tea » Kavey Eats

The Art of Tea Blending

19 Apr 2012 8 Responses »

Apr 192012

I love tea and I love history. I even love browsing through antiques fairs and admiring beautiful old things such as Georgian wooden tea caddies. But I’ve never thought much about the way in which tea was consumed in the past, though I do know that tea drinkers used to buy loose tea and blended different varieties and styles together themselves to create their perfect brew.

Today, it seems that only the big tea companies retain the art of blending, which is primarily a way for them to ensure consistency of taste for their consumers in the face of differences in the quality and flavours of every harvest.

But of course, tea is also still blended by tea masters – artisans, if you like – looking to create something that is more than the sum of its parts.

Just like in the world of whisky, there is something to be said for blends and there is something to be said for single estate teas. The former allows a master blender to achieve a more complex finished tea, with the best possible aroma, mouthfeel and taste. The latter allows the consumer to enjoy the distinctions that come from different climates and growing techniques, what the French describe as terroir, and appreciate the skills of the individual producer.

I’ve always loved tea, and have been enjoying a wide range of loose leaf teas since I was a teenager, when I used to buy packets of assam and darjeeling and mango tea from an elderly stall holder in Camden Market. But I’ve never thought to combine more than one together to create my own blend.

The Tea Board of Kenya sent me three Kenyan black teas to try just that.

On the left is Kaamba, in the middle Marinyn GFBOP and on the right Kenya Estate Milima.

(GFBOP = Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe, learn more here).

I opt to leave the leaf tea at the bottom of the cups, where it quickly settles during the brewing time.

Before I can do any blending, I need to assess the individual teas.

The Tea Board of Kenya describes Kaamba tea as having “a very malty flavour with light hints of currant“. I find just a hint of malt, and a fair bit of tannin. The overall taste is very one dimensional; it strikes me as a very simple “black tea” kind of taste. The tea liquor is the darkest of the three.

Of the Marinyn GFBOP, they tell me that it’s grown in the highlands at altitudes of up to 9000 feet and is a “strong, brightly flavoured tea with a sweet quality“. Certainly it has a sweetness on the nose and in the taste. It’s a far more complex tea than both the others, with a lovely hint of citrus reminiscent of bergamot. The colour of the tea is a pretty copper or amber.

Apparently the Kenya Estate Milima is a very rare tea with a large loose leaf, has a “full, slightly malty flavour” and is “fruity and spicy with some sweet floral notes”. I do get lots of malt in the aroma but it doesn’t come through on the palate. In fact, this tea has very little flavour at all and I certainly don’t detect malt, fruit, spice or flowers.

My Blend

Because the Kenya Estate Milima tastes of so little, I exclude it from my blend and combine one part Kaamba to two parts Marinyn GFBOP. Immediately, I see that the tea has a rounder flavour. The Kaamba provides a rich backbone onto which the Marinyn GFBOP layers its sweet, floral properties.

With so many loose leaf teas in my cupboard, I’m certainly enthused to try my hand at blending teas from different growing countries and regions and even different types of teas such as black, oolong, green and white.

Have you ever blended two or more loose leaf teas to create your own cuppa? If so, I’d love to hear about it!

Kavey Eats received tea samples courtesy of The Tea Board of Kenya.

Nilgiri Black from India’s Blue Mountains

29 Sep 2010 7 Responses »

Sep 292010

Last month, I attended the launch of JING‘s Coonoor Estate Nilgiri Black tea, hosted by The Cinnamon Club.

I’d never heard of Nilgiri before so was curious to taste and learn more about this lesser-known Indian tea.

David Hepburn, who introduced me to a range of Jing oolong and puerh teas a few months ago, told us about his April visit to Tamil Nadu in Southern India and the resulting addition to Jing’s product range.

David Hepburn

Jing were looking for a producer creating a high-quality, loose, whole-leaf tea that expresses the best characteristics of Nilgiri tea – a rich fragrance and full body.

image from Jing’s presentation

The Coonoor Estate is located in ‘The Nilgiris’, which literally translates to ‘Blue Mountains’, named for a local shrub that blossoms once every twelve years, covering the hillsides in purple-blue flowers. The region offers a perfect climate for tea growing, but perhaps its teas have been undervalued – Nilgiri teas have predominantly been used in blends and teabags.

image from Jing’s presentation

The Coonoor Estate tea plants grow in a 46-acre organic-certified plantation at an elevation of 6,500 feet. Producer, Indi Khanna, has a wealth of experience and knowledge and manages a highly skilled team working in a state-of-the-art purpose-built factory. We see pictures; it looks amazing!

The leaves of the resulting tea are exceptionally large and produce a wonderfully fragrant and rich-yet-light black tea with an appealing amber colour.

David recommends brewing a generous tablespoon or so of the tea for between two and two and a half minutes, though says it can be brewed a little stronger if you prefer.

The scent has hints of citrus; the taste is toffee rich. It’s delicious!

In the last couple of years, I’ve drunk far less black tea than I used to and far more oolong – I love it’s combination of freshness and richness and the merest hint of smokiness.

So it is genuinely quite a revelation to taste a black that so forcibly tempts me back to the world of black teas!
I figured I’d find it decent enough, but I really didn’t expect to fall in love with it.

Lucky me, then, that guests are sent off with goodie bags containing the Nilgiri Black as well as a fragrant Earl Grey. I can also pick up more for £7.00 a 50 gram pack.

One of the tea-based cocktails served during the evening; it was delicious but I can’t remember what it was

Whilst the oolongs and puerhs I tried with David a few months ago didn’t make a strong impression, this Nilgiri Black is really rather special and one I’m very happy to recommend.

Love Tea, Loving Lahloo

23 Apr 2010 6 Responses »

Apr 232010

Lahloo Tea is forever twinned in my mind with a quilted lady with chicken legs between her thighs.

No, Lahloo haven’t launched a (bizarre and raunchy) marketing campaign – I’m talking about the surreal and funky window displays at Liberty, where I met Kate Gover, founder of Lahloo, for a tea tasting, along with a handful of other tea lovers. Always paranoid about being late, I arrived before Liberty opened and the collection of strange tableaux kept me entertained until I the doors opened!

arriving and wandering around

those window displays!

Lahloo Tea is part of the wonderful tea revolution that’s finally gathering momentum in the UK. As someone absolutely devoted to tea (but a bit meh about coffee) the proliferation of high quality tea suppliers is good news all the way.

So what’s the Lahloo story?

As a child, Kate was convinced she hated tea. Her Yorkshire grandmother made real tea strongly brewed and milky and Kate wasn’t a fan.

And yet, she had a historical connection to tea through her great-great grandfather who worked aboard one of the many tea clippers plying the seas during the 19th century.

Kate didn’t discover that there is more to tea than her grandmother’s cuppa until she was all grown up. After discovering she liked good coffee (and focusing pretty single-mindedly on learning and experience more) she started to think about whether there might also be more to tea than she knew of it. She says, “if I don’t like something I like to try and find out why I don’t like it.”

Her first positive experience with tea was with a Japanese green tea. In her own words, this very intense gyokoro tea “opened my eyes and blew me away!” After that it didn’t take long for a fixation to develop – “an obsession with finding tea that made me want to drink it”.

Her inquisitive nature saw her embarking on a sensory journey that soon saw her travelling regularly to Paris (a hub of the serious tea trade) and further afield just to find great tea and her newly found enthusiasm meant she couldn’t resist introducing others to the riches she had found.

From there it was just a small step to establishing her own business, less than two years ago.

And why Lahloo? Because it was the name of an iconic 19th century tea clipper – the very same one her great-great grandfather sailed aboard and which brought high quality teas back to an appreciative and excited customer base, just as Kate aims to do today.

the tea tasting begins

Once all four tasters are assembled the tasting begins. The session is a wonderful mix of chatting about our love for tea and, of course, tasting Lahloo Teas while Kate talks us through them, teaches us all kinds of interesting tea facts and tells us about how she came to start the business (see above).

Snow Jewel

A translation of the Chinese name for this white tea, Snow Jewels is a subtle brew. Only the tiniest buds are picked from wild tea plants making it essentially a silver needle tea. Such spring bud teas have a very very brief window for picking, just as the buds shoot through. The window lasts just a couple of weeks, and the buds need to be picked within a day of two of emerging. As it’s a white tea, there’s no processing – the leaves are simply left to wither in the sun for just a couple of days.

Kate recommends brewing this tea in water that’s at about 80 degrees, for about 3 minutes. (Handily, her advice for optimum water temperatures and brewing time is provided with each tea). Smelling the leaves before infusion, I can detect a distinct peachy aroma but it doesn’t carry through to the tasting for me, until the second infusion, when suddenly, that peachy fruitiness comes through to the palate.

It’s always worth remembering that, whilst good quality teas seem expensive on first glance, they can be re-infused several times over the period of a day, making the price per cuppa much more reasonable.

I can understand exactly why some people love the delicate, refreshing nature of this tea, however, for my palate, it’s simply too light and subtle. As white teas can be infused for longer, up to 10 minutes without becoming too strong or acrid, I’m going to see if the flavours come through more for me with a longer brewing time, though I’ll need to balance that with the tea being too cold by the time it’s ready.

Mr Aoki’s

Tea farmer Mr Aoki and his son produce this energising green tea on a small farm in Kyushu, Japan. The tea plants are surrounded by mikan (small satsuma) trees; the soil enriched by a natural, organic fertiliser. Although Mr Aoki steams his green tea (Japanese style) rather than pan frying it (in the Chinese way) he diverges from Japanese sencha by retaining the whole leaf, veins and all.

The first taste, as one sips, is a vividly grassy and mildly acidic flavour; the quintessential characteristic of green tea, in my mind. But the aftertaste, that builds upon the tongue after the tea has been swallowed, is a completely unexpected and surprisingly robust taste of mango – really fruity, wonderful mango! This is new to me, in green tea, and very welcome indeed.

Smelling the leaves, a few minutes after the tea has been poured, gives something else yet again – an intensely meaty, deep umami odour. I’m not disappointed that this doesn’t come through in the taste, I have to admit!

This tea gives a caffeine kick that can be very welcome to combat that flagging feeling during the day. If you prefer less caffeine, discard the first infusion, which should absorb much of the caffeine from the leaves.

Orchid Oolong

This beautifully aromatic, honey-coloured mi lan xiang oolong tea is from Phoenix Mountain in China’s Guandong province. Oolongs range from lightly oxidised, like green tea, to more heavily so, like black. This one is in the middle and has a complex, mildly smoky flavour that I absolutely adore.

This is one I have been enjoying for a while and remains my favourite of the Lahloo Teas I’ve tried.

For a more lightly oxidised oolong, try Amber, a tie guan yin oolong from Nantou county in Taiwan.

Darjeeling Second Flush

This tea has won best Darjeeling in the World Tea Championship for three years in a row; no mean feat in such a competitive industry. Made in the Himalayas this beautiful tea delivers the complex, full flavours of black tea with a subtlety and delicacy many blacks lack.

it’s a perfect choice for those who’d like a top quality traditional afternoon tea.

Sobacha

Soba means buckwheat and cha means tea. This isn’t a real tea but an infusion of roasted buckwheat nibs from the Japanese mountains. It originated as a peasant tea during a time when real tea was the preserve of emperors only.

Fiona Beckett describes sobacha as “a bacon sandwich in a cup” and that’s the perfect label for this oddly umami cereal water!

I don’t care for it at all, but others at the tasting are much keener.

Cake

During the tasting we’re treated to fruit loaf and lemon loaf cakes. The lemon was good but, oh my, oh my, the fruit loaf was incredibly good! I really can’t put into words just how good it was. It was soft, moist, dense… the crust was crunchy… it had a light but rich flavour that wasn’t too sweet. Really, really, really good!

All to soon, our lovely tea tasting comes to an end. A lovely few hours indeed.

Thanks Kate!

Lahloo Tea @ Liberty’s ground floor cafe

Cheese & Tea! Tea & Cheese! Cheese & Tea!

09 Mar 2010 8 Responses »

Mar 092010

I love cheese. And I love tea.

I’d go as far as saying they are very strong contenders indeed for the title of Kavey’s Favourite Food and Kavey’s Favourite Drink, especially if you take into account frequency of ingestion! (Of course – chocolate, mangoes, lamb and sweet liqueurs are in the running too)

I first heard of Henrietta Lovell’s (the lady behind the Rare Tea Co.) occasional cheese and tea tasting events last year. But each time a date and place was announced, I couldn’t make it, much to my disappointment. When, she tweeted about such a tasting to be held at Le Cave A Fromage in South Kensington, I booked a ticket immediately.

Hosted in the shop one cold January Thursday evening, we were talked through four pairings by Henrietta and Todd Bridge (Le Cave’s fromagier and GM).

At each place setting was a slate with cheeses and smoked meat, and a wine glass ready for the tea.

The pairings we tasted were:-

Whole Leaf China White + Comté Reserve
Whole Leaf Chinese Green + Montgomery’s Cheddar
Oolong + Clacbitou
Wild Rooibos + Smoked Venison

The Comté was a wonderfully rich 2 year old. The way maturation creates those lovely little salt crystals and nutty flavour makes this one of my favourite cheeses and there’s often some to be found in our fridge.

The Whole Leaf China White is a fresh, subtle tea. Henrietta told us about it’s place of origin in Fuding village, in the Fujian Mountains. Mr Che uses only first picking leaves, harvested during a very short season indeed, to ensure such high quality.

It’s a very refreshing tea but in truth, I felt it was overwhelmed by the sheer strength of flavour of the Comté. The cheese did, as Henrietta advised, bring out a more musty scent within the tea but I’m not sure it really complemented it.

Montgomery’s Cheddar is another cheese that I’ve purchased, though not nearly as often as the Comté. It’s a rich, buttery, cheddar, matured for 18 months and very fine indeed. Todd says, of this cheese: “When you taste it you taste the stone, the earth – the taste tells you where it has come from.”

The Whole Leaf Chinese Green is a wok fired green tea made from the second pickings from the same tea bushes as the China White. And as there is no electricity on the farm, everything is done by hand using age-old traditional methods. In this case, the tea is wok fired over charcoal. As with many green teas, there’s an underlying grassy flavour, though it’s much softer and more gentle than in some green teas.

Tasting the cheese and tea together softens the grassy nature of the tea further and also takes the edge of that tannin punch in the cheese.

Clacbitou is a rich, goats milk cheese from the Charolais area of Bourgogne. So called because it’s somewhat dry texture and sharp taste makes one suck one’s mouth to enduce the saliva glands, resulting in a kind of clacking sound!

The Oolong is one of my favourite Rare Tea offerings; known as Goddess of Mercy tea. It’s mellow golden colour echoes it’s rounded flavour and aromatic nature. And each brewing of the same leaves brings out different notes. In China, the saying goes that one gives the first infusion to one’s enemies, the second infusion to one’s (beloved) wife and the third one can keep for oneself!

Whilst the Clacbitou is not my favourite cheese of the night individually (though I certainly like it) I think this may be the most successful pairing. The lightly fermented taste of the tea seems to bring out a creaminess that’s not evident in the cheese when eaten on it’s own. And of course, the liquid itself adds moistness, which in itself makes the cheese seem richer.

With the last tea, we taste smoked venison rather than cheese.

But then again, Rooibos isn’t really a tea (camellia sinensis) at all. This “tea” from South Africa has become quite popular in the UK in recent years, and is known both by it’s original language name and the English translation to “red bush”. But what is usually available (both in South Africa and here in the UK) is a pale imitation of the real deal. And that’s because aspalathus linearis (which is actually a legume) thrives in the wilderness in the mountains of the Cedarburg. Commercial farmers aren’t so keen on farming up the sides of mountains so they’ve transplanted the bush to wide flat farmlands. What we call rooibos tea is actually an infusion of the oxidised leaves from this plant.

The slightly spicy, nutty flavour of rooibos is not usually to my taste, but I was willing to try, given Henrietta’s comments about how much better her properly wild supply is compared to the usual stuff. Unfortunately, I can see it’s the actual flavour of rooibos I dislike, high quality or otherwise. What I did appreciate was the conservation stance of the producer Henrietta had only just returned from visiting. He has created a wildlife conservation area to protect the biodiversity of the area and that ecosystem naturally includes rooibos.

Todd explained how they’d struggled to find a really good cheese match for the rooibos. So, given that the tea comes from a truly wild area – where there is little but “leopard poo, bush men, dirt, bucks and mountains” they figured it might work well with something from a similarly wild corner of Italy. The smoked venison was delicious. Lightly smoked and much more moist than many dried meats

In truth, whilst I enjoyed the evening very much (not least for the lovely company and entertaining hosts) I was not convinced about the pairings. I adore Henrietta’s teas but they are so delicate that their complex aromas and flavours are somewhat lost against the wonderful smack-in-the-gob impact of the cheeses.

I’d also say that, for 3 cheeses, a mouthful of smoked venison and 4 teas (even cheeses and teas as fine as these) that £25 per head seemed very expensive to me, though as they sold out, it’s perhaps simply a case of supply and demand.

Introducing Matcha Chocolat (& A Competition!)

06 Mar 2010 23 Responses »

Mar 062010

Anyone who reads my blog even in passing will have worked out that I love tea and I love chocolate. So when I was approached a couple of months ago about a soon-to-launch new chocolate business combining the two, I was pretty excited!

The suggestion was that she send some chocolates out to me, ahead of the launch of the business, for me to review.

Whilst a review of the chocolates is all well and good and rather dandy actually (and is provided below) I was really interested in finding out more about the budding project, how it came to be born, and about the person behind it so I suggested we meet up for tea and cakes in London and a chat!

Maison Bertaux, thank you for providing a lovely environment for our meeting!

I warmed to American, Katie Christoffers, from her first email (and found her charming in person too). Why? Because her comments made it clear she was a genuine reader of my blog and had taken the time to write a personalised email that referred to my interests and spoke to me directly. (You might not realise how rare that is!)

I was also delighted to find out that she’d taken much of her original inspiration from the creative use of matcha by food bloggers – it’s not something I’ve blogged about personally but it is something I’ve also picked up on in the many blogs I read avidly myself and I agree with Katie that it seems to be almost unique to the world of food blogging – you do see matcha now and again on the occasional restaurant menu but it’s frequent use in baking and confectionaries is far more prevalent in the blogosphere! Katie is a genuine food blog lover and is almost as excited about launching her own blog as the business itself!

You might be surprised to learn that Katie isn’t a chocolatier by training. In fact she has a background in in neuroscience and biochemistry research – you can imagine how helpful the demanding exactitude those fields require has assisted her in the perfecting of her chocolates! Quite a change though, isn’t it?!

She has invested a lot of time and effort in developing her range, creating a brand (and the beautiful associated packaging) and preparing for the launch. It’s quite inspiring to learn that all this has been done out of her home rather than any specialist chocolate-making studio or factory.

The collection she sent me to review, before our face-to-face meeting, is called The Emperor’s Selection. As you can see, Katie has expanded on the initial matcha inspiration to combine chocolate with a much wider range of teas as well as flavourings with which tea is commonly imbued, such as chai spices.

The chocolates arrived beautifully wrapped and packaged. Whilst it’s ultimately the contents that are important, I can’t help but take pleasure from beautiful packaging and the bright, funky colours and patterns were appealing.

So, to the chocolates!

Uji Matcha
“A milk chocolate enrobed square of dark chocolate ganache with an infusion of Uji Matcha green tea- grown in the Uji region of Kyoto, Japan”

Given the name of the business and the role of matcha as the original inspiration, I was surprised that the flavour of matcha didn’t come through more strongly. It was pleasant, but subtle. I’d say a little too subtle for my preferences and I’d like to taste more of a matcha kick.

Midnight Peony
“Milk chocolate ganache with black tea liqueur- slightly smoky and reminiscent of Chinese Lapsang tea. Enrobed in a dark chocolate dome.”

The crack of the gorgeous dark chocolate robe gave way to a lovely smooth and smokey ganache. The smokiness provided an intriguing and complex flavour which I found really unusual. Very nice indeed!

Jasmine Silver Needles
“A white chocolate dome of white chocolate ganache infused with Jasmine tea- one of the most well known Chinese teas.”

To my shock, as someone who is absolutely not a fan of white chocolate (and that’s an understatement!), I absolutely adored this chocolate. Infact, it was my favourite in the box! And yet I had been reluctant to even try it! The chocolate itself is superbly smooth and so creamy as it melts in the mouth. The jasmine, a favourite scent and flavour of mine, comes through loud and clear and is an absolutely perfect partner for the white chocolate. Who would have guessed? Not me but I could happily eat an entire box just of these!

Blackcurrant Bliss
“An all milk chocolate demi-dome infused with a blend of scented blackcurrant tea and an Assam tea. Complimented by blackcurrant puree and topped with a dried blackcurrant.”

This was another subtle one, though the blackcurrant taste was certainly there. I liked it but it would probably be more popular with those who are bigger fans of this fruit; then again they may want a stronger blackcurrant kick.

Masala Chai
“Milk chocolate ganache infused with Chai tea- a traditional blend of black tea infused with cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, cloves and aniseed. Enrobed in a dark chocolate dome and topped with a piece of crystallised ginger.”

I can see why this chocolate is the centre piece of all three of Katie’s chocolate collections. I really liked the combination of good quality dark chocolate wtih the spicy ganache and chewy ginger.

Infact, I’d like to suggest that Katie expands her product line to offer a Masala Chai Hot Chocolate, which would surely go down well? What do you think – let me and Katie know in the comments, below!

Katie predominantly uses Valrhona chocolate, not only for it’s high quality but also for it’s policy of sustainable development and social responsibility – she even has her own green policy available for inspection on her website. She particularly likes the way the light roasting style Valrhona employ brings out fruity, floral and herbal flavours in the chocolate which enhances her tea-based fillings. (Higher roasting temperatures tend to result in a stronger, more savoury cocoa flavour). For her white chocolates, Katie is using organic Fairtrade white chocolate from Belcolade, which she likes for it’s citrus and vanilla flavours.

As you might guess, she takes a great deal of care when sourcing her teas too!

In her fillings Katie sticks to organic cream and butter (not vegetable oils), fresh herbs and fresh fruit purees. As she does not add any artificial preservatives the chocolates have a two week life shelflife, though I’ll be impressed if you manage to make them last that long!

Katie will initially be selling her chocolates online via her new Matcha Chocolat website where you can buy the chocolates I reviewed above*.

You can also buy her Chocolate Parasols – solid chocolate disks featuring common tea flavourings such as bergamot (utterly, addictively delicious) and kashmiri chai (cardamom, almond, cinammon and nutmeg). These are seriously, seriously good and I’m rationing myself to make them last as long as I can!

*The Emperor’s Selection is available until the end of May. In June and August Katie will be offering The Jade Selection (Sencha, Liquid Jade, China Rose, Strawberry Summer and Masala Chai). From September you can purchase The Lotus Selection (Genmaicha, April Snow, Secret Garden, Keemun Mango, Masala Chai).

Competition
Katie has kindly offered a box of four giant tea chocolates to one of my lucky readers! To enter, just leave a comment telling us about your favourite chocolate recipe or idea for combining chocolate with another ingredient. (If you leave more than one comment, I’ll take your first one as your entry). The competition closes on the 21st March 2010 (midnight GMT) and I’ll announce the winner shortly afterwards. (Open to UK mainland residents only).

Tea For Friends?

28 Nov 2009 8 Responses »

Nov 282009

I am an avowed teaphile. In a nation that’s taken more and more to the allure of the coffee shop over the last decade or two, I’m delighted and excited by the rise of tea specialists and what I’m calling (in a rather linguistically challenged way) teafés.

So I thought I’d share some of great tea suppliers with you, by highlighting those products from each that I think would make fabulous gifts for those tea lovers in your lives. Or for yourselves!

First up are Jing Tea. I confess, I haven’t yet tried their teas, though they’re on my list to try soon, but with such a large selection in the cupboard, Pete is “encouraging” me to reduce my stock before adding to it any further. (And I have to concede, he may have a point!) But I absolutely love their double walled tea cups and mugs and they’re firmly on my own Christmas wishlist.

From the modern to the traditional with Lahloo Tea‘s beautiful tea infusers. My favourite is the Six Cranes design, above. Combine one of these with a selection of their teas for a gift pack that whispers peace and relaxation.

The Rare Tea Company, who I’ve mentioned before on Kavey Eats, also has a range of pretty teaware, with both modern glass and dainty porcelain items. But it’s Henrietta’s teas I can’t get enough of. I love her Jasmine Silver Tip Tea, made by steaming fine silvery-white tips of tea with fresh jasmine flowers, and her Emperor’s Breakfast black China tea is pretty marvellous too, as are her delicate Oolong Tea and her refreshing Green Leaf Tea.

You may recall me mentioning Teapigs before too, and not just for the cute name! Self-confessed tea evangelists, their mission is to bring really fine quality tea to everyone, even those who are new to or nervous about loose leaf tea. They have a great range of teas (both loose and in specially designed tea bags) including some novel ones such as chocolate flake tea and spiced winter red tea.

Tiny Teas is another tea specialist I’ve recently come across but haven’t yet tried myself. However, I’m intrigued by the idea of their apple crumble tea which is described as a mix of green and oolong tea with the flavour of apples, cinnamon and marzipan.

And I’m saving a real treat for last. I have posted before about my serendipitous friendship with Pei Wang from Teanamu. Pei has established his own tea business with a somewhat different slant to those above. Although he does indeed sell very fine quality tea and hand-selected teawares (I can personally recommend the phoenix eye jasmine and the lychee black and isn’t the petite elegance black pot adorable?) he also runs the most amazing tea appreciation sessions and tea cookery workshops. I’ve attended both of these myself and cannot recommend them highly enough for any tea lovers out there. I’m planning to purchase some teanamu magic for one of my nearest and dearest this Christmas.

Here are some photos taken at Teanamu’s tea appreciation ceremony (from a couple of months ago) and the tea cookery workshop, that I attended more recently:

Teanamu cookery workshop

Teanamu Tea Appreciation

Teanamu Oolong madeleines

I hope you find some tea inspiration in this selection and perhaps the perfect tea gifts to treat either yourself, or your friends and family, this Christmas. Enjoy!

Serendipitea!

23 Jun 2009 No Responses »

Jun 232009

You know how sometimes, you experience those perfect moments of serendipity which lead to wonderful moments and new friendships? One of those moments came together for me on the first Friday of this month.

Just a few weeks before I started my blog, Pei Wang started his. In his case, he took a far deeper dive than I, embarking not just on a new hobby but a new career too. I stumbled upon teanamu just after I started Kavey Eats and, enjoying the mix of content, added it to my nascent blog roll. Pei dropped me a sweet note to thank me. He was in China at the time, expanding even further his knowledge of tea and the many traditions and customs that surround it.

He had a great visit to Hangzhou, in Anhui province, learning more about the cultivation and harvesting of tea. He also discovered the village that is the ancestral home of his mother’s family. And he gained his certification as a Tea Artisan and Tea Assessor. On returning home he invited me to visit and taste some spring 2009 green tea he’d brought back with him.

Although I have, over the past 10 years, met literally hundreds of people I have come to know online, I was still a little nervous about meeting a stranger for the first time in their home. And yet, something in our flurry of emails made me feel safe and confident and I made the trek across to Westbourne Park, just a stone’s catapult away from my destination the previous evening, for the Artisan du Chocolat opening.

With Pei’s careful directions, I had no trouble finding his beautiful home – a detached Victorian ‘chocolate box’ that used to belong to the grander house next door but now sits in it’s own little plot, fronted by a corn-blue wall and a beautiful tree spilling over it.

Through the gate, waving a quick hello at the chickens running around in their coop under the shade of the tree, I was quickly welcomed inside. Pei’s home is also the location for his tea cookery and tea appreciation workshops and it’s beautiful. The sleek, beautifully-designed open-plan kitchen merges with a chic living area decorated with beautiful tea pots and serving utensils, cookery books and tomes on tea and the assorted sourvenirs of travels in Asia.

Pei wasted no time in making a start on preparing his adaptation of the traditional French madeleine recipe (by adding powdered oolong tea to the cake mix and scattering seeds over the top). Just as he started, another friend of his arrived to enjoy the informal session. Conversation flowed freely and, despite our very different backgrounds – Pei grew up in Singapore and came to the UK in 2001 – we discovered many shared interests, particularly when it comes to food and drink. As we chatted, Pei interjected little pointers about the recipe and method, showing us each stage so we knew what to aim for. The recipe is one he shares with students attending his cookery workshop and it’s one he’s tweaked to perfection.

Before we knew it the little cakes were in the oven and his friend and I were invited to take tea in a summery little side room adjoining the kitchen. The room is a crescent shape and the outer, curving wall is built entirely from clear glass bricks, letting in lots of lovely, diffused light. Here, Pei had set up the paraphernalia of tea including a proper tea box (with tray beneath to catch discarded water and leaves), a samovar to keep the water boiling and an array of tea pots, cups and utensils. And most important of all, his treasure chest of precious teas.

I was captivated by the process of making and serving the tea, as well as the guidance on how to best hold the cup and drink and enjoy the tea. I also loved Pei’s stories about the origins and properties of the different teas and his help in describing the flavours. He also taught us about the different leaves and methods used to collect and prepare tea.

A short while later, maybe two or three teas down the road, the oven buzzer sounded telling us the cakes were ready. I took photos as Pei popped them out of the tray to cool briefly before piling them onto a plate for us to enjoy during the remainder of our tea appreciation session.

Several teas and cakes and a great deal of chatting later, it was time to head home with a new appreciation and understanding of tea, a generous selection of teas to enjoy at home and, most important of all, a new and wonderful friendship to take into the future.

The Art of Tea Blending

Nilgiri Black from India’s Blue Mountains

Love Tea, Loving Lahloo

Cheese & Tea! Tea & Cheese! Cheese & Tea!

Introducing Matcha Chocolat (& A Competition!)

Tea For Friends?

Serendipitea!

Search

Follow Me

Translate this page

Kavey Eats Archives

Recent Comments

The Art of Tea Blending

Nilgiri Black from India’s Blue Mountains

Love Tea, Loving Lahloo

Cheese & Tea! Tea & Cheese! Cheese & Tea!

Introducing Matcha Chocolat (& A Competition!)

Tea For Friends?

Serendipitea!

Search

Follow Me

Translate this page

Kavey Eats Archives

Post Tags

Recent Comments