Chai Tea Sugar Cookies: Guest Post by Sarah Elizabeth

Hi there tea community!

I think it's important that you guys know that this blog is about what you want to read about tea. I want to make content that you can all relate to. This website means nothing if it doesn't appeal to the tea community. Or should I say communiTEA. My post about my Matcha Chocolate Chip cookies inspired reader Sarah Elizabeth to make her own tea cookies. She tweeted me the idea and the results, so I asked if she wanted to guest post. She said yes! If anyone else has ideas they want to guest post about, don't be shy. Anyone can guest post! You just have to contact me and we will work out the details. Anyways, here is Sarah and her Chai Tea Sugar Cookies!
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Good day world of tea drinkers
Recently after reading about the Matcha Green Tea Chocolate Chip Cookies that Leah had made, it had me wanting to experiment baking with tea.  My go to cookie to bake are sugar cookies so I figured that would be where I would start, after looking at my tea shelf the best choice was using some Twinings Chai Tea hoping it would work out.  (Spoiler alert: It worked deliciously!)

Recipe:

1. I used a pre-packed sugar cookie mix where I only had to add 1 egg, a little bit of water, and room temperature softened butter

2. With the Twingins Tea, I cut open the tea bag and added a few pinches since I didn’t have any loose tea left

3. Mix all ingredients well

4. Place the cookie dough in little balls on the cookie sheet

5. Set the over for 350°F

6. Length of cooking time can vary from 10-13 minutes

It wasn’t a strong taste but you could taste the tea in the cookie.

The hardest part with these cookies was saving some for another day

This is what it looked like when it was done:

Hope you enjoy! 

-Sarah

Guest Post: Çay Çek

Today, Sevnur of Çay Çek is guest posting on my blog and will be talking all about Turkish tea customs. I was thrilled when she contacted me, because my brother in law was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. Please enjoy learning about Turkish tea! Below is a photo Sevnur provided.

Turkey is the biggest tea consumer country in the world and the 5th biggest

tea producer. The most interesting thing is the only tea that covered by

snow is Turkish tea. That makes the tea the healthiest and organic at the

same time. No chemicals are used while growing the tea. Tea in Turkey is

mainly the black tea, very dominant all over the country and grown in the

Black Sea region.

Above is Sevnur drinking her tea in Istanbul, Turkey


Tea is the most popular beverage in the country, our informal tea ceremony

starts with the breakfast and does not end till we go to bed. We drink tea

before meals, during meals and after meals, black tea is served free after meals

in most of the restaurants. Turkish black tea has a brisk tea, and is very strong

so some people prefer to drink it with sugar, sometimes with lemon, but

never with milk.



We use a special two chamber teapot called samovar which keeps tea hot

throughout the day. Tea is always ready at houses, offices and restaurants

thanks to samovar. Another unique equipment we use while drinking tea is

the tea glass. It has a very special shape, they call it as thin belly glass or

tulip-shaped glass. It is the perfect glass to drink tea because keeps tea at the

bottom hot while cooling at the top.

See below, a close up of the black tea:

About caycek.com: Çay Çek means "drink tea." It is a Turkish tea website

includes anything and everything about tea.

Tomorrow: Carne Griffith's guest post

Stay tuned! Tomorrow night I will be interviewing Carne Griffiths about his art made from tea, coffee and alcohol. Above, his work entitled "Speechless" is shown.


See you then


Leah

Carne Griffiths

Hi tea lovers!

I recently reached out to a member of the art community, Carne Griffiths about making a guest post on this blog. Who is he, you ask? Well, he's a well established artist here in the United Kingdom that uses tea, ink and alcohol to create beautiful art. Needless to say I'm so honored and excited to have such a fantastic guest to be the first to guest post here on my blog!

Please have a look at his website: Carne Griffiths where you can find photos of his art. 

Leah