Sponsored by the letter 'T'

For tea, that is!

I've mentioned before about my love for tea and it's something Skint Vegan Dad and I share - leading to us having an entire shelf in our tiny little kitchen dedicated to different kinds of tea. And marmite, of course!
Sometimes I buy teas that end up sucking ass - too strong, too bitter, too spicy or too bland for our palates. But being the frugal kind of gal I am, I never throw them out. I find alternative ways to use them. So today I made a batch of iced tea using up some summer berries fruit tea, green tea with lemon and blueberry maple syrup for sweetness.

I used 4 fruit teabags, 1 green teabag and 3 tbsps syrup for 1 quart of water. It was a nice twist on the fruit cordials we usually drink, fruity yet not too sweet as I had a firm handle on the amount of sugar that was going in to it. McGonnagle - sharing my love of slightly tarter drinks - especially liked it.
This morning I got a special tea-time treat in the post - my extra wide straws, all the way from Thailand, perfect for bubble tea! So I cooked up some extra big rainbow tapioca pearls, threw together a quick prototype using earl grey tea and away we went!

Verdict? Chewy! I've never had bubble tea before but the idea of a drink with chewy tapioca in the bottom? How could I not like such a multi-sensory experience?! I think I'll need to play around with my recipe before I'm happy with it though.
My third tea experience came courtesy of the cold weather sniffles. Yup, my nose is dripping, I'm feeling tired and rundown, so what better way to combat this than by an all-out nutritional assault led by a hot cup of Dr Stuart's echinacea plus tea.

Protein-rich hemp milk and some soporific little gem salad with carrot, spring onion, pickles olives and a kickass dressing - inspired by Tasha from the Voracious Vegan - made from tahini, hemp seed oil and dijon mustard accompanied this brew. Lets hope it's enough to keeps the sniffles away!