It’s time to premiere our Series of Unfortunate Events tea! When brainstorming ideas for this tea, my first thought went to Esmé Squalor, the Baudelaires’ guardian in the 6th Unfortunate Events book. Esmé is obsessed with all things “in,” and this obsession leads her to drink crazy concoctions like parsley soda and aqueous martinis—all in the name of fashion. Of course, there was NO WAY I was making a parsley tea, so I set my sights on the martini. In truth, the aqueous martini isn’t really a martini, since alcohol was “out” when it was created Instead, it’s simply ice cold water in a martini glass with an olive. I liked the idea of something crisp, simple, and classy, so I used that as my inspiration. Channeling the cucumber and mint infused waters I’ve been seeing at parties lately, I went with a white cucumber base and added spearmint to make it extra refreshing. The results make a perfect iced tea!
You may recall I had trouble deciding what flavors to use in my X-Files tea last month, but with this tea I had no such problem. A tea based off The Three Musketeers book HAS to taste like a 3 Musketeers candy bar, right? I’m sure there’s a law about it somewhere. So I combined Adagio’s Tiger’s Eye, Chocolate, and Caramel teas with cocoa nib and cinnamon inclusions to make the ultimate chocolate caramel tea. You’re welcome. 😉
All for One and One for All Tea
A delicious mix of chocolate and caramel with just a touch of cinnamon. Inspired by the candy bar of musketeer fame!
Seriously, guys, this is the tea equivalent of a 3 Musketeers bar, and it’s AWESOME. Tiger’s Eye tea is a chocolate-caramel blend from Adagio, and I used that as my base, adding extra chocolate and caramel flavored teas until I reached the desired balance of the two. Then I kicked it up a notch with cocoa nibs to intensify the chocolate flavor and cinnamon…because cinnamon makes everything better! The final result is rich and sweet, which I think is fitting. With some milk and sugar, it makes a perfect dessert tea!
Making an X-Files themed tea can be tricky. Should I stick with something green in honor of little green men? Go with a blend meant to encapsulate the personality of one of the characters—but if so, which one do I choose? In the end, I decided to make a tea inspired by Fox Mulder’s perpetual tendency to keep an eye on the sky. I combined two aptly named Adagio teas, Lemon Cloud and Foxtrot, into a tea fit for everyone’s favorite spooky FBI agent. 🙂
The Truth is Out There Tea
Inspired by Fox Mulder’s perpetual tendency to keep an eye on the sky, this natural, refreshing blend of Foxtrot and Lemon Cloud is a great caffeine free pick-me-up before a long night of UFO hunting.
This blend brings the delicate flavors of chamomile, mint, and lemon together in a flavorful yet soothing rooibos-herbal tea. Rooibos is a red tea with a taste all its own (warm and slightly earthy, brightened by its natural sweetness). It’s ideal for mixing delicate, herbal flavors that would get lost in a strong black tea. In this tea, I combined Rooibos Lemon Cloud with Foxtrot. Lemon Cloud is a straight rooibos with a lemony twist, and Foxtrot combines rooibos with chamomile and peppermint. I love the way the faint lemon undertone complements the gentle mint flavor. It’s also caffeine free, which makes it a perfect bedtime tea. I can just imagine Mulder and Scully sipping this during a stakeout!
P.S. I’m curious how this would taste with just a little more lemon flavor, so I’m going to make a test version that includes lemon grass. If I like the change, I’ll make it a permanent addition to the blend. 🙂
Howdy, folks! The Mister and I just moved into our new house yesterday (!!!), so things are pretty chaotic around here right now. Still, I’m super excited because I’m doing this year’s NaNoWrMo, so a whole month of super intense writing is just beginning for me today. Oh, and my birthday was a few weeks ago! So lots of craziness…but good craziness. 🙂
On my birthday, the Mister came back from a week-long business trip in Germany, and he brought me some awesome birthday gifts: a stein from an abbey he visited, an Oktoberfest gingerbread heart that said “Never Far from You,” and chalkboard hearts and a butterfly ornament from a market in Munich. He also gave me the little novelty item his client company hands out at conventions: a wooden pencil-shaped case filled with tiny colored pencils!
In spite of my topsy-turvy life, I managed to get my last two Agatha Christie recipes posted: Delicious Death chocolate cake and Little Belgian Truffles! As is our tradition, we’re punctuating the end of our menu with new custom teas from Adagio. I actually made TWO blends this month, since I love Agatha Christie so much and couldn’t choose between the two I designed. The first, called Hallowe’en Party, is inspired by the book of the same name and features spiced apple chai and cinnamon tea. The second tea blend is inspired by Hercule Poirot: Chocolate Mocha Tea for Ze Little Grey Cells! It’s got indulgent chocolate flavor with subtle coffee tones and just a touch of hazelnut—sure to set your brain buzzing!
Now that our Agatha Christie menu is all wrapped up with a tidy little bow, it’s time to share the photo hint for our next menu! Our November book is actually a modern book series rather than a true classic. I decided to make a menu for it after loving the first book in the series. It was such a fun read and featured food so prominently, I knew it would be a great addition to Pop Culture Corner. Without further ado, here’s your hint:
…moving quickly in a car past me and about a million other people. But it still counts.
This is a pic the Mister got as the Pope drove by us!
You may have noticed that I’ve been mostly AWOL from the the interwebs since Thursday. That’s because I’ve been busy flying to Philadelphia and fangirling over Pope Francis all weekend!!! I walked more than 20 miles over the span of 3 days: first site seeing in Philly and then gettin’ down with my Catholic self at the Festival of Families and the Papal Mass. SO MANY PEOPLE! SO MUCH EXCITEMENT! 😀
Needless to say, this made blogging a bit tricky. In fact, I pretty much failed at sharing my last Monty Python post on Facebook/Twitter. So I decided to make up for it by posting the shares today and linking to it here (better late than never, right?). If it’s any consolation, we’re finishing up our Monty Python menu today by adding a new custom tea to our Adagio collection: Monty Python’s Coconut Camelot Tea! Click on the link or the pic below to see a description of the tea and details on how to order.
Wow…with our Monty Python menu finished up, that means it’s almost October! HOW can it be almost October, guys? I could have sworn September just started yesterday. Then again, this month has been super busy for me, and not just with papal visit plans. I interviewed Jonathan Stroud about his new book tour a couple weeks ago, and I just finished my next Real Life at Home guest post. Plus, the Mister and I are moving on Halloween, and I’m doing NaNoWrMo this November. In short: CHAOS! It’s really no wonder October snuck up on me. Still, I’m SUPER excited for our new menu, especially since it involves one of my favorite authors! Want a hint as to what it could be? Check out the picture below!
Any guesses at what it could be? BONUS HINT: Instead of focusing on one book, this menu will focus on several books all by the same author (not necessarily a series).
Now then, I’m going to find a lovely little corner of my apartment in which to curl up and sleep off my 7 am flight from yesterday (if I wake up and see my shadow, we get 6 more weeks of fall).
Howdy, Wonderlanders! Summer is already in full force here in Chicago, so it looks like we’re in for a pretty intense July. Maybe if I make an appeal to the snow demons, they’ll have mercy and send autumn a little early.
“A towel…is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble‐sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand‐to‐hand‐combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindbogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.“
— The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
