Tea Recipe #1: Berry Tea Smoothie

That's right folks, tea is not just for drinking. You can incorporate tea into your cooking and get even more of the great health benefits throughout your day and your week. Cooking with tea has been going on since drinking tea became popular. If the idea seems too foreign to you, this is a great first recipe to show you how easy incorporating tea can be.

Let's take your typical smoothie. Fruit, yogurt, ice, maybe some flax or granola and some agave nectar, right?  Well, why not use frozen tea ice cubes instead of regular ice? It's simple. Using your favorite green, black, white or herbal tea, brew 1 1/2 cups of tea. Steep as usual then pour into ice cube trays for freezing. Boom.

After your ice is ready, you can use these cubes in any smoothie recipe you'd like. Here is one that we like at the Scented Leaf.

Ingredients:
1-2 packets of Sambazon Unsweetened Acai Puree
3/4 cup frozen mango pieces
1/2 banana
3/4 cup blueberries
3-4 green tea cubes (or any other tea or herbal ice cube)
1/2 cup plain yogurt (or any yogurt of your choice)
1 tsp Agave Nectar (or sweeten to taste)
3/4 cup your favorite granola

In a blender, mix the Acai puree, mango, banana, blueberries, tea ice cubes, yogurt and Agave Nectar until smooth. In a bowl or a cup, pour half of the granola on the bottom, pour in your smoothie, and top with remaining granola and blueberries. Enjoy!