April 9, 2012
Last night I was thinking that a little dessert might be nice. But I had already gone to the grocery store and I had forgotten to buy eggs. So I perused some recipes and found this one that I haven’t made in awhile and love. Recipe in hand, I took a stroll through my quite extensive tea cupboards. Off to the left of the 2nd shelf, jumping up and down, was the Simpson and Vail Burgundy Blast Herbal Tisane. Being conscientious I looked at every other tea before I realized that the Blast was, for sure, the way to go. So with my spice grinder I ground up 2 tsp of Burgundy Blast. And the rest was easy…. 1/2 cup melted butter 1/2 cup light brown sugar 1 cup flour […]
March 27, 2012
If like me you made the Loose Green Tea Recipe Sesame Ginger Garlic Dressing and had some left over in your fridge – it makes a great sauce for tofu. I took a block of tofu, drained it and then pressed out the excess water. Cut the tofu into 16 identical slices and marinate in the dressing. I marinated the tofu for 30 minutes. While the tofu is marinating in the Loose Green Tea Dressing, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with tin foil. Place the marinated tofu on the baking dish and bake for 15 minutes. Flip the tofu over and bake an additional 10-15 minutes. I served this over a bed of brown rice and steamed spinach. Fantastic!
March 24, 2012
Rooibos “tea” is an herb that is also known as Red Bush tea. The botanical name is Aspalathus linearis and this herbal tea contains no caffeine and is reputed to have many health benefits. You can see some information on the Simpson and Vail Rooibos tea page on our website. At Simpson and Vail, we make blends with Rooibos, which you can also view on our website. Rooibos is a perfect herb to blend with – it has a slight woody, earthy taste that combines well with many other herbs and with tea, and it provides an excellent base for flavored blends. To some people Rooibos is a new tea, but Rooibos has been enjoyed by many people for over a hundred years. My parents were actually selling Rooibos […]
March 19, 2012
We were invited to a friend’s house for dinner last Saturday and so I thought to myself “Self – this is a perfect opportunity to “play” with a dessert recipe!” So I scooted off to the kitchen to see about creating something that very well may take a week of running to get off my thighs … rich, buttery shortbread! Sigh. Nothing better! I made the Earl Grey Loose Tea shortbread but, since we were running late, I didn’t take photos. I left a few pieces at home, which were enough for a photograph, or so I thought at the time. The shortbread was a hit at Patrick & Carol’s house (I put in the orange oil in this version) and I received a message from Patrick the next day […]
March 14, 2012
The other day I made a leek and spinach quiche with black and green teas. Served with a salad, quiche is one of my “comfort” foods. Plus there’s always enough left over to have for lunch the next day. Personally I think quiche is always better the next day. For this tea version I used black tea in the crust and a green tea when sauteing the spinach. I have to say – the crust came out perfectly tasty, but the green tea taste in the spinach was, unfortunately, lost when combined with everything else. So what I guess I’m saying is – you can skip that part of the recipe if you’re strictly going for taste or you can keep it in for the extra health benefits from the […]
March 2, 2012
The Simpson and Vail website lists recipes on the detail pages for a lot of our teas and tisanes – and we’re adding more all the time. These recipes are ones we’ve either crafted ourselves or ones we’ve found online and in cookbooks. Today I decided to try a dressing that appears in the book Culinary Tea by Cynthia Gold and Lise Stern. The recipe is a Sesame-Ginger Garlic Dressing using green tea. On our website we list it under Young Hyson China green tea but today I made it with Japanese Green Sencha Tea. The directions were easy to follow and the dressing tastes amazing! The kitchen smells of toasted sesame seeds and toasted tea leaves – Yum! I have some tofu marinating in it as we “speak”, which […]
July 1, 2011
My name is Cyndi Harron, one of the family members here at Simpson and Vail. On behalf of my family, I wanted to welcome you here to our new loose tea blog. I thought I’d give you a little introduction to our family run tea business. In the 70’s my parents, Joan & Jim, purchased Simpson & Vail, which was located, at that time, on Park Place in New York City. Pretty soon after they purchased it, my father was asked to join a friend running a textile company, which left Mom to learn and operate Simpson and Vail. She did an outstanding job! I have 3 brothers and in the summers and school holidays my parents roped all of us into working for them. It was exciting traveling […]