Around the World With Food and Drink

More Switzerland.  I do love the country and the mountains.

We had pizza last night and I started wondering what tea you could serve with it. I always think of pizza and beer or pizza and coke. We decided that hot tea would be too weird, that maybe a fruity tea would work, definitely a black. Maybe a Ceylon or Keemun or a very muscatel autumnal Darjeeling, although I’m not sure that would ever be sturdy enough. Assam is too malty, Lapsang Souchong made us both go eeuw.  What do you think? Personally, I’m going to stick with cola, Dr. Pepper, root beer or beer, hide-bound traditionalist that I guess I am.



We have a Swedish recipe for pot roast that calls for a cup of strong coffee with cream and sugar for the liquid. It is delicious. I was thinking that this would be the place to try a strong cup of Assam or Lapsang with cream and sugar. I think next pot roast, I will try it. The tea would help tenderize the meat, just as the coffee does and the resulting gravy would still have a hearty flavor. I’ll let you know.



India is nearing completion of a billion dollar public/private endeavor to upgrade tea fields and factories. Wow, that is a lot of money! Some is going to help farmers replant, as many tea bushes are so old they are no longer as productive. Factories will be re-tooled and there will be an emphasis on better marketing. I hope there will also be an emphasis on care for their workers.


In that vein, Tetulia Teas has been recognized by the United Nations for its humanitarian and environmentally sound tea farming in Bangladesh. It runs the only USDA approved organic tea farm in that area. Their teas are very tasty, as well.

Today, however, I am trying some Pu-erh, from the Verdant Tea company in Minneapolis http://bit.ly/ss-verdant.  This a new company to me and comes via my monthly Steepster Select program.  Its official name is Diyi Cornfields Shu and comes in small nest like shapes called toucha.  It is individually wrapped in small printed pieces of thin paper.  The tea is grown between rows of corn, which gives it some shade and also imparts flavors of corn and butter, which new pu-erh drinkers, like me seem to enjoy.  it certainly smells like earth and corn, with a sweet overlay, kind of like that combination at the movies of buttered popcorn and sweetness given off by the candy and soda.  I brewed it with boiling water for 5minutes, one toucha per 12 oz. of water - perfect for my ever-so-English teapot.  I probably shouldn't say it, but I keep wanting to call it Do-It-Yourself Pu-erh.  Really bad, eh?

It is a very dark brew and smells wonderful.  It tastes that way too, really buttery, earthy and of corn.  It is almost overwhelming in the way it all comes together and lingers in your mouth.  This results in the flavors intensifying as you sip.  I like it, but for my personal drinking, I would like it a bit more dilute.  However, I think it would make a wonderful liquid for the Swedish pot roast, but without the cream and sugar.  This has enough going on to not need embellishment.

A Pearl of a Girl's Tea

I need flowers today, it is so gloomy.  However, the blue jays are definitely adding a bit of brazen brightness - they are alternating screaming their heads off at Ernie and eating great gobs of suet.  Them I wish he would go after.  Maybe they wouldn't be such show-offs.

It is a good day for tea - not only gray, but pretty chilly.  Jasmine tea sounds about right and I have the last of the Steepster Select monthly teas, their Dragon Pearl Jasmine from Red Blossom Tea Company.  The green and white balls give off a strong aroma of Jasmine, which seems surprisingly heavy and more along savory lines than overly floral. This is a white tea, instead of the usual green.  I brewed it up for 2 minutes at 180 degrees.  The resulting liquor was a soft gold, with a pleasant Jasmine scent.

The brew was smooth and soft, with a delicate, sweet taste of jasmine and a small surprising hint of some warm, sweet spice.  Maybe ginger, maybe cardamom.  Whatever it is, it is a very pleasant tea.

I have noticed something about brewed teas that I let cool on the counter before I put them in the fridge.  They get quite dark, even this light Jasmine.  Does anyone know why?  If so, please tell me.

This is quite likely my last post until next Tuesday or Wednesday.  We are leaving Thursday for Philly and tomorrow is packed with far too many things to do, including a visit to the vet for the Ernster, oh happy day.

I wish you all well and I'll be back with all sorts of good reports from World Tea East!

A Visit To Darjeeling

These beautiful windows were buried and hidden during WWII.  I am glad, as they are very beautiful in all their 90 foot tall splendor.

Yesterday we had a huge platter of corn for lunch, with the first of our own tomatoes.  The platter reminded me of summer meals at my grandmother's when my cousins were home and there would be 10-15 people for lunch or dinner, with big platters of corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and what ever else was on the menu that day.  Such good times.  Lots of political and religious discussions.  Never sex, not in that WASP household!  The discussions were often loud, someone was always "dead wrong", but respectfully so.  You learned to stick up for yourself.  Today we had fried green tomatoes and corn pudding.  I do love summer food, that sense of great abundance, made better when it comes from your own garden, or the famers' market.

It is warm and quite humid today, as we await Hurricane Irene, reminding me of the weather in India.  So, I thought it very appropriate to have an Indian tea today.  This is from the Silver Tips Tea Company, http://www.silvertipstea.com/  in Tarrytown, NY.  It comes from the new Steepster Select program.  It is Makaibari First Flush Darjeeling and indeed, is loaded with silver tips amongst the black and brown, smallish leaves.  In the packet, they smell quite peppery.  I follow directions and brew them with boiling water for three minutes, hoping they are right.  I have often found that first flush teas do better with shorter time and cooler water.  For those of you new to tea, first flush refers to the first new growth of leaves after the winter hiatus.  Akin to new dandelion greens, the first radish, the first baby lettuces. It is often the most highly prized of all the teas.

A lot of the pepper dissipated with the brewing, but it is there with a faint vegetal aroma and something like roasted tomatoes.  The liquor is a pleasant golden amber, just a few shades darker than our Bertie, the long-hair.  Ooh, good tea, a taste of citrus, some pepper, definite green.  An excellent first flush. Often firsts are too astringent or too lacking in body for me, but this has only the slightest astringency, which is the citrus, and the body of the tea is full and round.  However, as it cools, it does develop a bit more astringency, so I would either make this one cup at a time or fiddle with the time and water temp, so it is good to the last drop.

Tea is a very individual drink and we all have to play with it a bit to find what we consider the optimum.  We should use the company's guidelines first, and then adjust them to suit ourselves, as we gain experience.

If you are new to tea and want to expand your horizons, drink a lot of tea.  Experiment, see what you really like.  Fool around with your teas until you know what you like.  I have found keeping a notebook helps and then I can go back and get more of what I really like.  Trade tea with your friends.  I have found that good companies like Simpson and Vail, Harney and Sons, Tea Trekker, Life in Teacup, Upton's and others have samples or sell by the ounce, so that for not too much money, you can try a wide variety of teas.  Buy a good filter for your water or use something like Poland Spring bottled water to make your tea, it makes a difference.

Peachy Keen

I am so excited. I just got my tea shipment from Steepster Select’s new monthly program, along with a nice, new infuser, suitable for a small pot or cup. The teas are Ginger Peach from The Tao of Tea, Dragon Pearl Jasmine from Red Blossom Tea Company and Makaibari First Flush Darjeeling from Silver Tips Tea. I am additionally pleased by their shredded paper packing, clear directions for each tea,  a small blurb about each, and I have not had tea from any of these companies, so this will be another new journey for me.




Tea is so infinitely fascinating. There are so many varieties, so many sources and processes. The you can drink it hot or cold, cook with it, bake with it, dye your clothes (or leave a big blob on them), dye your hair, clean your carpet, mulch your garden, use it as a room deodorizer, the list goes on and on. You could live to be 100 and not finish with all you can do with tea. And it’s good for you. So much from one plant. Not to mention the flowers are pretty.



I decided to try the Ginger Peach first, as it is billed as being good for ice tea and that appeals to me in this muggy weather. It is from Fujian China, via Tao of Tea nd Steepster, as I mentioned.  First, I am going to have it hot, made with boiling water and infusing it for 5 minutes - see how brave I am getting - actually leaving behind my 3.5 minutes! The black leaves are on the small side, with many, many pieces of dried peach, ginger and flower petals. It smells decidedly subtly peach, with the sharpness of ginger, but so well done, it took a while for me to realize this was ginger.



I found this to be an excellent blend. I could taste the tea, which was accented with the peach and ginger, not overwhelmed by them. It is a surprisingly light tea, smooth as silk. I will report to you tomorrow about how it is as ice tea.



Rosemary of http://www.therosemaryhouse.blogspot.com/ has kindly reminded me of another tea farm in Hawaii, Mauna Kea Teas. They are all organic and only raise about 50 lbs. of tea a year, which she says is delicious. I went to their web site and was impressed by some of their “Tea Talk” articles. Some day, I may try some of their teas, but I need to deal with what I have first.