Tea Heroes 2012 – the results!

A few weeks ago we asked you to help us choose the Tea Heroes of 2012! First of all, we want to thank you all for your responses. We’ve already contacted the winner of a Tea Discovery tea taster set, so congratulations! Now it’s time to share the results! Hopefully this will help you discover a new tea -or maybe confirm that you were right about your favourites!

OPULENT BLACK ………………….. Spice Chai (32.4%)

Beating Bristol Brew by just one vote, the invigorating and comforting Spice Chai gets to the top of your trusted black teas!

INTRIGUING OOLONG …………… Orchid (36.1%)

This oolong is so stunning that even thieves love it! Our whole consignment of Orchid was stolen and we’re currently trying to source an alternative! True story. Too much Orchid love.

GALVANISING GREEN …………. Matcha (28.6%)

The mighty Matcha gets your vote, followed closely by Green Jasmine. Once you try Matcha there’s no turning back!

ALLURING WHITE …………….. White Peony (30.6%)

This seemed to be a difficult choice! White Peony, Snow Jewel and White Whisper got nearly the same number of votes.

HERBAL THERAPY…………….. Peppermint (28.6%)

The trusted English favourite beats the exotic Mulberry by just one vote!

 

Do you agree with the results?

Spice Chai and pear loaf

The warming blend of Chai spices suits well the autumn weather, and when it gets darker and colder outside we can’t help but feeling like baking all the time! Emily, the head chef at Lahloo Pantry, has shared this Spice Chai and pear loaf recipe with us.  With a moist texture that oozes autumnal flavours, it’s easy to understand why it’s being a huge sucess at the Pantry!

Ingredients:

Pear topping:

• 1 pear
• 1.5 tbsp Lahloo Spice Chai
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup water

Loaf:

• 265g butter
• 265 caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp mixed spice
• 265g plain flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 115ml full fat milk

For the topping:
Peel and slice the pear and combine with Spice Chai, sugar, and water. cooking down in a saucepan. Save the sugar syrup to moisten the cake and line the bottom of the loaf tin with the fruit.

For the loaf:
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs individually. Combine all dry ingredients and add, then slowly pour in the milk.  Pour into the loaf tin on top of the fruit and bake for 20 minutes at 170c. Cover and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes. Once cooled, remove from the tin. Trim top and flip over so fruit is on top. Poke with a knife and drizzle with sugar syrup.

Our tip: try using apple instead of pear. Have it with a cup of Spice Chai! 

 

 

Lahloo Tea: real tea for real people ♥

This is me as a little girl. I’ve always loved nice things to eat and drink – especially jam on toast! In those days, tea wasn’t my thing like it is now! But people were. I have always been a real extrovert – I love people!  So, one of the things I love most about running my own business, Lahloo Tea, is meeting really interesting people.

With all the things we get involved in with Lahloo Tea throughout the year, we meet some wonderful people and make really great friends. It also means I get to do what I love most – talk about (and I can talk for England) truly fabulous tea! We even meet interesting folk on the 5th floor of our hub – this window cleaner recently dropped in for a cuppa. Real tea for real people!

At food festivals like Abergavenny, Dartmouth and The Real Food Festival the highlight for me is meeting gourmet-loving foodies, fellow food and drink producers, chefs and restaurateurs and retail buyers. And with a simple cup of tea, I can open their eyes up to this gourmet epiphany that is just waiting to be unearthed.

Not only is it great fun meeting people, it’s also fun to taste wonderful things (and take home swapsies)! My fav’s have been Orchard Pig, Pieminister, Rude Health, Yeo Valley and Hobbs House and Trethowan’s Dairy Gorwydd Caerphilly!

I’ve also enjoyed (and look forward to working with) other passionate producers to create something really unique.  Working with the Willy Wonka-like Damian Allsop to create our sensational tea chocolates was so much fun – not to mention tasty! And we love our bite-sized shortbread treats from Hart’s Bakery.

But one of the most interesting parts is meeting those people who take the plunge and choose to help me challenge people’s views on serving loose leaf tea. They’ve chosen to upgrade their tea offering by serving and/or retailing Lahloo Tea. Not only do I get to meet brilliantly talented chefs, like The Walnut Tree’s Shaun Hill (he is a great character and a real advocate of Lahloo Tea), The Seahorse and Rockfish Grill chef-owner Mitch Tonks and Gordon Ramsey’s Best Restaurant winners 2011 Jonray and Pete Sanchez, I also meet inspirational, fun entrepreneurs like James Layfield and Steve Pette at Central Working.

Thank you so much to all of you who have helped me spread the word that Lahloo Tea really is real tea for real people ♥! Long may we continue!

Well done, The Angel Hotel at Abergavenny for winning The Tea Guild’s Top City and Country Hotel Tea Award 2011

We would just like to congratulate one of our new(-ish) customers on being awarded, one of the best places in the UK to enjoy afternoon tea. The Angel Hotel in Wales, a charming Georgian hotel, has achieved the highest accolade of the tea world by winning The Tea Guild’s Top City and Country Hotel Tea Award 2011. 

This Tea Guild event, now in its 26th year, is considered the ‘Oscar’ of the tea world, with the best tea rooms in the UK competing for the hugely coveted honour. The Angel Hotel was voted into the top spot after it gained a near perfect score from The Tea Guild’s inspectors. The judges praised it for its smart and elegant surroundings, attentive and efficient service and tasty sandwiches, cakes and scones. The judges were also very impressed by the choice of teas on offer and the quality of tea served. The judges concluded that “it was a smooth operation from start to finish. Everyone was made to feel special.”

Well done on such a wonderful achievement William and the team, from all of us here at Lahloo Tea.

PS we’ve also just discovered that we are going to be going to Abergavenny Food Festival again this year. So why not book into The Angel Hotel and come and visit us at the most important food festival in any foodies’ diary. Oh, and don’t forget to stop for a spot of afternoon tea too!

The Angel Hotel, 15 Cross Street, Abergavenny, NP7 5EN, Tel: +44 1873 857121

http://www.angelhotelabergavenny.com

Warming Spiced Chai Latte

Go for a walk and take a flask of our favourite winter warmer!

BUY ASSAM CHAI SHOP NOW >

Enjoy seasonal food: teatime apple and pear cake

This is an adaptation of a recipe I found in Marie Claire ‘Fresh’ by Michele Cranston. It’s the perfect seasonal cake for those in-between meal times – elevenses and afternoon tea!  Easy, quick to make, tasty and perfect with warming black and oolong teas. Put the kettle on!

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 50g ground cashews
• 3 free range eggs
• 125ml organic milk
• 400g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, sliced
• 250g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons ground chai tea leaves
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 pears, cored and sliced
• 3 apples, cored and sliced
• icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c (350f / gas 4). Using 1 tablespoon butter, grease a 20cm round springform cake tin and sprinkle with half the cashew nuts to coat the tin.

Put eggs, milk,sugar,ginger, flour, chai tea and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and blend to make a thick batter.

Fold the pears and apples into the batter carefully and spoon into the cake tin. Sprinkle with remaining cashew nuts and dot with remaining butter.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours, remove and cool. Put the kettle on, put tea leaves into the pot, brew the tea then pour into your favourite cup or mug. Sprinkle cake with icing sugar, slice a wedge and serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt. Now sit, relax and enjoy!

Hedgerow hunting: Berrylicious brunch recipes

Last Sunday morning, armed with a bag, we headed into Ashton Court for a spot of pre breakfast foraging for blackberries. I just fancied pancakes and when I know what I fancy I have to have it!  It was worth the effort though! The perfect start to a lazy sunny Sunday. We took our time over brunch with pot after pot of tea and the Sunday newspapers. Bliss!

Blackberry, ricotta and spelt pancakes

Serves: 4   Preperation:  10 mins   Cooking:  10 mins

Ingredients

225g ricotta
125ml milk
2 free range eggs, separated
80g wholegrain spelt flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tbsp honey, plus extra to drizzle
2 tsp rapeseed oil
Blackberries and greek yoghurt to serve

Method:

1. Mix the ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a large bowl. Stir in flour and baking powder until it makes a batter.
2. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until you get soft peaks and fold them into the batter. Stir in the honey.
3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and drop in 1tbsp dollops of batter. Fry the pancakes for about 1–2 minutes on each side until they are lightly browned.
4. Add a dollop of greek yoghurt, drizzle honey and sprinkle with blackberries. Yum!

Or if you fancy something quick and easy to have with your porridge, try a smoothie!

Blackberry, apple and oat smoothie

Serves: 2   preparation:  2 mins

Ingredients

1/2 cup natural yoghurt
1 cup freshly pressed apple juice
1/4 cup oats
10 blackberries
1 tsp honey

Method

1. Place ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Divide between 2 glasses. Sip and enjoy!

Wish I was round your place next Sunday for brunch!

Tea with a twist!

Last July at the Bristol Wine & Food festival we served up Long Island Iced Earl Grey Tea and Amber Mojitos and they went down like a storm in a teacup (sorry)! So we’ve been working on new recipes for this years’ events – including Bristol Wine & Food 2010, Clinger Farm’s Harvest festival and Dartmouth Food Festival – with  our friends at The Rummer Hotel.  Fabulous bar tenders and mixologists and last night I invited a very select twitter crowd (@cowshedbristol, @pearcafe and @essexeating) to give me their verdicts.

It’s a tough job but someone has to do it! We tried these delicious creations:

‘Caviar’ Marteani – Didi’s clever and unique molecular competition entry. Dry gin martini with fabulous little black salty pearls of our cinnamon Smokey tea ‘caviar’ to give you a burst of flavour. Crazy but a little tricky for us to replicate!

Smokey Margarita – Martin’s amazing twist on a classic margarita using tequila infused with our smokey tea (they all loved the smokey tea)! Sensational and definitely coming to a festival near you soon! Here’s Elly sipping away…

Dragon Pearl Vespa – Joe’s chose the stunning fragrant jasmine Dragon Pearl tea to infuse vodka and created a jasmine and apricot Vespa with a burnt orange twist. I could’ve sipped it all evening! Dan and I loved this one and it will also be making an appearance…

Boiled eggs, sourdough soldiers and Lahloo breakfast tea…

…the perfect bank holiday brunch!

Lovely with a cup of Lahloo Breakfast!

At a guess, your favourite fall-back-on or start-the-day tea is probably black tea – malty English Breakfast, citrusy Darjeeling Second Flush or smokey Lapsang Souchong – ours is!

Rather than tea blends of up to 60 different teas from huge gardens, we have sourced a collection of teas that are either sublime single estate teas or teas we have blended in small batches. Like our breakfast tea or our vanilla pod infused Vanilla Mist. Each tea’s tastes and aromas are completely different but always very satisfying.

Our favourite weekend tea time after a busy week: Saturday brunch. Dippy boiled eggs and hot buttered sourdough toast soldiers (check out our favourite bread handmade by our favourite bakers – Hobbs House and Townmill Bakery), the papers and a teapot full of steaming Lahloo Breakfast tea!

To enjoy our breakfast tea, take 1 heaped teaspoon of leaves per person and brew with freshly boiled water for 3-4 mins. Add a splash of milk if you like, now sip and start your day as you mean to go on!

Buy Lahloo breakfast tea

I bet you didn’t know that tea…

…comes from the same plant!

Tasting real tea for the first time is often compared to discovering the complex world of wine. Amazingly, all tea is made from the same plant (camellia sinensis) whether it’s black, oolong, green or white.

Like wine, cheese and whisky, tea‘s unique characteristics are influenced by the ‘terroir’ – where it’s from, what the soil is like, how high the land is and what the weather conditions are, not to mention who produced it.

Revitalising, invigorating, calming, restoring, uplifting and simply delicious, the tea sourced by Lahloo is a completely different experience to the mass-produced tea made in huge factories purely for profit rather than quality.

Lahloo teas are all about taste and provenance and they will take you on an exciting journey through your senses. Whether it’s for your morning cuppa or for tea-based cocktails, Lahloo has a tea for every occasion, every taste and every pocket.

…and it is really healthy!

You’ll find all these in a cup of tea:

Flavonoids or anti-oxidants

♥        are found in all teas but the highest concentration is found in green and white tea

♥        help fight infection as well as keeping wrinkles at bay by neutralizing free radicals.

♥        called Catechins are the most powerful; they provide protection when cancer radiation treatment is used.

♥        called Polyphenols have antiviral, anticancer and antioxidant properties

Natural Fluoride (not to be confused with chemical fluoride)

♥        is found mostly in green and white tea

♥        prevents the formation of plaque on the teeth, which in turn helps to control dental disease.

Caffeine

♥        is found in all tea. Green and white tea are dramatically lower in caffeine than black tea which still only contains about half as much caffeine as coffee.

♥        in tea does not over-stimulate the nervous system, as with coffee, but gives a light refreshing lift

Vitamins

♥        high levels of soluble Vitamin C and has been shown to help with Vitamin C absorption.

♥        Thiamine B1, Riboflavin B2, Pantothenic Acid, A/B Vitamin compound and Niacin.

♥        Vitamin A and E

Minerals

♥        Iron, Copper, Zinc, Manganese, Potassium and Sodium.

Now you know! Enjoy every little healthy sip and take time to enjoy the good stuff.