Earl Grey tea » The Red Shaker

Tea-nis for Two~

Apr 292011

As time grows near for Shaker Two to leave Planet LA, we’re revisiting a few of our favorite martinis. Both of us have been craving this one in particular.

The Earl Grey MarTeani:

Earl Grey infused vodka Earl Grey infusion

You’ve seen it here more than once…….a lovely blend of tea infused vodka, lemon, simple syrup, and an egg white for that soft foamy layer on top. All at once soothing and relaxing. Shaker Two wonders if she should consider replacing her English Breakfast Tea with one of these each morning? I say yes, depending on what your day brings.

If you haven’t tried this drink yet, please do so without delay. A five olive masterpiece.

(and for those of you who don’t care to click through the link, quick recipe below:

In a Boston style shaker with ice add: 1 1/2 ozs. Earl Gray Vodka infusion

3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice

1 oz simple syrup

one egg white

Shake vigorously, strain into glass, garnish with a lemon zest or slice. Double for larger martini glass. Now, go click the link for infusion details!)

No scones necessary.

As a homage to our founding fathers

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Jul 042010

Rather then toss tea into the Bay, The Red Shakers opted to revisit an old friend and start our festivities with the Earl Grey MarTEAni. As the whistling and bangs from neighbors lighting off fireworks began, we gathered to celebrate the 234th birthday of declaring our independence.

After a long couple of weeks, a relaxing night was very much welcome. The Shakers combined forces to make a little snacky assortment of French Fries, tri-tip mini-tacos with cumin cream and roasted peppers, macaroni and cheese and roasted corn with jalapeño butter and cockdoggies – a lovely little tapas style dinner.

The Earl Grey MarTEAni did not disappoint second time around, but we also had to add another martini to our roster of recipes, so onto a new recipe:

The Pineapple Drop Martini

This was a tasty concoction that was light and not too overpowering in either sweetness or pineapple. The lime was a nice counter to the natural sugars in the fruit.

The Shakers concur, this one rates 4 olives. A really nice summer drink.

Next on deck is a Shaker One Creation (and people, let me tell you, she has moments of sheer genius)

Spicy Lemon Drop Martini

This zippy, kicky concoction is a huge dose of awesome. The perfect balance of sweet and spicy. Basically, it is a cayenne and lemon simple syrup mixed into a martini. Smiles all around and taste buds overwhelmed with glee.

4 3/4 olives for this one.

Dessert was a spectacularly patriotic duo of red, white and blue dipped strawberries and red, white and blue mousse. Both were festive additions to our little celebration. Kudos to Shaker One (as always) for being so creative with the presentation!

Our evening draws to a close and the fireworks are bursting in air. Happy Independence Day and cheers to you.

Oh, and one more thing.. be gentle with martini glasses when drying… those stems can break when you least expect them. This is when you appreciate that lovely first-aid kit your mom said needed to keep around. 😉

Variation in T(ea) Minor

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Jan 112010

Good evening martini lovers. Shaker One had just enough of the Earl Grey Tea infused vodka left over from the last post to make one more teani. I had the idea to add pomme juice to it….sort of fruit it up a bit. I also decided to forgo the egg white for this one.

Upon pouring this out of the shaker, I noticed a really deep tea color. The pomme juice barely made it’s presence known. After a taste, I understood why. There is a distinct bitterness to the vodka now which was definitely not there when it was freshly infused. Although I filtered the tea leaves out through both a fine mesh filter and a coffee filter (and no sediment was left whatsoever) the tea seems to have continued to steep. It’s less than a week since we made that infusion and the vodka is just about too bitter to drink. I tried to add sweetness with some additional simple syrup, but it’s not an issue of lack of sweetness. The result isn’t terrible (and I do like bitter/strong flavors), but I would not repeat this.

So note to self: When infusing vodka with tea for Teanis, only make as much as you plan on using that day/night. This infusion, unlike many other infusions, does not improve with age. A very good thing to know actually, as Shaker 2 and I have designs on a few more teanis and I would have hated to waste a good bottle of vodka.

There will be more Teanis in our shaking future, but we shall know to freshly infuse the vodka in small batches.

Experimentation is good. Without small failures great successes would not be possible.
Shaker One out.

Mar-tea-nis!

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Jan 062010

Tonight we have high tea- Red Shaker Style. Two tea based martinis to try, something a little different. And what goes with high tea but finger sandwiches!

First up is a plum and green tea martini

(Due to a technical SNAFU, the picture for this one.. and the main shots of the next martini, were lost. grrrrrr) [Shaker 1 again- just imagine plates full of deletable tea time treats]

As Pavilions was out of plums, we substituted a pluot. This martini incorporates green tea and honey simple syrup, citrus vodka, pear vodka and muddled plums. The color is gorgeous. The taste? Shaker Two nailed it: you can’t taste any one of the flavors, but you can taste all of them. Sort of an odd result. Not unpleasant, but neither of us can say we enjoy the flavor.

Overall this gets high marks for looks, but 2 olives for taste.

Moving on to our next Teani:

The Earl Grey Marteani–

This uses vodka infused with earl grey tea, simple syrup and lemon juice, foamed up with an egg white. (Note: the original recipe calls for gin.. but we are vodka girls.. so use whichever you prefer) First impression is an intriguing tea aroma and an unusual color. Both Shaker Two and I tasted with some trepidation. The result? Hello gorgeous! This is a surprisingly delicious drink! You definitely taste the tea, but it’s not overwhelming or bitter. Rather somewhat sweet/somewhat sour from the lemon, an incredibly balanced beverage. We like this one a lot.

4 3/4 olives!!

This one might even hit a 5. The more we taste, the more we love. Seriously people – go out and make this drink.

This also gives us many ideas for more tea infused vodkas and teanis. Brilliant. Now if we could only remember where we found this recipe in the first place. Whoever you are, we love you!

Feeling a bit under the weather? Forget hot tea with lemon and honey, make yourself a teani.
We liked this so much that we made another round to go with our berries and cream, lemon bread and meyer lemon curd. After pouring out the first teani, we were very pleased to enjoy the second so much. Martini success!

Remember, don’t be afraid of martini failure. If you don’t enjoy it, pour it out. There are so many wonderful options. Try again until you find something you love.

Shakers One and Two will close out this mid week tea-ni fest with a Happy New Year to all our tini faithful.