Tea and Coffee Review
When we think about drinking our morning tea or coffee, often it’s more a sinful delight that includes cream, sugar, caramel, or chocolate. Unfortunately starting off your morning with a sweet treat like this leads to an inevitable crash later in the day, and also doesn’t do much to kick start your metabolism. It’s best to start your day with a balanced breakfast, or if you can’t do that, at least avoid the sugar rush by drinking green tea. Green tea is a natural antioxidant; essentially what it helps to do is move the fat cells that are stored in your body into your blood stream where they are processed as energy. It’s been estimated that drinking a cup of steeped green tea actually burns 70 calories, and it’s quite rare that you will find any consumable that actually helps you to burn calories.
Switching to green tea in the morning will provide you with the caffeine necessary to tackle your day, and also assist in keeping your body healthy. While most people define green tea as either being from China or Japan, there are also quality Indian green tea options available.
While there are thousands of different tea varieties, one tends to stand out as the most often quaffed. While Earl Grey tea is popular around the world, the black tea from which Earl Grey is derived is the favorite amongst dozens of different cultures. Earl Grey tea is standard black tea complete with the addition of bergamot oil, which gives the tea its natural citrus taste. But black tea had been around for centuries upon centuries before the invention of Earl Grey tea. While the exact location is not known, most speculate that black tea was first invented somewhere in ancient China, Mongolia, or Tibet. The tea was renowned for retaining is flavor for several years, and was even used as a dye for clothing at some points throughout history. Black tea accounts for more than 90% of all tea sold in the West.
While green tea has seen a revival in demand because of its renowned health benefits, black tea is still the choice of millions of people around the world. In addition, black tea has a more distinct flavor and is cheaper because of its widespread availability. You can even find many tantalizing varieties of flavored black tea online or in your local grocery store.
Oolong is a Chinese tea that oxidized in between Japanese green tea and English black tea. These teas are considered semi-oxidized, and often characterized as possessing a blue-green color. Chinese oolong tea tastes more like green tea, lacking the sweet aroma of black tea. It is often brewed to be strong and bitter, and leaves a sweet aftertaste.
Oolong tea undergoes a unique kind of processing which draws out the aroma and taste. The tea leaves are often sundried, then cooled several times before being stir fried in a large pan over heat. The tea is rolled into strands or nuggets, then dehydrated with a low heat roast, producing different variations in flavor depending on the amount of times it is roasted.
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons dry green tea
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 vanilla pod
1 1/4 cups double (heavy) cream
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons boiling water
Take the dry green tea and soak in boiling water with the tablespoon of sugar for 10-12 minutes.
Into a saucepan put the vanilla pod and milk and gently bring to the boil then pour this over the tea. Leave to stand for 5 or 6 minutes.
Beat the egg yolks with the 1/4 cup caster sugar in a separate bowl and then strain the milk mixture into it.
Transfer to a saucepan and gently heat, stirring all the time, until the mixture is thick. Leave to cool.
Whip the double (heavy) cream and fold into the cooled tea mixture. Transfer the complete mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
You’ve probably heard of the phrase “cutting out the middleman” – a practice that has become more popular in food and beverage sales of late. For many years, farmers and food producers were at the mercy of traders, who could get away with paying a pittance for the fruits of all that labor. Obviously this practice was not fair, and luckily the idea of fair trade has begun to catch on in many areas of the world.
Fair trade basically takes the power out of the trader’s hands by paying workers a sum commensurate with the work they’ve put into growing a particular good. The sale of fair trade chai tea yields farmers enough money to sustain themselves in business and in many cases to turn a profit. This practice has made it possible for producers in developing nations to stand on a more level playing field with the industrialized West.
While it’s not always the case, certain stereotypes are rooted in fact. Such is the case with the English and their cultural obsession with tea. English breakfast is the most popular type of tea served in the British Isles; that hearty, robust blend is strong enough to invite the addition of milk and sugar. The British practice of drinking strong tea in the morning could be likened to many Americans’ need for an invigorating morning coffee.
English tea is something of a misnomer, however, in that it is not grown anywhere near England. English breakfast tea is typically harvested in China and shipped to the rest of the world. Because of its potency and propensity to energize tea drinkers, this full-bodied brew is typically served in the morning. In the late afternoon, lighter teas are often substituted.
Oolong is a Chinese tea that oxidized in between Japanese green tea and English black tea. These teas are considered semi-oxidized, and often characterized as possessing a blue-green color. Oolong tea tastes more like green tea, lacking the sweet aroma of black tea. It is often brewed to be strong and bitter, and leaves a sweet aftertaste.
Oolong tea undergoes a unique kind of processing which draws out the aroma and taste. The tea leaves are often sundried, then cooled several times before being stir fried in a large pan over heat. The tea is rolled into strands or nuggets, then dehydrated with a low heat roast, producing different variations in flavor depending on the amount of times it is roasted.
The bergamot orange is among those exotic fruits that are largely unknown in North America; they are sold in some specialty stores, but you won’t likely find them in a supermarket along with the Granny Smiths and navel oranges. In fact, the bergamot is only commercially grown in a single region of Italy. While the fruit remains mysterious and obscure to many Americans, its flavor and taste are actually quite familiar.
Even casual tea enthusiasts are probably familiar with Earl Grey, a flavorful, aromatic blend that gets its distinct fragrance from bergamot orange rind. Generally speaking, the Earl Grey tea moniker is applied to black teas that are flavored with bergamot oil. Its name is derived from a legend about a British prime minister from the 19th century who supposedly received the delicious blend as a gift.
In the 19th century, it was often said that the sun never set on the British Empire. Indeed, the small island nation had reached its colonial tentacles into such far-flung places as the Western Hemisphere, Australia and India. Like most formidable powers of the past, Great Britain controlled the sea trade with an iron fist, and Russia was its only major rival on the world stage.
For Britain, protecting and developing trade in India was one of the major goals necessary to sustain a burgeoning empire. The rich spices and foods that grew in India were in high demand all over the globe. Prior to the British colonization, Indians had relied on tea for medicinal purposes, but they had never brewed it for a recreational beverage. For all of the harm Britain caused to India over that century of colonization, there’s no denying that the imperials helped discover the delicious nature of Indian black tea. Today, some Indian companies have taken over ownership and production of their great natural resource. India consumes more tea than any other single country.