Some of you may remember that a while back I wrote about making some Earl Grey tea-soaked prunes. I can safely report that they are delicious! The overall flavour is more subtle than the Nigella Lawson ones that I’ve also made, but that’s mainly because there just is less stuff in this version, plus there’s no added sugar or alcohol. They’re a really nice addition to breakfast but they would also be lovely served with a dessert of some kind, even just the liquid would be great poured over some ice cream or something like that. Once I’ve worked my way through this jar I think I’ll make another… perhaps with orange rind instead of lemon rind, and a few added spices. Lightbulb moment: this could be a good addition to our Christmas hampers this year!
My brother has very kindly pointed me in the direction of an essay written by George Orwell (originally published in 1946) entitled ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’ (and what more enticing heading could there be, I ask you?). In this article Orwell outlines his personal rules for making tea – noting that some of them are controversial. I particularly agree with his assertion that one should always drink tea out of a cylindrical cup rather than a wide flat one, because the latter makes the tea get cold too quickly – and, at the risk of entering a highly-charged debate, I also will come down on the side of putting the tea into the cup and adding milk, rather than the other way around; it’s just too hard to judge the right amount of milk if you put it in first!
I confess I am also intrigued by Orwell’s passing reference to ‘sweeping the carpet’ as a ‘subsidiary use for tealeaves’… what on earth does this mean? The rest of the items on this list make sense, but that one is a mystery to me. Anyone who can answer my question, please feel free to post in the comments…
Monday, 10 November 2008
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Iced tea!
The weather is finally warming up (yes, even in Canberra, hallelujah) and I am finding that hot tea is not always, well, my cup of tea, at the moment, particularly not after I have had to walk home after work on a sunny evening, as happens quite often lately because my husband is working unreasonable hours for the PM (boo!).
So my thoughts have been turning to iced tea. I am lucky enough to have a couple of Bodum iced tea pitchers (birthday presents from kindly friends who chose to feed my addiction rather than thwart it) which make making iced tea much easier than it would otherwise be. These are tall plastic pitchers with a long filter that fits in against one side; you put the tea leaves into this and then fill with water, then it’s simple to remove the filter and the leaves once the brewing time is over. For a picture and another rave review, have a look here.
Because it was sunny and shiny on the northern hemisphere side of the world in mid-July, while I was freezing my toes off in below zero temperatures down here, most of the (American) tea blogs that I read were talking about iced tea at a time when I couldn’t think of anything less appealing, except perhaps walking barefoot through the snow selling matches. I did, however, take note of some of the recommendations made on some of these sites and stored them away in my head for future reference.
One of these recommendations was to brew your iced tea with cold water. Now most of the instructions that I’ve seen for making iced tea (e.g. those that came with my pitchers, for example) say that you brew it up with twice the tea leaves (because things taste less strong when they’re cold) and half the hot water that you would normally use, and then add cold water and ice to chill it once it’s finished steeping. This is all very well if you’re organised enough to have ice in your freezer (regrettably, I’m usually not, as we don’t use much of it). So the cold brewing method was a revelation.
I have tried it a few times recently with green and black teas and I have to say it works exceptionally well. It takes a bit longer (you need to leave the tea to steep in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight – I find this less difficult to organise than having ice in the freezer, surprisingly), but the result is fantastic. One of the aesthetic benefits, if you’re fussed about such things, which I’m not particularly, but I may as well mention it, is that the resulting tea is crystal clear; making tea with hot water extracts higher amounts of polyphenols, and subsequent chilling causes these to precipitate, making the brew look cloudy. However, the slower steeping time at cold temperatures means this doesn’t happen when you cold-brew the tea. Another plus (probably related) – there is a much smaller risk that your tea (particularly green teas) will end up astringent and unpleasant – I always find it a bit harder to judge water temperature and volume when I’m making larger quantities of tea and sometimes it doesn’t come out quite right. There’s a bit more leeway with iced herbal teas, so I think I will probably continue to brew those the hot way, though.
I have had great success with brewing my honey-flavoured sencha from Tea Leaves this way (don’t particularly like it hot, but it’s more palatable cold and with a squeeze of lemon) and also the Assam Dimakusi BOP which I have discussed here – this makes a particularly nice smooth iced tea. I am looking forward to trying some iced Earl Grey as well, perhaps with orange slices in it…
So my thoughts have been turning to iced tea. I am lucky enough to have a couple of Bodum iced tea pitchers (birthday presents from kindly friends who chose to feed my addiction rather than thwart it) which make making iced tea much easier than it would otherwise be. These are tall plastic pitchers with a long filter that fits in against one side; you put the tea leaves into this and then fill with water, then it’s simple to remove the filter and the leaves once the brewing time is over. For a picture and another rave review, have a look here.
Because it was sunny and shiny on the northern hemisphere side of the world in mid-July, while I was freezing my toes off in below zero temperatures down here, most of the (American) tea blogs that I read were talking about iced tea at a time when I couldn’t think of anything less appealing, except perhaps walking barefoot through the snow selling matches. I did, however, take note of some of the recommendations made on some of these sites and stored them away in my head for future reference.
One of these recommendations was to brew your iced tea with cold water. Now most of the instructions that I’ve seen for making iced tea (e.g. those that came with my pitchers, for example) say that you brew it up with twice the tea leaves (because things taste less strong when they’re cold) and half the hot water that you would normally use, and then add cold water and ice to chill it once it’s finished steeping. This is all very well if you’re organised enough to have ice in your freezer (regrettably, I’m usually not, as we don’t use much of it). So the cold brewing method was a revelation.
I have tried it a few times recently with green and black teas and I have to say it works exceptionally well. It takes a bit longer (you need to leave the tea to steep in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight – I find this less difficult to organise than having ice in the freezer, surprisingly), but the result is fantastic. One of the aesthetic benefits, if you’re fussed about such things, which I’m not particularly, but I may as well mention it, is that the resulting tea is crystal clear; making tea with hot water extracts higher amounts of polyphenols, and subsequent chilling causes these to precipitate, making the brew look cloudy. However, the slower steeping time at cold temperatures means this doesn’t happen when you cold-brew the tea. Another plus (probably related) – there is a much smaller risk that your tea (particularly green teas) will end up astringent and unpleasant – I always find it a bit harder to judge water temperature and volume when I’m making larger quantities of tea and sometimes it doesn’t come out quite right. There’s a bit more leeway with iced herbal teas, so I think I will probably continue to brew those the hot way, though.
I have had great success with brewing my honey-flavoured sencha from Tea Leaves this way (don’t particularly like it hot, but it’s more palatable cold and with a squeeze of lemon) and also the Assam Dimakusi BOP which I have discussed here – this makes a particularly nice smooth iced tea. I am looking forward to trying some iced Earl Grey as well, perhaps with orange slices in it…
Returned from New Tealand!
Well, New Zealand, technically, but I had so many very pleasant experiences with tea while I was over there that it almost did count as New Tealand, really.
While there were many highlights of our trip, most of them either nerdy (full day LOTR tours, anyone? Bliss!) or foodie (full day tasting tour in Martinborough and surrounds, plus many delicious restaurant meals) I will restrict myself to the tea highlights (tea lights? Hmmm) because those are what this blog is all about, after all.
It proved not very difficult at all to get decent loose-leaf tea in restaurants, particularly in Wellington where most places seemed to stock T Leaf Tea. The branding of this tea is very similar to T2 (black and orange) and they provide a similar range of products but also some that I hadn’t seen before, including quite a good range of single estate black teas and the best variety of beehouse (now known as ‘zero’) teapots I’ve seen – lots of different colours, so pretty! I would particularly like one in pumpkin orange…
One night in Wellington we went to Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, a place that serves really good deep-South of America type food, for dessert and tea. I was delighted to find that the tea itself (a raspberry and vanilla flavoured rooibos, very sweet and pleasant, not overpowering at all) was served in a beautiful blue-flowered Royal Albert tea cup, with matching plate.
I am pretty sure that this picture depicts the pattern (it’s from an unnamed set matched with the pattern ‘Marguerite’, which I found thanks to this site.
Now I was also conscious of the need to sample some NZ biscuits, along with my tea, and on the matching plate which came with my tea at Sweet Mother’s Kitchen I tried out an afghan biscuit. These chocolate biscuits with chocolate icing on top seem to be very popular in NZ (there are also supermarket versions, though I skipped those in favour of trying out some Toffeepops, which were yummy). The one I had that evening was absolutely sublime. It had crunchy bits in it (which, after looking at some recipes online, I have deduced to be cornflakes or weeties), it was crumbly and buttery and chocolatey, and the icing was fantastic. Yet overall it wasn’t too sweet either. I am going to have a go at making some of these - here is one recipe, and here is another.
In Auckland, we went shopping to get my husband something nice at a men’s clothing shop called ‘Marvel’ (he bought a very nice striped top) – and I came away with, of all things, a teapot (the owners of the store appear to be collectors of vintage china, particularly Crown Lynn NZ made stuff). It’s a lovely deep sky blue glaze, cream coloured inside, and the most perfect pouring teapot I’ve had – not a drip! I will post a photo of it when I have a chance. So that absolutely made my trip, that’s for sure.
Another tea highlight was when we went out for dinner in Rotorua – we went to an Indian restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet, where we had the best Indian food I’ve eaten since leaving Melbourne last year (seriously). I ordered a cup of their chai masala tea, which was delicious – I think it had quite a bit of black pepper in it, it had quite a kick. I do like my chai with pepper, it always seems more exciting somehow than just with cinnamon and so on. I am going to have a go at blending some of my own at some point.
That’s all the tall tea tales I have time for today folks, but I will return. I have been having great success with iced tea, for example, and I have photos to post, and new teas to try, and many more things to rant about.
While there were many highlights of our trip, most of them either nerdy (full day LOTR tours, anyone? Bliss!) or foodie (full day tasting tour in Martinborough and surrounds, plus many delicious restaurant meals) I will restrict myself to the tea highlights (tea lights? Hmmm) because those are what this blog is all about, after all.
It proved not very difficult at all to get decent loose-leaf tea in restaurants, particularly in Wellington where most places seemed to stock T Leaf Tea. The branding of this tea is very similar to T2 (black and orange) and they provide a similar range of products but also some that I hadn’t seen before, including quite a good range of single estate black teas and the best variety of beehouse (now known as ‘zero’) teapots I’ve seen – lots of different colours, so pretty! I would particularly like one in pumpkin orange…
One night in Wellington we went to Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, a place that serves really good deep-South of America type food, for dessert and tea. I was delighted to find that the tea itself (a raspberry and vanilla flavoured rooibos, very sweet and pleasant, not overpowering at all) was served in a beautiful blue-flowered Royal Albert tea cup, with matching plate.
I am pretty sure that this picture depicts the pattern (it’s from an unnamed set matched with the pattern ‘Marguerite’, which I found thanks to this site.Now I was also conscious of the need to sample some NZ biscuits, along with my tea, and on the matching plate which came with my tea at Sweet Mother’s Kitchen I tried out an afghan biscuit. These chocolate biscuits with chocolate icing on top seem to be very popular in NZ (there are also supermarket versions, though I skipped those in favour of trying out some Toffeepops, which were yummy). The one I had that evening was absolutely sublime. It had crunchy bits in it (which, after looking at some recipes online, I have deduced to be cornflakes or weeties), it was crumbly and buttery and chocolatey, and the icing was fantastic. Yet overall it wasn’t too sweet either. I am going to have a go at making some of these - here is one recipe, and here is another.
In Auckland, we went shopping to get my husband something nice at a men’s clothing shop called ‘Marvel’ (he bought a very nice striped top) – and I came away with, of all things, a teapot (the owners of the store appear to be collectors of vintage china, particularly Crown Lynn NZ made stuff). It’s a lovely deep sky blue glaze, cream coloured inside, and the most perfect pouring teapot I’ve had – not a drip! I will post a photo of it when I have a chance. So that absolutely made my trip, that’s for sure.
Another tea highlight was when we went out for dinner in Rotorua – we went to an Indian restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet, where we had the best Indian food I’ve eaten since leaving Melbourne last year (seriously). I ordered a cup of their chai masala tea, which was delicious – I think it had quite a bit of black pepper in it, it had quite a kick. I do like my chai with pepper, it always seems more exciting somehow than just with cinnamon and so on. I am going to have a go at blending some of my own at some point.
That’s all the tall tea tales I have time for today folks, but I will return. I have been having great success with iced tea, for example, and I have photos to post, and new teas to try, and many more things to rant about.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Photos!
Here at last are some pretty photos of some of my teawares; I had to take them more or less all in the same spot as we only have one really well-lit sunny spot near a window in the house, but I think they turned out fairly well.
My Beehouse teapot, that I use every day (usually more than once!)
A collection of my prettier canisters and tins that I keep my tea in
My enormous (6+ cups, depending on the size of the cups) London Pottery Farmhouse teapot, with the tea cosy that I bought from Tea Leaves in Sassafras (so pretty)
And last but not least, a picture of the Earl Grey prunes that I made the other day, which are currently steeping in the fridge and will be ready to go in another couple of weeks!
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Chinese Teas
I spent some time taking some photos of my tea canisters and teapots on the weekend, only to have the camera run out of batteries before I could upload the photos to my computer. I still haven’t got around to charging the batteries (I keep forgetting), but in the meantime, check out these links to a fascinating series of articles about the teas of China being posted at T Ching by James Norwood Pratt. They contain many fascinating snippets of information, most of which are new to me, I confess (who would’ve thought that ‘gunpowder’ green tea originated as a means of keeping the tea fresh by rolling it into little balls with a small surface area?). There are four articles so far (including the introduction), keep an eye out for more as they come…
Introduction
Lu cha
Dragon well
Biluochun
Introduction
Lu cha
Dragon well
Biluochun
Friday, 19 September 2008
Cooking with Lapsang Souchong and Earl Grey
A while ago I posted about some Lapsang Souchong that I’d bought and found a bit difficult to drink, but that I intended to use it in some cooking (see the original post here). Shortly after that my husband and I tried out the Black Bean Soft Tacos (one of the recipes I found which uses Lapsang) but I kept forgetting to mention it here. We did take some photos, but unfortunately they turned out a bit blurry and rubbish, so I won’t post them (I do wish I had more skills of a photographer).
Anyway, we made the tacos and I really quite enjoyed them. They were extremely easy and quick to make (almost always a bonus in my book) and the pineapple salsa that accompanied them was delightful – really fresh and zesty. The recipe called for canned black beans, but as I had some dried ones at home I soaked and cooked them the regular way, then followed the recipe, which involved making up a strong brew of Lapsang Souchong and cooking – well, heating/steeping really I suppose - the beans in that.
This resulted in a lovely subtle smoky flavour to the beans – it wasn’t overpowering at all. I wouldn’t have minded if it had been a bit stronger, either – if you happen to have some chipotles (dried smoked jalapenos) lying around, as my husband naturally does (!), you could chuck one of those in there as well to add a bit of extra smoke and spice.
The recipe was very low in fat because the beans were just cooked in water – I think it would also work quite well though if you cooked the onion (and chipotle) with some olive oil and maybe some garlic as well to make the flavours a little stronger before you add the beans and the tea. Overall I thought it was great and I intend to make it again and experiment with it a bit.
A while ago when we had a bunch of people over for dinner, we made Nigella Lawson’s recipe for tea-soaked prunes, which she recommends serving with either custard or crème brulee (urgh), but which we served with ice cream and amaretti biscuits. The recipe for these prunes comes from Nigella’s book How to Eat, and involves turning some strong Earl Grey tea into a syrup with orange peel, spices, brown sugar and marsala, then steeping the prunes in it for a couple of days (or more). It is very simple, and absolutely delicious, whether as a dessert or for breakfast (I had some for both, I confess).
Because of the strong flavours mixed with it, I found it a little hard to detect the presence of the Earl Grey per se (a Twinings’ loose leaf from the supermarket, though the recipe itself called for teabags – shame, Nigella!). Consequently I am interested to try a recipe which my husband found in a slow-food book (whose name I can’t recall), which involves sticking the prunes in a jar, adding a couple of Earl Grey tea bags and a couple of strips of lemon zest, and pouring boiling water over to cover. Then you seal it and let it sit for a couple of weeks. I think that this method would let the flavour of the tea shine through a bit more. All I need is a decent jar to try making it in…
Also speaking of Earl Grey, earlier in the week I had a pot in conjunction with a piece of a particularly nice chocolate cake that I made – now Earl Grey and chocolate is a really good combination, I highly recommend it, indeed.
Anyway, we made the tacos and I really quite enjoyed them. They were extremely easy and quick to make (almost always a bonus in my book) and the pineapple salsa that accompanied them was delightful – really fresh and zesty. The recipe called for canned black beans, but as I had some dried ones at home I soaked and cooked them the regular way, then followed the recipe, which involved making up a strong brew of Lapsang Souchong and cooking – well, heating/steeping really I suppose - the beans in that.
This resulted in a lovely subtle smoky flavour to the beans – it wasn’t overpowering at all. I wouldn’t have minded if it had been a bit stronger, either – if you happen to have some chipotles (dried smoked jalapenos) lying around, as my husband naturally does (!), you could chuck one of those in there as well to add a bit of extra smoke and spice.
The recipe was very low in fat because the beans were just cooked in water – I think it would also work quite well though if you cooked the onion (and chipotle) with some olive oil and maybe some garlic as well to make the flavours a little stronger before you add the beans and the tea. Overall I thought it was great and I intend to make it again and experiment with it a bit.
A while ago when we had a bunch of people over for dinner, we made Nigella Lawson’s recipe for tea-soaked prunes, which she recommends serving with either custard or crème brulee (urgh), but which we served with ice cream and amaretti biscuits. The recipe for these prunes comes from Nigella’s book How to Eat, and involves turning some strong Earl Grey tea into a syrup with orange peel, spices, brown sugar and marsala, then steeping the prunes in it for a couple of days (or more). It is very simple, and absolutely delicious, whether as a dessert or for breakfast (I had some for both, I confess).
Because of the strong flavours mixed with it, I found it a little hard to detect the presence of the Earl Grey per se (a Twinings’ loose leaf from the supermarket, though the recipe itself called for teabags – shame, Nigella!). Consequently I am interested to try a recipe which my husband found in a slow-food book (whose name I can’t recall), which involves sticking the prunes in a jar, adding a couple of Earl Grey tea bags and a couple of strips of lemon zest, and pouring boiling water over to cover. Then you seal it and let it sit for a couple of weeks. I think that this method would let the flavour of the tea shine through a bit more. All I need is a decent jar to try making it in…
Also speaking of Earl Grey, earlier in the week I had a pot in conjunction with a piece of a particularly nice chocolate cake that I made – now Earl Grey and chocolate is a really good combination, I highly recommend it, indeed.
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