Things are still in high gear out in Chicago where the Mighty Leaf Tea’m is hard at work wowing customers and brewing up a good time at the National Restaurant Association show. Tea is making a big impression with the crowd this year as a beverage for all seasons and menus. Showcasing that versatility is one of the most exciting booths we’ve ever had. Here it is before the crowds arrive for the day.

As you can see, there are several different serving stations where thirsty guests can enjoy hot tea, iced tea, fruit-infused tea, and matcha-based beverages! All of it served along with a helping of that famous Mighty Leaf hospitality.

If you’re in the Chicago area, be sure to stop by booth 1840 today or tomorrow before the show ends to share a little tea with us. Those not within driving distance, let us know on Twitter or Facebook which of the drinks you would sample if you could join us!

Spring is the time for new growth, opportunities and experiences. We here at Mighty Leaf are excited to embrace the season by unveiling something unique and exciting. To show our appreciation to our entire tea drinking community, we’re introducing a treat that all our fans will love: The Great Tea Giveaway of 2013!

Starting this month and running through the end of the year, Mighty Leaf fans who live in the US will have the opportunity to enter one or more of our weekly giveaways. Each Monday until December 23rd, a new contest page will be available through the “Great Tea Giveaway” tab on our Facebook page. On that page, an entrant will be asked to submit an answer to a fun question along with his or her email address.

The following week, we’ll conduct a random drawing to determine the winner. The prize will be a collection of teas as spelled out on that week’s entry page. And since there’s a new contest every week, that means there’s dozens of chances for Mighty Leaf fans to win!

Great tea is best enjoyed with friends. Although we can’t personally spend time over a fresh pot with all Mighty Leaf drinkers, we hope this giveaway brings that spirit of generosity to our virtual presence on Facebook. And that should be a welcome new experience for all of us!

There are as many ways to enjoy tea as there are tea lovers. Some prefer classics such as chamomile and a bit of honey. Others crave tea lattes with ingredients like steamed almond milk and agave nectar. But what about black tea mixed with liberal amounts of butter and salt? Marketing Intern Cole Margen explains the surprising allure of Tibetan Butter Tea.
–Editor’s Note

Greetings fellow tea drinkers. My name is Cole, and I’m the Marketing Intern here over at Mighty Leaf. I’d like to tell you all about something incredibly delicious that you can do with our traditional black teas. And it’s ideal if you’re feeling under the weather, or need a quick energy boost to pick you up. What is this elixir I speak of? Tibetan butter tea of course.

Butter tea, or Po Cha, is a drink originating in the dry, mountainous climate of the Tibetan plateau. It’s made of butter, black tea, and salt, and tastes like a light, creamy broth. I first tried butter tea during my long hours editing video when I was studying journalism in college. A Bhutanese friend of mine would occasionally bring in a thermos full of it, and when he let me try it I was hooked. The experience of drinking it is definitely an acquired taste, as the saltiness can throw off some first time drinkers. However, if you have an adventurous palate, then I think you will enjoy the experience just as much as I have.

Interning at a tea company whet my appetite for it once more, and I make it on my own now. Traditionally it’s made with yak butter, but since there is an obvious shortage of yaks in the US go ahead and use cow butter instead. Here’s a link to the recipe that I like to use. Once the tea’s done, I recommend sipping it from a mason jar while enjoying your morning paper. As an added bonus, a steaming mug of Po Cha works wonders for chapped lips.

Until next time, be well and drink more tea!
-Cole

The Drink In The Season Holiday Recipe Contest was a hit this year with multiple qualified contestants submitting their creations. The Mighty Leaf team was quite impressed by the variety, and ingenuity of many of the drinks that we saw amongst the finalists in particular. Who would’ve known that Mighty Leaf Tea could be used in such creative, and enticing recipes?

The winner of the contest, Rosie 75 (see recipe below) really impressed us with her use of our Rose Silver Needle Tea to make a light, refreshing cocktail that would go perfectly in a picnic basket for a nice summer outing in Sonoma wine country or a bustling New Year’s Eve Party surrounded by friends. At first we thought that perhaps the gin would overpower the rose flavor, but after one taste, we were hooked. The rose is still pronounced due to using leftover petals as a garnish, and the gin helps support the fruity flavor of the white tea. The champagne also adds to this cocktail really well by adding a crisp, bubbly finish. These elements all came together to push this drink over the top, and narrowly claim victory in a real nail-biter of a voting round.

We would also like to take the time to mention The Earl’s Nog, a scrumptious combination of traditional eggnog with the refreshing bergamot of Organic Earl Grey thrown in. Another honorable mention would have to be the Southern Comfort Orange Cranberry Sweet Tea. As a fan of Mason jars, we loved how that was included into the recipe to give the cocktail a real down-home feel. The choice to use Orange Dulce tea really worked well to complement the whisky-like liquor. Last but not least, the Holiday Spiced Tea deserves recognition as the runner up to Rosie 75. This perfectly spiced elixir truly captured the holiday spirit of the competition, and had us merrily sipping on its decadent hints of cinnamon and allspice.

So, if your interest has been piqued by these descriptions, The Mighty Leaf team is happy to announce that these recipes will soon be available on our site for all of our fans to enjoy at home.

We look forward to promoting many more contests in the future similar to this one. Until next time, stay frosty and drink more tea!

ROSIE 75 Recipe

Ingredients:

• Rose Silver  Needle Tea (or other white or green tea with rose petals in it)
• 2 oz. Gin (preferably Beefeater)
• Juice of half a lemon
• 3 oz. Champagne
• 1tsp Superfine Sugar

Preparation:

Steep tea in gin until fragrant. Pour gin, lemon juice, and sugar in shaker with ice, and shake until cold. Strain into a champagne flute and top with cold champagne.

Ever wanted to try a little jalapeno in your green tea? Wondered whether an Earl Grey egg nog could be the most popular drink at your holiday party? (The answer’s yes.) Take up a cocktail shaker and experience them yourself! The ten astonishing and delicious finalists from our Drink in the Season Holiday Recipe are now available on our Facebook page and there’s $1,000 in tea on the line!

In November we began accepting original drink recipes on Facebook from the flavor mavens in the Mighty Leaf community. A giant wave of creativity swept in, leaving us with literally dozens of outstanding concoctions. It took our dedicated team two delicious weeks to sift through them all, and this week we posted the ten best.

But now it’s time for the our tea-drinking fans and friends to decide which recipe deserves the highest honors; which champion of the chai or maestro of the mocktail should bring home the title of Grand Prize Winner. So hurry over to our voting page where you can learn to make all ten drinks and then vote on your favorites. Every Facebook user get one vote per day until voting closes at midnight Pacific Time on December 18, 2012.

So drink early and vote often!

There’s a chill to the air. Autumn foliage is in bloom. And Halloween is history. Very soon the year-end holiday season will be here–a time for celebrating, sharing food and drink, and making wonderful memories. We at Mighty Leaf are always inspired by the flavors of the season, which we enjoy at so many fall and winter gatherings. To prepare for this exciting time, we’ve cooked up an exciting new contest that recognizes the best, most delicious ideas from across the Mighty Leaf community. Introducing the Drink in the Season Holiday Recipe Contest!

Now through November 27, we’ll be accepting your best drink recipes through our contest page on Facebook. We’re looking for creative, fun, great-tasting concoctions that incorporate Mighty Leaf teas. Beyond that, the sky’s the limit. Cocktails, mocktails, and smoothies; toddies, lattes, and lassis, oh my!

Our in-house panel of experts will be combing through the entries and evaluating them. The ten best will feature on our Facebook contest page beginning on December 1. At that time, all Mighty Leaf fans will be eligible to vote for their favorite recipes. The beverage designer with the highest vote total when the virtual polls close on December 17 will win the grand prize: $1000 in tea! The four runners-up with the next most popular creations will win $250 in tea and a Mighty Leaf drink shaker. Remaining finalists will receive $50 in tea and a shaker.

Good luck one and all! The Mighty Leaf team is waiting with great anticipation to see what you come up with.

One last free tip: You may want to jump start your culinary imagination with a cup of tea.

(Official rules for the contest are available here.)

Chef Vinita Jacinto is back with another astonishing tea recipe for the Mighty Leaf community to enjoy. Already she’s brought together the surprisingly complementary flavors of Organic Earl Grey and rice pudding and the unforgettable combination of Organic African Nectar and quinoa! If you haven’t tried out those recipes, you are doing your taste buds a disservice. Put them on the menu for dinner tonight! But now Chef Jacinto has outdone herself. Today she brings green beans to tea time and creates a standout side dish your dinner guests will go home talking about.

Chef Jacinto describes her latest culinary delight:

“Namaste All,

“This is an all-time favorite of mine. It follows the theme of being a quick and easy dish to make that is also healthy and flavorful! What’s not to like? I used Earl Grey for the citrusy notes and the astringency and slight bitterness of the black tea.”

–Chef Vinita Jacinto

Tea-Braised Green Beans

Ingredients:

• Green Beans – 0.5 lb.
• Small Baby Red Potatoes, washed and quartered – 6-8
• Small Yellow Onion, sliced – 1
• Butter or Oil – 2 Tablespoons
• Cloves Garlic, minced – 2
• Tea Pouches Organic Earl Grey – 4 / Heaped Tablespoons of Loose Tea – 4
• Water – 1-1.5 cups
• Lemon, juiced – 1
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Boil 1.5 cups of water and put in 3 Organic Earl Grey tea pouches. Steep approximately 15-20 minutes to obtain a very strong brew.
2. Grind the remaining tea in a spice grinder until it is a fine powder.
3. Wash and scrub the potatoes. Quarter or slice them.
4. Wash the green beans. Cut off the ends and string them.
5. Slice the onion.
6. Heat a pan. Add the butter or oil. Saute the sliced onions for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic, green beans and potatoes. Saute for another 3-4 minutes.
7. Add the tea and simmer until potatoes are tender.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the lemon juice. Sprinkle tea powder onto the dish until the tea flavor reaches your preferred strength.

Makes about 4-5 servings as a flavorful side dish.

About Chef Vinita Jacinto

Vinita Chopra Jacinto has been involved in the food industry for over three decades. She has extensive experience in culinary education, hotel management and nonprofit services. Vinita has been a culinary educator in San Francisco for over a decade, teaching classes that focus around sustainable and health conscious cuisine.

She has worked at the Le Cordon Bleu School – California Culinary Academy for several years and was the Manager and Lead Instructor of CHEFS, a program dedicated to fighting homelessness through employment in the food services industry. Vinita graduated with her degree in Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition from The Institute of Hotel Management in Mumbai, India. Her areas of culinary focus include vegan and vegetarian cuisine, Indian regional cuisines, Ayurveda and Macrobiotic, Tea Cuisine, sustainable food and nutritional cooking. In addition to her love for all things food, Vinita is a certified Yoga instructor. She has a passion for tea, spices, local food movements, and incorporating old food wisdom into the new generation. “Passion with Compassion” is her food and teaching philosophy.

New to the blogosphere, Vinita posts recipes and culinary musings at spicewhisperer.wordpress.com.

Two weeks ago, Chef Vinita Jacinto began to open up our minds to the flavor possibilities of tea recipes. Her first dish, Earl Grey Rice Pudding, got a lot of attention and rightly so. It was simple to make and tremendously flavorful. This week she’s offering up another simple, compelling fall dish: African Nectar Quinoa.

Chef Jacinto introduces her latest recipe:

“Quinoa is an incredible addition to any pantry. It is very nutritious, versatile, and excellent for those trying to eat a more plant based diet. I love this salad because it is so easy, and you can create it to the flavor profile of your choice (see notes below). The African Nectar highlights the earthiness and nuttiness of the red quinoa.”
–Chef Vinita Jacinto

African Nectar Quinoa

Ingredients:

• Quinoa, rinsed and drained – 1 cup
• Water – 2 cups
• Organic African Nectar – 3 tea pouches
• Large plum (diced) – 1
• Olive oil – 2 tablespoons
• Lime – 1
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Place quinoa, water and tea bags in a large pot and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat and simmer about 14-16 minutes. Cover pot and let sit for about 5-7 minutes.
3. Remove the tea bags and fluff the grain with a fork. Cool at least 15 minutes
4. Add all the other ingredients and mix well.

Notes:

• Can be served warm, room temperature, or slightly chilled.
• You can use other oils, including walnut, flax, and grapeseed.
• Instead of using plums, feel free to add apples, raisins, or any other seasonal salad additions.
• Customize the flavor by adding various herbs.
• Makes a great side dish.

Recipe makes 3- 4 servings

About Quinoa

Quinoa (pronounced: KEEN-wah) is a food that has been cultivated in the Andes since at least 3000 BCE. Millions of native inhabitants have revered it as sacred and referred to this staple food as the “mother grain.” But quinoa is the seed of the Chenopodium or Goosefoot plant and technically not a grain. It contains more high quality protein than any grain and is gluten free.

About Chef Vinita Jacinto

Vinita Chopra Jacinto has been involved in the food industry for over three decades. She has extensive experience in culinary education, hotel management and nonprofit services. Vinita has been a culinary educator in San Francisco for over a decade, teaching classes that focus around sustainable and health conscious cuisine.

She has worked at the Le Cordon Bleu School – California Culinary Academy for several years and was the Manager and Lead Instructor of CHEFS, a program dedicated to fighting homelessness through employment in the food services industry. Vinita graduated with her degree in Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition from The Institute of Hotel Management in Mumbai, India. Her areas of culinary focus include vegan and vegetarian cuisine, Indian regional cuisines, Ayurveda and Macrobiotic, Tea Cuisine, sustainable food and nutritional cooking. In addition to her love for all things food, Vinita is a certified Yoga instructor. She has a passion for tea, spices, local food movements, and incorporating old food wisdom into the new generation. “Passion with Compassion” is her food and teaching philosophy.

New to the blogosphere, Vinita posts recipes and culinary musings at spicewhisperer.wordpress.com.

My favorite part of autumn is the mellow beauty of the foliage. A close second is a steaming cup of something fresh and delicious: spiced hot cider, rich hot chocolate with fresh chocolate shavings. But the seasonal treat that has me most excited this year is the tea latte!

“Tea latte?” I hear you say, “I never thought of making a latte with tea.” Wow are you missing out! And we’ve made a video to prove it. Introducing the Tea Latte Shuffle:

The whole process is really simple.

Several of our teas make amazing lattes, including Organic Earl Grey, Organic African Nectar, Vanilla Bean, Bombay Chai, and Chocolate Mint Truffle. Or you can save a bit of shopping time and pick up our Tea Latte Starter Set. Enjoy the season, and be sure to tell your friends about the Tea Latte Shuffle!

At Mighty Leaf, one of our favorite things is when an inspired chef incorporates the natural flavors of tea into a wonderful new dish. That sort of creativity expands our understanding of tea and its many tastes and aromas. And it gives us something exciting to add to our culinary repertoire–if only we can figure out how to make it!

That’s why we’re thrilled to announce a partnership with Chef Vinita Jacinto! Together we’ll publish a series of stunning tea-based recipes right here on our blog. Every two weeks, Chef Jacinto will share a new way to take one of your favorite Mighty Leaf teas and turn it into a new mealtime treat.

Here’s Chef Jacinto’s introduction to our first scrumptious recipe:

“Namaste tea fans,

I’m thrilled to be a part of this amazing community of tea, food, flavor and fun! No more thinking of tea as just a beverage. And definitely no more green tea ice cream! We are going to open our minds and our hearts to tea as a spice in our lives. It’s a healthier cooking option: big on health and big on flavor!

Join us on this amazing journey!!

The first recipe is a Tea Rice Pudding. We have used Earl Grey. The citrusy notes work really well and the depth of taste has been enhanced by using both the tea infusion and the powdered tea.”

Earl Grey Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice – ¾ cups, rinsed and soaked in water
• Low fat milk – 5-6 cups
• Sugar – ¾-1 cup
• 5 Organic Earl Grey tea pouches

Method:

1. Let rice soak for a minimum of 30 minutes.
2. Put rice, 5 cups of milk and 4 tea pouches in a pan and gently bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes making sure you stir frequently. Now squeeze the tea pouches and take them out. There should be a distinct tea fragrance and a hint of color.
4. Continue to cook the rice and milk, stirring often. If the mixture is too thick add more milk.
5. Take the one remaining tea pouch and cut it open. Powder the tea leaves in a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder.
6. Check the rice pudding. It should be cooked down to a creamy consistency. Now add the sugar and cook some more.
7. Here is the time when you customize it to your taste. Too thick? Add more milk and cook some more. Not sweet enough? Add more sugar to your liking.
8. Add half of the powdered tea. Stir and taste. Want more Earl grey? Add all the tea powder. Stir and simmer a few minutes.
9. Serve warm on a cold evening or chilled.
10. Enjoy!!

Note:

• you can add chopped nuts of choice
• you can add golden raisins
• you can use risotto rice {Arborio} and cook it risotto style
• you can use dairy-free milk for a vegan version (almond milk, coconut milk)

Recipe makes 3- 4 servings

About Chef Vinita Jacinto

Vinita Chopra Jacinto has been involved in the food industry for over three decades. She has extensive experience in culinary education, hotel management and nonprofit services. Vinita has been a culinary educator in San Francisco for over a decade, teaching classes that focus around sustainable and health conscious cuisine.

She has worked at the Le Cordon Bleu School – California Culinary Academy for several years and was the Manager and Lead Instructor of CHEFS, a program dedicated to fighting homelessness through employment in the food services industry. Vinita graduated with her degree in Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition from The Institute of Hotel Management in Mumbai, India. Her areas of culinary focus include vegan and vegetarian cuisine, Indian regional cuisines, Ayurveda and Macrobiotic, Tea Cuisine, sustainable food and nutritional cooking. In addition to her love for all things food, Vinita is a certified Yoga instructor. She has a passion for tea, spices, local food movements, and incorporating old food wisdom into the new generation. “Passion with Compassion” is her food and teaching philosophy.

New to the blogosphere, Vinita posts recipes and culinary musings at spicewhisperer.wordpress.com.