Skin treatments done with Tea

Green tea sugar scrub

I am a big fan of green tea and I know all about its benefits for our body. To list only a few of them: weight loss, detox your body, treats headaches and it is good for your general oral hygiene. I have substituted the coffee from the coffee scrub with green tea for a long time and my skin looks even better! I also feel better using green tea as I know it has a lot more natural health benefits than coffee.
This green tea sugar scrub has so many benefits for your skin so I strongly recommend to try this simple and effective scrub.
Made with only 3 ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup of Suger (in my opinion brown coarse sugar)
• 2tsp Green Tea Powder
• 2 Green tea bags
• 1 cup Coconut Oil

You can use this as part of the anti-cellulite process we outlined in an earlier post as all scrubs can help minimise the appearence of cellulite and it also may be a lot less cheaper to make as these ingredients are always available for cheap in supermarkets and are normally always stocked in our kitchens!

Homemade Tea Remedies

1. Burns:  Tea can be very useful as a remedy for mild burns on the skin. The tannic acid present in tea helps in drawing heat from a burn. Just put 2 to 3 tea bags under a spout of cold water and the tea should be collected in a small bowl. Dab this liquid on the site of burns.

2. Shiny Hair:  Brewed tea happens to be a good conditioner, especially for dry hair! You may rinse your hair with tea and then wash your hair with plain water.

3. Dark circles under your eyes: All of us have some time or the other have suffered from dark under eyes and since the area around the eyes are very sensitive; everything we apply on the face cannot be applied under the eyes. Therefore we should always go for something mild and that is a tea bag.

4. Foot odour: Soak your feet in strong tea for around 20 minutes every day, not only is it relaxing but it also helps to reduce the foot odour.

5. Mouthwash and toothaches: Peppermint tea is a good remedy for toothaches, pain and it also a good mouthwash. Simply rinse antiseptic peppermint tea with a little salt. This will take care of the bacteria affecting the mouth.

6. Beautiful skin: Last but not the least if you wish to have beautiful skin then go for a full bath in green tea, this will boost the skin and make it beautiful.

Recipes made using Tea

Earl Grey Ice Cream with Blackberry Swirl


Makes 1 quart

• 1 1/2ounces cream cheese
• 1/8teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 2cups 2% milk
• 1 1/4cups heavy cream
• 1/2cup sugar
• 1 1/2tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2tablespoons loose earl grey tea leaves (Rishi or same quality)
• 1tablespoon plain vodka
• 1tablespoon seedless blackberry jam

1. Prep three bowls, a small, medium and a large one. Place cream cheese and salt into the medium bowl, mash with a fork, and set aside. In the small bowl, mix the cornstarch and 2 tbsp of the milk. Set this slightly thickened paste aside.
2. In a large pot, add the rest of the milk and cream with the corn syrup and sugar. Bring to a boil over a medium heat. On a simmer, continue stirring for about 4 minutes and no more. Remove the pot from heat, stir in the cornstarch mixture and bring this back to a boil for an additional minute, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens slightly. Add in your loose tea leaves to the hot mixture and let steep for 5 minutes. You might be tempted to place the leaves in a cheesecloth, but placing them in directly will infuse the ice cream really well (you'll be straining this later anyway).
3. Add a small amount of the boiled milk to the cream cheese, whisking well to incorporate and break up any cream cheese lumps. Once the cream cheese has smoothed out, add the rest of the boiled milk.
4. Cool the ice cream completely over an ice bath set in the large bowl. Refrigerate the covered cooled mixture for at least 4 hours or overnight. While you might be impatient to just put the ice cream into the machine right away, chilling it completely will keep the ice cream from crystallizing (that weird chalky texture) while it's churning in the machine.
5. Using a fine mesh strainer, pour the liquid through the strainer, pressing on the tea leaves to get all the ice cream out. Any cream cheese or solids that haven't been blended well will remain out and help make your ice cream smooth and creamy. Stir in the vodka to the liquid ice cream before pouring into your ice cream maker. Follow your ice cream manufacturer's instructions for the length of time, but it usually will take 20-30 minutes for the ice cream to start coming together.
6. Line a glass container (eg: Pyrex) that comes with its own lid using saran wrap (long enough to cover, too) and place a layer of ice cream, drizzle some of the blackberry jam in thin streaks. Put in more ice cream and continue layering in the blackberry swirls. Cover the ice cream with the hanging saran again before placing the top on. Once you're ready to serve the ice cream, let it soften at room temperature for about 2 minutes. You'll know "it's ready" when you can scoop easily. Scoop the ice cream from the perpendicular direction of your blackberry streaks, to create a swirly effect in your scoop.

Green Tea Donuts Recipe

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Serves: Makes 6 donuts

Ingredients

• ¾ cup (95 g) cake flour (or make your own - see below)
• 2 Tbsp. (25 g) sugar
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. (6 g) green tea powder (matcha)
• 1 large egg, beaten
• ⅓ cup (80 ml) milk
• 2 Tbsp. (35 g) butter, melted
• 1 Tbsp. honey

For the Chocolate Glaze

• ¼ cup chocolate chips (I use semi sweet chocolate chips, but white chocolate goes well too!)
• Sprinkles of your choice

 

Earl Grey cupcakes

 

Here’s the recipe – it makes 10-12…

Ingredients

• 175g unsalted butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 200g self raising flour
• 3 medium free range eggs
• 125ml whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1  good quality Earl Grey teabag (we used a We Are Tea Earl Grey Supreme teabag)

You’ll also need:

• Silicone teacup cake cases, or
• 12 muffin cases and a muffin tray

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan assisted)
2. Heat the milk in a mug in the microwave until it’s hand hot
3. Open the tea bag and tip into the milk, stir and set aside
4. Cube and warm the butter, then warm in the microwave in 5-10 second blasts until it’s all very soft and just starting to melt
5. Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy
6. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the flour and baking powder
7. When the milk is room temp, tip it into the batter, along with all the tea leaves
8. Divide the batter evenly between the cases (I only had 4 so cooked them in batches, filling to about 1cm from the top
9. Bake for 30 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

Cran-Berry Green-Tea Smoothie

Ingredients

1/2 cup frozen cranberries

1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen blackberries
5 frozen whole strawberries
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup brewed green tea, cooled to room temperature
1/4 cup plain soy milk
2 tablespoons honey or packed light brown sugar

Preparation

In a blender, whirl all ingredients until smooth.
Note: Nutritional analysis is per 2-cup serving

All about Tea

First and for most I LOVE TEA!!
I drink tea all the time, all day long. It just warms me from the inside out and cold night and it's always good with a book. I don't just buy my tea at any location, I buy it at Teavana. I first came across this store in Pickering Ontario and fell in love with all the different types of teas they have. My personal favourites are Spiced Apple Cider and Dragonfruit. I've just ordered Matcha Japanese Tea, Pomegranate Cranberry Crush Herbal Tea and a Purple Morgan Stainless Steel Tea Tumbler. Did I mention I got a free sample of Maharaja/Samurai Chai Blend with Rock Sugar. Now if you haven't tried tea from Teavana yet, Please let me tell you it's AMAZING! I shop in store when I can (I live 2 hours from a store) and shop online the rest of the time. I don't even have to leave my house, that is the best part!!

There are plenty of benefits from drinking tea, 1. Drinking tea strengthens your immune system and with it being cold and flu season, this will help a lot. 2. Tea builds stronger bones, tea contains vitamin D which helps build bones. 3. Protects your heart, the antioxidant in green tea, EGCg, speeds up the recovery of heart cells. 4. Eliminate body fat, antioxidants called catechins are highest in green tea and found in low doses in black tea. Just to name a few things.

The difference between Green and Black teas
Black tea is the most processed of all the teas and has undergone an intense crushing and fermentation process. Green Tea is a lightly processed tea that is not fermented at all. The leaf is either baked, roasted, sun dried or steamed after harvesting to stop the fermentation process.

White tea
White tea leaves are the least processed and are picked and harvested while the leaf is still in bud form.

Herbal tea
If opting for an herbal tea, there are a variety to choose from these days such a mint, berry options, peach, orange, lemon, vanilla and even chocolate!

Some other teas
• Ginger tea – aiding with nausea
• Mint tea – optimizing digestion and settling stomach upset
• Berry teas – helpful in curbing night time cravings

Go and enjoy a nice hot cup of tea :)
thanks for reading