What’s in Banana Shake tea?

Banana Shake is an herbal tea blend from Twist Teas, a tea company that’s all about flavours, quality and personality. Twist Teas has a whole range of intriguing blends (see Beetroot Acai Matcha and Choffee Mint), and, also important, an exceptional customer support. Twist Teas blends are available as loose tea and in pyramid corn silk bags, each containing 2.5 grams of tea. Tea bags are big enough to allow tea to fully expand, so you can enjoy the same flavour as when brewing loose tea.  

Banana Shake, an award-winning herbal blend, contains only a few natural ingredients – red rooibos tea, freeze-dried banana, sunflower petals and natural flavouring. It has a deep intense banana scent with deep and sweet notes of red rooibos tea. It smells very inviting. This is undoubtedly a red rooibos blend but crafted in a way to respect both key ingredients, with a personality of a dessert tea.

How to make this tea?

What’s great about rooibos (and most rooibos blends) is that it’s very easy to brew. It’s one of the most forgiving teas out there. Even if you are new to tea brewing, with rooibos you’ll always get the best flavour no matter how you brew it. Bring fresh water to a boil and steep 1 tea bag in a cup of water for 5-10 minutes. Even if you steep it longer, it won’t become bitter.

Banana nots are light, but present in the scent, flavour and ever as an aftertaste. While this is predominantly a red rooibos tea, it’s definitely a banana tea, too. It feels very natural, very pleasant and easy to drink. Although you can drink it with no condiments, to get that proper banana shake experience, prepare it either as a latte, or add 10-20 ml of single cream or full cream milk.

Milk will mellow out the rooibos notes and bring out the milky banana shake flavour. This tea is light, and it doesn’t need any sweeteners as it’s naturally slightly sweet. However, if you do need a sweetener, light honey or regular white sugar are a good choice.

Banana Shake is great tea for afternoon me-time and soothing evening caffeine-free lattes. You’ll like it if you love red rooibos blends, even if you don’t like pure red rooibos tea. You’ll also enjoy it if you love bananas. It’s a light, but very tasty blend, and suitable for tea lovers that don’t like heavily flavoured teas.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water or milk

Day or night? Day or night

Hot or iced? Hot or cold

Sweetened or pure? Pure or sweetened.

Caffeine? No

What’s the price? From £5.00 (different options available)

Where to buy? Get it from Twist Teas website.

The post Banana Shake – Banana Flavoured Herbal Tea appeared first on All That Tea.

Why try it?

Let’s admit it. Banana Bread is one of those desserts no one thinks of making until you have spare ripe bananas that you don’t really want to waste. Regardless, it’s one of the most delicious and satisfying desserts ever. And it’s extremely popular. It’s not uncommon to see banana bread flavoured drinks, including different cocktails and even beer. This Banana Bread tea recipe was inspired by warm and sweet notes of rich and tasty homemade banana bread. You can serve it with lots of ice, like a regular boba, or even hot.

Ingredients for making Banana Bread tea

Black Tea – the best black tea for making Banana Bread boba is a strong English Breakfast, chocolaty Dian Hong or chocolaty and malty Assam tea. Your tea base should be strong. Use 1 1/2 teaspoon of tea leaves per 250 ml of water. To add a subtle baked note, dry roast tea leaves for 10 second in a clean hot pan before steeping them.

Creamer – Instead of whole milk, opt for half-and-half or coffee creamer. They have a higer fat percentage and will give a much nicer texture and flavour. A good alternative is single cream.

Boba pearls – although you can use regular brown sugar boba pearls, to really elevate this drink, use homemade banana boba pearls instead. Although easy to make, the entire process can be a time consuming, so prepare them when you have time and store uncooked in the fridge or freezer. A great alternative to boba pearls for this drink is banana pudding. If you are using pudding, add it after you add ice. Ingredients for banana boba pearls are listed in the recipe below.

Find the recipe for making homemade boba pearls here.

Banana extract – this drink is made with banana extract rather than real bananas. Use extracts that have a natural banana flavour without artificial notes. Banana extracts are readily available in specialty stores, Asian grocery stores and even regular supermarkets (depending on your location).

Sweetener – Demerara sugar with a naturally light caramel flavour is a perfect sweetener for this drink. You can replace it with regular sugar, but the drink will lose some of the complexity and flavour. The best alternative is light brown sugar or honey. If you are using sugar, make a simple syrup following this recipe, but use water instead of tea.

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Banana Bread Milk Tea

Homemade dessert milk tea

Course Drinks

Keyword Autumn, Black Tea, Boba Tea, Dessert Tea, Milk Tea

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Equipment

• Kettle
• saucepan
• Serving glass

Ingredients

For banana boba pearls

• 15 grams light brown sugar
• 35 grams tapioca starch
• 1 teaspoon banana extract
• 20 ml water
• Yellow food colour optional, some extracts already contain yellow colour

For banana bread milk tea

• 250 ml water
• 1 ½ teaspoon black tea leaves
• 10-15 ml half and half of coffee creamer
• ½ teaspoon banana extract
• A few drops vanilla extract
• 3 teaspoons demerara syrup
• Ice
• 1 litre water for boiling tapioca pearls

Instructions

• Start by preparing the tea base. Preheat a clean saucepan and add tea leaves. Dry roast them for 10-15 seconds.
• Bring fresh water to a boil and steep tea leaves in 250 ml of water for 5 minutes.
• Strain it into a serving glass or mug.
• Add vanilla and banana extract and stir.
• While the tea is steeping, add about a litre of water into a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add boba pearls and cook them following instructions on the packaging. If you are using homemade boba pearls, wait until they are all floating on the surface, then reduce the heat and cook for 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover the saucepan and let them rest for another 10-15 minutes. Strain boba pearls into a clean bowl and coat them in demerara sugar syrup.

  If your boba pearls turn from chewy to hard in cold tea, cook them slightly longer next time.
• Add cooked and coated boba pearls to brewed tea.
• Add ice.
• Add creamer and more sugar syrup if needed.

The post Banana Bread Tea – Homemade Dessert Boba appeared first on All That Tea.

There’s a thin line between a milkshake and a frappe. Although a milkshake is usually made with ice cream, you can make it with other ingredients too. Both frappe and milkshake are made with milk, but frappe will usually have a lighter texture and will not contain ice cream. Milkshakes are usually made without coffee, and frappe was invented because of coffee.   

Although you can make a milkshake with any vanilla ice cream, creamier dairy ice cream will give a nice texture and flavour. However, this recipe is quite forgiving. Banana will give a thicker texture than fruits with higher water content, so even if you choose a non-dairy less creamy ice-cream, you will still get a delicious drink. Choose ripe banana to add more sweetness and creaminess and a full fat dairy or non-dairy milk.

This is a calorie-rich banana milkshake with tea, so it’s best prepared and served as a dessert, rather than regular refreshment. It also contains caffeine from black tea, so it can be a great early afternoon treat or an after-lunch dessert.

Searching for the best milk alternative? Check out these 5 dairy free milks.

This recipe is made with Gorreana broken leaf black tea, with strong, slightly fruity flavour, light astringency, and full body. Stronger black teas are a great choice for making tea-based drinks. Other strong black tea or cinnamon/caramel/toffee flavoured black teas will work great well.

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Black Tea Banana Milkshake

Banana milkshake with black tea and vanilla ice cream

Course Drinks

Keyword Black Tea, Milkshake

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Equipment

• Blender
• Kettle
• Disposable tea bag, infuser or a teapot
• Teaspoon
• Straw and glass for serving

Ingredients

• 1/2 ripe banana
• 2 teaspoons of strong black tea
• 70 ml of water
• 4-5 ice cubes
• 4 large heaped spoons of ice cream
• 50 ml of cold milk
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon powder

Instructions

• Bring fresh water to a boil.
• Steep 2 teaspoons of strong black tea in 70 ml of freshly boiled water for 5-7 minutes and strain.
• Peel and slice 1/2 of a ripe banana.
• Add ice cubes, banana and tea into a blender and blend for30-60 seconds.
• Add milk, cinnamon and ice cream and blend for another 10-20seconds.  
• Pour into a glass and serve.

The post Black Tea & Banana Milkshake appeared first on All That Tea.

Tea and fruits – which fresh fruits are the best?

We tried brewing simple, strong black tea with 6 different fresh fruits to see which ones give a great flavour, and which ones are better avoided.

This flavour test should give you an idea what to expect when brewing black tea with fresh fruits. It can’t tell you what pre-made blends with the same fruits taste like. Premade blends are made with dried fruits and usually many ingredients and flavourings.

1. Black tea with banana

Banana teas are steadily gaining in popularity over the last several years. While it may sound strange to give a banana flavour to tea, banana blends taste surprisingly good. But how does a simple black tea steeped with fresh banana slices taste like?

We added 3 slices and waited. First, the colour of the tea changed a little. It became a slightly less attractive, which may be discouraging. But the flavour changed for the better. Fresh banana slices added delicate banana flavour, and a honey-like sweetness to black tea. This would be a great fruit to add when steeping tea for making lattes and if you like adding honey to tea.

Yea or nay? Yea!

2. Black tea with apricot

Apricot teas are less popular than peach teas, which is a real shame. Apricots are usually more tart than peaches, but when ripe, they are super sweet and juicy. We added ½ of fresh apricot, thinly sliced. And just how nice it was! The colour turned to beautifully intense orange and apricots gave a nice acidity to black tea and light apricot flavour. This tea was a bit lighter on apricot flavour than expected, but it was quite nice. Steeping tea with fresh apricots would be great for flavouring black tea for tea drinkers that like hibiscus teas, sour fruit teas or lemon teas.

Yea or nay? Yea!

3. Black tea with blueberries

Blueberries are sort of classic. Among dozens of berries, they are one of the most popular choices for baking and making smoothies. We added some blueberries and waited. The scent was wonderful, just like a blueberry tea should be, but the flavour was delicate. Who might like it? Tea drinkers that enjoy pure and only lightly flavoured tea. To intensify the flavour, crush them before steeping them with tea.

Yea or nay? Yea!

4. Black tea with red currants

Red currants are not everyone’s cup of tea. They are pretty, but have a very unique acidic taste. They are less sweet than blackcurrants or blueberries, but sweeter than cranberries. When added to black tea, they change the colour and make it brighter and pretty, but the flavour is disappointing. They alter the flavour, and not really in a good way. There’s acidity, but the flavour is missing.

Yea or nay? Nay ☹

5. Black tea with apple

Apple tea is not only one of the most popular types of fruit tea – apple tea is the fruit tea. Many fruit teas contain dried apple pieces. Homemade apple and cinnamon teas are just as popular as a pre-made blends. But what do thin slices of fresh apple do to a black tea? They chance the colour to an orange-brown and give a dose of acidity and reduce astringency. However, it would taste better if the tea was simmered, rather than steeped, and enhanced with some cinnamon. Who would like it? Tea drinkers that like fruit and apple teas and like acidity in tea.

Yea or nay? In between.

6. Black tea with mango

Mango is a synonym for a tropical flavoured tea. Mangos are sweet, juicy, and super tasty. We had very high expectations from this one. Mango brightened the colour of tea, but not as much as apricots did. It did almost nothing to the flavour. Flavour was so disappointingly weak, especially since the mango was ripe, sweet and juicy. It only reduced astringency and added some undefined sweetness. To get a stronger flavour, you would need to use quite a lot of fruit.

Yea or nay? Nay ☹

The post Tea and fruits – which fresh fruits are yea, and which are nay for steeping with black tea? appeared first on All That Tea.

Strong and earthy flavour, deep red colour and an opportunity to re-steep almost endlessly. Pu’erh is not everyone’s cup of tea, but many tea companies are trying to find a way for pu’erh to make it lovable even for those that don’t like it. And that’s exactly what The Tea Crew did with the Lucky Monkey tea.

Pu’erh is a great tea to drink. While flavouring raw aged teas should never really be an option, ripe pu’erh does offer a lot of fun opportunities.

Tropical Pu’erh? Why not!

What is Lucky Monkey?

Lucky Monkey is a truly interesting blend. Not only it’s enhanced with tropical notes but contains banana pieces and sencha green tea too. Pu’erh and sencha? Not a common match.

This blend is pretty. It has pretty pu’erh leaves, whole banana slices, red safflowers and small papaya chunks. And an occasional green tea leaf that gives it an even prettier look. The tropical scent may seem too intense at first, but many flavoured teas will have a scent that will rarely tell you what the flavour will be like. It just comes with the job.

We brewed this pu’erh using a brewing technique that’s somewhere in between traditional and western – starting with a minute at just a little below 100 degrees Celsius and prolonging steeping time with each subsequent steep.

How to brew this tea?

Some pu’erh teas may have a very intense artificial flavour that masks the flavour of pu’erh completely. But Lucky Monkey is different. Maybe that’ why it’s lucky. You can feel the unmistakable ripe pu’erh body, mellow, slightly earthy, and only light, lingering tropical notes. It’s not the strong, robust, dark pu’erh, it’s light, vibrant, and cheerful tea that has just enough of both earthiness and tropical notes to be described as flavoured, but not overwhelming. And it’s there as an aftertaste too. Lucky Monkey is an absolutely delicious tea.

This tea is great for re-steeping. Even with the second infusion, it doesn’t lose any flavour, which may often be a case with flavoured pu’erhs. In fact, it gives an infusion almost identical to the first one – deep ripe earthy pu’erh, gentle tropical and a light banana notes. This tea can give you at least 5 good infusions.

Any bitterness? No, but that’s common to ripe pu’erhs. How does it taste when it cools down? Also great. Lucky Monkey would be an amazing iced tea, but it could also make a great tea milkshake.

This is a really good daily pu’erh for tea drinkers that want to drink pu’erh but don’t like the flavour of pure tea. Because it’s sweet and flavourful, but not overpowering and still has a pronounced pu’erh note, it’s also a great introduction to pu’erh teas if you never tried pu’erh tea before.

Tea Recap

Water or Milk? Water

Day or night? Anytime

Hot or Iced? Hot, but it would be great as an iced tea too.

Sweetened or Pure? Pure

Caffeine? Yes

What’s the price? Starting from 2.99 GBP for a 20 grams pouch.

Where to buy? The Tea Crew website or The Tea Crew Etsy shop

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