Each day, right around 3 pm, I get a little itchy. I lose focus and need to walk away from my computer for a moment or two. Often, I just take enough time to start a load of laundry or do a few dishes before getting back to work. Lately though, as the weather has started to cool down a little, I’ve found that what I most want during this little mid-afternoon break a mug of something warm to bring back to my desk with me.
Some days I make a second cup of coffee (though that can wreck my ability to sleep before 1 am) and other times, I opt for honey and lemon stirred into simmered water (that one is particularly nice when my throat feels strained from too many canning classes). Lately though, my very favorite thing is green tea with a drizzle of apple mint syrup.
There’s something about how the grassy green tea goes so nicely with the crispness of the apples and mint that I just love. On Tuesday, I drank three mugs in a row just because I couldn’t get enough of the flavor. Alas, it may well have been too much of a good thing. I was VERY zippy after the third cup. Green tea is lower in caffeine than coffee, but it still does have some.
The particular jar of syrup I’ve been using is one that was given to me by Alana of the blog Eating from the Ground Up (and author of the very beautiful book, The Homemade Pantry
). It is wonderfully light in color and goes so nicely with the green tea. She included the recipe in a wonderful post she wrote last fall about dealing when your recipes don’t turn out exactly as you intended (a story I know all too well).
I also have a recipe for apple mint syrup (mine’s over on Table Matters). It’s a little darker and more deeply apple-y than Alana’s version, but I think it would be equally good with the green tea.
If you don’t have a jar of apple mint syrup in your refrigerator (though being that it’s apple season, I suggest you remedy that as soon as possible!), dig through your jam and jelly stash to find something that might be equally as good. A light syrup from preserved peaches would be delicious.
Has anyone else been doing something creative with their preserves of late? Please do share!
Note: The original inspiration to combine apple mint syrup with green tea came from my friend Alexis, who writes the lovely blog, Teaspoon and Petals. She recently mentioned infusing tea and hot chocolate and suddenly a door in my brain opened up to a new world of tea applications. Thanks Alexis!
Have you made syrup using apples and not cider? Also, do you have an approximate ratio of fruit to sugar and water? I have a single bunch of Concord grapes that I’d like try as soda. I don’t have enough to make into jelly or anything else.
If you follow the above link to the apple mint syrup recipe on Eating From the Ground Up, you’ll find that she starts with whole apples. I’ve not made concord grape syrup, though, so I can’t help you there.
I made cabernet sauvignon jelly and then filled chocolate cupcakes with it. YUM.
Just love the earthiness of green tea. This sounds lovely.
I save the extra syrup when I put up brandied peaches to stir into strong black tea-I like it best iced, in the summer, but it’s good hot as well!
Along a similar line, I have gotten into the habit this summer of eating a late lunch, then snacking instead of eating a real supper. At least several times each week it has been cream cheese mixed with hot pepper jelly (mine is more a jam, but same principle) on whatever unsalted crack is available. Yummy, but it IS about time to find a couple of new “go-to” things to eat!
I did this with rosemary syrup and chair tea. It tasted amazing!
Borrowed a book from the library (The Preservation Kitchen by Paul Virant). 1st 1/2 of the book was canning recipes while the 2nd 1/2 was recipes using preserved items.
I got lots of great creative ideas: repeat preserved item with its fresh version (e.g., pickled zucchini in a salad with fresh sauteed zucchini or pickled carrots with roasted root veggies or fresh fruit with preserved fruit of the same kind); panna cotta with jam; use pickling brine in place of lemon juice to brighten soups, sauces, deglaze a pan or in a dirty martini, or in a marinate; toss roasted potatoes with Tomato Jam before serving; blend drained hot peppers w/ EVOO & lime juice/zest for a quick hot pepper sauce; turn pickled veggies into salad dressing by reducing the liquid, mincing veggies and adding EVOO.
My favorite idea was the roasted potatoes coated with your tomato jam. It was delicious!
Okay, so I’ve been on a fig newton kick recently (with my tons of fig preserves), however I can’t keep the fig filling from oozing out all over the cookie sheet when I bake them. Any suggestions??
I can’t bear to dump out the syrup from canned peaches and always use that either mixed in soda water in the summer or mixed in my afternoon white tea in the fall and winter.
I use a dollop of one of my preserves to sweeten my morning hot cereal….blueberry ginger is my favorite!
I am off to the farmer’s market this weekend and thought I’d check in to see the latest recipes – this will be added to my list of things to make this weekend (along with pear-vanilla jam)!
OMG that sounds awesome and heavenly and just what I want to drink right now! Drat! Granted, I do have about 8 lbs of apples in my fridge right now….
Oooooh and I was going to make some ginger pear jam this weekend. Imagine how awesome ginger pear would taste in green tea!