Today it’s a sunny day with a warming, clear fresh light and a blue sky. This is great weather to look at tasting oolong teas from China and Taiwan (sometimes called Formosa by tea drinkers). The clear light allows you to see the subtle colour differences between types of teas being cupped, while the fresh [...]
Enjoying Tasting Oolong Tea
March 11th, 2010Tasting Japanese Green Tea
March 9th, 2010At Steenbergs, we are undergoing some changes to our loose leaf specialist teas. Last year, we redesigned the labels to be bespoke for each tea type and with better descriptions on making tea, as well as being bright and fun looking. Next week, we should also see the arrival of our own new bespoke tea [...]
Two Media Mentions In The Guardian
March 9th, 2010Steenbergs was mentioned two articles this weekend in The Guardian which was most kind of the two authors – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Yotam Ottolenghi – so thank you both.
Both talk about Steenbergs spices within their recipe ideas, so if you are looking for what to do with cardamom or how to use za’atar they give [...]
Beautiful Early Spring Day In Northumberland
March 7th, 2010Today, we were visiting with my parents, who live on the Roman Wall near Hexham in glorious Northumberland.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the first really gorgeous day of the year – the sky was blue and the sun was actually warming with temperatures getting up to 6oC , even if the snow was still [...]
Recipe For Granny Salad Or Cucumber Salad
March 5th, 2010Following on from the recipe for Yorkshire Salad, my mum makes a wonderfully refreshing cucumber salad, which has a similar sweet and sour flavour. It’s lovely in the summer for al fresco dining and great with fish all your around.
What you will need:
1tsp caster sugar
1tsp warm water
3tbsp cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
2 – 4 spring [...]
Recipe For Yorkshire Salad
March 3rd, 2010We have been discussing the ins and outs of Yorkshire Salad, and some of the different variations, including a very similar recipe called Granny Salad which Sandra (one of our amazing spice packers) was handed down from her Granny in Devon. Sadie – who does all our labels and web site photos – prefers it without onions [...]
Saved – We’ve Got A New Milkman
February 26th, 2010We received a letter today with our milk and our milkround has been taken over by a gentleman from Wetherby, called John Moore. He has been in the dairy trade for over 20 years and we hope that means this Great British tradition of a milk round can be preserved for some time into the [...]
Recipe for Vanilla Fudge and Coconut Ice
February 25th, 2010I know this is really quite pathetic but I have only just cracked how to make fudge in the last year. It always seemed to burn every time I tried to make it – the problem is that most recipes don’t give the mixture long enough for the sugar to be transformed into fudge. I [...]
How We Are Reducing Our Family Environmental Impact – Insulating the Loft
February 21st, 2010One of the major users of energy in a house is for heating the building. Space and water heating in homes gives off about 20% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions, which is about 5 tonnes CO2 per home every year.
However, one of the key issues for old houses, and in our case very old house, [...]
The demise of the milkman
February 18th, 2010Our milkman has decided to call it a day – bad back is his reasoning – and no-one wants to take over his route around Boroughbridge.
I suspect that the weather has also caused havoc for him; I know that rounds have been taking at least twice as long at night and other milkmen have been slipping and [...]
