News

Date

December 22 2023

Written By

Mahya Roudneshin

Big News Mrs Doyle's tea partners with Belleek Pottery

Written By Mahya Roudneshin - December 22 2023

Big News Mrs Doyle's tea partners with Belleek Pottery

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

Belleek mug and box of Mrs Doyle's tea

 

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

Belleek mug and pack of Irish tea

 

Date

December 02 2023

Written By

seamus mc arevey

Irish soda bread recipe for Christmas

Written By seamus mc arevey - December 02 2023

Irish soda bread recipe for Christmas

Easy Irish Soda Bread recipe

Mrs Doyle's Irish Soda Bread is one of the quickest breads to make, and it does not require any yeast. The leavening of the bread comes from baking soda and that amazing Irish buttermilk. This Irish Soda Bread recipe is dense, and soft all at the same time and has the best ever crusty exterior.

 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 two 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 without 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 .

Ingredients

 

    • 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt
    • 5 Tablespoons  unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
    • 4 and quarter cups  all-purpose flour 
    • 1 and three quarter cups buttermilk
    • 1 large egg this is optional
    • 3 Tablespoons  granulated sugar
    • and depending on your taste 1 cup  raisins, but you can leave them out if you like !
How to serve ? 

This Irish soda bread has a little sugar, but not too much, and It’s a wonderful for afternoon tea and you can serve it with butter, jam, or even a nice Tipperary cheese. 

    1. COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:
    1.  Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Use a ordinary baking sheet and line it with parchment paper , grease a 9-10 inch cake pan or maybe a pie dish. Now grease or line with parchment paper. You will need to whisk the buttermilk and egg together, and then set it to one side. Next whisk the flour, the sugar, the baking soda, and salt all together in a big bowl. Next cut in the butter with your fingers, also remember to  do your best to cut the butter until the butter is tiny balls sized crumbs. Stir in the raisins if you decide to use them. Now pour in the buttermilk .
    2. Now its time to fold the dough together until dough is really stiff .Pour the crumbly dough onto a little floured surface. Finally with your hands, work the dough into a ball, then knead it until all the flour is moistened. What next ? simply transfer the dough to the prepared pan and using a very sharp knife score the dough with a  X about 1/2 inch deep.
    3. Now it's time to bake until the bread is golden brown and center appears cooked through, this will take about 45-55 minutes. Place foil over the bread if you see a  heavy browning on top. Now remove the bread from the oven and let the  bread cool for 10 minutes, and then transfer to a plate.
    4. It is best to serve warm, or at least at room temperature, or toasted with desired toppings/spreads. You can store leftover bread at room temperature for up to 2 days or actually put it in the refrigerator for up to a week. 

Ok now its time to enjoy so Go on sit back with a nice cup of Mrs Doyle's Irish tea and jam and enjoy the best soda bread ever!

Irish Christmas gifts

Date

November 23 2023

Written By

seamus mc arevey

Irish Christmas cake recipe

Written By seamus mc arevey - November 23 2023

Irish Christmas cake recipe
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 ! 

Date

October 11 2023

Written By

seamus mc arevey

Irish Holloween food

Written By seamus mc arevey - October 11 2023

Samhain was the Celtic great festival of fire and feasting and today it is known as Halloween and yes it all started in Ireland . Samhain marks the change of seasons and the beginning of the dark months . Samhain main recipes is based around  turnips, nuts, gourds and apples, apple cider, and ale . Once the  harvest work was complete , the tradition was for the village to came together to feast and to tell stories of the past and of the future .

The main  Halloween foods were based around potato dishes like champ , which is mashed potatoes with spring onion. They also enjoyed  colcannon which is mashed potatoes and kale or green cabbage meal , and of course there was Boxty which is potato pancakes made with raw potatoes and buttermilk which is pan-fried .Other common foods were full of fruit and  nuts and of course we have to mention barmbrack bread which is loved by everyone on the island of Ireland around  Halloween .

IRISH HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS

It’s interesting to learn that many of the traditions that we all think of as part of American Halloween  have their roots in Irish Halloween traditions. So how did  holloween become part of American culture ? well Irish immigrants to the US brought these fantastic traditions to America, and so an Irish tradition became part of the mainstream of American culture! 

The famous Trick or treating originally  comes when poor Irish children who went door to door to request money and food.  The children would sing prayers and  in reward they would get soul cake which is a kind of bread with lots of  fruits. Turnip  Lanterns were also very  famous in Irish Halloween tradition.  These lanterns were carved from turnips or even  large potatoes.

 

SLICE OF BARMBRACK TELLS YOUR FORTUNE

In Ireland the traditional fruity loaf is known as  Barmbrack, it's name came from the Irish " bairin breac" which translates as speckled loaf. Barmbrack is eaten all year round, however at Halloween magic is added to this bread and fortune telling is added to the mix. The fruits in barnbrack are traditionally soaked in tea and whiskey to create the rich flavour, and the tea is of course Mrs Doyle's favourite part of Holloween. 

Traditionally Irish homes would always have the smell of baking bread and barmbrack cooking , usually over an open fire in the kitchen or living room . At its basic Barmbrack is simply a dried fruit-studded bread, but it has magic powers around holloween ! The Irish Halloween barmbrack tradition is that everyone gets a small slice,  however you need to careful when biting into it, as you might find that something has been hidden inside the bread  that can tell your future for the coming year !

You might find perhaps a ring, so expect the discovery of a true love and even a future wedding, alas if you are unlucky and find a thimble, this predicts that  you will never marry, and a button predicts bachelorhood for the men. For those who find a coin this is a prediction that they might get rich in the coming year!

So how do you make this magical bread , well Mrs Doyle's traditional Irish Barmbrack with a nice cup of Irish tea is of course the best recipe and being the decent sort she has written it all out for us all to make 

HOW TO MAKE IRISH BARMBRACK FOR HALLOWEEN

Baking Barmbrack is an Irish Halloween tradition and so you just have to include some charms to make your barmbrack magical . 

Mrs Doyle's Barmbrack recipe takes  3.5 hours to make which includes resting and cooking time, to enjoy it please serve it straight from the oven

 

INREDIENTS

Fruit mix

  • warm Mrs Doyle's Irish tea , which should be enough to cover the sultanas
  •  a 350g (1½ cups) sultanas
  • 50ml (¼ cup) Bushmills whiskey
  • 1 lemon, juice and zest

Dough

  • 450g around 2 cups, strong bread flour
  • salt, pinch
  • 15g (1tbsp) dried yeast
  • one nice  beaten egg
  • salt just a little pinch 
  • 280ml  room temperature of creamy milk
  • 50g  around 3½tbsp, Irish unsalted butter
  • 50g  sugar

To

  • teaspoon of  Irish butter
  • 1 table spoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ table spoon ground mixed spice

THE METHOD:

  1. Soak the sultanas in the Irish whiskey, lemon juice and Mrs Doyle's hot tea for around 30-45 minutes, then drain off the liquid.
  2. How to make the dough, simply  put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix with a big wooden spoon.
  3. Knead the dough on a floured surface with your hands for five to six minutes.
  4. Put the dough in a bowl, then cover with a damp tea towel. Leave for about  1 hour, until the mixture has risen and fills the total  bowl.
  5. Knead the dough again on a floured surface, add soaked fruit until spread throughout the mixture.
  6. Place it in a 20-23cm buttered cake tin then cover with a damp tea towel.
  7. Leave  about 20 minutes until the mixture rises up to the top of the tin.
  8. Bake for 50 minutes in an oven preheated to around 200C.
  9. Making the topping simply  cream the butter and spices together until soft , 
  10. Lastly now remove the barmbrack from the oven and right away spread spiced butter on top and leave to cool.

Date

December 13 2022

Written By

seamus mc arevey

How to Make Mrs Doyle's Irish hot tea Toddy

Written By seamus mc arevey - December 13 2022

How to Make Mrs Doyle's Irish hot tea Toddy

Mrs Doyle's tea hot toddy is great for keeping warm, and is a soothing mix with no liquor. Her  recipe is a nonalcoholic version of the famous toddy drink , it's a fantastic drink and great for  cold nights.

How to Make Mrs Doyle's hot tea Toddy ? 

Choose your favorite hot tea from Mrs Doyle's tea web site, we like the happy tea which is fruity with cinnamon and watch it transform into a amazing winter mocktail just by adding the spices and sweetener and citrus.

it 's such  a great option for nondrinkers but also you can share a glass with the kids, and it's soothing and should help relief for cold symptoms, here's the ingredients .

Ingredients

  • 7 ounces hot tea

  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves

  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

  • 1 tablespoon honey

  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or a cinnamon stick

  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

  • Lemon wedge, just to garnish

Date

March 11 2022

Written By

seamus mc arevey

Saint Patrick's Day Irish tea mocktail

Written By seamus mc arevey - March 11 2022

Saint Patrick's Day Irish tea mocktail

Its almost Saint Patrick's Day and Mrs Doyle is of course Irelands most famous tea lady so here's her favorite green tea mocktail ! So go on enjoy Irelands National day and go green 

Here's how you do it,  make a pot of Mrs Doyle's minty tea, not too hot, add a dash of ENNIS Irish non alcoholic gin, with a dash of lemon and a little lime juice and garnish with a few little Irish shamrocks and if your Canadian , may be a little maple syrup 

ok here's  the ingredients 

  • Mrs Doyle's Minty tea 
  • Ennis non alcoholic inspired gin
  • lemon and a little lime juice  
  • Irish shamrock 
  • and a dash of maple syrup

Date

April 09 2021

Written By

seamus mc arevey

Fall asleep with chamomile sleepy tea and wake up to Irish breakfast tea ..its a dream

Written By seamus mc arevey - April 09 2021

Fall asleep with chamomile sleepy tea and wake up to Irish breakfast tea ..its a dream

Chamomile is a lovely herb in the daisy family, loved in many cultures as it has  various medicinal qualities and is rich in  flavor. It's  the main ingredient in herbal sleepy tea and lots of people drink  chamomile infusion at bedtime to help themselves sleepy better.

Chamomile  dried herb infuses to a rich yellow-gold ,buttery and slightly vegetal smell. Chamomile  tea’s flavor is slightly spicy, and has a little buttery smell . If you want to improve your sleep? forget counting sheep!  chamomile sleepy tea might be the perfect herbal bedtime drink and best of all a Mrs Doyle's sleepy tea can be infused at least twice and is great in summer as its really refreshing over ice. So go on fall asleep with chamomile sleepy tea and wake up to Irish breakfast tea ..its a dream 

Date

October 22 2018

Written By

Nick Troopthemes

Mrs Doyle 's tea at Kilkenny's Savour food festival.

Written By Nick Troopthemes - October 22 2018

Mrs Doyle 's tea at Kilkenny's Savour food festival.

Look out for Mrs Doyle and her team of lovely girls at Kilkenny's Savour food festival. Mrs Doyle's lovely girls will be popping up in a number of secrete locations all of Kilkenny City during the Savour festival. So Go On if you spot herself or a  lovely girl drop over and say " happy tea " and we will make you a free cup of Mrs Doyle's best ever Irish Christmas tea

Kilkenny's Savour Food festival runs for four days and is a foodie heaven over the Halloween Bank Holiday Weekend, 25th – 29th October 2018!

The lovely girls will be giving tea blending masterclasses and of course samples of Mrs Doyle's Irish loose leaf teas,  and sure you might even pick up an early Irish Christmas gift . 

 

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