Aphrodisiac Tea Party + Contest and Giveaway
Here are some pics from the Aphrodisiac Tea Party yesterday, as promised. It was the most attended tea party in my history of tea party hosting; yet thankfully there was enough tea (and cups!) for everyone. Food seems to always be over abundant, but this time nothing was gone to waste...
The photo above is of aphrodisiacs stored in a Valentine cookie box, and these are the dry raw aromatics - ambrette seed, rose petals, tonka bean, costu root, ambergris, pink peppercorns and a nutmeg; we smelled the essential oils and absolutes as well; and we also smelled essences such as myrrh, jasmine, tuberose, East Indian sandalwood and labdanum.
Some interesting stats: we had a total of just over 30 guests; we brewed about 15 liters of tea, eaten 5 loaves of bread (made into delicious tea sandwiches), 19 cupcakes, 12 mini cheesecakes, 80 truffles or so, and an unknown number of cookies (still tons left, for the lucky studio guests in the next couple of weeks, and for myself!).1st Tier:
Tomato-Basil open sandwiches (these were heart shaped!)
Wasabi-Cucumber tea sandwiches
Minted Radishes tea sandwiches
Egg sandwiches
2nd Tier: Scones, Cream & Jam
Heart-shaped whole wheat and rose bud scones
Concord grapes and blue cheese scones
Served with Devonshire cream and wild Rose-Petal jelly (Wild Westcoast Rainforest Products) and Lavender jelly (Preserved BC Sunshine)
3rd Tier: Small cakes and Petit-Fours
Blood-Orange Mini Cheescakes
Banana & nutmeg cupcakes with peanut butter icing or caramel sauce
Raspberry Brownies (recipe by Wendy Boys from Cocolico)
4th Tier: Cookies
Korova cookies
Ginger Ice-box Cookies
Lavender Shortbread
5th Tier: TrufflesBlood Truffles (70% dark chocolate with roses, chili and saffron)
White Potion Truffles (white chocolate with tuberose, almond and coconut)
Tea Selection:
Black Tea:
Roses et Chocolat (Ayala Moriel)
Earl Gray Cream (Herbal Republic)
Green Tea:
Charisma (Ayala Moriel)
Jasmine & Rose house blend
Caffeine-Free Brew:
Immortelle l’Amour (Ayala Moriel) – rooibos based
Aztec-inspired Spiced Hot Chocolate (Cocoa) - we actually never made this... There was not enough time to steam the milk!
Photo was taken by Laura Zerebeski's iPhone
And now to the contest: name at least 5 aphrodisiacs (actual ingredients, not menu items!!!) that we ate at the tea party and enter to win a mini of Roses et Chocolat parfum!
(draw on February 10th).
Labels: Aphrodisiacs, Contest, Giveaway, Tea Party, Valentine's Day
posted by Ayala Moriel @ 11:39:00 PM
10 Comments:
Blood Truffles (70% dark chocolate with roses, chili and saffron),
White Potion Truffles (white chocolate with tuberose, almond and coconut), Lavender Shortbread, Heart-shaped whole wheat and rose bud scones and Concord grapes and blue cheese scones
Served with Devonshire cream and wild Rose-Petal jelly
Please list the actual materials (i.e.: spices, flowers, vegetables, fruit or whatever) which is an aphrodisiac, not the actual menu. Pretty much everything served that day was an aphrodisiac!
I say nutmeg, rosebuds, dark chocolate, saffron and chili.
Hi Ayala,
The menu from the party sounds delicious! I have included a list of aphrodisiacs, but it is pretty much everything you had on the menu! Some have an effect on the hormones, some are because of their shape, some provide extra energy :o) and some are historically used. Additionally, some are visual, some are by scent and some are by ingestion. I didn't categorize them - I hope I did this correctly!
rose petals and buds, chocolate, banana, nutmeg, basil, raspberries, tomatoes, wasabi, chili, lavender, mint, radishes, Egg, saffron, tuberose, almond, coconut, wheat germ & wheat bran in the whole wheat scones, grapes, blue cheese, green tea, rooibos, jasmine, ginger, osmanthus, pomelo blossoms, vanilla (used in the Immortelle l'Amour tea and likely used in korova cookies), bergamot oil (in the Earl Gray tea), cinnamon (in the Immortelle l’Amour tea), blood orange, orange
Thank you for having the contest!
Best Wishes,
Julie
Hmmm Aphrodisiacs..... off the top of my head...
Chocolate
Chilli
Basil
Almonds
Bananas
Raspberries
Looks like you had a wonderful time! Thanks for the competition Ayala!
Holly
wow! looks like you had a wonderful time and everything looks so happy in the photos! I look forward to attending the next one :)
Best,
Daniela
There are so many that I never knew of until I research them. Some proven and some folklore from different countries.
Radish- used by egyptian pharoahs, likely due to the spice of the radish
Basil- Romans thought of it as a symbol of love
Banana- India- offering to fertility God
Mint- greek mythology named from Minthe- Hades loved Minthe. When Persphone learned of Hades love for Minthe she turned Minthe into a plant.
Lavender- According to the Smell, Taste Treatment and Research fondation in Chicago the scent of lavender arouses men men more that almost any other scent in the world, hope you have enough Lovender made for Valentines day!!
Tomato- French is called
Poma amoris or Pomme di amour which translates to "love apple"
Saffron- the Knights of Arabia used this for it's aphrodisiac allure
Chocolate- no explaination needed really, but here is a little trivia: Mayans used cacoa beans to pay for prostitues( 8 beans per women was the going rate)
Nutmeg- used by the Hindus to raise body heat and sweeten the breath
Thank you for everyone for your comments, please keep them coming!
I will do the draw tomorrow. For now, I am going to comment on your comments but without disclosing if you are correct or not in your suggestions.
Felicia -
I love your new profile photo!
(I do have a thing for self-portraits, they can be quite amazing!).
Julie -
You are right about the aphrodisiacs having that effect for all those reasons - physical and hormonal impact, foods that are visually suggestive of reproductive organs.
Holly and Daniela -
I hope you could come to one of my tea parties! It was a lot of fun. I have as much fun whipping up the menues as I have watching everyone enjoy themselves, getting lost in the sensuality of the scents and flavours and the conversations...
Princess Ellie -
Thank you for the mythological background about each aphrodisiac you mentioned!
Interestingly enough, the Hebrew for tomato is from the same root as "buttocks" (it is a modern word though, invented by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who most likely knew about the French name for it...).
I see chocolate, almonds, bananas...chili powder, and ginger!
What an awesome party theme...
The winner is Holly!
Email me with your mailing address so I can send you your Roses et Chocolat mini <3
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