Iced tea | Two Leaves Tea Company Blog - Part 2Two Leaves and a Bud Blog

Hey Arnold Palmer: You’ve met your match in the Paisley Palmer!
By naomi / in Iced Tea, Recipes with Tea, Tea Beverages, Uncategorized / July 23, 2015

According to legend (just kidding, everybody knows this story), professional golfer Arnold Palmer once ordered* an iced tea combined with lemonade at a bar, and ever since, this refreshing mix has been called the Arnold Palmer.

*Fun Fact: This ordered happened in 1960 at the U.S. Open at the Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, in our own home state of Colorado. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

We love a good Arnold Palmer here at Two Leaves and a Bud Tea Company, and can often be found mixing our own Organic Black Iced Tea with lemonade, of course. And then we had one of those lightbulb moments we probably could have had several summers ago (but come on, summer here in the mountains is short, and we get really busy hiking, biking, fishing, rafting and stuff): What other tea combinations would be really great with lemonade?

Paisley Label Tea and Lemonade taste-off in our office kitchenette -- not so highly scientific, but sure tasted great!

This week we brewed up some of our own Organic Paisley Label Tea, mixed in some lemonade, and had everyone stand around our tiny kitchenette counter to taste and throw out opinions. Some of them were so good, we actually surprised ourselves! Our method was brewing half the amount of water you'd normally use with a teabag to make a concentrated tea, and then combining that with the same amount of Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade, because we love that stuff. Using this recipe, the tea spoke up for itself, and the lemonade added just the right amount of sweetness and tart flavor.

Here you go, tea lovers, our fantastic recommendations for Paisley Palmers!

"Pinky in the Air Palmer": Paisley Label Tea Organic Earl Grey with lemonade

Knock us over with a feather -- turns out the Brits are really onto something when they squeeze a slice of lemon into Earl Grey! This drink was a fruity, wonderful combination of premium black tea, the orangy-citrus bergamot oil flavor that Earl Grey lovers adore, and lemonade.

"Bloody Good Palmer": Paisley Label Tea Organic Tart Blood Orange with lemonade

This herbal tea makes a great backdrop with lemonade because while it doesn't have any black tea (and therefore, no caffeine), it is both super fruity and has a tad of spice (because the tea includes a dash of cinnamon). Sound intriguing? Go for it, orange lovers.

"Happy Dance Palmer": Paisley Label Tea Organic Tart Berry with lemonade

Named in honor of the staff member who did a happy dance as soon as this combo hit her tongue. Our Tart Berry herbal tea is such a big powerhouse of sweet-tart berry flavor that often people don't believe us when we tell them this tea isn't sweetened, so just imagine it paired up with lemonade! Lip smacking and happy dance inducing.

"Kickin' Palmer": Paisley Label Tea Organic Ginger Green with lemonade

We wanted to try a green tea with lemonade, and everyone knows that ginger makes a nice pair with lemon. We thought it was a nice balance of the sweet-tart of lemonade and the peppery taste of ginger, to cure whatever ails ya! (Should you end up with a cold, which can happen when you least expect it. Like in the summertime.)

"Loudly Lemon Palmer": Paisley Label Tea Organic Tart Meyer Lemon with lemonade

This one was a bit controversial among our staff, some of whom aren't in love with big lemon flavor and labeled it "medicinal", and others who felt mo' lemon, mo' better. If you are one of those lemon lovers, we'd recommend this caffeine free blend!

One last note: We tasted all of these at room temperature, adding the lemonade well after the tea had cooled down, because we didn't want hot tea or ice cubes to screw around with our tastebuds. But we encourage you to experiment with ice cubes and other additions and tell us what kind of Paisley Palmer blows your hair back! Cheers to summer, tea lovers! <*clink* with a tall Paisley Palmer>
It’s iced tea season … say cheese!
By naomi / in Pairings, Products from two leaves and a bud, Tea Education / June 17, 2015

June is iced tea month, and while we love clever iced tea recipes and cocktails, we also love the unexpected ... like pairing iced tea with cheese!

We were featured in a recent special issue of Culture Magazine, when writer Laurel Miller asked us for some pointers on the perfect pairing. And we have a good tip for pairing tea (hot or iced) with just about anything: Remember that tea is like wine, in that it can have tannins (the quality that kind of "dries out" your tongue) that can overpower delicate flavors. A big, tannin-heavy tea should never be paired with a delicate, subtle cheese, because as Laurel wrote, it'll just steamroll those delicious light flavors! With that said, here are a few pairings that really work for us, and the next time you're inviting friends over, surprise them with a cheese platter and a few different iced teas for mixing and matching! We'd recommend:

Grassy Green Tea:

Pair our Organic Gen Mai Cha with Le Marechal, a cow's milk Swiss cheese with a savory and somewhat herbal flavor (because dried herbs are rubbed onto the wheel of this cheese as it ages).

Floral Green Tea:

Pair our Jasmine Petal Green with a Cabra Blanca, a semi soft, silky and tender goat cheese with a subtle aroma, slight sweetness balanced with delicate tartness. We love Avalanche Cheese Co.'s Cabra Blanca, a cheese company based here in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado!

Malty Black Teas:

Pair our Organic Assam Breakfast or Organic Paisley English Breakfast with high butterfat cheeses, that will stand up to these tannic teas. Gouda would work well!

Smoky Black Tea:

A strong tea like our loose Lapsang Souchong is perfect for pairing with a cheese with big flavor, like white Stilton.

Herbal Tea:

Think of how you might serve a creamy cheese with dried cherries to guests, and then pair our Alpine Berry or Organic Paisley Tart Berry with soft bloomy-rind cheeses like Camembert.

Bon appetit!
Trick out your summer bevvies with tea ice cubes
By naomi / in Green Tea, Iced Tea, Recipes with Tea, Tea Beverages / July 31, 2013

We're taking iced tea quite literally!

I'm not exaggerating when I say that summer in our neck of the woods is glorious. GLORIOUS.

We live in the mountains of Colorado, and after a long, cold and snowy winter, the summer up here is like the vacation you've been planning for the past six months. Don't get me wrong — people like us live up here because we love all of the seasons, even the muddier ones. But summer is like our big chance to stop layering our clothing quite as severely, saunter about in flip flops for weeks on end and spend as much time outside — morning, noon and night — as possible.

So let's talk about new ways to drink tea in the summer, shall we? Last summer we had an adventurous romp creating several fruity, tea-inspired drinks, and it was really fun. This summer we found ourselves with a bit less time, but a desire to be creative. Things got busy, we didn't want to haul out the blender, and we definitely weren't going to just grab a sugar-laden "sweet tea" or whatever is in the supermarket that is supposed to quench our summer thirst.

Gorgeous summertime refreshment (and the labbits that we love)

But what really caught our attention was a simple project that our CEO and founder's lovely wife, Pam, whipped up the other day and took inspiring photos of: tea ice cubes! Just look at these photos and nod with us in agreement.

So, which tea will you steep and turn into ice cubes? It depends on what color and flavor you're looking to impart into whatever drink you're preparing. For a bit of astringency in a pretty light green, try Organic Tamayokucha. Green with a tropical vibe? Tropical Green. Pam warns us that while she loves ice cubes made out of Alpine Berry, that tea is a deep red and will turn whatever liquid you add to those cubes the same color — but she's also got a penchant for bourbon poured over Alpine Berry ice cubes.

And — ooh, we just thought of this — what if you serve your guests lemonade, but pour it over Organic Assam ice cubes, so they more the cubes melt, the more they have a little Arnold Palmer flavor?

(You can easily Google and find little round ice cube trays like Pam used, but we found some really awesome shapes, including anchors and tropical fish right here.)

Experiment and have fun! This is summer, after all, and we can all be a bit more casual about tea drinking in the warmer months, can't we? Tell us how it goes if you try one ...
Turning Alpine Berry into summertime awesomeness (we’re calling it Deb’s Alpine Berry Sangria)
By naomi / in Herbal Tea, Iced Tea, Recipes with Tea, Tea Beverages / August 3, 2012

Introducing Deb's Alpine Berry Sangria!

We are a very small family here at two leaves tea company — very small. Perhaps you didn't know that on a day when our office is considered very full in Basalt, Colo., that means seven people are at work. Seven!

So word travels fast when just about anything happens. The other day, I was seeking more recipes for a fruity iced tea drink when our lovely customer care representative and graphic girl, Lindsay, chimes in. It seems her boyfriend's mother takes our Alpine Berry herbal tea and "doctors it up" into a fruit bomb of an iced tea drink. "GET ME THAT RECIPE!" I barked at Lindsay. (Not really. I asked her to e-mail me.)

Here's where I have to pause to ask you: How do you feel about winging it? I wing lots of things in my life. Writing this blog, accessorizing, raising my children. I do not wing cooking, almost ever. I'm a crazy recipe follower. I believe that if I'm not following a recipe, it's probably not going to taste great. Or good.

So the e-mail I received from Lindsay with her boyfriend's mother's recipe for her magical Alpine Berry Iced Tea made me panic a little – I’m not going to lie. Here’s how it read (as written by Lindsay, after asking Deb Knight):

“She has an iced tea maker, so she just pops the 1 oz. Filter Bag into it and lets it brew.

Meanwhile, she packs (I mean packs to the brim) a pitcher full of ice, sugar and the fruit. She squeezes two to three lemons and one to two oranges into the pitcher, then cuts the lemons and the orange and throws them into the pitcher. Occasionally she will also toss in some raspberries and strawberries to change it up from time to time.

Then she adds the hot fresh brewed iced tea to the pitcher and serves!”

I know why you think I’m crazy — it’s because this recipe is not that difficult. But like some people who are reading this blog, I do not own an iced tea maker, therefore I use sachets of Alpine Berry to make the tea, rather than our 1 oz filter bag. What am I supposed to do about that? I took a deep breath and gave it some thought.

“It’s tea, not rocket science,” I said to myself after several minutes. “If you’ve learned anything by making a bunch of fruity iced tea drinks this summer, it’s that tea plus fruit plus ice equals yum, and it’s hard to mess up. Get a grip.”

So, I made a single serving (I wasn't going to subject anyone else to a possibly failed experiment). I used two sachets of Alpine Berry in one mug to make extra-strong herbal tea, because I knew I’d be diluting it with ice. I surveyed the fruit I had in my kitchen, and ended up putting two slices of orange, a slice of lemon and cut up strawberries in a glass, taking a fork and mashing the heck out of them in a pint glass. (I don't own a tiny baseball bat with which to "muddle" things. If you do, you qualify as a mixologist in my eyes.)

I then filled that glass up with ice, dumped my super strong brewed Alpine Berry herbal tea in there, put in a spoonful of sugar, stirred the heck out of that baby and took a sip.

And oh man, it was good. The typical berry zip of Alpine Berry, with an extra citrus twinge from the lemon and orange, and a juicy strawberry on the side.

So I'm here to tell you to wing it. Wing it! Try Deb's Alpine Berry Sangria, as I named it moments later while sitting on my front deck with my feet up, marveling at the ruby red drink in my hand. (And if you want to make it a more true sangria with some triple sec, wine or vodka or something, I salute you. Lesson of the blog post: Wing it!)

Cheers to summer and not-your-average iced tea. And thanks to Deb Knight for sharing your creation! Check out the other recipes we've posted this summer:

Blueberry Mint Iced Tea

Watermelon Green Iced Tea

Orange-Lemon-Lime Tea-ade

Have any of you ever doctored up some of our tea, and gotten delicious results?
Orange – Lemon – Lime Tea-ade and (surprise!) it’s minty, too
By naomi / in English style tea, Organic Black Tea, Products from two leaves and a bud, Recipes with Tea, Tea Beverages, Uncategorized / July 26, 2012

Orange-Lemon-Lime Tea-ade is easier to make than say.

Summer refreshment has so much potential, and yet some of us just keep ordering the same old iced tea, don't we? We've got recipes here at two leaves tea company that I've been posting lately to break you out of your rut, and this one is going to knock your socks off. Sure, this drink looks like that old standby combination of lemonade and tea known as an Arnold Palmer, but it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. First, it's made with three different citrus fruits and second, there's not only black tea in there, but our own peppermint tea! "Shut the front door!" you're saying to your computer screen right now. "How can it be? Black tea, mint tea, and fruit? In one glass? Are you going to give me the recipe?"

Of course, faithful tea blog reader, of course. And when this drink is whipped up quite simply for your family and friends, we hope you'll pass the recipe along.

P.S.: One last thing before I leave you alone with this recipe. If you haven't yet met our new line of all organic, fair trade, English style teas, this is your chance! Tea from Paisley Tea Co. brews up sturdy and strong like a proper English cuppa' should, and so I used our Organic English Breakfast variety to make this drink, and it worked beautifully. Of course, sachets of our Organic Assam Breakfast would also work, if that's what you happen to have. Cheers!

Orange-Lemon-Lime Tea-ade

Yield: 16 servings. Throw a party!

8 bags of Organic English Breakfast tea from the Paisley Tea Co.

4 sachets of Organic Peppermint from two leaves tea co.

6 cups boiling water

3/4 cup granulated sugar

Juice of 4 oranges

Juice of 2 lemons

Juice of 2 limes

Ice

Directions:

1. In a 1-gallon pitcher, combine black tea bags, mint tea sachets and boiling water. Let steep for 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the tea bags, squeezing them over the pitcher to extract as much liquid as possible.

2. Add sugar, stirring until it is dissolved. Stir in orange, lemon and lime juices, then add enough ice to fill the pitcher.

3. You're finished. Pour a tall one for yourself and take a load off.

Here's a photo of some of the other drinks we've made. Have you tried Watermelon Green Iced Tea? How about Blueberry Mint Iced Tea? Both are wonderful. Chime in if you've got some great iced tea recipes to share!

Tea, fruit, ice, garnish. Summertime in a glass.

1 2 3 4