Tea Journal

A while back, my Mom and I spent an afternoon in the city and stopped for tea at Dr. Bombay's Underwater Tea Party, one of my favorite tea shops in Atlanta. With bookshelves overflowing with donated books lining the walls, umbrellas hanging from the ceiling, and an eclectic collection of photos and art spread throughout, it feels a little bit like walking into a scene from Alice and Wonderland. While I've spent time at Dr. Bombay's in the past, I'd never had afternoon tea there.
 
To raise the awesome factor even more, Dr. Bombay's is also the home of The Learning Tea, a not-for-profit that provides education for young women in India. Every month, Dr. Bombay's hosts A Taste of India dinner, and all the profits from the event support The Learning Tea. When I went to the monthly dinner in January, the shop was packed out. It was so encouraging to see the community there supporting such an inspiring cause!

A while ago, I came across a recipe for Earl Grey infused marshmallows. Uh, yum! A few weeks later, when all my people were out of town on vacation, I decided to make some version of the marshmallows happen. I decided to use chai tea and experiment using coffee, too. I used the same marshmallow recipe as in this past post and tweaked it a bit, switching out the required cup of water with a cup of tea or coffee.
I attempted to make both flavors simultaneously, which was not the best idea. Trying to blend one flavor with one hand while whisking with the other resulted in less than fluffy coffee marshmallows. The chai turned out fantastically, however, because they were whipped well enough. Moral of the story: go for one flavor at a time and err on the side of over-whisking!
Overall, this experiment was a definite success! Both flavors taste and smell amazing. The chai marshmallows smell of star anise, cardamom, and, as my sister would say, Christmas.  Not bad. I ended up dipping the coffee flavored marshmallows in chocolate which was a total win.
The final product is quite sweet and dense so I paired them with unsweetened black tea. I'm sure they would be amazing in hot cocoa, too! I'll definitely be experimenting with different flavors in the future...different teas or spices. Cinnamon marshmallows anyone? What flavors would you try?