White Tea Sangria {Mighty Leaf Tea Giveaway!}

The Giveaway is now closed. The randomly picked winner is #61, Jessyca. Congrats to Jessyca, and thank you to all of you that entered and tweeted! Stay tuned for more giveaways.

I love tea (especially iced!), and I love Sangria, so it just seems right to put them together, doesn’t it? Mighty Leaf Tea, in my opinion, is the best tea for your buck. The flavor blends they offer, combined with the sheer quality of the tea leaves make it worth spending a little extra than you would for the teas in the grocery store. If you have any doubts, check out this older post of mine for just some of the benefits of Mighty Leaf Teas, and tea in general!

Oh, what the heck, I’ll just add an excerpt from that post here for your convenience:

It’s impossible to over brew their (Mighty Leaf) teas, because the tea bag tags tell you how long to brew each cup.  So that means no more bitter tea--just a perfect cup, every time!

I wasn’t familiar with Mighty Leaf Tea, but eager to find out more about them.  Here are just a few facts:

• They painstakingly handcraft their artisan whole leaf tea blends.
• The co-founders have created an industry shaping process-- handcrafted, hand stitched, silken Tea Pouches.  This creation set a whole new industry standard with 9 similar mesh pouches being introduced within 2 years. 
• Co-founders Gary Shinner and Jill Portman ran their San Francisco tea house, Tea & Company, for three years before deciding to close up shop and launch Mighty Leaf Tea.  In those three years, they listened to what customers wanted and decided to fill that niche, not just locally, but internationally.
• In 2009, Mighty Leaf Tea was selected as the official tea house purveyor for the James Beard Foundation.
• Also in 2009, Mighty Leaf Tea launched it’s own global giving foundation, The Mighty Leaf Tea Foundation.  They promote and encourage sustainable farming and production methods for tea growing regions around the world.  They also foster long term prosperity for artisans and their local communities through monetary program support.

Besides being incredibly delicious and versatile (yes, versatile-many recipes make great use of tea!), tea is also extremely beneficial to your health!  Some of the health benefits are:

• Stress reduction
• Weight management
• Healthy teeth and fresh breath
• Battling colds and flu (See?  I told you!)
• Heart disease and stroke
• Cancer prevention

{Be sure to read through for the giveaway details!}

See? Tea is not only delicious to drink, it’s good for you, as well! In my house, we drink iced tea all year long. Even in the dead of winter! I drink it hot in the cold weather, too, but for me, there’s nothing as refreshing as a glass of ice cold tea. I actually read once that iced tea was the best thing you could drink to refresh yourself on very hot days!

If you haven’t clicked and read my previous Mighty Leaf Tea post, I’ll let you in on something that’s a lifesaver for me when it comes to hot tea: when I’m sick with throat issues and a bad cough, the one thing that helps me immensely is piping hot tea with honey. It comforts a sore throat and eases an annoying cough. I prescribe that to everyone, so if you know me on Facebook or Twitter and you mention a sore throat or cough, you may hear me telling you to drink your hot tea with honey!

Tea is also wonderful for using in recipes. I know you’ve all seen cookie and cake recipes using it. It also lends a fantastic hint of tea flavor to your sangria! Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think there are any rules to making sangria. Fruit, check. Wine, check. Make it a wine that you like! By the same token, use whatever fruits you like. Want fizz? Add soda water or your favorite flavored soda. Need a little sweetener? Sugar, honey, agave, etc. Chill it all and enjoy!

Mighty Leaf White Orchard Tea Sangria

Makes one pitcher

4 Mighty Leaf White Orchard Tea Bags
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 tbsp honey
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint
6 oz fresh raspberries
3 small peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced
1 large orange, sliced
1 large orange, juice of
1 lime, sliced
a handful of fresh pineapple chunks
1 (750 ml) bottle of white wine (I chose one with hints of citrus)

Brew the four tea bags in the boiling water for about 5 minutes. Stir in the honey and pour into a large (2 qt) pitcher. Set aside.

Lightly bruise the mint. I did this by putting the leaves on a cutting board and smashing them with a wooden spoon. Add them to the pitcher. Toss in all of the fruit, plus the orange juice, then add the wine.

Stir it all together and put it in the fridge to let the flavors mingle. Serve cold, over ice. Don't forget to enjoy all of the fruit in there after it soaks up all of the flavors!

I also made a red wine sangria a few days later, using Mighty Leaf Tea and some assorted fruit, but, um, we didn’t get any pictures of that one. Ha!

You can also use the tea to make ice cream! This is a coconut milk ice cream that I flavored with Sunburst Green Iced Tea from the new Mighty Leaf Iced Tea Collection:

Coconut Green Tea Nectarine Ice Cream

Special offer! Right now, you can all enjoy a 15 percent site-wide discount at Mighty Leaf Tea! Use this coupon code when checking out:  SUMMERTEA15

_________________________________________________________________________

{Giveaway!}

My friends at Mighty Leaf Tea have prepared a fabulous giveaway for one of you! They want to be your summer tea sommelier – from selecting the perfect tea, to helping you understand the brewing process, and to creating the most delicious tea mocktails.

Win: A Summer Brewing Kit.

 

One of you will receive a box of each of their new teas, as well as a Flash Iced Tea Brewer which allows you to get iced cold tea in just minutes.  (Total value is nearly $70.)

o   Sunburst Green Iced Tea:  A cool and vibrant fresh brewed iced green tea, it delivers the crisp taste of sun ripened oranges and sweet citrus that brighten mountain-grown Chinese green tea leaves. The lowest in caffeine among all four flavors.

o   Ginger Peach Iced Tea:  A blissful and lightly sweet fresh-brewed iced tea, this black leaf tea is infused with sun-swelled peaches and delicate ginger.

o   Calypso Mango Iced Tea:  A sweet and cooling fresh-brewed iced tea with an indulging blend of luscious mango and tropical fruit that drench South Indian black tea leaves.

o   Organic Black Iced Tea:  Made of refreshingly rich and smooth South Indian organic black tea leaves that are hand-picked on the dewy slopes of the Nilgiri mountains, these vibrant organic tea leaves unleash a fresh iced tea with dark amber hue.

Plus, a Flash Iced Tea Brewer which allows you to get iced cold tea in just minutes!

Three ways to enter:

1) “Like” Mighty Leaf Tea on Facebook so you’ll always know what’s up and be the first to know about special offers! Come back here and leave a comment telling me that you did.

2) Which one of the new tea flavors are you most anxious to get your hands on? Let me know in another comment! I can tell you--they’re all fantastic!*

Additional entry:

3) Tweet about this giveaway and leave another comment letting me know that you tweeted.

Be sure that you leave a valid email address or other method of contacting you so I can let you know if you've won! I’ll choose a random winner (US only) on
Wednesday, August 3rd. (August already?! Ack!)

Good luck!

*I was given a box of each of the new teas to sample at no cost to me. I am not being paid for my opinions on the product.

Cheese Fondue Mac and Cheese

Flashback: Last November. David Lebovitz posted about Making Swiss Cheese Fondue. It looked and sounded incredibly cheesy and rich--and amazing.

Confession: I’d never had fondue. EVER. I’m not usually one for cheesy sauces. I know, right? Crazy. Not even chocolate fondue! What is wrong with me? 

That post--I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had to have some cheese fondue, and quick. I planned to get the stuff together and make one for us to enjoy after decorating the Christmas tree. That didn’t work out, so I figured we’d have one at Christmas. The stomach flu foiled that plan. It didn’t seem like I’d get around to having my cheese fondue, dammit.

David said that fondue is so popular in Switzerland, that cheese vendors sell pre-made mixes for cheese fondue. Speaking of that, guess what we found at Trader Joe’s? Yes! Trader Jacque’s Cheese Fondue, imported from France. It was fate, telling me to have that fondue for New Years Day. Looking at the ingredient list, it had all the things David mentions in his post: white wine, Kirsch, Gruyère, Emmenthal, Comtè, and garlic.  All you had to do was melt and stir it in the container, right in the microwave. I’m now officially hooked on cheese fondue! The Kirsch is optional, but I highly recommend you read not only his fondue post, but also his post on Kirsch and why you should have some on hand. I bought a bottle on his recommendation, and plan to try it in more recipes.

While we were having our fill of fabulous bread cubes dipped in this amazing melted cheesy goodness, Billy thought it would be fun to pour it over some pasta for a quickie mac and cheese. Since he was willing to do the work, I said “Yeah, ok!” I’m not one to turn down mac and cheese, you know?

Which brings me to today’s post. Cheese Fondue Mac and Cheese. I combined the traditional fondue ingredients with a few other things to make a great cheese sauce perfect for pouring over your favorite noodles. If you’re lucky enough to have a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods nearby, you already know that they have fabulous cheese selections. I know that Emmenthal and Gruyère aren’t uncommon, but Comtè may be harder to find. At any rate, I’ll give you some info and substitutions on each, from one of my favorite sites, Cook’s Thesaurus.

• Emmental = Emmentaler = Emmenthaler = Emmenthal = Bavarian Swiss cheese   Pronunciation: EM-uhn-tall Notes:  This Swiss cheese is riddled with holes and has a mild, nutty flavor.  It's an excellent melting cheese, and a key ingredient in many fondues.   Substitutes:  Jarlsberg (similar) OR Beaufort OR Gruyère OR Swiss OR raclette

• Gruyere = Gruyère Pronunciation:  grew-YARE  Notes:  Gruyères are excellent melting cheeses, and they're commonly used to make fondues, soufflés, gratins, and hot sandwiches.  Varieties include Swiss Gruyère, Beaufort, and Comté.  Substitutes:  Emmentaler OR Jarlsberg OR Appenzell OR raclette OR Swiss cheese

• Comte = Comté = Gruyère du Comté = Comte Gruyere  Pronunciation: kohm-TAY  Notes: This excellent French cow's milk cheese dates from the time of Charlemagne.  It has a mildly sweet, nutty flavor, much like Gruyère.  It's a very good melting cheese.  Substitutes:   Gruyère OR Fontina OR Beaufort OR Emmentaler

Cheese Fondue Mac and Cheese

16 oz of your favorite mac and cheese-type noodle (I like Barilla Cellentani)
1/2 cup butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt (test sauce when finished-we added a couple more pinches)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp flour
3 1/4 cups milk
1/4-1/2 cup white wine
1-2 tsp Kirsch (optional)
1 pound cheese (a blend of Emmenthal, Gruyère and Comtè), shredded
Panko bread crumbs

Heat oven to 350.  Cook the pasta till just al dente, it'll cook more in the oven. Set aside.

In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic, salt, pepper and flour. Whisk until smooth, remove from heat. Add milk, wine and Kirsch, return to heat and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute while whisking. Remove from heat and add cheese, stir until completely melted.

I double dog dare you not to eat up all the bread in your house by dipping it in the sauce at this point.

Pour the sauce over the cooked noodles and stir until all the noodles are coated with cheesy love. Pour into a lightly greased baking dish. Sprinkle a good amount of Panko over the top. Bake 35-40 minutes until nicely golden brown and bubbly.

• While we loved this mac and cheese, it’s on the “mild cheesy flavor” side, so if you’ve got kids (or adults!) that don’t like strong cheese, they’ll probably love this one.
• When I make this again, I’m going to try adding more wine and cheese. Because you can’t have too much of a good thing, and I really want to spotlight the cheeses.
• I’d originally planned to sprinkle a blend of the cheeses over the top along with the Panko, but I had just enough to make the sauce. I’m definitely trying that next time, too.

Please excuse the bad, nighttime lighting. Hungry family wants to eat…