Belleek Classic Shamrock Mrs Doyle Mug

Belleek has partnered with the Mrs Doyle's Tea to bring everyone two great branded Mrs Doyle's Belleek Mugs, in the fantastic classic Belleek style !

We think it's time that we all came together and enjoyed the Best Tea on the Island from a beautiful Belleek mug!  

These two great mugs are a modern take on the Belleek iconic Shamrock tableware and they are just perfect for Irish Christmas gifts and new years gifts.

 First the large contemporary mug shape which features a ring of embossed shamrocks and the famous Mrs Doyle logo.

It's really functional and durable, this will make a lovely gift and comes packaged in the classic Belleek green gift box.

•  Unique Gift , Made in Ireland , Measures: 11.4 cmD x 9.2 cmH

 

Our second Mug is Mrs Doyle's Tall tea Belleek Mug , and it is totally the best way to drink the best tea on the Island ! So Go On go...

• Made In Ireland, Hand painted, Measures 11cmW x 11.5cmH x 325ml/12flozC

 

Easy Irish Soda Bread recipe

 Sometimes making homemade bread feels like it could be difficult and time consuming, but it's your lucky day. Mrs Doyle's Irish soda bread can be made quickly and easily by almost anyone. Yes this is a shortcut bread but it certainly doesn’t skimp on flavor. 

Irish soda bread is so easy because it only needs a few ingredients, and the one that makes it taste so good is buttermilk. The buttermilk is so important because it reacts with the baking soda and so permits the bread’s leavening, and of course it gives the bread that great flavor, so with a cup of the best Irish tea and a slice of soda bread you can relax and if you are living far away from Ireland or if you are with friends and family you will always feel at home with this great soda bread and a nice cup of Mrs Doyle's tea .  

• Mrs Doyle soda bread recipe gives a bread that has a golden brown crust and also a dense crumb, just lovely. Mrs Doyle's Irish bread isn’t heavy, it’s really tender and soft, the crust is perfectly crisp as soon as it comes out of the oven,  and in a day or too it's even better and it is the perfect bread for an great Irish breakfast , so if you are sending a friend or relative an Irish gift for Christmas or a Irish gift hamper well why not make up Mrs Doyle's Irish soda bread and send it to them as well Go On Go

• So how do you make the best Irish soda bread? The method

• First whisk buttermilk and one egg together, at the same time whisk a little sugar, flour, baking soda, together in another bowl. Now cut some butter into the flour mixture, remember that cutting the butter into the flour is an important step, and this is how you get the great flaky texture. Go on use your hands and mix it up, and then using a very good knife, score the dough, so that heat gets into the center so that the bread will bake well. Also please note that Irish soda bread can be made with out an egg, it's really up to you. However an egg will add a little richness to the soda bread. Feel free to skip it to make a slightly lighter loaf. No other changes necessary, and if eggs are not for you ,simply leave out the egg. Finally  bake until it's golden brown as easy as it gets .

Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas cakes are made in lots of different ways, all with lots of love and in general they are variations on the old fashioned fruitcake. They are very tasty, and they can be light, dark, a little moist, a little dry, sometimes heavy, and even sometimes spongy . Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas cakes are made in many different shapes, sometimes with a little with frosting, or a dusting of icing sugar and of course they can be as simple and plain as you like .

So what are the special ingredients and what do they represent? well the  dried fruits in the cake may represent the fantastic eastern spices which the three Wise Men brought to the newborn King! And remember just to make things a little more interesting the fruits are sometimes soaked overnight in Irish whiskey.

 

So what are the ingredients of Mrs Doyle's Christmas  cakes ? ok here it comes , now remember , this cake only tastes great if you enjoy it with friends and family and a nice cup of decent Irish tea for everyone  !

 

My Christmas Cake Ingredients:

100ml  Irish whiskey

quarter of table spoon of ground clove

50g ground almonds

grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange

150g  raisins

125g  stoned dates

quarter of a block of real Irish butter

125g sultanas

100g glace cherries

extra butter for greasing

200g soft brown sugar

4 eggs

grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange

2 table spoons of black treacle 

225g  plain flour

half a table spoon of salt

1 rounded table spoon of baking powder

1 table spoon of  mixed spice

quarter of teaspoon of  grated nutmeg

 grated nutmeg and a little few teaspoons of Irish whiskey 

 

My Method:

        You should Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F), around Gas mark.

Now grease a 20cm cake tin and then line it with greaseproof paper. Next wrap some newspaper around the outside of your cake tin with string. This should  help the outside of the cake from going too brown during the cooking and so help it from  drying out.

Now it's time to beat together in a big bowl all that lovely  sugar & butter until its all very creamy. Next  add the eggs, add a little  flour in with each egg, and some treacle and perhaps a few grated fruit rinds and make sure you mix all  for a few minutes.

it's time to stir the flour and baking powder into the bowl of all these lovely soaked fruits and add some salt, some  spices and a few almonds, again stir all of these great ingredients together and mix well.

Now fold the fruit mix into the amazing egg mix, stir it all evenly. Now spoon the mix into the big cake tin, and maybe pull a little bit back in the middle of the cake , this will help as it rises, it will level itself off perfectly.

So Bake in the oven for 3 hours. If it is browning a lot , then cover it loosely with some tin foil. Now cook for another 30 minutes. You will know the cake is ready if you insert a fine skewer into the middle of the cake , and it  comes out clean and really dry.

Now it's time to leave the cake to cool in the tin. 

When the cake is cool, you can remove it from the tin, take off the lining paper, and  wrap it first in clean greaseproof paper and then in tinfoil.

Here is the secret!  do all this in November and each week leading up to Christmas, pour another little bit of your favourite drink over it. This will help the  alcohol to penetrate to the Christmas cake and will make it taste so Irish Go On Go!

here's a hint for the perfect Irish gift to send to some one you love or may be a self gift ? yes go on try a Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas breakfast hamper for everyone to enjoy with your Christmas cake , you can check out just how good Mrs Doyle's tea is vs Barry's ! no competition at all ! 

If you want to live a long life and a healthy life—it's very much a matter of what you eat and drink. So next time you are shopping in the supermarket or health store check out their loose leaf teas and herbal infusions or if they don't stock loose leaf tea then simply go online, infect most high end foods these days can be shipped to you by next day delivery, including loose leaf teas. .

 

What are the best foods for longevity for people who live in Britain and Ireland ?

Our climate can be difficult in winter but all the natural ingredients that we need for a healthy life do grow in these islands, it is just a matter of knowing how to use them. So what are the life boosting foods we should all be using .

BERRIES FOR LIFE 

Yes berries are natures secrete weapon to help keep us healthy, in the UK and Ireland we  are not part of the Blue Zone of countries where people commonly reach their 90's but we do have the most amazing variety of berries growing everywhere and sure today we can pick them up in the supper market and buy a pack of frozen berries, i love blueberries but what ever your tastes are go for it.. Also beans , leafy greens are all linked to giving you extra years to your life. So  what are the best types of drink to help us live a long life ? 

For a long time they said red wine in moderation could be beneficial but new research seems to indicate that even small amounts of any alcoholic beverage is not really that good for you ! To day almost all research indicates that the best drink for longevity is actually green tea. Tea is a super beverage that has potent phenolic compounds which can help fight cancer and protect our cardiovascular system. Green tea is by far the winner for healthy drinks, it is  rich in catechins, which are some of the most powerful disease-fighting phytonutrients we can find anywhere on the plant kingdom.

So green tea protects against cancer and helps your heart stay healthy and also very importantly it can help you sleep better. The studies undertaken around the world seems to indicate that  drinking green tea on a regular basis is directly linked to living a long and  healthy life. 

There was a 2018 study which found that regular tea drinkers have a reduced risk in age-related decreases of high-density lipoprotein , that is in ordinary English it helps with "good" cholesterol"! .Green and black tea are helpful with green tea having a slightly stronger effect than black tea. It has also been found that Green tea’s EGCGs , which is a type of good for you catechin, which is particularly prevalent in the tea and this may help inhibit tumor growth.

Green tea is also good for your gut health as within your gut there are beneficial gut bugs, these feed on foods rich in polyphenols, which include green tea. One of these beneficial gut bugs is called akkermansia muciniphila and it is this bug that supports the protective mucus layer that prevents a leaky gut , it basically keeps the gut lining strong. It has been found that low levels of this critical bacteria have been linked to diabetes, obesity,  autoimmune disease, cancer, and  heart disease.

It also seems that green tea is good for the brain, this is because of green tea has caffeine and catechins, and it is these Catechins that can help protect your body from free radicals, so protecting both your brain and the rest of your system.

So green tea is definitely a supper food and most definitely the winner, it is the best beverage to help you live a long and healthy life. 

So how much green tea should you drink? we think two cups a day is perfect !

 

What if you don't like the taste of green tea ?

That is not a problem , because high end tea companies have expert blenders who add little touches of taste like vanilla which is actually our most loved , yes green tea vanilla is the most healthiest breakfast tea. Also green tea is blended with many really good ingredients like mint, check out our Mr Doyle's chillout tea , it is probably the best minty tea in the world and also you can have green tea with rose petals like our Emperors Seven Secrets tea or try a green tea blended with white tea .

The overall message is that green tea is really good for you and so we would say check out the many tastes of green tea and the many blends of green tea with other herbal infusions so that you can taste the best and most healthy drinks in the world , Go On Go.

 

What Irish Breakfast Tea Can Do

Irish breakfast tea is a blend of teas composed mainly of Assam tea and African kenya tea and because its a blend of these great herbal teas, the benefits of Irish breakfast tea is totally increased. Irish breakfast tea contains polyphenols, catechins, the amino acid L-theanine, and tannins. It's these that helps the Irish breakfast tea act as an antioxidant, astringent, and diuretic. These components have really great health benefits, such as possibly fighting cancer cells and preventing heart disease and possibly preventing the onset of diabetes. Irish breakfast tea can also help reduce stress and increased concentration, and help with increasing your immune system. Irish Breakfast Tea also contains the really important fundamental minerals like calcium, zinc and magnesium, especially great for antioxidant activity. There just are so many benefits to Irish breakfast tea, but which  brand of Irish breakfast tea is the best? well if you get a pack of Irish tea in your Christmas stocking, remember Mrs Doyle was thinking of you !  in every way , so Go On Go !

Mrs Doyle loves  to make a nice mug of Chai latte  around 11 am every morning during Christmas week, so here's how !

Infuse one tea spoonful of Mrs Doyle's  Chai tea in the hot water for 3 to 5 minutes, warm a little milk in a pan, and then whisk to create a froth, now pour the  milk and chai tea into a big mug , add a little honey or sugar to taste and sprinkle with a little nutmeg or  cinnamon 

Mrs Doyle loves  to make a nice mug of Chai latte  around 11 am every morning during Christmas week, so here's how !

Infuse one tea spoonful of Mrs Doyle's  Chai tea in the hot water for 3 to 5 minutes, warm a little milk in a pan, and then whisk to create a froth, now pour the  milk and chai tea into a big mug , add a little honey or sugar to taste and sprinkle with a little nutmeg or  cinnamon 

What's the best tea for winter ? well Mrs Doyle has been researching this  for the last decade with her team of food scientists based at Ireland's University College Dublin and the results are in,which show that Oolong teas and Black teas are best for preparing us for a cold winter. These two  types of teas gives us a warming and nourishing feeling, which have been shown to help fight the feelings of fatigue and weakness which many of us experience during the long dark winter months, so go on put on a pot of Mrs Doyle's decent Irish breakfast tea or be posh and go for a cup of Oolong tea .