Chai Tea, Tai Chi?

I’m not a tea drinker. For years I was a diet pepsi in the morning person, then I slowly warmed up to coffee. Now that we have a Keurig, coffee and I have turned into best friends.

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I tried a Chai Tea Latte for the first time about two weeks ago. I was with someone who ordered one and raved about it, so I thought it might be time to broaden my horizons. I would have licked the cup dry if I could have reached that far… Chai tea is usually a black tea with an amazing blend of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves with milk. In latte form, it’s chilled and iced.

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Unfortunately when I got home to look up a chai tea recipe I learned about the nutrition facts. Apparently, like most things I enjoy most in this world, chai tea lattes are delicious because they are also packed with whole milk and sugar.

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(Someone needs to tell Biscuit that a watched pot never boils…)

In making a homemade chai tea, I knew that skim milk wouldn’t cut it this time. The chai tea latte I had was full flavor and rich. I thought that Silk Light Vanilla Soy Milk might give me the boost I needed without adding lots of calories and fat.

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My first trial was adapted from Bobby Flay. It consisted of 8 chai tea bags, 4 cups of water, 1 cup of Silk Light Vanilla Soy Milk, ice and a pitcher. I hoped the vanilla flavoring in the soy milk would let me scoot by without having to add sweetener, but I was wrong! Bobby Flay recommends adding honey to the mixture as it cools in a pitcher, but I found that honey doesn’t disperse very well in a cold beverage. I used agave syrup with much better results.

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This turned out pretty well, but it’s not fooling anyone without whole milk. I need to find a way to bring in the richness and thickness of whole milk, without the fat and calories. Is this a fruitless mission? Have you guys ever made your own Chai Tea Latte? I’m thinking I might try fat free condensed milk? I would love to hear from you all.

Reviewing POMx Iced Coffee

A few weeks ago I got an email from the marketing people at POM Wonderful. They’re rolling out a new product – POMx Iced Coffee – and they wanted to send us some samples to try.

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The iced coffee drinks come in three flavors – Cafe au Lait, Chocolate and Vanilla. While the POM Wonderful products are known for their use of pomegranate, from what I gather, the iced coffee drinks contain all-natural, ultra-potent antioxidants derived from pomegranates… but there are no actual pomegranates and it tastes nothing like them.

I am a self-proclaimed iced coffee junkee. The only unfortunate part about my method of making iced coffee is that it has to be done overnight. If I’m sleepy and forget to get it started before bed, I’m out of luck. The thought of having a tasty and reliable ready-made alternative was pretty thrilling.

Unfortunately I didn’t love the POMx Iced Coffee drinks. I thought Cafe au Lait or Vanilla would be my favorites, but it was actually the Chocolate that had the least noticeable aftertaste. I don’t know what the extra taste was, but it was pretty off putting to me.

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I tried using the Chocolate Iced Coffee in a brownie recipe and the taste was fine but didn’t knock my socks off. I also thought the packaging, while definitely different looking, wasn’t the easiest to transport with the rest of my things on my way to class.

Have any of you tried the POMx Iced Coffee products? I’d love to hear your take on it. I really wish I enjoyed the product more because they seem like a neat company! Check out POM’s Recipes page, for example.

Marriage is About Compromise – Perfectly Pear Smoothie

Summer is slipping away from us, and I find myself buying up all the fresh fruit I can find. Thankfully, pears won’t be going away just yet.

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Pears are one of Morgan’s favorite fruits, but I don’t love the grainy, gritty sort of texture. Fortunately we’ve found that I’ll eat almost any fruit blended into smoothie form. Am I completely ridiculous? Yes.

Other things that I only like in certain forms:

  • Tomatoes & onions are great… as long as they’re not raw!
  • Raspberries are a treat… but not if it’s raspberry jam or sauce!
  • Apricot jam is amazing on thumbprint cookies… but beware handing me an apricot or dried apricots!
  • A good friend of mine, knowing that I love bananas, recently gave me some banana chips to try. Bleh! (Sorry, friend..)
  • Fig Newtons – yes! Figs & fancy cheese – no!

The moral I’m suggesting in today’s story is to not immediately pass on something you typically don’t like if it’s in a new form (Yes, I’m laughing at the irony as I type this).

And on that note, I’m determined to open Edwin’s eyes to pumpkin this fall. So please, start passing your pumpkin recipes my way now. We’ve got our work cut out for us!

Perfectly Pear Smoothie
Makes two medium size smoothies.

1 pear, core removed
3/4 cup frozen cherries
1 frozen banana
1 cup milk

Combine ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. For more thickness, add less milk – for less thickness, add more milk.