Arkadia English Breakfast Tea Latte

A couple of years ago I became aware of the brand Arkadia for their range of instant chai latte and hot chocolate powders. I've since noticed that several beverage outlets use their Chai Spice product for both chai tea and latte. The benefit to the Arkadia products is that you can simply use hot water or hot milk - and this goes for any of their tea/latte or chocolate mixes.

One of my favourite products is the Matcha Green Tea. It's quite a unique product for anyone who hasn't experienced the more traditional Matcha teas of Japan, and can be rather daunting to anyone unaccustomed to a bright green milk drink!

Through a promotional opportunity on the Arkadia email list I was sent a sample of their latest product in development, English Breakfast Tea Latte.

The instructions for the sachet were to add 170ml of pre-boiling water to the powder. This made for a sufficient quantity of tea.

The aromatics gave a definite English Breakfast tea aroma and the latte component made for a traditional milky froth on top of the drink. But I have to say the flavour was a little strong for a latte drink, and yet still a little milky to be a tea drink. As a tea drinker I wouldn't be inclined to purchase this variety because I prefer a very flat traditional tea taste. I can see where Arkadia are headed with their market and hope it brings about some new developments with their beverages but I think I'll be sticking to their Chai.


You can connect with Arkadia on their Facebook page or Twitter.

Please note, I have not been asked to promote the company or their products. In fact I asked on their Facebook page if I could mention the development of the English Breakfast Tea Latte on this blog but I didn't get a response.

(and I still don't know why Blogger isn't inserting my images as per their saved rotation!)

White Wings Lemon Meringue Pie

I confess that my biggest cravings are always for a piece of Lemon Meringue Pie. But, unfortunately it always seems to be a craving which remains unsatisfied no matter how simple or extravagant the attempted fix is.

So when I saw the White Wings Lemon Meringue Pie packaging on the supermarket shelf, I thought "why not?"

The required ingredients for the mix were far fewer than I had expected: One egg (separated), water. That's it. The mixture comes in three parts: the base, the lemon filling, the meringue topping.

The 2 and half tablespoons of water added to the base mixture seems very sparse, and the dough is quite tough to work with. In hindsight, I think I would prefer to make my own shortcrust base if I were to make the pie again. Nevertheless, there was enough base to adequately fill the Pyrex dish. The base was refrigerated.

The lemon mixture, with egg yolk and water, was quick to bind and gave a strong aroma of lemon essence. It would be a nice modification to add some lime juice and zest as recommended on the packaging. The filling was baked for only 30 minutes at 170 degrees (my oven is rather hot and quick.)

As the filled pie was removed from the oven to cool, the meringue mixture was combined with the egg white and water as required. The meringue came together very quickly and formed nice solid peaks. There was more than sufficient mix to completely cover the pie with a nice central dome.

Since the oven was still exceptionally hot, the meringue took on colour within around 7 minutes and baked through very evenly.

Taste result: a very nice lemon meringue pie for eating on the day of baking and the subsequent day. However, the base would not allow for keeping any longer than that - it began to taste plastic like and was quite tough.

 

p.s. I have no idea why Blogger isn't uploading my photos in saved rotation - I apologise for the requirement to tilt your head!

Hot Cross Buns

So now the last of the Christmas stock has been cleared from the store shelves and we're bombarded with Easter stock (Oh. My. God. 2012 may as well be over already!), the first thing you tend to see as you walk in to any supermarket are buckets of Hot Cross Buns.

I have to say, I'm always partial to the odd bakery item especially when it's adorned with a chuck-out price sticker. And Woolworths didn't disappoint me with that yesterday - upon entry to their supermarket, a bakery employee was just re-stocking a front display with the paper-bagged Indulgent and Decadent 6-pack hot cross buns. They were enticing me with their orange reduced stickers for $2.99 instead of $4.98 (or 2 for $8)... so I picked up both!

The Indulgent White Chocolate and Cranberry range was very similar in texture and taste to a traditional hot cross bun, albeit the cranberries were a little more sparse than you'd normally expect with sultanas but were far far more plump and juicy. The white chocolate added a very subtle taste and texture throughout the bun.

The Decadent Dark Chocolate range was more decadent than I had imagined. The buns were slightly flat and looked as though they had been squashed, but I soon realised it was because the bun itself hadn't been able to maintain a high-rise shape due to the phenomenal amount of dark chocolate chips within each piece. It actually tasted like there was a solid layer of chocolate in the middle of the bun. Very delicious, very moreish and very addictive. Just be warned that by putting your hand in to the bag to extract one of these babies, you will end up with a chocolate coated hand as the stuff gets EVERYWHERE because there's just SO. MUCH. CHOCOLATE!!!

Whilst these were reduced stock, they were baked that day. And even though the Best Before date gave three days, I'd not only recommend they be eaten within 24 hours to take advantage of their freshness and soft texture (I wouldn't like to microwave warm them at any stage), I pretty much guarantee they won't last much longer than that in any household anyway!!

I will certainly be deviating from the traditional hot cross bun on my next purchase of bakery items from Woolworths in preference for these two ranges.