Liquid sustenance.
I have recently concocted some new beverages as part of my hydration campaign against the common cold. Chai Wassail...Black Tea with Cream and Honey....French Press Coffee with Molasses... and those are just my favorites ;) I was desperate when I felt the telltale scratchy throat just a week before a long awaited weekend trip to NYC. Happy to report, that sniffles, laryngitis, and all their relatives were kept at bay.
Here are some inspiring and tasty fillers for your closest, trusty mug :)
Chai Wassail:
1 mug full of Natural Pressed Apple Cider
1/4 cup Tazo Chai concentrate
1 to 2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 to 2 Tablespoons of honey
Heat the first five ingredients. Add honey and stir. Optional add in's are 1/4 cup of orange juice...cloves...a slice of pineapple...w/e strikes your fancy :)
*sidenote: There is a big difference in taste between generic honey and brands such as SueBee. This is because generic brands mix honey from all over different regions, even countries, while higher quality brands keep the supply pure.
Whole towns are known to give over a night of the week in celebration of this fair drink...ok, just one town that I know of :P It's New Braunfels, Texas :)
The population of the surrounding area turns out for a night of parades and concerts in the streets downtown, that are blocked off to normal traffic. Christmas lights are everywhere and each business has concocted their own wassail recipe for pedestrians to taste and vote on. Free cookies are flowing through the streets.... I don't know how it can get much better than that, or how I can paint a more compelling picture for you.
...It's the first Thursday in December :)
ahhh... :)
Now! on to...TEA (and not Sweet Tea, as any Southern born blog readers will first think) ;)
I tried my whole life to get into tea...to no avail...UNTIL a friend brought some loose leaf apricot&citrus tea back from England that was absolutely pungent :) THEN family from South Africa showed me the British tradition of adding cream, and I can now happily indulge in a hot cup of leaf steeped water at will :) Tazo Chai is a favorite, for its spicy caffeine kick. Rooibus (pronounced roy-bus) is a creamier red tea alternative, but still possessing a nice warmth. Green tea tends to make me feel ill so I can't tell you much about it. :P
Next time you need a vitamin C boost, look for a tea containing rose hips :) They have the highest natural concentration of vitamin C on the planet.
Blogging about hot drinks is hard .... there are so many tangents I'm tempted to follow :P
At the moment I'm drinking a caramel latte :) I make lattes at home because the closest Starbucks is 45 minutes away! BUT this has augmented my cappuccino machine savvy and latte flavoring creativity. Honey and molasses are now common add ins with the standard raw sugar. (once you taste the difference, you cannot go back to white sugar!) Come to think of it, the same is true of French Press coffee....but coffee is a whole other blog post...or 12 :P :-)
For now I bid you good night :)
...and blissful sipping ;-D
