Stressful day

Perhaps a tea of fresh mint from the garden might make me feel a bit better...?

Well, a pretty picture does, anyway.

Hope you are having a more relaxing day than me. If not, surely a cup of tea will help. Go make one now.

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Relax

My Relax blend was created at the request of my friend Melanie, who wanted to know if I could make something similar to a herbal blend that she loved, but wasn't able to get hold of easily where she lived. I thought this would be an interesting challenge... and luckily Melanie, I and many of my other customers have been very happy with the result!

This has definitely become one of my most popular teas. I love the look of the variegated green leaves, and I also love drinking it myself... in fact I think I need to go and divert some of my bulk stock to my pantry right now.

Relax contains a beautiful array of calming, soothing herbs - lemon balm, passionflower, skullcap, limeflowers - and a bit of spearmint and stevia (a naturally sweet herb) for added flavour. Everything organic! The stevia makes it sweet enough that you shouldn't need to add any honey or anything. However, Melanie likes to drink hers mixed with her favourite black tea... a combination I have also tried and can heartily recommend! I am wondering whether I should actually offer such a blend, pre-mixed, it's so nice!

Just as a word of warning, because of the passionflower and skullcap, I wouldn't recommend drinking this tea during pregnancy without at least consulting with your health professionals first.

Next week: Chai Masala

Tea and Food: What to drink with Italian

I find that Italian food is one of the hardest with which to pair tea. There's just something about it that gives me a mental block for some reason. However, being stubborn, and preferring to drink tea to any other beverage no matter what the circumstances, I am trying to come up with some options.

This post focuses on the simpler, lighter-flavored Italian type foods, the ones that you might choose to  accompany with a white wine. So, think of things like a risotto with veggies, pasta with sauteed greens, dishes that actually include some white wine in the cooking - even pizza if it's a fresher sort that's light on cheese and meats. Jamie's Italy and not the local pizzeria kind of thing (unless your local pizzeria happens to be DOC or Ladro, in which case you are lucky).

In my opinion these dishes actually pair well with fruity Chinese greens and greener oolongs, I think because the fruity notes and dryness can be quite similar to those you find in white wine. So you could brew up a pot of bi luo chun or milk oolong and it would be right at home... sort of... at any rate it would taste good! This week I drank some milk oolong alongside a pasta dish of penne with rainbow chard and it was a very good combination.

 Milk oolong steaming from its initial rinse

Likewise you would also do well with a greenish first flush Darjeeling; I accompanied my pasta leftovers the next day with some Singbulli first flush - also a very acceptable partner. Basically, I think in your tea selection you are looking for something with a bit of fruit and a bit of astringency - not mouth puckering, just enough to let you know it's there.

Herbal tea-wise... I would try chamomile, spearmint, maybe even fresh basil, bay leaf or lemon myrtle, depending on what flavorings you were using in the dish. Aniseed tisane would be very refreshing for afterwards (and that way you wouldn't need any Sambuca!)*

I'm still trying to get my head around the kinds of tea you would serve with more robust Italian dishes such as bolognaise... Does anyone have any suggestions? Or is this just not going to work?

* Just kidding. You can have the Sambuca too.

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Ruby-Red Mint

This is another really simple combination of two ingredients - spearmint and hibiscus - but it works so well. Both of the herbs are organic and it's caffeine free.

The colour of an infusion of Ruby-Red Mint is just amazing - such a vibrant shade of red.

 
I love hibiscus for adding that depth of colour to a blend. The dried leaves look pretty cool too:

The flavour is really burst-y: the deep tang of the hibiscus and then lighter minty notes from the spearmint makes this truly refreshing. It is a little on the sour side so you could sweeten it if you wanted, but it's not really necessary. A great soother for a sore throat, as well.

I acknowledge that it's a bit perverse to be writing about iced tea in the depths of Melbourne winter (although the weather has really been quite mild the last few days; I'm sure that will change soon enough) but Ruby-Red Mint truly shines as an iced tea. Make it strong and then dilute with cold water and ice... who needs soft drink?

Next week: Mint Delight.

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Peppermint Soother

This week's featured tea is Peppermint Soother. It was a runaway hit at my market stall last month and sells well for me online too. 

Peppermint Soother contains peppermint, lemon balm (also known by the first half of its botanical name, melissa) and chamomile. I learned about this combination during my time at naturopathy school, where it was recommended for people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. I could rabbit on about the beautiful synergy between these three herbs for ages. To keep things relatively short and sweet - not only do they each have specific benefits for the digestion (having aromatic and bitter digestive, antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory properties for example) but they also work together to tone and soothe the nervous system. Stress plays a big role in IBS and many other digestive problems so you can see why this particular combination is ideal. 

Enough with the naturopathic lecture already. It's good for you but it also tastes wonderful, with peppermint dominating and then a more subtle lemony-chamomile flavour. For best results in digestive upsets it should be drunk hot, but if you're just drinking it for fun (and why wouldn't you?) it is also lovely cold or at room temperature. 

Next week: Rainforest

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Chamomile Sunburst.

Chamomile Sunburst is probably the nearest and dearest to my heart of all my blends; it's the first one that I came up with when I was toying with the idea of setting up shop on Etsy. I got the idea for it from one of the Tea Shop Mystery books - Death by Darjeeling, I think - which mentioned a blend of chamomile, papaya, rosehips and vanilla.** I couldn't find any dried papaya, so I substituted dried apricots and never looked back.

Being a herbal concoction Chamomile Sunburst is caffeine free. It has a wonderfully heady vanilla fragrance and subtle vanilla flavour with a touch of tartness from the apricots and rosehips, all mixed up with the sweet appley taste of the organic chamomile. I would love for everyone to buy some of this, not because it will make me money but because it is just so damn nice.

Next week: Rosie.

** Just to prove that I have read all these books too many times, I will note that this particular blend was called 'Angel Oak'. Yet in another book - I can't remember which - Angel Oak is the name given to a completely different blend. Authorial slippage? Or was the original Angel Oak just not a good seller? Only Laura Childs may know...

Smooth Chamomile

I was intrigued by this recipe for a chamomile, peach and ginger smoothie from the moment I saw it on Taste.com.au - I know I have written about using good ol' C. sinensis in various smoothies but chamomile? Hmm.

But peaches are in season (yay!) so earlier this week I decided to brew up a strong pot of my Chamomile Sunburst blend and use that (instead of the plain chamomile and the ginger) to make a version of this smoothie. (I thought that the Chamomile Sunburst blend would go well in this because of the dried apricots it contains, complementing the peachy flavour). I also used some homemade (very runny) yoghurt instead of the milk, and added a tablespoon of chia seeds instead of the optional wheatgerm.


Verdict = YUM! Definitely give this one a try, either in the original or the revised version ( the Chamomile Sunburst is available in my Etsy shop...) ;)

Experimenting

It is downright freezing in my house today despite being the middle of October , so I am happy to be experimenting with some new tea blends (using as a base the Sri Lankan green that I wrote about here) and drinking lots of hot tea.

This photo was taken in Daylesford about 6 weeks ago, but the weather's not much different today!

As I have discovered over the last six months or so it is not actually that simple to create green tea blends using only natural herbs and spices (as opposed to flavourings/essences, whether natural or artificial in origin). This is primarily because of the different brewing temperatures and times of the different components: green teas generally yield the best results from short steeps at a lower temperature (around 80 Celsius), but herbs and spices need higher temperatures and longer steeping times to release their flavours properly. So it's not as easy to create a really lovely tasting green tea blend as it is to create a black one where the temperature and time factors are more similar.

My first trial batch this morning is a Moroccan mint-type blend (using dried herbs obviously, instead of fresh ones as I did the other day) of green tea, peppermint and spearmint. In the interest of scientific curiosity (and not freezing to death) I decided to try brewing two separate pots, one with water straight off the boil (yes, I know... I shuddered merely thinking about it but I did it anyway; that's just how intrepid I am) and another with water cooled for 3 minutes or so to about 75-80 Celsius. Unfortunately I don't have two teapots of exactly the same type and dimensions, but I did my best to keep the proportions of tea and water the same - 2 rounded metric teaspoons to about 400ml water, steeped for about 2 minutes.

Both teas were quite tasty (I think at least partly owing to the fact that the mints are powerfully flavoured in their own right and so probably relatively well-suited to brewing at different temperatures) but I preferred the one brewed at the cooler temperature. I'm hoping this isn't just my innate prejudice regarding the 'proper' way to brew tea; I really did try to keep an open mind and was even sort of hoping that the boiling water one might turn out better. But it had a strange kind of metallic taste to it that wasn't present in the other... not very pleasant. So once I get this blend up in my shop I will definitely be recommending that it be brewed with cooler water.

Gingerly, gingerly...

I have been suffering from the most rotten cold over the last week or so. I thought I might be going to escape the plague that was sweeping my work area, but alas, it was not to be. I’m through the worst of it now, but up to probably the most annoying stage – where you’re clogged and coughing but, unfortunately, unable to dislodge anything useful by blowing your nose. Very irritating – but fear not, I shan’t continue with any more detailed dissection of my symptoms, it is quite safe to read on.

So needless to say my sense of taste is rather shot at present, which means that only the strongest flavoured teas are of any use to me… I’ve been having quite a bit of peppermint (indeed, I am drinking some greedily as I type), but my current favourite morning tipple is ginger tea with lemon and honey, guaranteed to soothe my throat and refresh me after a night of sniffle-interrupted sleep. I am normally quite a fan of just lemon-juice-in-water first thing in the morning (that’s my inner naturopath for you), but it’s 2 degrees or less in Canberra when we get up at the moment so something rather more warming is called for, and ginger tea hits the spot.

Ginger is a very therapeutic herb, whether as tea or as part of the diet. It reduces nausea, soothes the digestion, warms the stomach (promoting better digestion that way as well), and improves circulation to all parts of the body, particularly the hands and feet. It also appears to have strong benefits for the other parts of the circulatory system, helping to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as being anti-inflammatory.

Ginger tea is a funny thing for me, though. It has to be plain, or combined only with other spices – I cannot bear it mixed with lemongrass, which is a very common combination and it is almost impossible to find ginger tea bags that are unadulterated with lemongrass. (Don’t get me wrong; lemongrass is delicious on its own or with other citrusy-flavoured herbs, but add it in with ginger and it makes me sick. I believe I am rather unique in this respect.)

Fortunately, at the health food shop where I used to work in Melbourne, Health Reflections ‘Just Ginger’ tea bags are available (this is one case where I prefer tea bags, as I think dried ginger makes better-tasting tea than fresh, but the powdered stuff you use for cooking is too fine to be much use). I bought myself a couple of packets in the early stages of my pregnancy, during a trip back to Melbourne, to help with the nausea – ironically, as it turned out, the very idea of ginger tea made me even MORE nauseous, so I never drank any (should’ve got the capsules instead). However, I’m super-glad that I had it on hand because it has been terrific for helping with my cold.

Liquid Gold

I read a Terry Pratchett book some years ago – I can’t remember which one it was now – in which he described a sunrise as flowing over the land like molten gold. This was followed by a footnote which explained that, given that actual molten gold would be very very hot, very heavy and set things on fire in short order, the sunrise actually wasn’t that much like molten gold, really. This is the kind of thing that simultaneously amuses and irritates me about Terry Pratchett’s writing, but obviously it was a snippet that stuck with me, seeing as how I remember the lines something like 15 years after I read the book.

So, if we are going to be as literal about it as all that, chamomile tea is not actually THAT much like liquid gold either, but taking a metaphor as a metaphor, it could certainly be worth its weight in gold,* for all its usefulness and good qualities.

Chamomile is an excellent calming tonic for the nerves; many herbal books point to its use by Mrs Rabbit when Peter comes back all upset after his escapades in Mr MacGregor’s garden to indicate its soothing qualities and suitability for children (and rabbits, presumably). It can be used for anxiety and sleeplessness (it is not a sedative, just relaxing). It also is excellent for digestive upsets and bloating, particularly those of a nervous or stress-related origin, but also on its own merit because of its volatile oil content and somewhat bitter taste.

(Just to crack out my inner naturopath for a bit, bitter foods tend to be underappreciated in this day and age, despite the many benefits they have. The bitter flavour stimulates the digestion, promoting the production of digestive juices such as stomach acid, and it cleanses and cools the liver; it draws energy into the centre of the body, rather than leaving it out at the periphery, and thus has a calming effect on the fight-or-flight response, in which circulation is diverted out to the muscles. The liver-cleansing properties of many bitter herbs and foods also means that they can have useful secondary effects on other conditions, such as skin and hormonal problems. But ok, that’s probably enough information for now and I’ll leave off my rave. The take-home message is: don’t be afraid of bitter foods and drinks; welcome things like radicchio, dandelion, endive, grapefruit, chamomile, even Angostura bitters into your life!)

Chamomile is also anti-inflammatory, and the tea can be used to soothe skin inflammations and sensitive skin. Chill it and soak some cotton pads in it to make a very refreshing eye mask, or use as a toner after cleansing.

Chamomile blends well with other relaxing herbs such as rose petals, lavender and lemon balm; or for a stronger digestive effect, mix equal parts chamomile, peppermint and lemon balm.

Some people who have an allergy to plants in the daisy (Asteraceae) family may not tolerate chamomile – but for just about everyone else, it’s great!

* although, given how light and fluffy chamomile is, you might get an even better deal if you were able to wrangle it so that you received its volume in gold… now that would be something

Summer Strawberry Tea

I hosted my first formal tea party last Sunday, which was attended in high spirits by three friends (and my husband, naturally), and crowned by the successful production of scones in our Weber BBQ (as our gas oven and stove decided to go kaput late last week, seriously throwing out many of our cooking plans for the weekend). I admit to being dubious initially about the capacity of the BBQ to produce baked goods, but I am now a convert, and possibly likely to become an enthusiast. We’ll see.

Half the fun (or more) is in the preparation for these kinds of events; my mum and I are inveterate colour-coordinators at Christmas time, and I love setting myself a theme to work within, then hunting down the requisite matching stuff: place cards, favours, invitations, table

 linen, whatever else is required. Not to mention the pleasure of rifling through the boxes in the garage, which contain all the antique china that we have no room to store in our current small, insufficiently-provided-with-storage-space house, in order to locate some of my beautiful vintage teacup, saucer and plate sets.

And of course, there was the cooking. Fortunately the scones were the only thing I needed to actually bake on the day; and the chocolate for the pistachio and white-chocolate dipped strawberries could be melted in the microwave (I do usually prefer a saucepan over simmering

 water, but needs must, etc).

Other menu items included cucumber sandwiches, and horseradish-laced mini wraps containing roasted capsicum and salad greens (I think these were my favourites). Turns out my husband had never eaten a proper afternoon-tea style cucumber sandwich, crusts cut off and sliced into fingers, before this auspicious event; well, now he knows what he’s been missing out on. The scones were accompanied by lashings of whipped cream and strawberry jam; and the finale was tiny little teacups made of dark chocolate (acquired from a fantastic deli in north Canberra) and filled with my husband’s home-made strawberry gelato. Exquisite!

To serve with all this I brewed up some spearmint-hibiscus iced tea, fantastically ruby-coloured and refreshing, as well as a large pot of Ceylon tea from the Nandana estate, a lovely twisty OP leaf that gives a coppery liquor with a bright, almost fruity flavour. Once these were all consumed and our capacity for food exhausted (for the time being), I brought out some Pi Lo Chun (which I have written about here) to round things off.
On the whole it seemed to be a resounding success and I am already planning an autumn-themed tea for a couple of months’ time…

And a credit to my husband, who took the photos you see on this page, which is why they are extremely artistic and beautifully shot. Thanks honey!

Quest for summer sanity, via iced tea, continues

It's a relatively cool evening, thanks to the delightful breeze that's wafting through the open windows (it doesn't seem to be wafting too many mosquitoes through the tatty flywire at the moment, an added bonus). 

It's been a relatively lazy weekend which saw me and my husband and our cat piled on the couch for a post-lunch snooze this afternoon... although I did get up early to do some baking: inspired at the prospect of having blackberry-basil iced tea at breakfast, I decided to make some blackberry muffins to accompany it. They were very good; and the tea was fantastic.

The recipe for the blackberry-basil syrup is courtesy of the delightfully whimsical TeaSpot NYC blog and I knew I just had to try it as soon as I read about it. It's a beautiful balance of sweet and tart and the colour is amazing - I should've taken photos, but was too busy enjoying my breakfast to bother. (There is some blackberry-basil syrup left, though, so I still have the option - maybe tomorrow.)

The tea itself was a Ceylon single estate tea, Nandana Orange Pekoe, which I bought in NZ from T Leaf Tea, cold brewed overnight. Cold-brewing this tea yields a beautifully pale amber liquor, very mild (it's redder and stronger tasting when hot) and combined with the syrup it was truly a taste sensation. The basil added such a striking spicy, aromatic note. I think it would also go well with strawberries if blackberries aren't available (mind you I used frozen ones).

Then this afternoon I made myself a pot of spearmint and hibiscus (a teaspoon of each herb per cup), hot-brewed, steeped strong and then poured over ice. Minty and sour, 100% refreshing.

And now I'm finishing off the day with a few glasses of iced Haru-Poro-Poro (cold-brewed over the course of the day). This is a combination of sencha, green rooibos and raspberry flavouring - it's astringent (in a good way), sweet and the raspberry flavour is not overpowering. It really is delicious iced. It's from Lupicia - a wonderful shop in Melbourne which I visited at Christmas time.  They have loads of beautiful oolongs and greens that I would love to try; I'll have to see if I can schedule another trip when I'm next in Melbourne.

Iced tea for maintaining summer sanity

Over the long weekend I decided to try out an iced herbal tea recipe that I found on Taste.com.au and which looked intriguing: Chilled Sage and Herb Tea. Here’s the link to the original recipe.

Sage is plentiful in our garden at present, and I had lemons; but I had no mint and no fennel seeds. What to do? A rapid survey of our spice shelf in the pantry revealed some star anise; and then I remembered that the garden also contained a couple of small patches of lemon balm. This turned out to be a little the worse for the heat and for being past flowering, but I still managed to cull enough to make a couple of batches of the tea - which was, as it turned out, absolutely delicious – delicately lemony and sweet with a very refreshing herbal aftertaste.

The next day I acquired some fennel seeds and decided to make a batch using these instead of the star anise. This was also good; a slightly darker colour, not quite as sweet. I think I preferred my first version, and so for good measure here is the recipe:

1/3 cup fresh sage
1 tablespoon fresh lemon balm
1 tablespoon whole star anise
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Lightly crush the fresh herbs (you can do this by just squeezing them in you hand) and bruise the star anise in a small mortar and pestle (you could also put them between a couple of layers of paper towel and whack them with a rolling pin or something, just a little bit).

Place the herbs, star anise and lemon zest in a large teapot or heat-proof jug and pour on 1.25 litres freshly-boiled water. Cover and set aside to steep for about 15 minutes.

Strain liquid, let cool and refrigerate for at least an hour. Serve as is, or you could add honey to taste (I didn’t bother), and/or ice.

If you don’t have access to fresh lemon balm, don’t bother using dried; they taste nothing like each other. You could substitute a small amount of lemongrass (fresh or dried) instead.

Happy quaffing!

Blending Tea

I have been having a lot of fun over the last few weeks trying to develop some tea blends of my own. These are mostly herbal blends because that’s what I feel most confident with – black and green teas seem so complex, and indeed it seems a shame to tamper with their own beautiful flavours sometimes – although I have had a go at a couple of black tea blends as well. I’m hoping that I may be able to start up a little tea business on Etsy sometime in the next few months but am trying to come up with a solid range of blends first before I get in over my head.

I don’t have access to the artificial or natural flavouring essences used to make regular flavoured teas so I’m confining myself to using the stuff I can buy at the herbal and grocery stores near me – although for the Christmas tea I have been trying to blend I did buy an almond flavoured black tea to use as the base (from The Tea Centre). This means dried fruits, spices, nuts, cocoa, vanilla and of course herbs like chamomile, rose petals and hips, spearmint…

It’s a funny process, trying to blend tea. Sometimes I seem to hit the nail on the head straight off - at least to my taste, and my friends who have tried the teas seem to like them well enough also (luckily!) – and sometimes things don’t work out like I was anticipating at all. Dried apple, for example, doesn’t add as much apple-y flavour as I’d thought it would, whereas dried apricots seem to work really well if you steep them for a decent period of time. Cardamom pods (crushed) have an extremely strong, almost overpowering scent – I really thought I’d gone overboard with the amount I put in - but when the tea is brewed the resulting flavour is quite subtle. I am curious to experiment with some shredded dried coconut…

The ideas come from a variety of places too. Some of them I just come up with on my own, but I’m also inspired – I do confess it – by blends that I read about in my beloved (but o-so-trashy) Tea Shop Mysteries… I own a couple of these and borrow the others from the library semi-regularly, not to re-read in their entirety but just to skip to the bits where they talk about the teas at the Indigo tea shop, and the catering that they do… and the recipes and tea party ideas at the end. It’s my little bit of escapist tea fantasy… Embarrassing but true.

I do wonder just how infinite (or otherwise) the number of possible blends is, though – at least for ones that will also be tasty. I was congratulating myself on being fairly original in coming up with the idea to try out a mix of fennel and lemongrass – then discovered at the café of the Embassy theatre in Wellington that there was a blend there that contained those two things (along with juniper berries, I think – wish I could remember the name of the brand of tea, I should’ve written it down…)! It seemed like an amazing coincidence. It also tasted pretty good – I think I will still try my own version.

Once the conference I’m going to is over and done with at the end of the week I am definitely looking forward to trying out more of my own tea blends, and will be taking careful note of the results for future reference… stay tuned!

YEP tea

Time for a post about non-Camellia sinensis tea, I think. Herbs are the order of the week. I was feeling a bit under the weather earlier this week, sore throat, sniffly, feverish, so I pulled out my trusty tin of YEP tea to see if that would knock whatever virus was floating around my system on the head in time for me to go to New Zealand on my (belated) honeymoon.

Now for those of you who don’t know what YEP tea is, it is pretty great stuff. I heard about it when I was at naturopathy college and have been a devotee of it ever since. The ‘YEP’ stands for ‘Yarrow, Elderflower and Peppermint’and it is a herbal blend that is just sensational for the early stages of colds and flu. When I really feel like I’m coming down with something, if I get right on to the YEP tea and drink loads of it (I’m talking 6-8 cups a day here) I will rarely get actually sick.

It’s not specifically immune-boosting or anything like that; instead it is warming and drying and in naturopathic terms this means that it helps raise and maintain the body’s temperature to an optimal level so that the fever can do its job, which is burning out the bugs from your system. (At this point I should just insert this WARNING: if you have anyone, particularly young children, who have a high fever, don’t use the natural remedies, get them quickly to a medical doctor or a hospital – the fever response is usually beneficial, but if it gets out of control it is extremely dangerous).

But back to more cheerful matters, like lovely herbs.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a diaphoretic (raises body temperature and promotes sweating), a circulatory stimulant (moves the blood around so all those immune complexes can circulate quickly to where the bugs are) and a mucous membrane tonic (makes it harder for bugs to attach to surfaces and also helps alleviate symptoms like sniffling and sneezing), amongst many other useful things.

Elderflower (Sambuca nigra) is a mucous membrane tonic as well, but specific for the upper respiratory system (that’s your nose and sinuses for those of you playing at home); it is also anti-catarrhal (helps decrease mucous production), in part because of its tonic effect.

Peppermint (Mentha piperita) does a lot of great things, like being a digestive, but in this case it’s used for its circulatory stimulant and diaphoretic properties like the yarrow.

Altogether these make for pretty powerful medicine and it really does make a difference if you feel you’re getting a cold or a flu. I had oodles of it earlier in the week and I am not feeling ill at all any more. I like to make it fairly strong (about 1.5-2 tsp per cup instead of just one) but because you need to drink it as hot as possible for it to have the optimal effect you shouldn’t let it steep or cool for too long. The taste is minty but can be a little bitter – that’s mainly the yarrow’s fault – so you might like to add a little honey, which is also soothing for sore throats and antibacterial anyway. If I’m really feeling cold and miserable I add a pinch of chilli powder as well, this certainly helps to clear your head.

A side note: As I mentioned about I am going off to New Zealand, so I’ll be away for a couple of weeks. But fear not, gentle readers; I will be taking careful notes about my tea (and biscuit) experiences while I’m gone and will provide updates shortly after my return!

Tea Thought of the Day, and some fruitiness

‘The progress of this famous plant has been something like the progress of truth: suspected at first, though very palatable to those who had the courage to taste it; resisted as it encroached, abused as its popularity spread, and establishing its triumph at last… by slow and resistless efforts of time and its own virtues.’ Isaac D’Israeli, cited in Alan Macfarlane and Iris Macfarlane, Green Gold, p.42.

Apologies for the text-heavy posts lately – I would like to break them up with more pictures but am hampered by a number of factors, including my mediocre photography skills, poor lighting at home, cold weather (which means lack of opportunity to take nice pretty photos outside).

I am working my way slowly through Green Gold, which is proving a most interesting read, full of information which I would never have guessed, much of which is disturbing at the same time that it’s fascinating. For example, I never knew that the tea and opium trades were closely linked during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the demand for tea in Europe exceeded the amount of silver available to pay for it, and opium was traded instead (somewhat illegally). Gripping stuff (no, really, it is).

Today I am drinking some Berries of the Forest, another tea brought up from Tea Leaves for me by my friend. This, as its name suggests, is a fruit tea, containing dried blackcurrant, strawberry, blackberry, bilberry, elderberry, hibiscus blossoms and rose hip. It really is worth photographing, and I will remember to do so on the weekend, because it produces a most amazingly vibrant tea of a deep cherry red colour. It has a wonderfully rich flavour as well, not too tart and not too sweet but a pleasing balance of both. Another plus is that so far as I can tell there are no added flavours (whether artificial or natural); the taste is all from the actual ingredients.

Berries of the Forest is really good hot but when the weather is warmer it would also be a wonderful iced tea – perfect with some sliced strawberries and maybe some mint leaves in it too. It can take quite a long steeping time as well (five minutes minimum, I reckon), which makes it a good option for work where I can make it and forget about it and then drink it and it’s still delicious!

In my cup today

Today is a festival of rooibos (yesterday was too), which is one of the teas which my friend so very kindly brought up for me from Melbourne when she came to visit on the weekend.

I haven’t had any rooibos (pronounced roy-boss) for ages, due to the difficulty of getting any at a reasonable price in Canberra, and had nearly forgotten how nice it is. It’s fragrant and sweet-smelling and brews up to a really lovely deep red-brown colour, but because it has little or no tannins it is not astringent or bitter at all, even if you forget about it and leave it to steep for too long. Which I do, fairly regularly.

Here is a handy Wikipedia article about rooibos, including a little bit of information about its health benefits which are helping to make it so popular these days. It’s meant to be frightfully good for you because it contains antioxidants (no one wants to hear about boring plain old minerals, amino acids or vitamins any more, apparently, it’s superfoods or nothing). This means that it will help to prevent damage to organs like the brain and the heart and will help to boost your immune system. If you are herbally or chemical-analysisly minded (ok, I made that last word up) have a look here at page 3 of the Rooibos Story on www.rooibos.com – if you scroll down a bit you will find an analysis of the metabolites of rooibos and their potential effects.

The list is fairly impressive, and includes anti-allergic, antibacterial & anti-fungal, hypotensive (reduces blood pressure), expectorant (gets rid of mucus from your lungs) and anti-hepatotoxic (which means it helps stop bad things happening to your liver). Now apparently these results came from the water soluble metabolites so it seems like you should be fairly sure of getting at least some of these in your cup of rooibos tea, which is good news. Of course these are not the only reasons to drink it – it actually tastes nice as well and blends beautifully with other flavours, particularly floral ones like rose petals.

Ha, I recall that I would haplessly recommend rooibos as a substitute for caffeinated tea at the health food store where I used to work, which led to me being vilified by tea-drinking customers as an ivory-tower herbal nut who didn’t know what I was talking about (‘It doesn’t taste anything like tea, it’s disgusting’). Well, ok, no it doesn’t taste that much like regular tea, although the colour is pretty good (like a nice robust Assam) and it does have a nice round flavour and can take some milk as well if you want it to. I suppose when you’re a grumpy customer who’s just been told you can’t have anything that you like any more because it’s bad for your health at the moment you are not in the best position to appreciate the plusses of something like rooibos.

So if that’s the good news, then what’s the bad? Not much, it would seem, although I did come across this article from August 2006 (through a link at The Simple Leaf blog) which raises concerns about the impact which intensive rooibos cultivation is having on parts of the South African eco-system. This is because with the increasing demand for rooibos, more farmers are beginning to grow it and they have been (sometimes illegally) ploughing up previously uncultivated land to do so, thus potentially further endangering already endangered species of plants in those areas.

This is a bit depressing (although it’s not just rooibos to blame, other types of farming are involved too), not to mention concerning. What to do? I’m not sure. It may be possible to purchase certified sustainably farmed rooibos from responsible growers, but as we are all becoming more and more aware, certification is just another minefield for consumers to get taken advantage of in. I will still continue to drink rooibos, in the meantime… just not too much.

Out with the old and in with the new!

Yesterday and this morning I have been drinking some tea that I actually don’t really like: Honey Green Almond from T2. I only have a little bit left so I’ve been trying to finish it up – all gone now, thank goodness. It’s a green (unoxidised?) honeybush blend which smelt really good when I first bought it (some months ago now) but I didn’t enjoy drinking it as much as I could have – I just tried to find a description of it on the T2 website but it doesn’t appear to be available any more (probably cos, like me, most people didn’t like it much).

I can’t even really say what I don’t like about it. I think it’s the ‘chocolate’ flavour (it’s meant to have chocolate in it, but I can’t see any, so I think it’s just a flavour). I have nothing against chocolate but it just doesn’t work in this blend. I might try just some plain, regular honeybush though when I have a chance to go back to T2 (hopefully soon).

In other, more exciting news, my new teas that I ordered from Oriental Tea House finally arrived yesterday!! I was so thrilled I was inspired to do a little happy dance (much to my husband’s amusement).

I spent the evening drinking the Relaxing tea… so good! It has peppermint, wolfberries, ginseng, licorice and Chinese dates (you can eat the dates and the wolfberries, also known as goji berries, after you’ve finished making tea with them – they’re yum). The licorice is not too prominent, fortunately – I don’t mind it but too much can be a bit sickly because it is very sweet. Instead, it’s lovely and subtle. Most of the kick from the peppermint is in the first infusion (you can do up to three, these Chinese herbal blends tend to be pretty robust) and after that the more delicate woody and sweet flavours of the other herbs and fruits come through.

Today, I have brought the Chai to work, so if I have a chance I may be able to post a review about that (didn’t have time on the weekend to do the Hari Har Chai review – too busy!)…