Posted August 15, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
Truth be told, I was little stuck when it came time to create a tea for Man in the Iron Mask. There’s not a drop of tea to be seen in the book, and the only beverage Dumas mentions is wine. The idea of making a wine-themed tea was intriguing, but I knew it would take a LOT of experimentation to get right. With a cookbook in the works and the Little Mister cutting teeth, I knew I couldn’t give a wine tea the attention it deserved.
Then I remembered Fouquet’s peaches. Dumas describes them with so much care that you almost get the feeling he’s eaten a few! I had fun making peach tea in the past (like Becky’s White Peach Tea and James’ Peaches & Cream Tea), so I was eager to try again. But to increase the challenge, I set out to create a more unique blend than the previous two.
I used Adagio’s Peach Oolong as a base. Oolongs are new to me (I’ve only had them a few times in the past), but I loved how mild yet distinctive this tea was. I combined it with some apricot green tea and extra apricot pieces to lend a little complexity to the flavor. I love how it turned out, and I hope you will too! 🙂
Read More
Posted July 18, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 0 Comments
I’ll admit I wasn’t sure how I felt about Serpentine as a character while I was reading Neverwhere. I got the sense that she was manipulative and maybe even cruel, but the air of mystery surrounding her kept me intrigued. I was especially fascinated by the green “restorative drink” she serves Richard when he has a nasty hangover from Islington’s Atlantian wine. So I decided to make a tea time tribute to it here on the blog!
For this tea, I wanted something subtle yet refreshing—and of course green! I whipped up a blend of Adagio’s Citron Green tea and lemongrass. This will definitely help you feel restored—Atlantian wine or not! 😉
Read More
Posted May 9, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 5 Comments
In the book Sabriel, toffee and dried fruit are the snacks that help Sabriel make it through her trek through the wintery Old Kingdom. I was intrigued by the idea of making a toffee tea, so I took a look at some of the custom blends other people had made on Adagio.com to get a sense of how they achieved the right balance of flavors for toffee tea. Chocolate and caramel seemed to be the two standbys, usually paired with a nut flavor (almost always almond). I developed my own chocolate/caramel ratio to get the right balance of flavors and added in some hazelnut to make it unique. Enjoy!
Read More
Posted April 4, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
Hi, everybody! Our new book of the month is James and the Giant Peach, and we’re kicking things off with a custom peach tea!
I already have a white peach tea I love (Becky’s Peach Tea from Tom Sawyer), so when it came time to design a tea for James and the Giant Peach, I decided to challenge myself and try something with more oomph.
I’ll admit, I’m kinda picky when it comes to fruit teas. I want them to be light and delicately sweet—not heavy or cloying. As I searched for options, two Adagio teas caught my eye: Rooibos Peach and Honeybush Apricot. Both varieties have what I like to refer to as a “sunny” flavor (bright and somehow warm), so I decided to blend them together and see what I got! I also added some cream tea to make the flavor profile a bit more unique and threw in some dried apricot pieces to make sure the peachy flavor didn’t get lost in the shuffle. The result was a blend with bright peach flavor and just enough cream to mellow things out. Huzzah! 🙂
Read More
Posted March 7, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments
Oh, Firefly. How could I possibly design a tea for you that wasn’t based off mudder’s milk? It’s the most iconic beverage in the show! 😉
Described as “all the protein, vitamins, and carbs of your grandma’s best turkey dinner, plus 15 percent alcohol,” mudder’s milk is a pretty tough beverage to replicate in tea form. I knew I wanted it to be something you could add milk to (so that it would have a little substance). I also knew that, in place of alcohol, I wanted to add spice to give it some kick. I created a Masala chai/vanilla/cinnamon mix that goes great with milk, and I added cardamon to amp up the spice just a teeny bit. Let’s have a toast to the Hero of Canton! 🙂
Read More
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!
Read More
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! 🙂
Read More
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!
Read More
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! 🙂
Read More
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. 😉
Read More
