My Tea Escape

It’s no secret, I love tea! I would be a bonafide TEA NUT if my place (an my funds) weren’t so small.  But whenever I get a chance to I like to look up new tea reviews and articles and try new, or old favourite, types of teas.  Most of my loose tea comes from on-line or catalogue orders but I do venture out once in a while to one of the only 3 places in this city that have loose tea in bulk.  When I lived in Vancouver I had my favourite teas from different stores so now I sometimes have my sisters send me some or I pick some up when I visit. I can never have too much tea!  So when I found out about a company that has tea parties (think Tupperware parties) I jumped at the oportunity. I quickly had my own tea party to start and am now waiting for my starter kit, I became a consultant for Steeped Loose Tea and Accesories. I’m very excited to start on this venture and to share my love of tea with others in my area (and around the world of course!), I will try to write about any interesting tea parties that I attend, especially if these parties include global tea traditions or tea treat recipes.

I have found that tea lovers all have their favourite tea cup, tea pot and other tea accesories that they use and are quick to give their opinions on so I also have a small collection of tea accesories that have moved around with me for years. I’m always interested in how different cultures drink their tea, or what types of tea they drink. 

My small tea collection

Some of the traditions I’ve found are very interesting.  My dad went to medical school in the USSR and he told me that while he was there he drank black tea with no sugar in it but having  a bit (teaspon) of jam, honey or condensed milk in your mouth before taking a sip of the tea, basically blending the sweetness with the tea inside your mouth.  And of course, who hasn’t heard of the Japanese tea ceremony (made famous by that scene in The Karate Kid part II) where they use matcha green tea powder whisked with a bambo whisk .  I personally like what most of us “westerners” call high tea:  tea served with sweet and savoury dainties, scones and jam with devonshire cream. I prefer loose tea to bags but tea bags can be life savers if you’re dying for a cup of tea and you’re either a) in a hurry, or b) somewhere where loose tea is impossible to find.

So where do you go from here. What type of tea should you drink with what and in what occasions? I say just follow your own choice and drink what you like the most and what you feel like drinking. I don’t think there really is a “wrong” way to drink tea, there are some guidelines though, like you would usually add milk and sugar or lemon and honey to black tea and drink green tea plain, herbal tisanes can also be taken plain or with honey and lemon, I personally like my oolong and rooibos tea plain but you can also add some sweetener to it.

At my first Steeped Tea party I made a selection of delectable tea treats. Aside from the lovely tea sandwiches that a couple of my friends kindly made and brought I made some delightful Alfajores, I made some substitutions for a chocolate cake to make it healthier and I made some buttermilk scones with whole wheat flour.

Alfajores: (pronounced Alfa-hore-es) is a traditional Spanish cookie found in regions of Spain and Latin America. It basically consists of two round biscuits joined together with jam or dulce de leche and covered with powdered sugar.

12 tbsps. (180 ml.) butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks
2 tbsps. cognac
2 1/2 cups cornstarch (I used one cup cornstarchand 1 1/2 cups arrowroot powder)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon
Dulce de Leche, or Cajeta, or Arequipe or Manjar Blanco (see recipe below), or basically a sweet caramel spread.
Powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar, about 1 cup will do.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then mix in the remaining ingredients except the dulce de leche until well blended. Knead on a floured work surface until the dough is smooth and let rest for 15 minutes.
Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch and cut into rounds using a cookie cutter (if you don’t have a cookie cutter you can improvise by using the top of a glass like I did, the amount of cookies you get depends on how big you make them). Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 300°F oven for 20 minutes. When cool, spread some dulce de leche on the bottom of half the cookies and press another cookie on top, allowing some of the dulce de leche to squeeze from the sides. Sift powdered sugar on top of them.

alfajores

Dulce de Leche: You can use store bought dulce de leche if you’d like (or if you can find it) but I find satisfaction in knowing that I made it myself, don’t you? There are also different ways to make it and I decided to go with the “safest” route.

4 cups (1 litre) whole milk (Cow or Goat milk will work well)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Add all the ingredients to a heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir well to dissolve the sugar completely.
Set the saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to very low and simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened and caramelized, about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.  It will turn a dark shade of beige (or a light caramel colour).
Transfer to a clean glass jar and refrigerate.

Chocolate Tea Cake:  I found this recipe at meganscookin.blogspot.com but was not impressed about the amount of butter that it called for, so I made a healthier version. The cake turned out very dense, like a brownie. But it was very good!

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 c. unsweetened apple sauce
1 c. sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
zest of one orange
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup powdere sugar
2 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper and grease paper.
Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Cool.
Combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well before adding the next. Add the vanilla, zest and yogurt and mix well. Add the cooled chocolate and mix for 30 seconds or until incorporated. Scrape the inside of the bowl.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the bowl and fold into the mixture until combined.
Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake on the middle rack for 50 minutes then turn the heat off but leave the pan in the oven for 10 minutes. (or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack in the pan for 15 mins. Carefuly invert the cake on the cooling rack. Remove the paper. Flip the cake right side up.

For the glaze: Combine the powdered sugar and the orange juice in a small pan. Bring to a boil and, stirring occasionally, cook for 2 minutes. Using a skewer,poke holes about an inch apart in the warm cake. Brush with the glaze. Cool completely before slicing.

Quote today: “If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.” ~Gladstone, 1865