My Green Tea Recipe

I have been making my own tea for about one year now. I searched and searched for an alternative to our previous main beverage experience which was a national brand of green tea sold in gallon quantities using a cheap sweetener called high fructose corn syrup. I have worked hard to remove this ingredient from our diet which is not a really easy thing to do because it is in just about everything. This was the last product containing this ingredient on our weekly groceries list. Then I found agave syrup in our local health food store. This is a great alternative sweetener and just the thing I needed to begin making my own green tea.

The recipe I have come to make almost daily is as follows:

• 2 TBSP (heaping*) Bancha Green Tea Leaves
• 5/8 - 1 cup honey
• 3/8 cup agave syrup
• 2 capsules powdered ginseng or 20-30 drops of liquid ginseng
• water

Right now, I make tea using a 3 quart Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker however, I would love to acquire this teapot sometime in the future to heat the water and steep the tea. I measure the tea leaves and pour into the brew basket. Fill the machine full of water. Pour the honey and agave syrup into the bottom of the tea pitcher. I do not measure out the honey so the above amounts are estimated and will need to be adjusted based on your taste. Occasionally, if I run out of the agave syrup I find that just adding more honey makes the tea sweet enough to drink. I brew and steep the tea in the pitcher. When the tea leaves have cooled to a reasonable enough temperature to handle I squeeze the remaining tea out of the tea leaves and discard the leaves in my compost pile. Be careful not to let the brewed tea cool down too much. You want the brewed tea to still be warm so you can stir the honey at the bottom of the pitcher so it blends with the tea; the honey is easier to blend when the tea is still hot. Pour mixture into 1 gallon sized container or 2 half gallon containers (preferably glass or other pitcher made of inert materials). Fill pitcher full with ice cubes and/or cold water. Enjoy!

If this recipe doesn't make you want to drink some then here are 7 seven more reasons to enjoy a nice cup of green tea.

* I chose the amount of tea leaves to brew based on the fact that the tea syrup it brews can be mixed with enough water to make 1 gallon of very delicious "iced" or cold tea.

Did I really try that?

About 15 or 16 years ago I went on a trip to Scotland with my dad and step-mother which was their third successful home exchange with a family across the Atlantic and was my second european trip with them. My step-mother has always been big into exploring and trying new things and being that we were in Scotland we just couldn't be allowed to pass up the experience of trying the national dish, Haggis. If you have ever eaten at any local diner in the bible belt or shopped at a grocery store there, you might have noticed something curious called livermush. I would have to compare the taste of Haggis to something like livermush. I have never tasted livermush but Haggis, I would imagine, is very much like it; a very grainy and crumbly meat. Ah, well you get the gist. I don't think my step-mother fully explained to me what Haggis actually was until after I had tried some but I remember not wanting seconds. Also, I think this at least one of the many reasons why I chose to be vegetarian throughout high school and beyond. Slashfood has an article here about the national dish of Scotland and while scouring for a picture of this unique "camping" food, I found this hilarious picture. I wonder if vegetarians actually devour this knowing they are noshing on something designed to mimic the very essence of food they loathe to ingest?