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Matcha Morning

Having been reading up on the virtues of matcha and teaching them to my customers at tea parties, I thought it was time I tried it myself.

Matcha is the vibrant green powdered tea used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. It is made from the leaves of shade grown tea trees. When the leaves are harvested they are steamed, dried and then further processed to remove the veins, stems and impurities. Only about 10% of the original harvest remains, and this is called the "tencha". The tencha is then ground to a fine powder often in a stone mill. It takes about one hour to produce an ounce of matcha, because grinding any faster would result in a burnt tasting tea. Today the highest grades of matcha usually remain in Japan for use in their tea ceremonies and the price can be as high as $100 an ounce. The majority of matcha available in the general market today is now ground by sophisticated machines, which make it affordable to the average tea drinker. Even with the machines, it takes an hour to grind 40 g. Regardless of the grinding technique used, the production of matcha requires a great deal of hand labour, skill and time.

 

 

 

The health benefits of matcha tea exceed those of green tea because when you drink matcha you ingest the whole leaf, not just the brewed water. One glass of matcha is the equivalent of 10 glasses of green tea in terms of its nutritional value and antioxidant content. 

 

Absorption is key.  When tea bags or loose teas are steeped, only 5% to 10% of the nutrients naturally found in tea end up in the cup because most of the nutrients are not water-soluble - the minerals, fibers, vitamins, and antioxidants end up thrown out with the tea leaves. With matcha the whole tea leaf is ground into a fine powder and consumed entirely so you get 100% of the nutrients from the leaves.

 

I have this wonderful set of cups that my brother-and-sister-in-law brought back from their stint as ESL teachers in Japan. It was fun to use one this morning!

 

Isn't the crane gorgeous? And the crackle glaze?

 

So how does matcha taste? Bear in mind that I made the tea, photographed the set up and then sat down to drink. It was very intensely green tasting - and by the time I got to it, any froth I had created was gone, and it was not hot enough, honestly. So I will try it again to have a better perpective of it - drinking it right after I make it, the way it was intended. But definitely I'll try it again - the health benefits make it too imperative to not try it again, and soon!

 

I have also used my matcha to make a facial mask and that was very enjoyable. It's been almost a month, so I'm due to try that again very soon, too!

 

Enjoy whatever you are sipping today! Blessings, Ann

Just the Facts...

I just came across a really well done set of videos being shared  via You Tube. This is Alton Brown of the Food Network's Good Eats show, sharing some great info on tea. Enjoy!

Click here to watch part one (about 10 minutes)

Click here to watch part two (about 10 minutes)

These are entertaining and informative at the same time - who could ask for anything more?

I Did It! I Cooked With Tea!

It's true! AND my family liked it!!

I went online to find recipes using Lapsang Souchong tea. For those of you who haven't sniffed my sample of this tea yet, it's a very smoky tea - for good reason - the leaves are smoked after oxidization. There's a campfire smell when you open the bag. I knew I'd probably rather cook with it than drink it - although, possibly on a cool autumn day, it might just be the cup of comfort I seek.

So I found this recipe called Lazy Day Chicken on a site, submitted by Christine Torres:

Ingredients

·                                 4 skinless chicken breasts

·                                 1 cup sliced carrots

·                                 2 tsp Lapsang Souchong tea, steeped in 1 cup water

·                                 1 tsp dried parsley

·                                 1 tsp garlic salt

·                                 1 tbsp honey

·                                 2-3 tbsp barbecue sauce

·                                 1 tsp flour

·                                 2 cups rice

Directions
Steep tea. Add to large skillet with 2 cups water (including tea leaves), parsley, garlic salt, honey, flour and barbecue sauce. Add carrots and chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise into strips for easy cooking. Cover and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve over rice.

 I didn't have any parsley, so I left that out. I also tasted the tea leaves after they had steeped and decided my family wouldn't appreciate if they were in the dish - a little too bitter for the palate in this house I'd say. I used dried roasted garlic, rather than garlic salt. All in all, the dish was well accepted. I think there is room for improvement, though, so next time I make it, I will use maple syrup instead of honey - I think it would complement the smokiness. Also, my hubby would have liked the smoky taste to be a bit bolder, so I would steep 3 teaspoons of the loose tea, longer, in the 2 cups hot water. It's a black tea and I didn't want it to get bitter, so I steeped for about 3 minutes - I'll try up to 5 minutes and experiment with the tea quantity. I'd add freshly ground black pepper while cooking as well. The 1 tsp flour wasn't doing anything to thicken it at all, so I'd leave that out, until the last minute or two and then mix 1 tbsp flour with a small bit of cold water in a bowl, then add a bit of the broth to the bowl, and then pour the mix back into the frying pan to thicken the sauce.

There was a little of the meat mixture left over this morning, but no rice. So I cooked up some rice noodles and sent the leftovers in Sarah's thermos for lunch today. What a yummy lunch she's getting!

Feel free to share your cooking experiments with Lapsang Souchong, or any other tea for that matter, by leaving me a comment.

Happy sipping and blessings, Ann

 

Tea Time at the Cottage

We spent the long weekend at my Dad's cottage. This was not a basking-in-the-sun kind of weekend. Here in Southern Ontario, at least at Conestoga Lake, it was windy, cloudy, and at times, raining. Instead, it made for a great curl-up-on-the-couch with a good book, a cup of tea, in front of the fireplace kind of weekend. I took my tea traveller out, thinking I'd be the only one drinking tea, but I guess the cold and damp got to others, and I was brewing tea and then pouring it into mugs for others, too.

I experimented too, with my tea varieties, and came up with a very tasty concoction. Have you ever tried Orange Chai? I added 1/2 a spoon of Orange Burst and 1/2 a spoon of Masala Chai to my traveler. Both are rooibos teas, creating a rich red coloured tea for a somewhat dard day. It was delicious! The spice of the chai complemented the bright sweetness of the orange and created a warming sunny taste for a damp windy weekend. I encourage you to blend a couple of flavours and let me know what you come up with!

Feelin' Minty Fresh!

I often start my morning with a black or green tea and then have a rooibos or herbal in the afternoon as a little pick-me-up. Today I thought I'd compare two of our mint flavoured teas, sothis morning I brewed a cup of the After Eight flavoured black tea, and this afternoon, I tried the Chocolate Mint rooibos.

The idea was to compare the chocolate mint aspects of these very different teas - not an easy task.

The After Eight black has a darker taste and feel to it, I think, reminiscent of dark chocolate, while the Chocolat Mint rooibos is slightly smoother, sweeter and a little more minty, yet not overwhelmingly so.

So which chocolate mint tea will I drink next time? Guess what, I like them both - for different reasons, for different times of the day!

Happy sipping! - Ann

Cooking with Tea

Are you an experimenter in the kitchen? Are some of your tried and true recipes starting to feel a little tired? Why not try incorporating tea into you next foray in the kitchen. Seriously, tea isn't just for drinking - it's hot in cooking too!

Here are some ways to get started that I've found in my internet searches for new recipes. (I almost never cook or bake the same thing twice, except at Christmas maybe...) Most of these ideas come from Chris Casson, someone who loves to cook and experiment in the kitchen:

Tea as a spice:
Simply grind tea leaves in a pepper mill (try Oolong) and combine with white pepper. This makes an unbelievably delicious rub, perfect for a steak or a pork chop. The tea adds a wonderfully fresh Asian-cuisine nuance to this otherwise ordinary meal.

Tea as a marinade:
Wondering what to do with that extra Earl Grey tea left in the teapot at the end of teatime? Don't dump it.... Use it! Try adding it to your favorite marinade for chicken breasts for an out-of-this-world addition that will be sure to have your guests wondering the source of the mysterious (yet familiar) flavor. As a vegetarian digression, tea marinated tofu is a wonderful substitution in this dish.

Tea as a tenderizer:
Among tea's many benefits and effects, it is an efficient tenderizer. Want to get that falls-off-the-bone, melts-in-your-mouth effect for that dish that is great, but could be even better? Try adding some tea! Not to be camellia-exclusive, Rooibos "Red" tea has been shown to have similar results and may add yet another unique nuance for your culinary delights.

Tea as an aromatic:
Although many chefs are nearly as hesitant as magicians to divulge their gastronomic tricks, Chef Lamach (whose cooking many have described as magical) revealed one of his cooking secrets. "In cooking," he says, "one has to pay close attention to the retro-nasal aromatics - the 'flavor' you get in the cavity of your nasal passage. This is the true flavor that will always come through in your food and therefore must be complemented." Tea is the perfect complement to many flavors, filled with rich and subtle aromatics. Adding a touch of Jasmine tea to a rice dish will add many different interesting levels of smell and flavor that are sure to impress.

Tea as a dessert:
It is a fairly common practice to take tea after a meal. But what about tea as the dessert? This trend is quickly building in popularity in the food industry and is revolutionizing the way we think about our after-dinner sweets. Most people have been introduced to Green Tea Sorbet, but what about Earl Grey Muffins or a Jasmine Ganache? Because many teas take sugar well, it is sensible to conclude that many sweets would take tea well. Many bakers and chocolatiers are adapting and adding new recipes to include the wonderful hints that tea can add.

Tea as a green:
Finally, don't forget that tea, like many greens used in cooking, is an edible leaf. People remark when they are sniffing my tea samplers at a party about the very "green" or somewhat earthy smell of green tea. Why not use this taste to your advantage? Tomorrow morning, when making omelets, instead of using the usual spinach, try substituting Sencha leaves!

As I experiment and collect recipes, I'll be sharing them here and in my monthly newsletters (so you should sign up if you haven't yet!). Let me know if you try any of these ideas, or make up any recipes of your own. I'd love to share your experiences. I hope you get rave reviews!

Happy sipping! Blessings - Ann

Thank you!

A big thanks to the organizers of the Ultimate Women in Business Show. We had a nice turnout and I had the pleasure of meeting LOTS of enthusiastic tea drinkers! Congratulations to Dana, who won my doorprize - she didn't even seem that surprised, but apparently she wins at lots of things - just one of those people, I guess!

And here's a smile for today:

Never trust a man, who when left alone with a tea cosey... Doesn't try it on.
Billy Connolly