Monday, 12 October 2009
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Glorious Tea Juice
I can't resist British information films and this one is particularly wonderful.
The narrator's eyebrows are also pretty special.
The narrator's eyebrows are also pretty special.
A recent article from The Times about the UK tea revolution featuring Henrietta Lovell of the Rare Tea Co. The comments are the best bits - my personal favourite is "My wife and I don't have the money to spend on fancy-schmancy tea from specialty farms in Timbuktu".
Monday, 7 September 2009
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Affinities: Tea and Chocolate
My good friend Jonathan is a big fan of L'Artisan du Chocolat, the London based chocolate company. He recently showed me their TBars, chocolate infused with Darjeeling or matcha. Never one to hesitate over either tea or chocolate, I enthusiastically made my way to their new Westbourne Grove shop to sample these bars.
The pairing of tea and chocolate has a long heritage but according to Lydia Gautier, the combining of tea and melted chocolate only began in the 1980s, using at first only flavoured tea such as Earl Grey and Jasmine. The attempt to create a chocolate that marries the development of aromas in 'grand cru' teas and that of the chocolate only really began in the 1990s with the work of chocolatier Jacques Genin. He tried to create a product in which the respective properties of both the tea and the chocolate harmonised and enhanced each other.
In her book The Chocolate Connoisseur Chloé Doutre-Roussel says of him
"Like a perfumer, he intuits the flavour associations, the interactions and harmonies between them. When preparing a ganache, he knows the dance the aromas will perform."
Unfortunately, the TBars don't live up to this standard. Everything I love about Darjeeling was absent from the chocolate. The bar, made from Madagascan beans, is too dark and fruity for this delicate, acidic tea. The matcha bar was better but it is hard to detect any aromas over the sugar punch. Made with cocoa butter rather than cocoa, it had a negligent after taste. Very easy to eat, but not much to appreciate.
Next time in Paris I'll make a pilgrimage to Jacques Genin shop in the Marais and hopefully bring back some of his Puerh chocolates. In the meantime here is a video of him (in French) at his shop.
The pairing of tea and chocolate has a long heritage but according to Lydia Gautier, the combining of tea and melted chocolate only began in the 1980s, using at first only flavoured tea such as Earl Grey and Jasmine. The attempt to create a chocolate that marries the development of aromas in 'grand cru' teas and that of the chocolate only really began in the 1990s with the work of chocolatier Jacques Genin. He tried to create a product in which the respective properties of both the tea and the chocolate harmonised and enhanced each other.In her book The Chocolate Connoisseur Chloé Doutre-Roussel says of him
"Like a perfumer, he intuits the flavour associations, the interactions and harmonies between them. When preparing a ganache, he knows the dance the aromas will perform."
Unfortunately, the TBars don't live up to this standard. Everything I love about Darjeeling was absent from the chocolate. The bar, made from Madagascan beans, is too dark and fruity for this delicate, acidic tea. The matcha bar was better but it is hard to detect any aromas over the sugar punch. Made with cocoa butter rather than cocoa, it had a negligent after taste. Very easy to eat, but not much to appreciate.
Next time in Paris I'll make a pilgrimage to Jacques Genin shop in the Marais and hopefully bring back some of his Puerh chocolates. In the meantime here is a video of him (in French) at his shop.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Name Change
I recently had the wierd experience of the blog being mentioned by the New York Times in a an article about the Covent Garden Real Food Fair where I was, apparently, going to be on hand to discuss my favourite recipes etc... The wierd part was that it was also news to me.
A little bit of investigation revealed that there is a British food blog called More Tea, Vicar which is clearly who the NY Times were meant to link through.
Even though getting a plug from an international news paper is pretty exciting, I would rather it was for my own musings so I've decided to change the title of my blog. "More Tea Vicar?" (something an old friend would say to me over endless cups of tea in Bristol) is perhaps a bit whimsical and was never meant to be permanent. So welcome to The Vital Oolong!
"The Vital Oolong" is in turn a reference to P.G. Wodehouse, a writer I hold in some esteem. On the grayest of London days, or after a particularly boneheaded day at work, he never fails to cheer me up - much like a cup of tea.
A little bit of investigation revealed that there is a British food blog called More Tea, Vicar which is clearly who the NY Times were meant to link through.
Even though getting a plug from an international news paper is pretty exciting, I would rather it was for my own musings so I've decided to change the title of my blog. "More Tea Vicar?" (something an old friend would say to me over endless cups of tea in Bristol) is perhaps a bit whimsical and was never meant to be permanent. So welcome to The Vital Oolong!
"The Vital Oolong" is in turn a reference to P.G. Wodehouse, a writer I hold in some esteem. On the grayest of London days, or after a particularly boneheaded day at work, he never fails to cheer me up - much like a cup of tea.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Minor Crush
I am a fan of French tea taster Christine Dattner, and cherish her volume Le Livre du Thé Vert (Plume, 2002)
Barbara Dufrene recently wrote a little piece about her career for World Tea News. It gives me courage to keep tasting and exploring new teas.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Tea and Stress
The restorative power of tea is well known. However, it is not necessarily tea on its own that offers relief from stress. Even a short ritual of familiar, repeated movements can offer enough respite from your own thoughts to bring some perspective to a situation.
Drinking tea isn’t about sitting and doing nothing; it is almost a type of guided meditation.
Because they are slightly fiddly to prepare, oolong teas are the ones to reach for when you need to focus your mind on something other than the problem at hand. Since the colour of oolong teas vary so much between rusted green and bright gold, simply contemplating your brew can offer solace.
The work of discerning the different flavours in the tea you are tasting is part of why tea drinking blocks out the noise of the world. Concentrate on the texture of the tea you hold in your mouth. Tannins are drying and these are the components that give the sense of puckering in your mouth. Brew for too long and tannins can overwhelm the aromatic components, while short brewing will offer an insipid brew – a liqueur without the body needed to hold all the flavours in your mouth.
Another aspect of tea is the amount of sheer trouble people go to so you can have a cuppa. Tea is an intensively worked leaf and it is worth remembering the people who have been involved in its processing - from picking to steaming and to the leaves being hand-rolled.
After my flatmate, the personification of bravery, dealt with a half-decomposed mouse trapped under our fridge (while I hopped about uselessly), I sat us down to prepare a couple of oolongs to quiet the mind and the stomach.
A Dong Ding from Le Palais Des Thés and a Baozhong (light roast) from Tea Smith in Spitalfields did the trick.
The Boazhong was very special. I brewed it in a Yixing pot and the tea was meltingly flavourful, evoking white flowers and later, as it cooled, unripe melon and nectarine. After the first brew, my flatmate and I had a good sniff of the inside of the lid (it's where the all the aromas are concentrated) and we both experienced an intense smell of commercial perfume but without the accompanying alcohol. It disappeared almost instantly but it was lovely enough to bring a tear to Isabelle’s eye (really, I saw it).
Which ever tea choose to keep your spirits up, remind yourself that spending half an hour of concentrated effort on preparing tea is a better plan than hiding under the covers with Leonard Cohen.
Reading: Silence by Sara Maitland
Watching: mostly South Park
Drinking: Gin and Tonics
Drinking tea isn’t about sitting and doing nothing; it is almost a type of guided meditation.
Because they are slightly fiddly to prepare, oolong teas are the ones to reach for when you need to focus your mind on something other than the problem at hand. Since the colour of oolong teas vary so much between rusted green and bright gold, simply contemplating your brew can offer solace.
The work of discerning the different flavours in the tea you are tasting is part of why tea drinking blocks out the noise of the world. Concentrate on the texture of the tea you hold in your mouth. Tannins are drying and these are the components that give the sense of puckering in your mouth. Brew for too long and tannins can overwhelm the aromatic components, while short brewing will offer an insipid brew – a liqueur without the body needed to hold all the flavours in your mouth.
Another aspect of tea is the amount of sheer trouble people go to so you can have a cuppa. Tea is an intensively worked leaf and it is worth remembering the people who have been involved in its processing - from picking to steaming and to the leaves being hand-rolled.
After my flatmate, the personification of bravery, dealt with a half-decomposed mouse trapped under our fridge (while I hopped about uselessly), I sat us down to prepare a couple of oolongs to quiet the mind and the stomach.
A Dong Ding from Le Palais Des Thés and a Baozhong (light roast) from Tea Smith in Spitalfields did the trick.
The Boazhong was very special. I brewed it in a Yixing pot and the tea was meltingly flavourful, evoking white flowers and later, as it cooled, unripe melon and nectarine. After the first brew, my flatmate and I had a good sniff of the inside of the lid (it's where the all the aromas are concentrated) and we both experienced an intense smell of commercial perfume but without the accompanying alcohol. It disappeared almost instantly but it was lovely enough to bring a tear to Isabelle’s eye (really, I saw it).
Which ever tea choose to keep your spirits up, remind yourself that spending half an hour of concentrated effort on preparing tea is a better plan than hiding under the covers with Leonard Cohen.
Reading: Silence by Sara Maitland
Watching: mostly South Park
Drinking: Gin and Tonics
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