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Everyone who follows my blog knows my love of all things tea. Teapots, teacups, tea gadgets and tea itself—all have me hooked without a doubt.  I am always looking for new ways to incorporate tea into my daily life and today I found one more delicious way to get even more of something that I love by using Bigelow Tea in a recipe.

A couple of years ago Chris and I were able to go visit Charleston Tea Plantation for a wonderful tour.  I loved being able to see the entire process of tea growing to picking to processing up close and personal and knowing that this is a company that provides 100% American made products by an American family makes me even happier.

I loved the tour because I got to really see tea up close and personal. Just look at these brilliant green leaves.  How can you not love that? So what can you do with tea besides the obvious brewing a cup to drink?  The sky is the limit and today I would love to share with you a wonderful recipe that I improvised to feature a recent addition to the Bigelow family of teas—American Breakfast.  American Breakfast is a wonderful product that not only tastes good but boasts an extra 50% caffeine content than regular teas.  If you are like me there are quite a few days that that extra boost of caffeine is not only needed but necessary in order to function.

The caffeine lift I get from tea is different than the lift I get from coffee. Tea contains Theanine which is a naturally occurring compound that is unique to tea alone.  This works in tandem with caffeine to give a sustained energy boost without some of the jitteriness that I sometimes get when drinking coffee.

I recently went to my local Walmart to purchase some American Breakfast tea and was happy to find that it was available there in 3 different varieties easily found in the tea aisle.  Being the tea lover that I am I had to try a box each of Black Tea with Honey, Black Tea with Lemon and Black Tea.  Walmart is a great place to shop as the aisles there are always labeled so it is easy to locate the tea aisle in the grocery section without spending too much time wandering all over the store.

Making the shortbread cookies was about as easy as 1-2-3.  With only 5 ingredients these are the perfect cookie to quickly prepare when time is of the essence.  I always gather all of my ingredients first which makes the process even easier.

American Breakfast Shortbread Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 Tablespoon American Breakfast Black Tea with Honey, crushed (about 2 full teabags full)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and thoroughly butter the bottom of an 8 inch square pan. Set aside.

Put the  butter and ground tea in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well combined and creamy.  This takes 1-2 minutes.  Add sugar and beat until combined.  Add flour and salt and beat again until just combined.  The mixture will be crumbly.

Transfer the dough to the prepared pan and press down with fingers to make an even layer that covers the pan completely.  I use wax paper to keep the dough off my fingers and in the pan.  This works like a charm and keeps the mess to a minimum which is always an added bonus.  Bake until the edges are just golden and cookies are still a bit soft, about 30 minutes.  Once removed from oven, use a fork to make perforated lines down into the dough to form 16 square cookies.  Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Loosen edges with a sharp knife and slide cookies out onto a flat surface.  Cut or break into individual cookies and serve warm or at room temperature with a steaming cup of American Breakfast tea.  

How can this not be a winner of a recipe?   The other thing that I love about Bigelow and this product is the fact that Bigelow has sent almost 4 millions bags of tea to troops overseas with their Tea for Troops program.  For more information about this wonderful program please feel free to click here to learn more. To follow Bigelow Tea on Facebook please click here and to follow on Twitter please click here.

Want to see more about Bigelow Tea and get some inspiration?  Don’t miss the Pinterest board with great ideas and stories about Bigelow Tea.  You definitely do not want to miss this one. Simply click below to be taken to the board for more ideas.