We were at the San Francisco Fancy Food Show recently and had the opportunity to see many vendors showcase different varieties of tea. Tea is our beverage of choice at home- be it herbal or our masala chai, we start our day with a cuppa tea. When we saw the different varieties and flavors, we decided to write about tea and also because January is hot tea month! OK, truthfully, we love tea and so this post. We sampled a whole lot of teas there and we particularly liked the tea of two companies in particular. Before you start imagining anything, let’s be clear that that the tea companies we are going to talk about did not pay us to write, we sipped their teas, oohed and ahhed about it and hence this post.

An ancient beverage, we drink tea for health benefits, a habit or just the simple pleasure of holding a warm cup of tea in your hands and savoring every sip of tea on a cold winter morning.

Did you know?

All tea comes from one plant, Camellia sinensis. It is the way it is processed that make green tea, black tea  and so on. While most of us have heard about white tea, black and green tea, not many know about puerh tea and a few herbal infusions that have amazing medicinal qualities.

Teatula and Numi with a whole lot of other tea companies had booths at the fancy food show. We liked both and here is what we learnt from them

Numi has a variety of tea called puerh tea, which is aged, fermented and has an earthy taste and like fine wine gains complexity, value and health benefits over years. The tea is made from an old broad leaf tea tree from the Yunnan Mountains of South western China.

Health benefits: It helps in lowering cholesterol, reduces heartburn and the microbes aid in breaking down carbs, fiber and fat, thus helping in weight loss . Numi organic puerh tea has 32% more antioxidants than green tea.

Our personal favorite was the chocolate Puerh – Organic Black Puerh, real chocolate nibs, real vanilla beans, orange peel, cinnamon, nutmeg & rooibos. They have other flavors too like Jasmine, Magnolia puerh, Mint puerh, and another favorite was Ruby chai .We have been sipping a lot of the Jasmine tea during the day.

Just before we go to bed, this is the tea we like to sip on – teatulia. The lady at the booth was passionate about tea and was excited to share with us more about the background of this company. This was a breath fresh air after seeing a few folks who just handed out samples like they would in Costco.

Their tea comes directly from a USDA certified organic garden in Bangladesh. The teas are fresh and simply pure in taste.  They had many blends brewing and guess what flavors they had – Neem and Tulsi are the two that got our attention. We wondered if the tea would be bitter like  neem leaves , but were pleasantly surprised. The flavors are bold and silky smooth.

When you have a cold, brew a hot cup of tea blending neem and tulsi( holy basil) that have great medicinal qualities with a drop of honey. Read more about neem here. In India at home, a concoction of tulsi, coriander seeds, cumin etc would be steeped and given to us when we had a bad cold or fever. We have been buying dried tulsi from home especially for this and we don’t have to any more. The other flavors that they had were lemon grass, Bengal Breakfast tea and teatulia white tea.

Other than holy basil being a remedy for common cold, the leaves are supposedly a nerve tonic and sharpens memory, strengthens our kidneys and an anti stress agent.

What are you waiting for, buy these teas and enjoy having a good cup of tea with a whole kettle of benefits.

You can buy Numi tea on their website and Teatulia here.

Update:

I have entered this recipe for a contest- please vote for me here.

The prize money is $500 and if I win this, the entire proceeds will go to Susan G Komen, Race for the Cure in honor of my friend Tina Macuha. Tina has supported the blogging community a lot. When we did the virtual fundraiser for Bri, she immediately agreed to help us promote it. Tina, We wish you well and hope you get better real soon!

When Matt sent me some herbs, I was not sure how they would taste, because I am all for fresh herbs and I was in for a surprise. The herbs smell and taste fresh and is really a crowning glory for the dish. Daregal herbs are packed within three hours from the time they are harvested and thus all the flavors are still fresh. It is like having a virtual herb garden in your freezer. My personal favorites are Dill, Original Blend, Oregano,Grilling blend and the Italian Blend. The Italian blend was my lifesaver when I was called to give a TV demo last moment.

I made this last week, when I just did not want to cook, but yet eat something flavorful. So here is an easy, no mess, no fuss recipe. We enjoyed the flavor of Dill. I used Daregal Dill for my Tsatziki salad and we could not tell the difference from the fresh VS the frozen. And the biggest advantage in my books is that I don’t have to buy a big bunch and then being forced to have a Dill Week..:)

Red Potatoes – 6 ( Chop them or crinkle cut them)
Sea Salt – 1.2 tsp
Daregal Dill – 2 T
Olive Oil – 1 T

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Place the potatoes in a large bowl and add all the ingredients.
• Take a whiff of the aroma of herbs and potatoes ( yes this is a must in the process)
• Place them on the baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes until you see it yurn golden brown on the sides.
• You can add another sprinkling of herbs after they come out of the oven too.

If you have not visited this this website, go take a look. They have a wonderful array of spices and what is great is that you don’t have to buy a spice rack to store the spices. The spices are fresh in their little sachets. I own the Spice Basics collections which can be used in Indian cooking. And still better, they are all organic.

I have never smelt turmeric so fresh other than the real deal. And that holds true for all the other spices as well. I wanted to make a recipe that uses all of the spices.

Okra – 1 lb (cut in thin long strips)
Chilli Pepper – 2 tsp
Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Fennel – 1 tsp
Ginger Powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Oil – 1 tbsp

• Preheat oven to 350.
• In a small bowl, add all the spices, salt and oil together and mix well, such that they are well incorporated.
• Coat the spices mixture evenly over the okra.
• Grease a baking tray with cooking spray and lay the okra in the tray and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Serve with rotis.

Verdict: The taste was simply superb, I would add a dash of lime juice after taking it out of the oven.

Yeah, I have been in sleep mode in the virtual world for quite sometime. The real world took me on a tour of myriad thoughts and decisions to make. On such days, nothing helps but a cuppa of hot masala chai.

When Halidrams USA contacted me to review their products, I was more than happy to do it for them. Having never been disappointed with the “A” class quality of products, I was intrigued by their masala chai and cardamom tea.

On days when R & I are competing on who can push the other to make that hot cup of tea, this will definitely come to the rescue. They have both sweetened and unsweetened version. I personally prefer the unsweetend coz you can add as much sugar as you want. Masala chai is my favorite and for those who like just the flavor of cardamom, go for it!

Steps to make Masala Chai

• Cut open the sachet and empty contents to a cup.
• Add a cup of water and microwave for a minute.
• Add sugar and enjoy with a snack.

Go online and order their products. I compare buying them online from their store to buying veggies at the farmer’s market. How much better can it get!

Please leave a comment if you are interested in getting a box of Masala chai or Cardamom tea. Let me know which flavor you would like. We will choose 5 random winners.Haldirams will ship it to you directly. The last day to leave a comment is April 16th. This is open for US bloggers only. Sorry, cant ship to India at this point in time.