The Tea Scoop

Happy President's Day Eve

Or, a happy Valentine's Day if you are so inclined.  We spend Valentine's Day like we do many other days, cooking delicious food.  And earlier today, we ate delicious food.

Our Whole Foods has a sushi bar that is quite fabulous, and not at all what you would expect of a grocery store, even Whole Paycheck.  We did a combo deal with dumplings, sushi, miso soup, and salad, that was quite amazing.  But what does this have to do with tea?  

I had the most amazing cup of matcha there.  It was so unexpected!  I usually order green tea when I go out for sushi, but usually get a teabag, or maybe a good cup of genmaicha.  This was matcha prepared to perfection.  I was even more surprised when I saw that it was prepared ahead of time in a giant hot water urn, and she just dispensed it out.  I drank two cups, and barely resisted a third, but it was time to go.  It was deliciously vegetal, slightly frothy, and not the slightest bit bitter.  I was impressed at the level of quality on such a mass-produced scale.

Unfortunately, if I want to repeat the experience, I have to return to the Fair Lakes Whole Foods, since they were unable to tell me the brand, and it was not something that they sold in the store. It just goes to show that you can find a great cup of tea in the most unexpected places. 

Bigelow, Meet AriZona

Until recently, I had never pictured AriZona tea company as a purveyor of tea bags.  Apparently, they did not feel quite up to the job flying solo, so they partnered up with Bigelow to translate some of their popular bottled green tea flavors into tea bag form. I was able to bring a few home from the Bigelow Tea Social.  If you think you would like to try Mandarin Orange, Pomegranate Acai, or Ginseng Honey Green Tea hot instead of iced, then you are in luck.  These tea bags are available either from AriZona or Bigelow. 

Today, I'm testing out the Mandarin Orange, since I tend to enjoy citrus greens.  Looking at the ingredients, this tea includes green tea, natural orange, tangerine, jasmine, and honey flavors with other natural flavors (soy lecithin), orange peel, rose hips, hibiscus, panax ginseng.  In fact, while dunking the tea bag, I could see the orange peel. I'd prefer not to consume too much soy, but I did a little bit of poking around about soy lecithin, and it does at least get metabolized.  No conclusive studies have been done about the effects of long-term consumption.  

Taking a whiff of the liquor, I can smell the orange and tangerine flavors, with a definite undertone of the rose hips and hibiscus.  As I sip it, it has a natural sweetness to it.  I certainly wouldn't add any sugar, even if I made it iced.  I don't know that the jasmine flavor really has a chance to come through here, but what shines really is the orange. After all, this is Mandarin Orange.  The after-taste is definitely that of a Creamsicle. I actually think this tea would be great on ice on a summer evening.  But why ice it when you can just buy a bottle of the stuff?

Lots of reasons. Like putting your iced tea in a reusable bottle instead of a disposable one. And deciding exactly how much sweetener to add. I wouldn't add anything to it at all.  I would definitely drink this again, "natural flavors" notwithstanding. 

Tea of Life's Jasmine Orange

I realize I'm on quite a Tea of Life kick recently, but I had been hesitating to jump into the elegant packaging, and now that I have, I'm quite enjoying the elegant pyramid boxes for each individual pyramid tea bag with its whole leaf tea inside.  This morning, I've switched to green tea with their Jasmine Orange. 
I love jasmine green tea. Perhaps its because it was the first scented green tea that I tried, or perhaps its that its floral scent makes me feel as if I'm in a garden.  And the idea of adding orange to it, although not common, conjures up images of a rich paradise filled with flowers and citrus, white blossoms gently falling in a light breeze.  It makes me feel altogether poetic.  
As for this particular incarnation, I find it delightfully light and floating, just like the breeze in my orange and jasmine fantasy.  As I sip and close my eyes, I can almost feel myself transported to that garden.  I'm not sure what type of green tea was used as the base for this tea, as the flavors mask it too much to tell. But it was definitely a lighter, slightly sweet variety.  Even steeped for two minutes, it still has the sweetness of the earliest spring grass, instead of the bolder vegetal notes of darker green teas like Gyokuro.  The aroma is primarily jasmine, and with each sip, the orange and jasmine flavors are well-balanced.  Jasmine is such a delicate scent that I was worried that the stronger flavor of citrus might overwhelm it, but Tea of Life carried out the balancing act quite well.  While the other Tea of Life teas have been fair to good, this is the first one that I find myself sad not to have any more to drink. 

Culinary Teas: Blackberry Green Tea

Culinary Teas shows up a lot in tea swaps, probably because they have such a large selection of teas.  Today I'm trying out their Blackberry Green Tea, with a sencha base. Taking a whiff of the dry leaves, the blackberry flavoring was almost overwhelmingly strong.  In the liquor, however, the scent isn't quite as strong, allowing the scent of the green tea to play through a bit. The first taste is pure sencha, while the blackberry comes through on top. The sencha does have a bit of sweetness that helps balance the tartness of the berry flavor.  

Unfortunately, the berry flavor is just that. Rather generic, and not altogether pleasant.  While I do like flavored green teas, in this case, the sencha would have been better off had it been allowed to shine through a bit more, and the blackberry flavor had been more blackberry.