My Beloved Daughters:

I am Matri®, the Mother. I am the matrix of all life. I am the womb of creation. I have revealed myself to you in every culture, in every dimension throughout the ages of ages. I bring forth life as Gaia, Isis, Diana, Kali, Kuan Yin, Mary.

I am love & wisdom; the Father is will & power; and in sacred communion we bring forth light in humanity. Solar birth occurs when love calls it forth. The Father & the Mother are two parts of the whole of humanity. I am the gateway through which life & light enter your dimension. I birth solar light in your children.

I am Matri®, the Mother; the deepening within life. The Father is the expansion of life. I breathe you in birth as you breathe your children forth. I am Matri®, the Mother, breathing you with all mothers who have gone before you to birth.
Breathe. I am Matri®.

Matri® was blended to breathe women in birth in the most high & loving way. Matri was created by Sacred Rose® Organic Herbal Teas to inspire mothers to be unified with the higher consciousness of the physical, emotional, mental, & spiritual body systems.

Matri® is a delicate Sacred Rose® Organic Herbal Blend of nettles, red raspberry, rose hips, alfalfa, dandelion, lemon & ginger.

For Mother's Day gifts purchase Matri® Tea at Soulutions For Daily Living 126 N. State Street, Newtown PA or www.sacredrosetea.com

Complimentary Sacred Rose® Organic Herbal Tea Tasting at Whole Foods

Long Island tea lovers join Sacred Rose® Organic Herbal Tea for a Complimentary tasting at Whole Foods 120 New Moriches Road Lake Grove, NY 11755

Sacred Rose® Organic Herbal Tea is a leading online purveyor of hand blended vibrational tisanes.

Sacred Rose® Organic Herbal Tea provides nine distinctive loose leaf healing blends for the emerging herbal tea aficionado and the conscious consumer.

Herbal tea infusions offer a great alternative to chemically processed beverages. Sacred Rose® Organic Herbal Tea blends are all caffeine free. You can enjoy our teas hot or cold. www.sacredrose.us www.sacredrosetea.com

Deep Space 9 Pour me a little more tea

"Deep Space 9 Pour me a little more tea, would you dear? I can drink it till it comes out of my ears."
-Garek, Star Trek,
Sacred Rose® Organic Herbal Tea www.sacredrosetea.com

good food matters: Fresh and simple tastes, recipes and stories from Chef Nancy Vienneau

good food matters: Fresh and simple tastes, recipes and stories from Chef Nancy Vienneau

July 6th, 2011
Time for Tea, and Raspberry-Peach Buttermilk Cake



Pausing, midday, for a cup of hot tea is one of those treats I rarely allow myself. That shouldn’t be the case. Taking time to step away from the stove, or the computer screen, is so beneficial to my general well-being; it should be a natural part of my day. That moment to regroup, restore, and refill the creative well is as easy as bringing water to a boil.

I was reminded of this when I was asked to sample some organic herbal teas for a company, Sacred Rose. I set aside my work, took out the only tea cup left from a set that once belonged to my grandmother, and poured a delicious, heady brew. That bit of self-nurturing was just what I needed–and the non-caffeinated concoction gave me a little boost, without the spike and drop of coffee.

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Sometimes, it’s nice to take the pampering a step further.

I follow a blog, Darjeeling Dreams. Here, Joyti has written much about the world of tea: the types and blends, tisanes and infusions, the rituals of steeping and sipping. She also has some wonderful recipes–mostly desserts—many of which are perfect to enjoy with that vibrant midday cup.

One recent recipe caught my eye. It had all the right elements–a pleasing aesthetic, and an intriguing complexity in flavors created in a simple preparation. It is also her friend’s favorite: a one layer, unfrosted, fresh Raspberry Buttermilk Cake.

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One day, I decided to make it, although with slight variation. I had just a handful of raspberries in the house, and a couple of very ripe peaches. Peaches and raspberries baked onto a buttermilk cake sounded appealing, too.

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It’s the sort of cake that you can whip up by hand. I like that. No need to lug out the stand mixer. There’s a wee bit of preplanning: be sure to have the butter softened, so that it will cream nicely with the sugar. And, have the buttermilk at room temperature–it will more readily blend with the creamed butter-sugar mixture without clumping.

Joyti makes her cake with a combination of whole wheat and white flours. My pantry offered only unbleached all purpose white flour, so, again, there’s a slight variation.

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It baked beautifully.

And the taste? Elegant.

This is a barely sweetened cake, and the buttermilk imparts a rich tang. The crumb is soft. The raspberries almost melt into the batter as it bakes. This aspect is what really makes the cake special, and if you have only raspberries–so much the better. The peaches, while pretty, remain sitting on top–their juices don’t influence the cake’s outcome so much.

One night, I served it to friends with a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with peach and plum sauces I had made.

But now, it’s just me. So, I’ll steep a pot of this grounding tea, and have a slice. If you’re in the neighborhood, come on over. I’d love to share.

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RASPBERRY-PEACH BUTTERMILK CAKE
(adapted from Joyti’s Darjeeling Dreams)
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 T. Baking Powder
pinch Salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
6 T. Butter, softened
1 1/3 cups Buttermilk, at room temperature
Zest from 1 Lemon
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Fresh Raspberries
1-2 sliced Peaches
2 T. Demerara Sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9″ springform pan with parchment, and butter the sides.
Mix dry ingredients–flour/baking powder/salt in a bowl and set aside.
In another bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar together,
Whisk in the buttermilk, lemon zest, and egg.
Stir in the dry ingredients, and mix until well incorporated.
Pour into prepared springform pan.
Arrange sliced peaches around the circumference of the caketop. Place raspberries in the center.
Sprinkle with Demerara Sugar and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Allow to cool 15 minutes before removing .

Enjoy with a cup of tea.

SACRED ROSE ORGANIC HERBAL TEAS www.sacredrose.us

Sacred Rose’s “Mother Earth Zest” (one of their 8 special blends) is a gently invigorating tea. Ginger and spearmint are the dominant notes, layered with fennel and sage. It is designed to refresh and to ground, and is pleasant tea to drink in the afternoon. It has lovely aromatics, too.

Sacred Rose is a planetary-conscious company, whose teas honor the energy and restorative powers imbued by the plant kingdom.

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Posted in Beverages, Desserts, Recipes

Sacred Rose Dreamtime Thumbs up! "Chamomile dominated, followed by a woody middle and a wild mint-like finish."

Review: Sacred Rose Dreamtime
Chamomile Tea, Sacred Rose, Skullcap Tea, Valerian Root Tea Add comments
Geoff’s Teaview Snapshot
Thumbs up! "Chamomile dominated, followed by a woody middle and a wild mint-like finish."
Geoff’s Teaview: 8/10
Your Reviews: Add your review »
Sacred Rose® (LTD) is an outfit that has an interesting if "out there" mission statement. The goal of their herbal blends are to - and I quote - raise "the vibrational frequency of humanity one cup of tea at a time." Yeah. You can't get any New Age-ier than that, folks. I don't mean that as a slight, rather a statement of awe. That would have to be the boldest esoteric tea claim I've heard in quite some time. Now, I've done my fair share of research regarding "human vibration frequencies", particularly on the Law of Attraction side. (I.e. The happier you are, the more likely you are to attract happy happenstances based upon your happy...uh...stance. In other words, b.s. from The Secret.) I, actually, consider myself a bit of an amateur New Age enthusiast. I personally noticed the better my day was if my mood reflected it.

Well...today wasn't one of those days. A tension headache made short work of my good mood for most of the day. Ibuprofen wasn't helping. I even stayed away from my engorged tea collection for fear of making the imaginary skull-vise worse. It was kept relatively in check with frequent snacking, constant glasses of water, and a general policy of "calm-the-f-word-down". The night prior, I researched herbal concoctions that might help with it. Three kept popping up in my online perusal - chamomile, valerian root and skullcap. It just so happened that one of Sacred Rose's blends - one I'd request to review, the one I'm writing about now - had all three, as well as dashes of passion flower.

I guess I must've been vibrating something fierce to will that kinda luck. Their Dreamtime® blend - also coincidentally - was specifically designed to coincide with aligning the Sixth Chakra, also known as "Ajna"; the Brow Chakra, The Third Eye, right in the middling of my head. Awesome. My Third Eye was angry about whatever and needed something hot and beverage-y to calm it's...uh...Ajna-ness down.

What to say about the blend on first impression: Well, it smelled like medicine. Foul, foul medicine. The aroma reminded me of something a fantasy genre-borne apothecary would concoct to remove a curse. Most of the blame rests in the blend, not the blender. Chamomile naturally smells like medicine and buttery blossoms - kinda neutral - whereas valerian root has the fragrant consistency of wet socks and weeds. Or weeds in wet socks, not pleasant. Appearance-wise, the blend fared better in its lovely bouquet of greens and yellows, resembling contents of a "faery" garden.

There were brewing instructions on the Sacred site, but that didn't matter much. These were herbs, strong-willed ones at that. Typical approach: 1 heaping tablespoon of leaves/blossoms in 8oz of freshly boiled water, steeped for six minutes. My headache didn't allow for much deviation from that, so I stuck with what worked before.

After the allotted time, the infusion colored to a pale green-gold. The aroma was thankfully more chamomile medicinal than valerian woodiness. A citrus and mint profile were also there somewhere; odd since there weren't any of either in the herbal pastiche. The taste reflected the aroma. Chamomile dominated, followed by a woody middle and a wild mint-like finish. It resembled chamomile blends I've had before, but had a better balance to it. I've even attempted some on my own with similar ingredients to only passable success.

This definitely isn't an inexpensive item. It's available as a 3oz package, and that's it. Some folks versed in herbs could easily pick up their own ingredients in bulk and blend it themselves for cheaper. However, the time for trial and error to match the balance on this dreamtime blend would probably not be worth it. My headache also alleviated a tad. Sacred Rose - for good vibrations or bad - know what they're doing.

— To purchase Sacred Rose Dreamtime, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
Teaviews Member: Geoff Geoff
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