acorns teas (now also available on Amazon). Love them. Nothing about that has changed.

But now I’ve discovered a new source for my daily tea fix. The company is called Basilur, and they haven’t made a single bad tea, as far as I can tell.

First of all, be assured they sell high grade ceylon teas. Even if I drink unflavored black tea, I pick Ceylon tea for a special treat. So the promise of unique flavors with what I consider the king of all teas convinced me to give them a try.

I’m so glad I did.

The experience begins when you first cut open the sealed bag and catch your first sniff of the contents. Gorgeous. You get a physical reaction. Your tastebuds ping, your stomach contracts, and if you let them, your eyes will roll in sheer bliss. To date, I’ve tried their Gold Pure Ceylon Flavored Present tea, which has a lovely cherry aroma with a hint of almond, the chocolate/bergamot tea (London Music Tin), which tastes like some kind of lemon cheese cake to me, the Knitted Folk Indigo, a blueberry/blackberry flavor which reminds me of those black/blue wine gums we all loved as a kid, and the Strawberry & Kiwi. Most surprisingly, none of them have an artificial, oily aftertaste. Just pure goodness. Needless to say, I’ve ordered more flavors. Oh, I want to try them all!

Also Basilur don’t pack and keep the stock in the warehouse. Instead, their teas are packed to order to maintain freshness and to offer a longer shelf life, which is a different approach from other companies.

There’s one more twist that makes this company stand out from its competition. All teas come in lovely caddies and are sealed inside for freshness. The caddies are stunning, with wonderful and original shapes and patterns, from Christmas books that look like, well, books, to the Basilur tea chests. And the London Music Tin is, in fact, a musical tin that plays music. How wonderful!

I order my Basilur teas from ebay via their UK outlet, but you can get them in the US, in Canada, Australia etc. Postage is okay, and the teas themselves are reasonably priced.

If you like flavored tea or fancy giving it a go, you must try Basilur teas. I hate to use superlatives, but they sell some of the loveliest teas I’ve ever tried. Such a treat. And I’m not even affiliated with them. Just a fan. ☕️

If you have discovered teas or fantastic drinks of any kind, why not share with the rest of us?

May 31, 2014 Food 2 Comments

COOKING WITH TOFU

I’m not one for recipes and cooking, so don’t expect this to become a regular feature on this blog.

Still, this is a good one. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to enjoy a tofu dish now and again. Tofu has a very subtle flavor and perfectly soaks up the aroma of the other ingredients.

My tofu salad is ridiculously healthy. “Ridiculous” because eating it actually makes me happy. When I’m writing and nothing works out, I need a boost. This salad does the trick.

“Wha-at? Are you putting chocolate in it?”

Nope. Try it out, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s quick to make, too.

The quantities don’t matter, as long as the ingredients are fresh.

Ingredients:
Tofu, reasonably firm
Fresh asparagus (white or green)
Red or orange peppers
Lettuce of some sort. (I like rocket or lamb’s lettuce, but I’ve tried iceberg lettuce and it worked.)
Ginger
Soy sauce
Lemon juice (doesn’t have to be freshly squeezed)
Garlic (optional, can be powder)

Preparation:
Cut the tofu into chunks. Peel a piece of fresh ginger and grate it (and the garlic, if you wish to include it). Do not use ginger powder. Cut the asparagus stems into thirds or quarters. With a little oil or water, fry the tofu, the asparagus and half the ginger (and garlic).

Meanwhile, combine one quantity of soy sauce (say, one spoonful), the same quantity of lemon juice (another spoonful) with two parts water (in this case two spoonfuls) in a glass. Add in the rest of the ginger (and garlic) and give it a good stir with a fork.

Arrange your chosen type of lettuce on a plate or in a bowl, cut the pepper(s) into chunks and arrange them on top of the lettuce. When the asparagus is cooked (so you can easily stick a fork in, about 5-7 minutes), deposit the contents of the frying pan on top and add the dressing.

Put on some happy music (consider Shakira’s Waka Waka) and tuck in.

Then get your butt back behind that keyboard and write.

May 17, 2014 Food Post a Comment

Zoomdweebies – My Cup Of Tea

Recently I blogged about Nothing But Tea, a British company selling my two favorite teas.

There is another place on the Internet that sells wonderful loose flavored tea. Zoomdweebies. Their flavors are often not strong enough to survive the splash of milk we Brits like to add, but they stock a huge variety of wonderful, unusual types. Black, green, white and rooibos teas, whatever takes your fancy.

I don’t always put milk in my tea, and for those occasions I actually favor Zoomdweebies.

I recently tried their Turtle Cashew tea, which was gorgeous, but I also have a hankering for their Buttered Rum tea. Of great interest to Doctor Who fans might be their Weeping Angel tea. Yes, they are self-proclaimed geeks (not just when it comes to tea, it seems). When they learned Joe Hill liked their teas, they created the NOS4A2 tea.

They also sell wonderful iced teas. Each pack consists of a single humongous tea bag, large enough for one or two liters (that’s two to four pints) of iced tea. Every week (or almost every week) a new flavor is added. And when it’s gone, it’s gone. Unless they run a special, where they offer out-of-stock items for a limited time.

If you like tea as much as I do (I rarely drink anything else), check them out. They’re based in the US (with free shipping, I believe), but do ship to Europe. The prices are reasonable and shipping is lightning fast.

As always, I have no affiliation with Zoomdweebies and don’t even get a discount. Just trying to bring tea to the world…

May 11, 2014 Food Post a Comment

Nothing But Tea

Nothing But Tea is a new discovery that has me singing its praises. I love flavored loose black  teas. Loooove them. Most of the time they smell fantastic but don’t taste of anything much. Occasionally you get lucky and get a good one.

I’ve tried tea sellers in the UK, the USA, Germany and other places. Without a doubt, Nothing But Tea are the best.

I’m not affiliated with them, except I’m a repeat customer. Their 100g pouches are roughly £6, but you can buy larger quantities with savings (although their price, roughly $9, for a big pouch already seems good-value for me).

What’s brilliant is is that you could also order small 10g pouches – enough for 3-5 cups of tea, for £1 ($1.50).

And the flavors are amazing. With and without milk and with or without sugar. I bought the samples, just to see, and by Jove, the teas taste as advertised. The Scotch Acorn is amazing (hard to describe, but let’s say the word Scotch is not a random choice), and I’m a huge fan of the coffee cake. It actually tastes like…coffee cake. The strawberry pepper has a lovely strawberry flavor, although not much pepper. Their rose marzipan hits you with marzipan first, then with a subtle aftertaste of rose.

Seriously, try them. Check out all flavored black teas here: here.

Delivery (super fast) within the UK is only £1. Shipping overseas is possible and will depend on weight. Feel free to contact them or check out delivery info: here.

Of course this is only my opinion. And I’m not saying there aren’t good places to be found elsewhere. But I haven’t had a bum flavor so far, which in my experience is unusual.