In Pursuit of Healthiness : Cinnamon & Orange

Hi Guys!

Today I’ll be sharing with you a personal favourite recipe, it’s super healthy and yummy! I found the recipe online few years ago but I have tweeked it a little bit according to my own taste. It’s really refreshing and keeps you hydrated and detoxicfied through out the day. I like sipping it when I’m at the laptop just busy typing away.

So here it goes!

What you’ll need:

• 3 1/2 cups water
• 3 cinnamon sticks + peel (without pith) (you can also add any spices you want for more flavor: ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom)
• Juice of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
• You can add lemon slices if you want for a more ‘citrusy’ taste.

To make a quart of any of the brew, bring the ingredients to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat; steep, covered, until the liquid cools to room temperature. Before serving, strain the whole spices (or not). If desired, sweeten it with a little honey, sugar, vanilla stevia, or a favorite sweetener, to taste. You can add pineapple juice to keeps it sweet, but there is a pop of tartness from the lemon and a punch of spiciness from the chai spices that I prefer to cut that with a touch of sweeter. This versatile tea can be served warm or chilled, and feel free to customize it with your preferred spices. Consider adding Citron, wine, or champagne and making an adults-only punch with it.

A warm mug of this when the weather is cold and gloomy really hits the spot. It’s soothing, warming, and comforting. And it’s a nice alternative to coffee and much more exciting and flavorful than just plain ole tea. As a bonus, it’s packed with vitamin C to keep the sickie germs at bay.

As the tea simmers on the stove like you’d simmer apple cider, it perfumes your house with a heavenly aroma. Oh and enjoy this tea with some lemon bars and banana bread! yummm

Chai all over Pakistan

 

To show you Chais (tea) all over Pakistan, there is only one guide you need, my good friend and travel photographer (also a huge tea lover like me), Danial Shah.

Danial is a regular contributor at Dawn newspaper and Express Tribune (international New York Times), an adventure seeker, wandering tirelessly around Pakistan, from the Arabian sea to the Himalayan mountains. With his permission, I am going to share some of his pictures of different chais he’s had on his travels around Pakistan. No one covers this universal love Pakistanis have for chai than him. It’s a language we all understand, every matter can be solved over a cuppa!

The reason I’m sharing  Danial’s story today instead of my own is because when you find like-minded people who share your passion it creates a sense of community. It unites us, and I’m sure you all have a similar story! so do send me pictures of how people enjoy tea in your country!

Have a good one!

 

 

 

 

 

All images are copy right © Danial shah

You can follow danial shah at:
W http://www.danialshah.com
F facebook.com/DanialShah.official
I @danialshah_

Brew it like you mean it!

Do you love tea as much as I do? Well may be I am preconditioned to love tea because in my home country (Pakistan) its like air to us and what if I told you that you maybe brewing tea wrong? So every Pakistani knows a thing or two about brewing tea. But I live in Melbourne and for the life of me I couldn’t find loose dried tea leaves at any of the big stores, Coles or Woolworths. Why is that a problem you ask? Because if you like a strong cup of tea (which I do) tea bags are just not gonna cut it. So I bought Tapal (I was feeling really homesick) tea leaves from an Indian store.

So let’s get brewing! Oh but first you need these things:

– Tea strainer
– Saucepan
– Tea leaves
– Milk
– Sugar

So here are the steps for a perfect cup of tea or as we call it, Chai:

1. Add 1 cup water to a saucepan and let it boil.
2. When the water starts boiling add 1.5 tsp tapal dried tea leaves
3. Let the leaves simmer in the water after a 1-2 minutes add milk. Now I add milk according to the colour I want, so the more you add the lighter the colour of your tea.
4. Let the mixture simmer for about 30-40 seconds
5. Switch the stove off and take the tea strainer and keep it over your cup and pour the tea into your mug and add sugar, I add 1.5 tsp of brown sugar.
6. Enjoy your perfectly brewed tea!

How do you like your tea?