Matcha truffles

Mmm, don't these look scrumptious? Matcha truffles.



I volunteer to taste-test any matcha truffles you make.


—Mellow Monk

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Green chai facial toner recipe

From green beauty expert Julie Gabriel's Green Beauty Guide comes a recipe for making your own green chai facial toner.



Click the pic to see the book's Amazon page.


—Mellow Monk

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Iced green tea time is here

Here are some yummy iced green tea recipes to help mellow you through the summer heat: lemon ginger iced green tea, fresh lime and white grape iced green tea, and iced green tea with lime.





—Mellow Monk

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Make your own green tea slushie

Alright, I admit—"green tea slushie" is what I called it. The folks at Health.com call it a frozen iced green tea.


Actually they call it "frozen iced tea," but there's no reason you couldn't make it with green tea instead of black tea.



Imagine this same scrumptious-looking concoction, but greener.


—Mellow Monk

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A trio of chocolate pots de creme with matcha

The L.A. Times has been running a lot of stories about green tea of late. Here is one about pots de creme (a.k.a. custard) made with matcha.


Of course, you already knew that green tea and chocolate are an exquisite match, yes?



Matcha custard with (clockwise from top) white vanilla, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate.


—Mellow Monk

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Make your own green tea ice cream

It's not as hard as you would think—you can actually make your own green tea ice cream.



"Custardy yet light green tea ice cream is made with cream, milk, eggs and green tea powder."


—Mellow Monk

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Award-winning green tea cocktails

Green tea cocktails figure prominently among the winners of the Top Tea competition at the World Tea Expo. For instance:

Sencha Kamikaze
Submitted by: TeaZen
Tea Used: Sencha Lemon
The green tea adds a soft light green color and lemon flavor making the drink tasty and refreshing. Tea gently smooths alcohol taste making the cocktail simple delish.

Recipe:
2 oz Dry Gin (Bombay Recommended)
2 oz Triple Sec
2 oz Sencha lemon tea instead of lime juice

Shake the ingridients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime twist.

Rare Tea has a simple recipe for a green tea mojito that sounds absolutely fabulous.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea lime pie

From an article at the Detroit News on the benefits of green tea comes this recipe for green tea lime pie.


(The recipe is taken from the book Tea For You, by the beautiful Tracy Stern.)

Key Lime Pie

If you can't find Key limes, don't worry. This recipe is all about the flavors of green tea and tart lime.

2 tablespoons finely grated lime zest

5 large egg yolks

1 1/4 cups sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup brewed green tea

1/2 cup strained fresh lime juice

11 full graham crackers, processed to fine crumbs (1 1/4 cups)

3 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup heavy cream

Whisk the zest and yolks in a medium bowl until the yolks are tinted light green, about 2 minutes. Beat in the condensed milk, green tea, and then the lime juice. Set the mixture aside at room temperature to let it thicken.

Adjust an oven rack to the center position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Mix the crumbs and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the butter and stir with a fork until well blended. Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch pie pan and press the crumbs over the bottom and up the sides of the pan to form an even crust. Bake until lightly browned and fragrant, about 15 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.

Pour the lime filling into the crust and bake until the center is set, yet wiggly when jiggled, 15 to 17 minutes. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours.

Up to 2 hours before serving, whip the cream until medium peaks form. Spread the whipped cream evenly over the pie with a rubber spatula. Return to the refrigerator.

To serve, slice the pie and transfer to serving plates. Makes 1 9-inch pie; serves 8.

Tea expert Sally Mimura Sarin pours a cuppa.


—Mellow Monk

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Now you're cooking with tea

This article on using tea in cooking includes a recipe for green tea eggs—which is also recommended in The Low-Carb Cookbook.



Click for more examples of the work of Russian artist Alex Andreev, who calls his style "hermetic.”


—Mellow Monk

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Iced green tea with pomegranate juice

A healthy and thirst-quenching drink perfect for a hot summer's day: iced green tea with pomegranate juice.


...but ignore the part about using tea bags, however. Instead, brew your loose-leaf green tea the way you normally would, pour it into a mug or cup filled with ice, leaving a little room in the cup for the pomegranate juice. Then, once the tea has chilled (it only takes a minute or so), add in about half an inch of pomegranate juice.


You can also chill your brewed tea before pouring it over ice — you get less melting and therefore less dilution of the tea. If you're going to be using hot tea, you can brew your tea on the strong side to allow for dilution by the melting ice.


More tips and recipes for iced green tea are available here.





—Mellow Monk

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Strawberry iced green tea

Here's a great treat to beat the summer heat—the strawberry iced green tea.



Don't forget to add real strawberries as a garnish.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea lemonade—spiked!

This is too late for St. Patrick's Day, but here goes anyway . . .


One of the signature cocktails at Bungalow 44 in Mill Valley, California, is spiked green tea lemonade:

Signature drink: Green tea lemonade ($8.75), made with Charbay green tea vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup and soda water; raspberry lemon drops flavored with Chambord ($9.25); and refreshing cucumber margaritas ($9.50) are solid choices. Also try the usual suspects, like a mojito or Negroni.

Bartender Kelly Phu pours a cocktail at Bungalow 44. She also makes a mean spiked green tea lemonade.


—Mellow Monk

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Recipe: green tea smoked trout with spinach salad

If you like trout and green tea, then you're in luck, because here is a recipe for green tea-smoked trout with spinach salad. Sounds yummy!



Here's a variation made with black tea instead of green and with apple salad instead of spinach, but you can simply substitute the 1/2 cup of black tea with the same amount of much-healthier green tea leaves.


—Mellow Monk

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Review of "Green Tea: 50 Hot Drinks, Cool Quenchers, and Sweet and Savory Treats"

This review of the book "Green Tea: 50 Hot Drinks, Cool Quenchers, and Sweet and Savory Treats" shows a couple of recipes excerpted from the book, such as ...

Pineapple-Ginger Iced Green Tea

Serves 4

1 cup chilled green tea

2 cups chilled pineapple juice

1 cup very fizzy chilled ginger ale

Ice cubes

Mix the chilled green tea with the pineapple juice in a medium-size pitcher. Stir well. Add the ginger ale to the pitcher and blend thoroughly. Pour the tea mixture into tall glasses filled with ice and serve immediately.

—Mellow Monk

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Green tea cookies

If you're in the dog house today for getting your soulmate a Chia Pet for Valentine's Day, you might want to bake some green tea heart-shaped cookies as a peace offering.



Yummy! If anyone out there bakes some, I'm willing to "review" them for you!


—Mellow Monk

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Cocktail recipe: Green tea mojito

Here's a recipe for a green tea mojito. I've modified this recipe, replacing bottled green tea with a freshly brewed infusion of authentic loose-leaf green tea (such as yours truly's).


Ingredients
juice of half a lime
6 large mint leaves
brewed green tea – 75 ml (1/3 cup)
white rum – 30 ml (2 tbsp)

Instructions
Pour the lime juice into a highball glass. Add the mint and crush with a spoon. Fill a glass with ice and add the tea and rum. Stir well and garnish with a mint leaf, if desired.






The green tea mojito served up at Kyoya in San Francisco.


—Mellow Monk

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Green tea oatmeal pancakes

In this recipe for green tea oatmeal pancakes, you can substitute loose-leaf tea for teabags.


Essentially, what you do is steep the tea in milk, so you could use a tea strainer or permanent filter to get the job done.


—Mellow Monk

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The ultimate (green) tea diet

Mark "Dr. Tea" Ukra's book The Ultimate Tea Diet is getting consistently excellent reviews on Amazon.com. Here are quotes from a couple of reviews:

On January 1, I cozied up with my copy of The Ultimate Tea Diet, steaming mug of coffee in hand, and by page eleven I was firing up the teakettle.

—The Culinary Tourist


I have read this book and found it to be totally fascinating and informative. I have already started the diet and have started shedding pounds but more importantly inches! It's great... they are just melting away. Plus I have more energy and feel great. I bought some of the craving teas on line and love the way they taste. I have a real sweet tooth and they have really helped me stay away from my daily dose of candy and ice cream.

—Sue from Chicago

And remember—of all the varieties of tea, green tea is thought to be the best at helping you lose weight, as it contains the highest levels of green tea polyphenols, including one found only in green tea—EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate).


Mr. Ukra has promoted his book, diet, and recipes on Good Morning America.


Here's a recipe from The Ultimate Tea Diet:

Rosemary Orange Tea Chicken
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 oranges
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon of dried, plus fresh sprigs for garnish
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground green tea
• 1-1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Mix together the olive oil, juice of 1-1/2 oranges (set aside the other half0, pepper, salt, chopped rosemary, and dry tea. Pour this marinade into a large resealable plastic bag. Add the chicken, seal the bag and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat a grill pan or barbecue until hot. Remove chicken from the bag, discarding the remaining marinade, and grill until browned on both sides. Thinly slice the remaining orange half and serve with the chicken. Decorate with a sprig of rosemary.

Serves 4.
Nutrition Per Serving: calories 170, fat 2.5g, protein 28g, carb 8g

—Mellow Monk

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Green tea drinkology: the green-tea-ni

Here is a cocktail recipe for the "green-tea-ni"—as in martini, but with green tea instead of vermouth.



That's the green-tea-ni on the far left.


—Mellow Monk

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Make your own green tea soda

In the video below, British chef Luci Lock demonstrates her simple and elegent recipe for green tea soda.

But I just have to make a couple of comments about Ms. Lock's recipe. First of all, when brewing green tea the water you use most definitely does not need to be just-boiled. That may be true for English tea, but water that's too hot will "cook" green tea and spoil the flavor. A water temperature of about 85 degrees celcius, or 185 degrees Fahrenheit, is about right.

But that doesn't mean you have to go out and buy a cooking thermometer. Brewing and drinking green tea is supposed to be a time to relax, not a time to fret. So just do as the English say—walk the kettle to the pot. In other words, after the water has boiled and you've turned off the heat, wait a few minutes before pouring. (I'm surprised Ms. Lock didn't remember that one.)

My second comment is ... tea bags? Tea bags? Let's just say this shows how much work there still is for me to do out there.

Still, this home-made green tea soda is a healthy, satisfying alternative to the high-fructose corn syrupy concoctions you'll find in your friendly neighborhood grocery store.

Enjoy!

—Mellow Monk

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Now you're cooking with green tea

Green tea—it's what's for dinner:

As tea's health profile has risen, it has increasingly found its way onto dinner plates as well as in tea cups. Green tea is mellow enough to work well with spicy flavors like ginger and garlic; citrus teas give a lift to heavier flavors like chocolate. Green tea cakes and chai cookies are now staples at bakeries, and restaurants are putting tea in marinades and rubs.

Green tea—it's not just for sipping.


—Mellow Monk

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Whiskey and iced green tea

The Scotch Whisky Association is poised to announce that the world's top-ten whiskey-consuming nations now include China, where a popular way of imbibing is adding the whiskey to iced green tea.



In China, whiskey is a popular "boost" for green tea.


—Mellow Monk

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The original Hot Toddy

Back in January I posted a cocktail recipe for a Green Tea Ginger Hot Toddy. The hot toddy has been around for a while, and no doubt the Green Tea Ginger Hot Toddy is only one of countless variations of the drink.

But what I didn't realize until recently is that the hot toddy was originally named for a famous Hollywood actress, Thelma Todd.

Tragically, Thelma died in 1935 at the age of 30. One of the last people to see her alive was her ex-husband, reputed mobster Pat DiCicco. DiCicco, along with actor Wallace Beery, was also a suspect in the death of Ted Healy, the vaudevillian who in the mid-1920s worked with three young funnymen who would eventually find fame as the Three Stooges.

Thelma Todd's death was ruled a suicide—a ruling that is still controversial today. Some even say that Thelma's ghost still haunts Hollywoood.



The real "Hot Toddy."


—Mellow Monk

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Recipe: pan-seared salmon with green tea rice

Here is a yummy-sounding recipe for pan-seared salmon with green tea rice.

Of course, you can also make green tea rice by itself, which boiled down to its essence (pun intended) involves simply adding loose-leaf green tea to rice before steaming.


—Mellow Monk

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Iced green tea with orange essence

You may be thinking, "Iced green tea? In wintertime?"

But even when it's cold outside, a nice pitcher of iced green tea is still good at dinnertime or after exercising.

What's nice about this recipe is its use of orange essence—orange is a wonderful complement to green tea. Instead of orange essence, you can also try experimenting with orange peels.

And, most importanty, instead of 2 green tea bags, use two heaping teaspoons of loose-leaf green tea. Then when you're pouring the tea mixture from the saucepan to the pitcher, pour through an over-the-cup tea strainer (such as this one) to catch the tea leaves.

By the way, a tea strainer like the one above is also great for making green tea by the cup.

—Mellow Monk

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How to make a ginger green tea hot toddy

In an episode of "Art of the Drink," professional bartender Andy Caporale and "guest star" Tracy show how to make a ginger green tea hot toddy, which sounds like the perfect thing for this cold weather we've been experiencing lately.

The ingredients you'll need are:

• 2 slices of fresh ginger
  
• 1 tablespoon of honey
  
• 1 thin slice of lemon
  
• 8 ounces of hot green tea
  
• 1-1/4 ounces of brandy
  

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Have a green tea party

Some hints for having a green tea party.





—Mellow Monk

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Green tea popcorn

How to make green tea popcorn with matcha (powdered green tea).


Hint: To make your own matcha, just put some Mellow Monk loose-leaf green tea in a high-speed food processor and grind it to a powder. (Green tea used in making matcha is grown, harvested, and processed in essentially the same manner as ordinary loose-leaf green tea; the only difference is the powdering process.)



This could easily be Mellow Monk green tea popcorn.


—Mellow Monk

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The Mellow Monk Green Tea Summer Fruit Splash

Here's a recipe for a great-tasting healthy drink to beat the summer heat: the Mellow Monk Green Tea Summer Fruit Splash.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon Mellow Monk loose-leaf green tea
  
• 8 oz. spring water*
  
• 4 oz. unflavored sparkling water
  
• 5 ice cubes
  
• 1/2 peach, pitted**
  
• 1 large (16-20 oz.) cup or glass.
  

*Or filtered water or, if you must, tap water.


**Instead of a peach, you can use strawberries (3-4), pineapple (3-4 cubes or 1 ring), blueberries (5-6), or whatever your favorite summer fruit is.

Steps

1. Use a teaspoon of Mellow Monk green tea leaves and 8 oz. of mineral water to make a serving of double-strength tea. (Normal strength would be 1/2 teaspoon per 8 oz. water.)
   
2. Let the tea cool, then pour into the large cup.
   
3. Add all of the ice cubes.
   
4. Add all of the sparkling water.
   
5. Drop the fruit into the cup or glass, then use a spoon to mash it slightly.
   
6. Mix gently, then enjoy!
   

Notes

• Letting the mashed fruit sit in the tea mixture for a few minutes allows the juices to infuse into the drink, for a fruitier flavor.
  
• Don't waste the fruit—after finishing your first glass of Summer Fruit Splash, make another with the same fruit.
  
• If you have time to plan ahead, make a pitcher of green tea and let it cool in the refrigerator for a few hours ahead of time. The cooler the tea is, the more slowly the ice will melt.
  
• Have a Summer Fruit Splash party! Set a table with a pitcher or two of chilled, extra-strong Mellow Monk green tea, sparkling water, and small bowls of your favorite summer fruits. Experiment with different combinations of fruits, such as pineapple and strawberry. Yummy!
  

—Mellow Monk

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Iced green tea for the summer

It's that time of year again, so here's a previous post on making iced green tea.

The How to Brew page of our website also has instructions for making iced green tea.





—Mellow Monk

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Green tea recipes

You can find a lot of recipes calling for green tea at RecipeZaar.com.

—Mellow Monk

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