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 […]