I love coffee and tea equally! Some mornings I wake up with a strong urge for either coffee or tea. But there are times when it’s just not that obvious a choice. So how do I choose the right option?
Is coffee the obvious choice for the morning, and tea for the rest of the day? What about a sleepy afternoon with boring meetings? What’s the latest time I could drink coffee suffering insomnia?
Tea does have caffeine but not quite as much as coffee has. Good quality tea also has a calming agent called L-Theanine that makes it a bit safer as an afternoon or evening drink. But these are discussions for another day, here I want to share how to get the best of both elixirs and make it taste good too! A drink I would only recommend when the need for a caffeine boost trumps all else.
This is the ultimate coffee-meets-tea recipe, containing both tea and coffee for a double energy boost. What you need is a syrup made of black tea, steamed milk, finely ground black coffee and lots of fluffy foam.
DIY Black Tea Syrup
Chose the black tea you enjoy the most. Use two teaspoons of loose leaf black tea, steep it for five minutes in 130 ml (1/2 cup) of boiling water. Strain the tea into a small pan and add four big spoons of honey. Simmer on low and stir until dissolved. Take off the heat and let it cool down abit. You can store unused portion in a fridge for later use.
Black coffee – Stovetop Saucepan Method
Prepare black coffee but don’t add any sugar into it. The tea syrup is sweet enough already. Finely grind your coffee beans. Use 100-200 ml of water, bring it to a boil and remove from heat. Then, add one-to-three heaping teaspoons of ground coffee, place the pot over the heat again, then remove it when the coffee starts boiling. Repeat the procedure three times, until all the coffee foam is gone. Let it settle down a bit.
Steamed milk
Use a hand shaker (like a protein or cocktail shaker), add 150 ml of milk and shake well. Then pour it into a big cup and microwave for about 45 seconds.
Pour about 1 tablespoon tea syrup into the cup. Pour milk (note: ideally you will use equal amounts of milk and coffee, but feel free to adjust the proportions to taste) leaving room for the coffee. Pour the same amount of black coffee and add a bit of foam on the top. Depending on the tea type you used, sprinkle with cocoa or cinnamon.
Hate milk? Lactose intolerant??
No problem. Simply replace dairy milk with an alternative of your choice or omit milk altogether and enjoy it straight up.
Let me know what you think.
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