I have recently become a massive fan of the old Earl Grey and have been looking at Earl Grey themed items in order to understand it's addictive properties. Quite frankly any tea that requires you to use capital letters when you type its name deserves respect and a blog.
Oh and the title of this post (Tea. Earl Grey. Hot) is a famous quote from Star Trek, Jean-Luc Picard loves the stuff and that is how he requests his brew.
Earl Grey 80z Creme Fraiche Whipped Soapwww.Savor.etsy.com
The item above looks delicious. I really think I might get into the luxury soaps that are available on Etsy, the whipped soaps look amazing. The soaps this seller sells look really nice and don't seem to be scented using sickly sweet fragrances... I would love to smell like an Earl Grey cuppa. They do a 'Gangsta olive oil soap' which is delightful and as they say 'they need good soap too'. This one is also vegan which is good to know.
Earl Grey Tea Shea Butter Soapwww.sweetpetula.etsy.com
Some more soap... The packaging of this Earl Grey themed item is really pretty- I like the botanical paper alot. Again the items from this seller seem really lovely and use natural oils and frangrances.
Claire Lowe Tea Jewellery
http://www.clairelowe.co.uk/page2.htm
Extrememly stylish and beautiful silver & resin jewellery which encapsulates real tea leaves and flecks of black tea.
Earl Grey Bracelet
www.jetaimeboutique.etsy.com
This bracelet came up on my Etsy search. I really like the silver grey colours of this bracelet and especially like the tea pot and spoon clasp.
Earl Grey a la Creme Truffles
www.denisesdelectable.etsy.com
Oh yeah... truffles infused with earl grey. A brew and chocolate is absolutely lovely I can only imagine what a brew and one of these delectable little treats would be like. This seller's other items include espresso martini truffles- No words are required to describe how good they sound.
This seller is also fundraising for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer using her Etsy sales.
On the subject of edible treats I have an American recipe for Earl Grey cookies.
2cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of icing sugar
1 cup of butter
2 tbl spoons earl grey tea
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1.Cream butter and sugar
2. Sift in flour, salt and tea
3. Add vanilla
4. Chill the mixture for about half an hour
5. Preheat the oven to 180
6. Roll into balls and flatten- place on a prepared baking sheet
7. Bake for around 13 minutes until the edges are golden brown
8. Leave to cool
I have a tried and tested Earl Grey tea loaf recipe also. I will get a photo of this one up.
4oz/125g baking margarine
1/2 pint/ 275ml Earl Grey tea
60z/ 175g mixed dried fruit
40z/ 125g castor sugar
9oz/ 250g of self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas 4
2. Line a loaf tin
3. In a saucepan heat the margarine, tea, sugar and fruit. Stir continuously on a low heat, bring to the boil and then reduce the heat-simmer for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Sift together all the dry ingredients
5. Mix the dry and tea mixture.
6. Pour into tin and bake for around an hour until golden brown
And check this one out from the BBC
Earl Grey 'MAR-TEA-NI'- Serves 1.
50ml/2 floz of Gin
35ml/1.5 fl oz of cold Earl Grey tea
20 ml/ 3/4 fl oz of lemon juice
12.5ml/ 1/2 fl oz of sugar syrup (gomme)
1/2 free range egg white
a twist of lemon peel to garnish
Shake all the ingredients up and serve with the lemon.
Earl Grey is one of my all time favourite teas! And that first whipped soap thing looks fucking amazing.
ReplyDeleteWe should clearly both get into buying handmade soaps - it's a good treat for celebrating the body-temple, and most of them are more healthy for you too. I think that if one is going to select a soap from all the handmade ones, it would only make sense to select one that has the least toxic shit in it. A lot of- if not most- commercial soaps have chemicals in them that dries out your skin and can be potentially harmful to your body, but a lot of soap makers on Etsy are very concious about not using harmful ingredients.
Absolutely and having a range of healthy, beautiful and unusual fragranced soaps might encourage us to wash more.
ReplyDeleteI think I would really like to learn how to make soap, here is a link showing how to make organic vegan soap.
http://www.essortment.com/all/howtomakesoap_rasf.htm
What fragrances would be really good?
Ha ha! Yes we would clearly be encouraged to wash more, I would like that. When people ask us if we want to come to parties and such, we'll just reply that we're at home washing our hair/face/butt.
ReplyDeleteI've seen easier recipes than the one you posted as well, that has less ingredients, like one that uses only olive oil for oil. Although I bet you'd like to keep the coconut hehe.
When it comes to fragrance, I think it's important to use essential oils in stead of perfume. Perfume has chemicals, but essential oils has extra super power benefits from flowers. I think I'd have to do some sniffing before I found the right smell- I generally like flower and fruity smells, like jasmin, ylang ylang or mandarin. Or for a more unisex soap, maybe sandalwood. You should make turquoise coconut soap for yourself, though.
I have talked with Karin about soap, and she wants to do it too, so we might try it out together, even though she has a more grown up taste in things and probably would like to make grown up soap, whatever that is hee he.
Shit, didn't notice that I wrote such a lengthy comment!
ReplyDelete