Posted January 10, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 3 Comments
There are lots of classic, All-American desserts mentioned in the Little House books, but when I decided to make a tea for the series, I couldn’t get Ma’s pies off the brain. Dried apple pies are a specialty of hers that stood out to me, so I chose it as the theme for my tea! I chose one of my favorite rooibos blends from Adagio (Rooibos Cinnamon Apple) as my base, adding cream, apples, and spice to make the flavor more unique. The result was a tea that conjures of the cozy scent and taste of a winter day bundled up at home. Enjoy!
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Posted December 6, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
When planning my Nutcracker tea, I knew I wanted to go with something nut-flavored, but I had a TON of options in that regard. Almond? Hazelnut? Mocha Nut Mate? In the end I decided to make a nod to my roasted chestnut recipe and go the chestnut route. And to make things just a little more festive, I added some of Adagio Tea’s custom gingerbread tea to the mix. Enjoy! 🙂
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Posted November 21, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
Howdy, folks! We’re back for another week of National Novel Writing Month, and we’ve got a new literary-themed tea to help you through the special challenges you’ll face this week. Cheers!
P.S. What are the 5 Teas of NaNo? Check out my intro post to learn more!
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Posted November 15, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
When I first started thinking about what I wanted to do for my Moby Dick tea, I immediately drew up a list of white teas and went to work on different combinations. I don’t get to play with white teas very often, so a book themed around a white whale was all the motivation I needed to make sure this lesser-known tea gets some love! 🙂
However, most white teas have a very delicate flavor, and I felt like a whaling book would need something with a bit more oomph. I found it in Adagio’s white chai. It combines a hint of tropical flavor with light spice to make a unique take on traditional chai. I added some gunpowder green tea to give it just a hint of smokiness and some extra coconut to balance it all out.
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Posted October 18, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
When it came time to design a tea for my Edgar Allan Poe menu, Adagio’s Earl Grey Moonlight immediately came to mind. It’s a twist on the traditional Earl Grey blend, adding creme flavor to the original. But how to make it my own? Blackberry tea is an old favorite of mine, which I thought would complement the creme well and add some dark, sweet notes that would tie in with the Poe theme. All that was left to do was add cornflowers for color, and my Edgar Allan Poe tribute tea was complete!
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Posted September 13, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 1 Comment
Time to premiere our Sherlock Holmes tea! I had a lot of fun developing this blend. As I’ve stated in the past, Adagio Teas already has a TON of unique Earl Grey blends, so I decided not to make an Earl Grey, even though it was the first flavor to occur to me.
Plus, Sherlock actually isn’t the biggest fan of tea in the books—he prefers coffee! So I decided to make a coffee-inspired tea blend. It’s been a long time since I played with Adagio’s mocha-flavored teas (the last time was when I made a Hercule Poirot tea), so I got to step outside my comfort zone a little bit. I knew I wanted something smoky and intense to evoke the feeling of a wood-paneled Victorian study, a roaring fireplace, and pipe smoke. Adagio’s Mocha Nut Mate with a little Gunpowder Green tea did just that! 🙂
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Posted August 30, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
Considering I couldn’t choose just one Studio Ghibli movie for my menu this month, it’s not that surprising that I couldn’t make just one tea either. I mean, I felt I HAD to make a Totoro tea since Totoro is so awesome, but I also couldn’t stop thinking of how fun it would be to make a tropical Ponyo tea…or a tea based on the cake from Kiki’s Delivery Service! But which one to choose?
All of them. I chose all of them. And I’m not even a little bit sorry. 😉
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Posted July 12, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 10 Comments
I actually designed this tea almost a year before I read the book A Little Princess. I’ve loved the movie for ages, so I thought it would be fun to make a tea inspired by it!
Masala chai originated in India, so I knew it would be the perfect starting point for my tea. But how to make it unique? I decided to blend it with chocolate chai to add some sweetness to the spice. Then I added a touch of vanilla to even out the flavors, and voilà: a chai reminiscent of spicy hot chocolate, perfect for a little girl like Sara Crewe! 🙂
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Posted June 21, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
Today we’re continuing our Star Trek menu with a trio of Trek-themed teas. Anyone familiar with the show might be expecting Captain Picard’s signature “tea, Earl Grey, hot,” but Adagio Teas (the site were I blend my teas) has ten versions of Earl Grey that are all super delicious. I honestly didn’t think I could improve them, so instead I decided to make three teas, each dedicated to one of the three service divisions in Star Fleet! The flavor profile of each tea is themed on its division’s signature color: Command Red, Sciences Blue, and Operations Gold.
Ready to boldly go where no tea drinker has gone before? 😉
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Posted May 24, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 6 Comments
Arrietty’s cherry tree has always stood out to me as one of the most iconic objects from The Borrowers. It’s in full bloom when she goes outside for the very first time, and it’s where she meets her first friend, the Boy! Of course, I knew as soon as I started planning a Borrower tea that it would be cherry tree themed. I think Arrietty would approve! 🙂
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