My Favourite Mint Teas, plus Homemade Peppermint Tea

I recently mentioned my preference for drinking mint tea instead of standard breakfast tea and green tea (I just cannot acquire the taste for that). I also briefly mentioned some of my favourite mint tea makes and today I decided I'd write a little more about them....

Teapig's Liquorice & Peppermint

Made with liquorice root and peppermint - I love that this is a little different, the mint taste isn't overpowering but leaves you refreshed, and liquorice root is supposed to detoxify and boost the immune system. On the Teapig's website they suggest drinking this tea to soothe a sore throat, something I will try next time I'm suffering!

Stockists of this tea can be found on the Teapig's website - www.teapigs.co.uk

15 of their Liqorice and Peppermint tea temples cost £4.49 on the website.

Pukka Three Mint Tea

A blend of peppermint, spearmint and fieldmint leaves are used to create a fuller flavour. Pukka state that this tea aims to support digestion and refresh the palette. 

Currently £2.30 for 20 tea bags at Sainsbury's.

 

Three Mint tea is everything a mint tea should really be - sweet yet intensely fresh with a delicately aromatic scent. Three delicious varieties of mint leaves have been used to create the fullest flavour. It will help support digestion and refresh the palate. - See more at: http://www.pukkaherbs.com/three-mint.html#sthash.G5yCKT7y.dpuf

 
Wilkins and Edwards Moroccan Rose & Mint
  
I stumbled across this one during a trip to Greenwich Market. At the market there was a stall called Greenwich Flavoured Coffee, which (unsurprisingly!) sold coffee as well as Wilkins and Edwards tea. I'd never heard of this brand and was intrigued. The Moroccan Rose and Mint loose leaf tea sounded interesting and I'm so glad I bought a bag - I love it's sweet minty flavour. And the rose petals look so pretty!

A 50g packet cost me £4, and it has lasted me a good while. I keep it in an airtight glass storage jar to keep it fresh.  

Greenwich market is open 7 days a week from 15th July (10am-5.30pm). For directions to the market see here. The tea is also available to order online - see www.greenwichflavouredcoffee.co.uk


Homemade Peppermint Tea 

To make your own mint tea all you need are some fresh peppermint leaves...

All you need to do is pick a few stalks of mint, give them a rinse and then pop them into a teapot (perhaps 4 or 5 stalks, depending on the size of your teapot). Fill the pot with boiling water, allow it to brew for about 5 minutes and then pour into your cup or mug. So easy, and so refreshing!

If you prefer your tea a little sweeter, add some honey to taste.
 
Lisa x

Homemade Strawberry & Banana Smoothie

I'm currently on a bit of a health kick. I recently realised that ever since starting my new job about a month ago I haven't been doing a very good job of getting my five a day. I've actually been a bit lazy with my cooking in general. But now I'm settled into work and finding it less tiring than I did to begin with (having to get up at 5.30am came as a huge shock to the system at first!), I'm trying to take more time to prepare myself healthy meals and ensure I reach my goal of eating 5 portions of fruit & veg a day. 

I've also been starting my days with nice fruity smoothies to help me along with my fruit intake. My favourite? A simple but delicious strawberry and banana smoothie, great for boosting my energy before heading off to work.

Obviously people will want to alter the ingredients and amounts used to their liking. However, for my homemade strawberry and banana smoothie I use:

1 medium sized banana, cut into chunks
3 or 4 big strawberries (about 80g)
The juice of 2 oranges (about 150ml - 200ml)

I make my smoothies with my Kenwood's Smoothie Maker, but of course they can easily be made in a blender. 

These fruit quantities make enough to fill a generous sized glass (or 2 of the glasses shown in the first photo above) and gives me a couple of my daily portions of fruit right at the start of my day. And it tastes lovely! I know making smoothies isn't rocket science, but I just wanted to share my recipe to inspire any others like me who need some encouragement to up their daily fruit intake. Hope you enjoy!

Lisa x

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Homemade Passion Fruit & Orange Cordial

I found this recipe in an old Easy Living Magazine I was flicking through last week - it was featured as an idea for homemade gormet picnic foods. Whilst I have no upcoming picnic plans I was inspired to give this recipe a go - I'm not a massive fan of fizzy soft drinks so I mostly drink water, cordials/squash and tea whilst at home. My family gets through numerous bottles of Robinson's orange squash and Bottlegreen's elderflower cordial! So trying to make my own cordial really appealed to me for a bit of a change.

I'd never made a homemade cordial before, and didn't realise how easy it is to do. The cordial tasted delicious and my family loved it - it wasn't long before it was all gone! I really liked the passion fruit flavour too - when I looked in my local Sainsbury's store there weren't any similar flavours to this, so it was definately more of an exotic flavour to the standard orange squash I normally drink!

Recipe - Passion Fruit & Orange Cordial
Makes about 750ml

Ingredients:

375g sugar (I used white caster)
6 oranges
3 passion fruit

Method:

1. Add the sugar and 375ml of water to a saucepan. Add the zest of one of the oranges to the pan and bring the mixture to the boil - simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring every so often to dissolve the sugar.

2. Squeeze the juice from all the oranges and scoop out the pulp from the 3 passion fruit. Add this to the saucepan and allow the mixture to cool. 

 

3. Once cool, strain the mixture and put it into a bottle. I didn't have anything of a suitable size, so used a couple of empty gin bottles that my mum normally uses for making sloe gin for christmas!

You can dilute the cordial with either still or sparkling water - it will keep for up to 5 days in a sealed bottle in the fridge. Make sure you give the bottle a bit of a shake before each serving, then dilute to your preferred strength.

Lisa x

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