Welcome the freshness of spring with our Green Tea-Infused Spring Salad. This light, refreshing dish perfectly marries the healthful benefits of green tea with the crisp, vibrant flavors of the season. Ideal for a wholesome lunch or a delightful side, this salad not only tantalizes your taste buds but also infuses your day with an extra dose of antioxidants. Let's dive into the flavors of spring with a tea-inspired twist.

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• For the Salad:

  • 4 cups mixed spring greens (arugula, spinach, and romaine)
  • 1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
  • 1/2 cup cucumber, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
  • 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

• For the Green Tea Vinaigrette:

  • 1/4 cup brewed green tea, cooled
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Brew the Green Tea:
   Start by brewing the green tea. Steep 1 tablespoon of loose-leaf green tea in 1/4 cup of hot water for about 3 minutes. Strain and allow the tea to cool completely.

2. Prepare the Vinaigrette:
   In a small bowl, whisk together the cooled green tea, honey, and apple cider vinegar. Gradually whisk in the olive oil until the mixture is well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. Assemble the Salad:
   In a large salad bowl, combine the mixed spring greens, sliced strawberries, cucumber, and red onion. Toss gently to mix.

4. Dress the Salad:
   Drizzle the green tea vinaigrette over the salad, tossing until the ingredients are evenly coated.

5. Garnish and Serve:
   Sprinkle the crumbled feta cheese and chopped walnuts over the top of the salad. Serve immediately, offering extra vinaigrette on the side if desired.

This Green Tea-Infused Spring Salad pairs beautifully with a variety of teas. Consider serving it alongside a cold brew jasmine tea for a floral complement, or a light oolong tea for a slightly toasty contrast. The natural flavors of the salad will be enhanced by the tea, creating a symphony of springtime delight on your palate.

Welcome the freshness of spring and the joy of Easter with our Lemon Earl Grey Cake. Infused with the citrusy notes of lemon and the distinctive flavor of Earl Grey tea, this cake is a celebration in every slice. Perfect for an Easter gathering or a cozy tea time, it pairs beautifully with our range of teas, enhancing each bite with subtle, comforting flavors.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (240ml) milk
• 4 Earl Grey tea bags
• 1 ¾ cups (220g) all-purpose flour
• 2 ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• For the Glaze:
  • 1 cup (120g) powdered sugar
  • 2-3 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Preheat and Prepare:
   Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour an 8-inch round cake pan.

2. Infuse the Milk:
   Warm the milk without boiling it, then steep the Earl Grey tea bags in the milk for 15 minutes. Squeeze the tea bags to extract maximum flavor and discard them.

3. Mix Dry Ingredients:
   In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Cream Butter and Sugar:
   In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the lemon zest and lemon juice.

5. Combine:
   Alternately add the dry ingredients and the infused milk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

6. Bake:
   Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

7. Glaze:
   Whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice to create a smooth glaze. Adjust the consistency with more lemon juice or powdered sugar if needed. Drizzle over the cooled cake.

8. Serve and Enjoy:
   Serve slices of this Lemon Earl Grey Cake with a pot of your favorite tea. The zesty flavors will complement any tea selection, making it a perfect dessert for Easter or any springtime gathering.

Spring is here, and with it comes the joy of Easter! As the days lengthen and flowers begin to bloom, it's the perfect time to gather with loved ones and celebrate new beginnings. At Mrs Doyle's Tea, we believe there's no better way to warm your heart and home this Easter than with a steaming cup of delicious tea.

A Tea for Every Easter Tastebud

This year, we've brewed up a delightful selection of special Easter tea blends to tantalize your taste buds. Whether you're a fan of fragrant floral teas reminiscent of spring's fresh blooms, or prefer something more decadent like our chocolatey treats blends, we have a tea that's sure to become an Easter favorite.

The Perfect Easter Gift

Looking for a unique and thoughtful Easter gift? Look no further than Mrs Doyle's Tea! We've curated beautiful Easter gift baskets filled with our finest loose leaf teas and delightful treats. It's a gift that's sure to impress any tea lover.

 

Make it a Mrs Doyle's Easter

This Easter, create lasting memories with friends and family over a steaming cup of tea from Mrs Doyle's. visit our store to discover the perfect tea and treats for your Easter celebration.

Wishing you a joyous and hoppy Easter from all of us at Mrs Doyle's Tea!

Belleek Classic Shamrock Mrs Doyle Mug

Belleek has partnered with the Mrs Doyle's Tea to bring everyone two great branded Mrs Doyle's Belleek Mugs, in the fantastic classic Belleek style !

We think it's time that we all came together and enjoyed the Best Tea on the Island from a beautiful Belleek mug!  

These two great mugs are a modern take on the Belleek iconic Shamrock tableware and they are just perfect for Irish Christmas gifts and new years gifts.

 First the large contemporary mug shape which features a ring of embossed shamrocks and the famous Mrs Doyle logo.

It's really functional and durable, this will make a lovely gift and comes packaged in the classic Belleek green gift box.

•  Unique Gift , Made in Ireland , Measures: 11.4 cmD x 9.2 cmH

 

Our second Mug is Mrs Doyle's Tall tea Belleek Mug , and it is totally the best way to drink the best tea on the Island ! So Go On go...

• Made In Ireland, Hand painted, Measures 11cmW x 11.5cmH x 325ml/12flozC

 

Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas cakes are made in lots of different ways, all with lots of love and in general they are variations on the old fashioned fruitcake. They are very tasty, and they can be light, dark, a little moist, a little dry, sometimes heavy, and even sometimes spongy . Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas cakes are made in many different shapes, sometimes with a little with frosting, or a dusting of icing sugar and of course they can be as simple and plain as you like .

So what are the special ingredients and what do they represent? well the  dried fruits in the cake may represent the fantastic eastern spices which the three Wise Men brought to the newborn King! And remember just to make things a little more interesting the fruits are sometimes soaked overnight in Irish whiskey.

 

So what are the ingredients of Mrs Doyle's Christmas  cakes ? ok here it comes , now remember , this cake only tastes great if you enjoy it with friends and family and a nice cup of decent Irish tea for everyone  !

 

My Christmas Cake Ingredients:

100ml  Irish whiskey

quarter of table spoon of ground clove

50g ground almonds

grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange

150g  raisins

125g  stoned dates

quarter of a block of real Irish butter

125g sultanas

100g glace cherries

extra butter for greasing

200g soft brown sugar

4 eggs

grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange

2 table spoons of black treacle 

225g  plain flour

half a table spoon of salt

1 rounded table spoon of baking powder

1 table spoon of  mixed spice

quarter of teaspoon of  grated nutmeg

 grated nutmeg and a little few teaspoons of Irish whiskey 

 

My Method:

        You should Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F), around Gas mark.

Now grease a 20cm cake tin and then line it with greaseproof paper. Next wrap some newspaper around the outside of your cake tin with string. This should  help the outside of the cake from going too brown during the cooking and so help it from  drying out.

Now it's time to beat together in a big bowl all that lovely  sugar & butter until its all very creamy. Next  add the eggs, add a little  flour in with each egg, and some treacle and perhaps a few grated fruit rinds and make sure you mix all  for a few minutes.

it's time to stir the flour and baking powder into the bowl of all these lovely soaked fruits and add some salt, some  spices and a few almonds, again stir all of these great ingredients together and mix well.

Now fold the fruit mix into the amazing egg mix, stir it all evenly. Now spoon the mix into the big cake tin, and maybe pull a little bit back in the middle of the cake , this will help as it rises, it will level itself off perfectly.

So Bake in the oven for 3 hours. If it is browning a lot , then cover it loosely with some tin foil. Now cook for another 30 minutes. You will know the cake is ready if you insert a fine skewer into the middle of the cake , and it  comes out clean and really dry.

Now it's time to leave the cake to cool in the tin. 

When the cake is cool, you can remove it from the tin, take off the lining paper, and  wrap it first in clean greaseproof paper and then in tinfoil.

Here is the secret!  do all this in November and each week leading up to Christmas, pour another little bit of your favourite drink over it. This will help the  alcohol to penetrate to the Christmas cake and will make it taste so Irish Go On Go!

here's a hint for the perfect Irish gift to send to some one you love or may be a self gift ? yes go on try a Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas breakfast hamper for everyone to enjoy with your Christmas cake , you can check out just how good Mrs Doyle's tea is vs Barry's ! no competition at all ! 

If you want to live a long life and a healthy life—it's very much a matter of what you eat and drink. So next time you are shopping in the supermarket or health store check out their loose leaf teas and herbal infusions or if they don't stock loose leaf tea then simply go online, infect most high end foods these days can be shipped to you by next day delivery, including loose leaf teas. .

 

What are the best foods for longevity for people who live in Britain and Ireland ?

Our climate can be difficult in winter but all the natural ingredients that we need for a healthy life do grow in these islands, it is just a matter of knowing how to use them. So what are the life boosting foods we should all be using .

BERRIES FOR LIFE 

Yes berries are natures secrete weapon to help keep us healthy, in the UK and Ireland we  are not part of the Blue Zone of countries where people commonly reach their 90's but we do have the most amazing variety of berries growing everywhere and sure today we can pick them up in the supper market and buy a pack of frozen berries, i love blueberries but what ever your tastes are go for it.. Also beans , leafy greens are all linked to giving you extra years to your life. So  what are the best types of drink to help us live a long life ? 

For a long time they said red wine in moderation could be beneficial but new research seems to indicate that even small amounts of any alcoholic beverage is not really that good for you ! To day almost all research indicates that the best drink for longevity is actually green tea. Tea is a super beverage that has potent phenolic compounds which can help fight cancer and protect our cardiovascular system. Green tea is by far the winner for healthy drinks, it is  rich in catechins, which are some of the most powerful disease-fighting phytonutrients we can find anywhere on the plant kingdom.

So green tea protects against cancer and helps your heart stay healthy and also very importantly it can help you sleep better. The studies undertaken around the world seems to indicate that  drinking green tea on a regular basis is directly linked to living a long and  healthy life. 

There was a 2018 study which found that regular tea drinkers have a reduced risk in age-related decreases of high-density lipoprotein , that is in ordinary English it helps with "good" cholesterol"! .Green and black tea are helpful with green tea having a slightly stronger effect than black tea. It has also been found that Green tea’s EGCGs , which is a type of good for you catechin, which is particularly prevalent in the tea and this may help inhibit tumor growth.

Green tea is also good for your gut health as within your gut there are beneficial gut bugs, these feed on foods rich in polyphenols, which include green tea. One of these beneficial gut bugs is called akkermansia muciniphila and it is this bug that supports the protective mucus layer that prevents a leaky gut , it basically keeps the gut lining strong. It has been found that low levels of this critical bacteria have been linked to diabetes, obesity,  autoimmune disease, cancer, and  heart disease.

It also seems that green tea is good for the brain, this is because of green tea has caffeine and catechins, and it is these Catechins that can help protect your body from free radicals, so protecting both your brain and the rest of your system.

So green tea is definitely a supper food and most definitely the winner, it is the best beverage to help you live a long and healthy life. 

So how much green tea should you drink? we think two cups a day is perfect !

 

What if you don't like the taste of green tea ?

That is not a problem , because high end tea companies have expert blenders who add little touches of taste like vanilla which is actually our most loved , yes green tea vanilla is the most healthiest breakfast tea. Also green tea is blended with many really good ingredients like mint, check out our Mr Doyle's chillout tea , it is probably the best minty tea in the world and also you can have green tea with rose petals like our Emperors Seven Secrets tea or try a green tea blended with white tea .

The overall message is that green tea is really good for you and so we would say check out the many tastes of green tea and the many blends of green tea with other herbal infusions so that you can taste the best and most healthy drinks in the world , Go On Go.

 

IRISH HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS

It’s interesting to learn that many of the traditions that we all think of as part of American Halloween  have their roots in Irish Halloween traditions. So how did  holloween become part of American culture ? well Irish immigrants to the US brought these fantastic traditions to America, and so an Irish tradition became part of the mainstream of American culture! 

The famous Trick or treating originally  comes when poor Irish children who went door to door to request money and food.  The children would sing prayers and  in reward they would get soul cake which is a kind of bread with lots of  fruits. Turnip  Lanterns were also very  famous in Irish Halloween tradition.  These lanterns were carved from turnips or even  large potatoes.

 

SLICE OF BARMBRACK TELLS YOUR FORTUNE

• The best tea for vegans and those drinking less milk 

Mrs Doyle's Irish breakfast tea is the winner of the best Irish breakfast tea on the island for the last 5 years and is so smooth that it tastes as good without milk as it does with Milk .

Mrs Doyle says its because of the finest teas and her secrete method of blending teas . There are other types of teas that work great without milk so here's Mrs Doyle's list    

• Oolong tea is a perfect tea any time of day
• White tea gives a great choice
• Yellow tea for those of us with an even milder taste
• Green tea is perhaps the best for a healthy option
• Try Ripe Pu’erh for a darker richer choice
• Earl grey is great for the zesty option
• Fruit teas will always  be  great in on a sunny day
• looking for something different try Rooibos tea 
• in the evening try Chamomile