Christmas Party

Be sure to come see us during the Christmas Party for some merriment and Christmas cheer. It is on Saturday, December 16, from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.

It’s also Boston Harbor Day. The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts 1773 caused by the Tea Act.

Looking forward to seeing all of you! Merry Christmas!

Here are some of our customers’ quotes about our shop:

“This is the quaintest, little tea shop I have ever visited. I LOVE it! When you walk in, you feel right at home.  And I have to say I love how every room is decorated and how everything is displayed (especially the “smell room”). There are endless options here. Cathie is the sweetest lady and she knows every tea like the back of her hand. If you have any questions, she will have an answer…. I recommend this place to everyone who loves tea…..You’ll be hooked on tea even more!”

“Love the space, the different rooms, the aroma, and the lovely woman who showed us new things and taught us new things. It made us a life-long customer just from going one time today and we will gladly come back again and again. Prices are worth the natural and healthier choices. There are great blends available too.”

 

Everything Stops for Tea, My Dear

Everything stops for tea, my dear. In England, afternoon tea was introduced by royalty due to the fact that they had to wait until late hours before having dinner so they had tea and a little snack.  It became a favorite social event during the 1800’s and a tradition.

Many phrases have come into our language as a form of expression such as the following:

Not my cup of tea:  does not prefer, enjoy, or like

A tempest in a teacup: anger over a trivial matter

Tea and sympathy: a picture of offering a cup of tea to someone in need or sympathy

Not for the price of tea in China: not for anything: not for any incentive

Tea party: a wild party

Have you heard of these commonly used idioms or phrases? Many of us have used these indicating that tea is an important part of our culture and lifestyle. I don’t think any of us have to worry about proper etiquette serving tea these days, but there is something about sitting down with a cup of tea either alone or with a friend that is soothing and uplifting.

Come in during this Christmas holiday season to enjoy a cup or two with us. Bring a friend!

 

 

Harbor Tea – Boston Harbor’s Own New House Drink

Tea-Mates! We at Boston Harbor have created a new house drink using matcha green tea and we’re calling it Harbor Tea!

Matcha tea is traditionally, a ceremonial Japanese green tea which is ground into a super fine powder and is whisked with a bamboo whisk to a frothy consistency. This tea is filled with lots of anti-oxidants that help fight against heart disease, blood pressure, and regulates blood sugar.

Our Harbor Tea is an iced cool drink that has matcha layered over a Smoothie, or a blended lemonade. Once it is presented to you, you can stir it together and it is ready to drink!

This drink not only looks fun, but it tastes delicious and has some great benefits to it too. Stop by and try it. Let us know what you think.

Have a great Day everyone!

 

15 Random Facts About Tea

1. Camellia sinensis is the name of the plant that tea is made from and it closely resembles an evergreen shrub.
2. The legend of tea started in 2737 B.C. when tea leaves accidentally fell into the boiling water of Chinese Emperor Shen Nung.
3. There are four main types of tea: White, Green, Oolong, and Black.
4. The oxidation process is how you get the various types of tea. White is the least oxidized, then green, then oolong, then black which is the most oxidized.
5.  There are 2 ways the term tea can be used. Tea is technically the Camellia sinensis infused in hot water, but many people use the term “tea” to describe the drink of herbs and plants infused in hot water.
6. Out of all the tea drinkers in the world, Ireland drinks the most. Britain drinks the second most.
7. Damp tea leaves can be used as a mosquito repellant. Place the damp tea leaves around the area you want mosquito free.
8. Tea is the most consumed beverage in the world next to water.
9. Green tea is great for health and immunity. It’s high in antioxidants, can help reduce some forms of cancer, lower blood pressure, regulate blood sugar, reduce cardiovascular disease, and prevent tooth decay and gum disease.
10. A pound of loose leaf tea can make over 200 cups of tea.
11. Tea is the national drink of Iran and Afghanistan. They use green tea as a thirst quencher and black tea as a warming drink. Both of the beverages have lots of sugar added to them.
12. Using loose leaf tea will offer you more flavor, smell, and benefits compared to using bagged tea which, more often than not uses the “bottom of the barrel” or whats left from the broken tea leaves.
13. Yin Zhen and Silver Needles are highly prized. They come from China and are harvested before they are unfurled, and look like needles.
14. People in the South and Northeastern part of the United States have more tea drinkers than the rest of the U.S.
15. The most expensive tea meal can be found at the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong that costs $8,888 per pair.

These facts were found from the following websites
http://facts.randomhistory.com/tea-facts.html
http://www.tea-garden.eu/interesting.html
https://www.finedininglovers.com/stories/tea-facts/
http://www.notimeliketeatime.com/26-interesting-facts-about-tea/
http://theteaspot.com/loose-tea-vs-tea-bags.html

and
20,000 Secrets of Tea by Victoria Zak
If your interested in buying this book you can click here to purchase it.

What!? Marshmallows made with Marshmallow root?!

Over the 14 years that Boston Harbor has been running in Billings Montana, we’ve had many people come in and tell us that they were going to try to make marshmallows out of marshmallow root. As you know, marshmallow root in one of the main reasons why this shop exists. You can read more about the amazing benefits of marshmallow root from our past blog here https://www.bostonharbormt.com/?p=539. After hearing about these treats being made and knowing how great marshmallow root is, we decided to give it a try ourselves!

There were a couple different recipes that we tried and they both had very different outcomes.

The first recipe that we tried came from the website New Life on a Homestead. The website and recipe can be found here http://newlifeonahomestead.com/how-to-make-marshmallows-from-marshmallow-plant-root-recipe/.

The article gives two recipe options. We went with the one with less sugar and less ingredients. It was a pretty simple recipe.

2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup raw cane sugar
1 tbsp powdered Marshmallow (root)

Whip egg whites until almost stiff. Add vanilla and whip until stiff. Then whip in the sugar, 1 tsp at the time. Finally, add Marshmallow and whip again. Place by teaspoonful on cookie sheet. Bake in 325 oven for 1 hour.

Now when you think marshmallows, you think the white fluffy sweet treats, right? Well with this particular marshmallow recipe, you end up baking the mixture and it makes a meringue in the end. So they turned out to be more like a cookie instead. They tasted good and you could actually taste the marshmallow root in these “marshmallows”. But we didn’t stop there. Just out of curiosity we took that same recipe and instead of making the blobs like we did in the first trial, we poured the mixture into a pan and baked it just to see if doing it this way would make them fluffy. Essentially it turned out the same as the blobs, but the center of the meringue was kind of chewy. The taste was the same. Some actually liked the second trial better than the first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We taste tested these marshmallow marshmallows to a customer of our and she suggested we try another recipe that she found online. That recipe came from http://learningherbs.com/remedies-recipes/how-to-make-marshmallows/ where you can see the full details on how to make these marshmallows. This was the second recipe that we tried.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rose hydrosol
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon marshmallow root powder
1-2 Tablespoons of hibiscus flowers (these make the marshmallows pink!)
1 cup honey
1 packet of unflavored gelatin
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Although this recipe calls for hibiscus flowers, we decided to leave those out and used a full cup of water instead of adding the rose hydrosol (rose water). And we ran out of vanilla extract so we used peppermint extract instead. By the time everything was finished with this recipe, we ended up with the sweet fluffy marshmallows that one would ideally think of. As for the taste, you could definitely taste the peppermint and the honey. The marshmallow root flavor wasn’t as distinct as it was in the first recipe that we tried, but it was still very good and very sticky!! Since we used the peppermint extract in these, we thought they would pair very well with hot chocolate. We also thought about mixing the recipe up a little and trying it with a flavored gelatin of some sort and an extract that might pair well with the gelatin flavor would be fun to try later on. Really you could make them any flavor you wanted to. 

We hope everyone enjoyed reading about our experiment making Marshmallow Marshmallows and if you try it let us know how it went and what do did to yours!

-Lauren