Triple Post! Ice Cream, Shakes, and Green Tea Powder!

This is going to be a pretty huge post, but its three things that all sort of consist of one another.

This is the end result:

A home-made vanilla and strawberry ice cream green tea milkshake.  :)

We're going to start off with green tea.  I just bought some cheap green tea bags and used a mortar and pestle.  The general idea, if I understand correctly, is that consuming the entire leaf of the green tea is healthier than just drinking it as a tea.  Thus, my idea here, is to add some healthy-ness into my completely un-healthy summertime shake addiction.  :)

 

I snipped off the top of the bags using some scissors, poured the contents into a mortar and pestle, and ground it until it was as fine a powder as I could get it.

 

Not too bad.  You can stop at 2tsp of powder if you want, because that's what it took to make the two large shakes, but I kept going...

I did a whole box of them and poured them into a container so I would have a supply. >.<  Now, if you don't like the flavor of green tea, you can stop there, but I love it, so I took 2tsp of the powder and put it into 4tsp of water in a cup and put it into the fridge to sit until it was shake time!  If you aren't fond of the flavor, I'd imagine you wouldn't really taste it much, if at all, if you just add the powder flakes straight to the shake at the end.

On to the ice cream!!

 

First, slice up about a cup of strawberries.  You may chop if you prefer.  :)

 

Then, take a teaspoon of vanilla...

 

...and add it to a pitcher with 2 1/2 cups of milk...

 

...and one can of sweetened condensed milk.

 

 Pour half of that into your ice-cream maker and put the other half in the fridge to make later.  Unless, of course, your ice-cream maker is bigger than mine!

 Then, add half the strawberries and let the ice cream maker do its thing.

Here's where I got lazy on pictures, but once its done, add it to the blender with the green tea mix or 2 tsp of the powder, whichever you choose, add a little milk, blend it up, and there ya go!  This made the two big shakes you see below.  Your milkshake just got a bit healthier.  I can't wait to try this with spinach or kale powder added as well, but I need a dehydrator first!

Isn't it pretty?  Since I soaked the tea, it did have a light but distinct green tea flavor in the background.

<3
Wookie Wifey

Review - Kai Tea

**As usual, not paid or compensated in any way, I bought this tea to try, all on my own, just because I wanted to and love tea.**

This tea is amazing.  Such a wonderful flavor to it.  Flavor-wise, I really couldn't be happier.  Its organic, its smooth, its aromatic...Its everything a good tea should be, in my opinion, and it is sweet enough that I only had to add about half my usual amount of sugar.  Although I'm not exactly a connoisseur of loose-leaf organic teas (yet), price-wise it seems to be about normal for an organic tea, but I wasn't at all upset about the price and I think it is well worth it.  If I had the money to keep our house stocked with this, I would.  But, for now, the little $4 sample bag up there has been a very nice indulgence.

Here, you can see for yourself it is also just beautiful.  Very gorgeous colors and an aroma that is nice even before it starts to brew.

However, if you're sensing there is a "but" in this review, there is.  It is in this next picture, and if you're a tea-drinker you will probably notice it right off.

Now, I bought the cream earl grey tea and these instructions would have been just fine for this type, but look closer to the rest...the instructions for all the types of tea are all the same, minus the brewing time.  The temperatures are all the same.  Now, I desperately, whole-heartedly hope this is a typo because it would be a shame to ruin such a good tea that, from the flavor, has been cultivated with some care, with such poor instructions and, honestly, I really, truly hope that if your business is tea that you'd be well-educated in it enough to know how to brew a cup to bring it to its fullest, brightest potential.  When someone follows your instructions and brews their first cup, you want it to be a sublime experience, not an experience that could, in all honesty, turn them off from your brand completely by making their fist experience a (quite literally) bitter, distasteful one.

Had I bought a green tea and didn't know better and followed their instructions, it would have come out bitter, horrible, and I'd have been miffed at the price I paid.

My experience in brewing tea, along with my research on traditional methods, show that brewing at anything above 180 degrees when it comes to green tea in particular is a HUGE no-no unless you like ruining perfectly good tea.  In fact, most sources I've found recommend keeping the temperature between 165-170 degrees.  All that is a very far cry from the 200 they recommend on their package.  Green tea leaves (and white), being more delicate than black, can't handle the heat, so-to-speak, and will scorch and turn bitter in water that is too hot, not to mention green tea brews in 1-2 minutes, that's half the time of their instructions.

Don't believe me?  Take a cheap, store-bought green tea, bag or loose, any brand, and brew one at 200 and one at 170 and you should notice a marked difference in the taste on the temperature alone.  If you factor in their time difference...Well, the first few times I made green tea it was by instructions similar to those and for years, until I had it prepared properly, I was convinced I hated the stuff. 

Other than the fact that the instructions really irk me, I love this stuff.  At first I'd planned to buy more as I loved the flavor so much, but after seeing it around town a few times, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it.  When it comes right down to it, I just can't give my money to a company that seems to know so little about how to consume their own product.  Every time I'd reach for a bag, I'd just think of all the people who probably thought they'd been over-charged after buying their green tea and following the directions.  So 8/10 for flavor, but 1/10 for knowing their product.  :(

<3
WW