How it started
It all started when we made pancakes with blueberry compote last week. We needed some beverages to complete the whole “Sunday Brunch” vibe. So we hit up the usual suspects: tea, coffee and mimosas!
How we did it
The Tea
I am a big tea drinker. I’m almost a fanatic about it. I enjoy all kinds of teas and I have loads of tea steeping apparatuses lying about. A friend (who clearly knows about my tea addictions and is an enabler) recently gifted me with a monthly subscription of teas from Tea Sparrow. Now, if you haven’t experienced having a variety of tasty teas delivered to your front door every month, I’d say you were missing out on life. Tea Sparrow has a number of options for subscriptions or you can buy single teas from their online shop. I’ve been using their teas for about two months now and I have yet to taste one that I didn’t like. They’re also available in both Canada and USA so you can gift something special to your favourite person anywhere in North America. 😉
For this brunch, I wanted something light, a little fruity and delicious. I also wanted something in keeping with the whole blueberries theme we had going so I opted for the Organic Blueberry White. It’s a nice light tea with blueberries and vanilla extract. I steeped a tablespoon in approximately 300 ml of almost boiling water for about three minutes. It was just perfect.👌
Tea Sparrow
Organic Blueberry White
Steeped Tea
The Coffee
Dave is the coffee drinker here and he uses the pour-over method. He chose coffee from Black Creek Coffee Company but you can obviously just pick your favourite blend. Now if you’re like me, you might be asking “What is the pour-over method?”. As it turns out, it’s exactly what its name suggests!
He grinds his own coffee but again, you can get your coffee pre-ground if you don’t have a coffee grinder at home. Dave prefers a medium grind for this method of brewing. You will need a pour over coffee dripper. We used this one from Amazon. You will also need filters, a scale and a gooseneck kettle.
Our pour over coffee dripper from Amazon
Dave likes his coffee strong so the ratio of coffee to water that he used was 1:9 - that is to say the amount of coffee he used was 1/9 of the amount of water e.g. for 500 ml of coffee he would use around 55 g of ground coffee. But of course, use whatever ratio you would like depending on how strong you like your coffee. Because we wanted just about two cups of coffee, we used a little bit more than 500 ml of water.
1. For two cups of coffee, bring 750 ml of water to a boil.
2. Weigh 55g of ground coffee (or measure about ¾ cup of ground coffee).
3. Place a filter in the coffee dripper.
4. Pour some of the hot water into the coffee dripper along the sides of the filter. Swirl the hot water in the carafe then pour it out. This is to rinse and moisten the filter and warm up the carafe.
5. Place the ground coffee in the filter.
6. Gently pour about 150 ml of hot water over the coffee grinds. Now wait about a minute for the magic to happen. You’ll start to see some air escaping or bubbles forming in the grinds. This is called blooming. You want this to happen because this is releasing carbon dioxide from the coffee and will allow you to extract more flavour from the grinds.
7. When the blooming is over, pour the rest of the water over the ground coffee and allow it to drip for a few minutes.
For an indulgent weekend experience, Dave likes his coffee with sweetened condensed milk. I do too but perhaps with a touch more sweetened condensed milk than him - I have a sweet-tooth in case you haven’t figured that out yet.
1. For two cups of coffee, bring 750 ml of water to a boil.
2. Weigh 55g of ground coffee (or measure about ¾ cup of ground coffee).
3. Place a filter in the coffee dripper.
4. Pour some of the hot water into the coffee dripper along the sides of the filter. Swirl the hot water in the carafe then pour it out. This is to rinse and moisten the filter and warm up the carafe.
5. Place the ground coffee in the filter.
6. Gently pour about 150 ml of hot water over the coffee grinds. Now wait about a minute for the magic to happen. You’ll start to see some air escaping or bubbles forming in the grinds. This is called blooming. You want this to happen because this is releasing carbon dioxide from the coffee and will allow you to extract more flavour from the grinds.
7. When the blooming is over, pour the rest of the water over the ground coffee and allow it to drip for a few minutes.
For an indulgent weekend experience, Dave likes his coffee with sweetened condensed milk. I do too but perhaps with a touch more sweetened condensed milk than him - I have a sweet-tooth in case you haven’t figured that out yet.
Black Creek Coffee
Coffee Beans
Medium Ground Coffee
Medium Ground Coffee in the pre-wet filter
Blooming of the coffee
The pour over coffee dripper
Coffee with sweetened condensed milk
The Mimosa
If a little sparkling wine is a bit more your style, you can also try our mimosa recipe. Here’s our take on the classic. Pro tip: chill all of your ingredients beforehand. You will need:
- 2 cups of freshly squeezed orange juice (or your favourite brand of orange juice will do. You can also try a different fruit juice if that tickles your fancy.)
- Blackberry syrup (see previous blog for recipe)
- 2 cups sparkling wine of your choice
- Frozen raspberries
If a little sparkling wine is a bit more your style, you can also try our mimosa recipe. Here’s our take on the classic. Pro tip: chill all of your ingredients beforehand. You will need:
- 2 cups of freshly squeezed orange juice (or your favourite brand of orange juice will do. You can also try a different fruit juice if that tickles your fancy.)
- Blackberry syrup (see previous blog for recipe)
- 2 cups sparkling wine of your choice
- Frozen raspberries
Now to assemble your glasses of ambrosia - oops, I meant mimosa.
1. Spoon a little bit of the blackberry syrup at the bottom of each glass.
2. Pour the orange juice about half-way up each glass.
3. Top up each glass with the sparkling wine.
4. Garnish with frozen raspberries.
If you want an extra kick, add a tablespoon of the good vodka to each glass. 😉
1. Spoon a little bit of the blackberry syrup at the bottom of each glass.
2. Pour the orange juice about half-way up each glass.
3. Top up each glass with the sparkling wine.
4. Garnish with frozen raspberries.
If you want an extra kick, add a tablespoon of the good vodka to each glass. 😉
Our take on the classic mimosa
How it turned out
Brunch was a lot of fun - it just takes a little bit of planning ahead. I think it’s important to indulge yourself once in a while. So regardless of your brunch beverage preferences you can certainly elevate it to a new level with these little indulgences then sit back, sip and enjoy. If you try any of these, let us know on our Instagram page. We’d love to hear from you.