It's been rather cold here lately, especially since our heat pump is broken, and I am longing for summer. Nothing says summer like a big bowl of peaches and ice cream, so I thought perhaps I would brew up a nice hot version of that to warm me up.
I took a nice vanilla bean black tea and mixed it together with a nice rooibos peach, then brewed it with a teaspoon of rock sugar. Then I divided it into three cups, unsure of the best way to achieve the cream part of peaches and cream.
In the first cup, I added nothing, to see if the vanilla flavor would shine through and add a little creaminess.
In the second cup, I added just a splash of milk.
In the third cup, I added Coffeemate, less than a teaspoon's worth. I know, the scandal of using Coffeemate. But I didn't have soy or other dairy alternatives available, and sometimes milk does funny things with fruit teas.
The results: I liked the plain version a lot. It was very subtle, and not as peachy as I expected with two parts peach to one part vanilla. I think if I make it again, I'll add even more peach. The great thing about rooibos is that it's not really tea, so it never gets bitter.
The Coffeemate version was also delicious, if you were looking for something really sweet. It came the closest to achieving the bowl of ice cream effect, but it still was not as peaches and creamy as I would have liked.
The milk version tasted awful, and reminded me why I never put milk in fruity teas.
I would love to try this with vanilla soy milk, and am going to try to remember to pick some up at the store next time I go. 
Why not make a tea version of the Italian dessert Afugato? There they pour hot espresso over a scoop of vanilla ice cream / gelato. You could put a scoop of ice cream in a small bowl and pour your hot peach tea over it. In that case, I don't think you'd even need the vanilla tea in the mix. You could then even top it with grated nutmeg or cinnamon, or do something really interesting like basil.
Posted by: Jesse | March 11, 2010 at 01:24 PM