Are you an avid tea drinker looking for a different way to enjoy your tea this summer? A lot of tea drinkers go iced in the warm summer months, some even adding lemonade to their iced tea, but there is an even colder way to enjoy your tea in the summer months if you enjoy green tea: smoothies!
Below you will find the recipe for my personal summer tea concoction, which will require matcha (powdered green tea). Matcha is high in caffeine content compared to regular steeped tea, so you may not want to indulge in one of these smoothies too late in the day.
INGREDIENTS 1 tsp matcha (powdered green tea) 4 oz. cup of fruit-flavored yogurt (Light 'n Fit works well, low in sugar) frozen strawberries (or other desired fruit) frozen peach slices (or other desired fruit) apple juice
There is nothing like a cool cocktail to take the edge off a hot summer afternoon or evening. This glass of Bourbon Mint Tea comes to us from Clay and Zach, two guys from the South who are partial to both sweet tea and bourbon. They got the recipe from the May 2008 edition of Everyday Food and say that it has the perfect balance of mint, sweetness and Bourbon, without being overpowering. You can find the recipe over on their food blog, The Bitten Word (a blog devoted to using the recipes they find in their cooking magazines).
A lot of people enjoy an adult beverage now and then (some of them more than others). Did you ever wonder, though, if one was worse for you? I know that thought never has crossed my mind, but apparently it occurred to some researchers and so they set about to look into it.
In a new study published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, scientists scanned the brains of people diagnosed with alcoholism and found differences in the size of the hippocampus. That's the area of the brain responsible for spatial tasks and memory. Beer drinkers came out with the least damage, followed by those who preferred spirits and wine, respectively.
"The size of the hippocampus was largest in the healthy group – 3.85ml. In beer drinkers it was 3.4ml, while the average for spirit drinkers was 2.9ml, and for wine drinkers, 2.8ml."
Of course there are a lot of other factors that could have played a part here, and this is only very early research. The study does suggest that beer is either less bad for your brain or that it protects your brain a little more than the other beverages. What do you think? Is this all hogwash, or is beer better?
I had never really thought of Irish Cream as something you could make at home (I thought it was something that only came in a bottle and was bought at the liquor store) until I came across this post on The Real Potato. Posted a couple of days ago, she offers a seemingly easy recipe for making your own Irish Cream (none of that pre-bottled stuff!). It does use raw eggs, so if that makes you feel uncomfortable, you can either get some pasteurized eggs or leave them out and add some extra cream. It would be a great thing to make tonight if you're going to have a mellow night at home with friends or family (or both)!
I have a bad habit of not thinking about holiday baking and other prep until Hanukkah and Christmas are on top of me (with a Jewish mother and a Unitarian father, I get the privilege of the holiday double-dip). Hanukkah is nearly over and while I did manage to make latkes (however well they worked) and mandelbrot, I still feel like I was unprepared.
Thankfully there are still a few weeks until the end of the year which means that there's still just enough time to make your holiday eggnog (you could also still bake up a batch of fruitcake to go along with it). Janelle over at Talk of Tomatoes says that homemade eggnog needs at least three weeks in the back of the fridge to mellow and so has whipped up a batch using a recipe she found over at CHOW. She says that if you make it now, it will be deliciously ready by New Year's Eve (but that you could break into it and give it a taste around Christmas as well). So get cracking!
We've all opened up a bottle of soda and have it get warm on us as it sits on the table. But what if there was a technology that actually made the drink stay cold even after you open it?
Coca-Cola is experimenting with a bottle that chills on the inside after you twist off the cap. They have to be stored in special vending machines so this is probably not something you'll be able to get at any supermarket. The bottle could be used on a new drink called Sprite Super Chill, which is going to be released in the UK later this year. No word yet on any use in the US anytime soon.
It's just a matter of time before MyCuppaTea takes its rightful place on my kitchen counter. Finally, a coffee cup that understands that no one in his or her under-caffeinated mind thinks of adding one or two exacting teaspoons of milk to one's coffee. In my pre-java, pre-verbal state, all I do is pour enough milk to create a cozy, very con leche brew. It's all blind pourpourpour -- stir, then slowly sip to wakefulness. Gizmodo found this mug from that subscribes to the PANTONE school of coffee coloration. Now you can gauge your coffee-milk ratio by a burnt sienna for Just Tea to a bisque for Milky. While taking my coffee black would probably add a certain edgy elegance, I land somewhere just this side of Classic British. Just enough milk to blanket a bold French Roast without taming it.
I'd love to see the PANTONE principle adopted in other culinary realms from meat -- "I'd like my steak done Flamingo" -- to baked goods -- "Those cookies should be Mojave Sand not Colorado Timber!" -- to vegetables -- "Shouldn't broccoli florets come out a little more Lily Pad and a lot less Algae?".
Advertising companies and politicians like to play with semantics for the purpose of changing images. Big soda companies seem to be heavily invested in changing their images this year - with Pepsi completely revamping their packaging and Coke teaming up witt Jay-Z to promote Coke Zero - so it isn't entirely shocking to hear that they no longer want soda to be thought of as "carbonated soft drinks." Instead, they're "sparkling beverages."
In what some might describe as a blending of advertising and politics, the name change represents some social climbing on the part of soda companies. They are trying to distance themselves from their high-calorie, junk food roots, which politicians and other people in positions of power continually hold against them. Unfortunately for the cola companies, soda is so popular that no matter what Coke and Pepsi executives decide to call it, changing the name for the product to "sparkling beverage" is like trying to change the word for "beer": it's just not going to happen.
I'm rarely tempted by what the local convenience store has to offer in the way of soft drinks and fad juices, but during a late night pit-stop I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I had just read about Coca-Cola's plans to buy Fuze Beverages, and though I had seen the drinks before, I had never tried one. Being a coconut fanatic, I was pretty thrilled to see one called Banana Colada. I really expected it to be a mess of artificial, chemical-like flavors, but was truly surprised to find out it was delicious.
According to the label there is only 5% real juice (no big surprise there) but they do boast a high content of calcium and vitamins. The best part of course is that the drink is fat free, and an 8oz serving only has 90 calories. If you know of another beverage that tastes like a pina colada with those stats, let me know.
The Banana Colada belongs to their "Refresh" line of drinks, which also comes in Strawberry Banana, Strawberry Guava, and Peach Mango flavors. In addition, they sell three other lines of drinks. In case you're not familiar with them, they include:
Vitalize - more like a sports drink, high in electrolytes and antioxidants Slenderize - 2 grams of carbs, approx. 10 calories per 8 oz serving Tea - a selection of green, white, and oolong chilled teas
Details on the acquisition of Fuze haven't yet been released, but they do state that Fuze would operate as a stand-alone entity of Coca-Cola Co. if the deal does go through as planned.
I have lately been reading in-depth articles on research and development in food and beverage trade publication on beverage colors. Drinks come in myriad of shades of the rainbow, and more. From neon colors to pastels, earth tones and cola and root beer browns.
For many years artificial colors were in. They were easy to make and stable over long periods of time. Then there were all the scares with artificial dyes over the years, like cancer and allergies. Combined with today's health consciousness, this has led to the development of new, natural colors. You would think this was easy but it has been a struggle. Natural colors are difficult to make stable, so they don't change shades or fade with time. Now it looks like the color stability problem is a thing of the past.
When I made Sandra
Lee's white hot chocolate, I fell in lust. I guess I'm not the only one. I found this photo in our Slashfood flickr
group and, well let's just say I'm on my way to the kitchen to chop up some Ghiradelli white chocolate. This photo, uploaded by mocmoc, was taken on the occasion of needing something to which to dip
espresso chocolate-chip biscotti. Can't imagine anything better.
I know that I drink a lot of coffee. I probably have
a bit of a tolerance to caffeine at the moment, so the possibility of death by caffeine overdose never really occurred
to me. But Energy Fiend's Death by Caffeine Calculator has
actually put my mind at ease, because I know that I could not possibly consume the 58 cups of drip coffee required to
kill me in the few hours it would take the
caffeine to pass through my system. Nor could I finish 185 diet Cokes. I might consider trying the 595 mugs of cocoa if
I had a plentiful enough supply of marshmallows, though.
A more recent Death by Penguin Mint Calculator lets you choose your
poison from a variety of caffeinated candies. 8,327 Hershey's kisses? Given the fact that a pile of kisses that size
would weigh a little more than 80 pounds (36 kg), I think I would have issues other than the caffeine to worry
about.
Are you an avid tea drinker looking for a different way to enjoy your tea this summer? A lot of tea drinkers go iced in the warm summer months, some even adding lemonade to their iced tea, but there is an even colder way to enjoy your tea in the summer months if you enjoy green tea: smoothies!
A lot of people enjoy an adult beverage now and then (some of them more than others). Did you ever wonder, though, if one was worse for you? I know that thought never has crossed my mind, but apparently it occurred to some researchers and so they set about to look into it.
We've all opened up a bottle of soda and have it get warm on us as it sits on the table. But what if there was a technology that actually made the drink stay cold even after you open it?
It's just a matter of time before MyCuppaTea takes its rightful place on my kitchen counter. Finally, a coffee cup that understands that no one in his or her under-caffeinated mind thinks of adding one or two exacting teaspoons of milk to one's coffee. In my pre-java, pre-verbal state, all I do is pour enough milk to create a cozy, very con leche brew. It's all blind pourpourpour -- stir, then slowly sip to wakefulness. Gizmodo found this mug from that subscribes to the 
Advertising companies and politicians like to play with semantics for the purpose of changing images. Big soda companies seem to be heavily invested in changing their images this year - with Pepsi completely 
I'm rarely tempted by what the local convenience store has to offer in the way of soft drinks and fad juices, but during a late night pit-stop I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I had just read about Coca-Cola's 
I have lately been reading in-depth articles on research and development in food and beverage trade publication on beverage colors. Drinks come in myriad of shades of the rainbow, and more. From neon colors to pastels, earth tones and cola and root beer browns. 
I know that I drink a lot of coffee. I probably have
a bit of a tolerance to caffeine at the moment, so the possibility of death by caffeine overdose never really occurred
to me. But Energy Fiend's 
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