Little Woods Blog

Category: Recipes

  • Honey Rosemary Lemonade

    Honey Rosemary Lemonade

    Whether you’re hitting the gym hard or unwinding by the pool, sometimes you need a boost that doesn’t come from caffeine. We’re thrilled to share our most popular drink from last month at the tea bar with you! Now, you can make it at home and enjoy it whenever you’re craving a refreshing pick-me-up.

    There’s actually three parts to this recipe:

    1. The Honey Lemon Syrup
    2. The Crush It! Tisane Concentrate
    3. Mixing it all together

    Let’s get started. First the syrup.

    1. Making the Honey Lemon Syrup

    • 1/4 cup Honey
    • 1/2 cup Lemon Juice
    • 1 T. Water

    Directions: Mix all the ingredients together until the honey and lemon juice is well combined. Store in the fridge for up to 7 days.

    2. Making the Crush IT! Concentrate

    • 1oz Crush IT tisane
    • 1 quart boiling water
    • quart mason jar (optional – just a convenient size)

    Directions: Steep the Crush IT for 10 minutes. Strain into the jar and fill the rest of the way with ice until you have a quart again and store in fridge for up to one week. Follow our Iced tea by the cup recipe to make a single cup worth at a time.

    3. Making the Honey Rosemary Lemonade

    Ingredients

    • 1/2 cup Crush it Concentrate
    • 1/2 cup Cold Water
    • 1oz Honey Lemon Syrup

    Directions: Put into a pint mason jar full of ice, cover with lid, shake, pour into your favorite cup or enjoy right from the jar!

  • Strawberry Matcha Latte

    Strawberry Matcha Latte

    Hey there, tea lovers! We have some exciting news to share. Our iced strawberry matcha latte, once a limited-time special, was such a hit that we’ve decided to give it a permanent spot on our blog. This vibrant drink combines the best of both worlds with its sweet, tangy strawberry flavor and smooth, earthy matcha finish. We’re so happy you loved it as much as we do, and now you can make it at home anytime you crave a delicious pick-me-up!

    Make the Strawberry Matcha Latte

    Ingredients

    • 1/2 t. – 1 t. (2-4g) Café Grade Matcha
    • 3 oz. (90g) Cool Water
    • 1 c. (110g) Milk of Choice
    • 1 1/2 oz. (48g) Strawberry purée (recipe below)
    • 1 c. Ice

    Directions

    1. Add the matcha to a bowl with the cold water and whisk.
    2. In a 16 oz glass, pour in 1 1/2 oz. (48g) Strawberry purée.
    3. Add Ice.
    4. Slowly pour in milk.
    5. layer the matcha by pouring slowly over the top.

    Make the Strawberry Purée

    • 1/3 Cup Sugar
    • 1/3 Cup Strawberries
    • 1/3 Cup Water

    Put in Blender and process until smooth.

    We hope you enjoy making and sipping on our iced strawberry matcha latte as much as we do. If you’re looking for more delicious and unique beverage recipes, be sure to explore our blog’s recipe category. From classic favorites to innovative new drinks, there’s something for everyone. Happy brewing!

  • Recipe: Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Iced Tea)

    Recipe: Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Iced Tea)

    Happy Cinco de Mayo! Food, festivals, and family fill this Mexican/ Mexican-American holiday! Bring a taste of this joyful celebration into your home this year with Spiced Hibiscus Iced Tea – a classic drink served in Mexican taquerias! It’s a great mocktail option to serve along side your favorite margarita!

    Here at Little Woods we mix up a special batch the week of Cinco de Mayo as our featured drink until it runs out — which is usually pretty quickly! First made based on a Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Iced Tea) recipe over at Simply Recipes, we’ve adapted it over the years for our own tastes and tea bar service. Below is our own variation:

    Little Woods’ Agua de Jamaica Adaptation

    4 cups water
    1 cup dried hibiscus flowers whole (cut would work also)
    3/4 cup sugar
    2 x 2.75in cinnamon sticks
    1t. dried ginger root c/s
    1t. whole allspice berries
    1/4t. whole cloves

    1. Add spices and sugar to water and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
    2. Remove from heat and add hibiscus flowers. Let steep for 20 minutes.
    3. Strain into a pitcher.
    4. Top with 4 cups cold water. 

    For a sparkling twist, keep as a concentrate and add 1 part concentrate, 1 part carbonated water to a glass when serving.

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    Enjoy!

    – Little Woods –

  • Guacamole Recipe(s) – Debuting our newest blend!

    Guacamole Recipe(s) – Debuting our newest blend!

    Simple or complex, guacamole is always good. And now, you can dash in some of our guacamole spice blend and elevate it to the irresistible status it deserves. Beware. I literally couldn’t stop eating it.

    Inspired by a friend who insisted this was a must make blend, I did a little research, spent too much time looking for a source for the elusive mexican oregano (finally found it and am happy to say we’ve added it to our catalog), a lot of taste testing (nom nom nom), and voila. A new blend was born!

    What’s in it? Well, no fillers, additives, preservatives, dyes, or etc. In fact we left the salt out too so you can determine your own saltiness to taste.

    Ingredients: garlic, onion, cumin, black pepper, cayenne, Mexican oregano

    Now, Guacamole. The whole point of the blend. Here’s how we’ve made ours, but you can add it to any guacamole recipe you like. I’m going to give you some options too. Simple and classic or complex and gourmet!

    Classic Guacamole Recipe

    Mix it all together and enjoy with tortillas.

    Keep scrolling for EVEN better guacamole.

    Gourmet Guacamole Recipe

    Now, of course classic guac is DELISH. But I really like it even more when it’s filled with some other veg. Like tomatoes, cilantro, and onions, mmmm. Yum!

    My favorite way to “dice” an avocado so it’s easy to mash up for guacamole.
    1. Split your avocado in half, cut in half, remove the pit. Now here is the trick, score it, then use a spoon to scoop it out into a bowl.

    2. Dice up the cilantro, onions, tomatoes, and toss it all in the bowl.

    3. Sprinkle the salt right over the tomatoes and onions.

    4. Squeeze the lime (and/or lemon) over it all.

    5. Use a fork to mash it all together, but not too much.

    Dip those chips and enjoy!

    Until Next Time!
    Kristin M Roach

  • Recipe: Herbaceous Baked Eggs

    Recipe: Herbaceous Baked Eggs

    This one is so lovingly easy I thought I would just show you in photo essay format. About 2 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of roasting in the oven or toaster oven. It’s become my absolute favorite egg recipe when I have a half hour to make breakfast.

    Ingredient breakdown:

    • 2 eggs
    • 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh herbs or 1 teaspoon dried herbs like chives and thyme
    • Salt and pepper to taste or for a little kick, Hunter Spice or Berbere.
    • 1-2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
    • Bonus add on: Canadian Bacon
    • Bonus add on: cheese like feta or parm on top

    Bake it all at 325F for 15 – 20 minutes until it puffs up

    Tip: if using dried herbs, put them in a little bowl with a splash of hot water to rehydrate them first.

    And that’s it. Enjoy!

    Kristin

  • Lunar New Year Tea Recipe

    Lunar New Year Tea Recipe

    This year, we wanted to share with you a fun way to incorporate tea in your Lunar New Year celebration.

    While not a tradition Jason or I grew up with, it’s one we now love. On New Year’s Day, the kids make the tea and serve it to the adults. And not just any tea, a sweetened fruit tea.

    What is this sweet fruit tea you ask? Well, it’s lovingly simple – candied fruits chopped up and mixed with tea and cane sugar.

    We’ve put our own twist on it and tossed it with jasmine too. Here’s how to make your own sweet Lunar New Year tea.

    Ingredients

    Watch the videos for some extra blending tips as I chat with our staff about mixing up this fun sweet tea.

    Blending the Tea

    1. Take each strip of candied mango and dice into 1/4 inch pieces or smaller. If it’s sticking to your knife, sprinkle with granulated sugar – the sugar will stick to the sticky parts and make it easier to cut.

    2. Toss the green tea and mango together, add in and gently crush the jasmine blossoms.

    3. Keep mixing until you have a fairly even distribution.

    Brewing the Tea

    1. Bring your kettle up to 185 F.
    2. Add 1 heaping teaspoon to your infuser and place in a cup.
    3. Pour water over leaves and let steep 3-4 minutes.
    4. Remove infuser and enjoy!
    Fini!

    Until next time!

  • Drink Feature: Rendezvous Tea Latte

    Drink Feature: Rendezvous Tea Latte

    What do you get when you mix our Twilight black tea, frothy milk, and a gourmet rose syrup? A rendezvous with pure delight!

    You can stop by the shop during the month of Febrauary to enjoy this decidant treat. Okay, okay, we know not all of you can make it to downtown Ames. Do not dispare, this is how you can enjoy it at home any time of the year!

    Ingredients

    Directions

    1. Bring your kettle up to a boil and steep 1T of Twlight in 4oz of water (about a 1/2 cup).
    2. In a small sauce pan, warm up 1 cup milk over medium-low heat.
    3. Once it the milk starts to steam, whisk. Make sure to not let it boil.
    4. The tea should be ready, strain the leaves or pull out your infuser.
    5. Add 1t – 1T Rose Syrup to tea and pour in milk.
    6. Dust with the crushed rose for added decidance.
    Brianna making our rose simple syrup – want to make your own, get the kit here.

    Our Botanical Syrup Gift Box it makes for a great gift any time of year – it has our three favorite ingredients for making simple syrups: Rose, Hibiscus, and Cardamom (a key feature of our Chai Tea Latte).

    Already know how to make simple syrup and just need the rose? Grab it from our bulk section by the ounce to the pound.

    Until Next Time!

  • Recipe: Spiced Mulled Cider

    Recipe: Spiced Mulled Cider

    Every autumn I look forward to a drink that is second only to tea: Spiced Cider! And living in Iowa we have quite a few apple orchards that sell their own delish locally grown apple cider so I have ample supply. There may be a few gallons that even make their way into my deep freeze to take out well past apple season.

    Since I was a kid I’ve loved it steamy and spiced. So after we opened the shop it only took one apple picking season for me to get on formulated my own special blend of herbalism inspired mulling spices.

    Spiced Cider by the Cup

    1. Put apple cider and mulling spice (loose if you have a strainer, or in an infuser if that is your preference) into a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer.
    2. Let steep 5-10 minutes, for a stronger spiced flavor, simmer for 5 minutes.
    3. Strain into cup through a culinary strainer, or if you used an infuser to hold the spices, remove T-sac and pour into cup.
    4. Add a garnish of a cinnamon stick and/or a slice of apple.

    By the gallon: 1/2oz per 1 gallon of cider. Use a laddle to serve.

  • Refreshing Summer Tea Blends

    Refreshing Summer Tea Blends

    There is nothing quite like iced tea to refresh your body during the hottest of summer months. But don’t let yourself be limited to just tea. We’ve found many botanicals that are naturally caffeine free, delicious, and can be enjoyed as iced tea or made into a simple syrup and served like an italian soda.

    icedtea-pour

    When thinking about what makes a good iced brew, think about tart and refreshing flavors – like lemonade. We love our Bright Eyes collection of teas for just that reason. You can get it with Black Tea, Yerba Mate, or as just the straight Herbal Blend.  Cerise Citron is our Coffee Cherry Tea Lemongrass Blend. Lemongrass just by itself is also one of my favorite summer drinks. Sometimes simple is the perfect thing.

    Straight Hibiscus makes an amazing cold brew beverage and the color is a complete show stopper. There are several restaurants in town that have been using our hibiscus to make a simple syrup for cocktails and mocktails. An excellent idea that opens up a ton of options. Don’t be afraid to use tea blends for a simple syrup. Many delish cocktails have been made with our Namaste blend.

    icedtea-ontray-withplant

    Mint tea is another summer classic. Mint is fun because if I drink it hot, it will actually make me sweat, but served ice, I’m instantly cold as a cucumber. Which brings another great point. Adding slices of cucumber, lemon, or sprigs of basil or mints from the garden can bring another wonderful diamention to your summer drink selection.

    I love our Eloise Mint or Moroccan Mint Green Tea with a sprig of chocolate mint in it. It’s a fun variety I grow every year in my garden here in Iowa.

    For all our summer tea and botancial brew favorites, visit our online store. We ship quick, daily, and shipping is free for any order over $50.

    Not sure how to make iced tea out of loose leaf tea? Download our printable that shows you all the tips and tricks we’ve come up with serving iced tea at the tea bar.

    icedtea-cupgallon-web

    Until Next Time!
    Kristin M Roach

  • Experimenting with Coffee Cherry Tea

    Experimenting with Coffee Cherry Tea

    coffee_cherry_tea-icedtea06hi

    Since it arrived, everyone in the shop has been dreaming up new ways to use Coffee Cherry Tea. Of course all the usual tea steeping ways. Iced tea with an elder flower syrup is phenomenal and definitely a favorite.

    Coffee Cherry Iced Tea

    • 7g coffee cherry tea (heaping teaspoon)
    • 4oz just boiled water
    • Steep 5 minutes
    • Strain into mason jar filled with ice and shake
    • Pour over ice
    • shot of botanical syrup (optional)

    Then Jason went and made it into a syrup. Whole. New. World.

    coffee_cherry_tea-italian_soda02web

    At the shop we have an old timey spritzer bottle, so making Italian Sodas and Creamosas was an easy first step.

    coffee_cherry_italiansoda08web

    One of the fun things about Ames is the ISU Surplus Sale — where you can pick up all kinds of old lab equipment. We love using them to measure for our drinks and quantify our blends.

    Coffee Cherry Tea Italian Soda (Creamosa)

    coffee_cherry_tea-steamer02web

    Making the coffee cherry tea into a syrup also lead to a most delicious steamer — milk and syrup steamed together.

    Coffee Cherry Tea Steamer

    1. 1oz shot of coffee cherry tea simple syrup
    2. 8oz milk
    3. Put together in pitcher, steam, dash of cardamon powder

    coffee_cherry_tea-espresso01web

    And then someone was like – let’s pull shots!

    Coffee Cherry Tea Espresso Shot

    • 10g coffee cherry tea, tea cut
    • Red Espresso restricted flow porta filter
    • 30 sec pre-infusion

    So now, the entirety of our TeaEspresso menu that we developed with RedEspresso and yerba mate can be used with Coffee Cherry Tea. I over packed the porta filter, but still had good results. It’s more flexible than white espresso or rooibos. It bulks A LOT. One of the things that’s easy to forget about Coffee Cherry Tea is how fibrous it is.

    coffee_cherry_tea-latte03web

    Coffee Cherry Tea Latte

    • 2oz shot coffee cherry teaspresso
    • 6oz whole milk, steamed
    • shot simple syrup (cardamom is pretty delish)
    • dash apple pie spice on top

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Tg8ew0eB0]

    At Little Woods we do a lot of careful development of our menu… but sometimes inspiration strikes I drop something on the menu and get super lucky and it works out great… Thus the Tea Spritzer. I had fresh lemon balm from the garden. A new ol’ timey Water Seltzer bottle and we were debuting our new Tea Espresso menu. I wanted to put them all together. Thus the Tea Spritzer is born.

    Coffee Cherry Tea Spritzer

    1. A shot of Elder Flower Syrup.
    2. A Double Shot of Rooibos or coffee cherry tea.
    3. Shaken with ice.
    4. Seltzer water.
    5. Sprig of fresh aromatics like lemon balm or chocolate mint…. holy basil is also great.

    Coffee Cherry Tea (tea cut) we use in our espresso machine 

    Rooibos we use in our espresso machine

    Elder flowers we made our simple syrup with

    Last week Andrea was a guest teacher at Cook’s Emporium and co-taught a class on simple syrups. During the prep for the class we took a ton of photos of how we make our simple syrup for Little Woods, so we’ll be sharing the recipe for that here on the blog soon.

    Up next, our blends! Andrea knocked it out of the park with Oasis, debuting in our brick and mortar this afternoon.

    Until Next Time.