Tag Archives: Tea

Tea Infused Yogurt

I have been making my own yogurt for over a year now, and tea infused yogurt would combine two of my favorite foods.. In trying to find yogurt that is not loaded with sugar or artificial sweetener, I did what many people do these days and googled how to make yogurt at home. I was pleased to discover how few ingredients it required and, since I already had a dehydrator big enough to hold 8 oz glass jars, I was pretty much ready to go if I could just find yogurt starter at a grocery store.

Yogurt starter is basically the bacteria necessary to make yogurt, in packets very similar to the yeast used to make bread. Some recipes suggested that you could use yogurt from the grocery store instead of the yogurt starter however, as I was trying not to eat the yogurt in the grocery store, I decided to pass on this option. Finding the yogurt starter was simple here in the suburbs of Washington, DC where I found yogurt starter in the baking aisle next to tapioca and various extracts.

So why tea flavored yogurt? Over the year as I have gotten more comfortable with scalding milk, getting it up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit without boiling, I have gotten braver in adding alternatives to the milk to try to flavor the yogurt. I decided while reading a recipe for tea flavored ice cream that I should be able to flavor yogurt with tea was amazed to find that it worked!

Now, before I show you the recipe I should say I do not add sugar to my yogurt. I rely on the lactose in the milk to sweeten the yogurt, which makes for a tarter yogurt than most Americans are used to. I really like it, but my son absolutely dislikes it and David doesn’t eat yogurt, so I’m subjected to my own creations. I have added a note at the end, if you want sweetener, on what and how much to add.

While I haven’t done this recipe with herbals or green teas, I imagine it could work with them also. Just be prepared for your yogurt to take on some unconventional colors – like green or pink. This recipe calls for your favorite black tea, which in my case is Earl Grey. Just be aware of how it tastes in the cup because that taste will amplify in the yogurt, especially if it is citrus in flavor.

Getting started, you need a few pieces of equipment, a good liquid thermometer, dehydrator and fine mesh sieve. You can usually find a thermometer in the kitchen equipment section of your grocery store next to the can openers. If you have butter fingers like I do, spend the extra money for the waterproof one so when you drop it in the milk it will survive (learned this one the hard way). As for the dehydrator, there are many options out there, so find one you like that can run at 115 degrees Fahrenheit and is deep enough to hold glass jars. Ball makes 4 and 8 oz jars, so measure before you buy. I use 8 oz since I already had them in the house from making jelly and my dehydrator was big enough to hold them if I removed the racks. As for the sieve, the finer the mesh you can find the better, as the dust from the tea leaves will get through if the holes are too big. You might like it or you might find it a bit gritty in your yogurt (it looks almost like vanilla bean seeds at the bottom of the yogurt cup when it is done cooking). I resorted to a kitchen supply store to find one that was fine enough and I still get some tea dust remaining in the yogurt.

Whole Milk and Earl Grey Tea

Recipe

4 cups Whole Milk*
2 tbs Favorite Black Tea (mine is Earl Grey)
1 packet Yogourmet yogurt starter

Scalded Whole Milk and Earl Grey Tea

Put the 4 cups of milk in a sauce pan with the tea leaves, you will need to stir to get the leaves incorporated. Bring the milk up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit without letting it boil. Expect it to turn caramel color as the tea brews in the milk. As soon as it hits 180 degrees take the pan off the burner and allow the milk to cool back down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. If you are adventurous you could strain out the tea as soon as you pull the pan off the burner. I prefer to wait as I have no need to get burned by hot liquid if it happens to splash while pouring it through the strainer.

Straining Off Earl Grey Tea

Pour the milk through the strainer into a vessel that makes it easy to pour the milk into the jars (I have a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup with a spout that makes this super easy).

Put the yogurt starter into a small bowl that you can whisk in and ladle in a couple of scoops of the milk once it hits 115 degrees (I have found this happens almost immediately after pouring the milk through the sieve). Whisk until the starter has dissolved then add back into the rest of the mill and stir.

Distribute the milk between your glass jars and then put those jars for a minimum of 4 hours in your dehydrator at 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Check if thick enough by turning the jars upside down at the 4 hour mark. I have had it take as long as 6 hours in a few cases. Transfer the jars to the refrigerator and start to enjoy the yogurt the next morning. Be prepared for losing about ½ cup of the milk to being absorbed by the tea leaves.

Just a word of caution about Earl Grey and other citrus flavored teas – Citrus and milk creates buttermilk, which is very tangy. Even if the citrus is nothing more than an extract, my experience has been that the yogurt is rather tangy. So I will admit, sometimes sugar is necessary to help tone this down. I add mine after the fact by pouring a little agave nectar (no more than a teaspoon per serving) over the top before eating, but that is only after I have tasted the yogurt first.

For those who really need sugar in your yogurt – go with ¼ to 1/3 cup of a liquid form of sugar – like agave nectar, honey or maple syrup. While these 3 may turn your white milk slightly cream colored, you do not have to battle trying to dissolve granulated sugar in your milk while trying to make sure your milk does not boil.

*Forget 2% or skim milk as they make runny yogurt that requires corn starch to thicken – too much work in my book

I hope you enjoy this recipe. What do you like to cook with tea?

– Hillary at Dominion Tea

American Tea Culture

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Golden Dragon Tea

Recently Hillary and I spent a couple weeks in Florida visiting family and having our son spend some time with his grandparents. As usual we brought our own tea. During a break we visited a well-known tea house which featured a wide selection of over sixty teas as well as serving salads and sandwiches. Hillary selected an Earl Grey and Jasmine blend while I selected an oolong described, in part, as rare. The tea itself tasted great but I felt the tea house left us short. Specifically, the tea infuser was removed from the pot before it was brought to the table. We had no option to examine the tea leaves nor have a second steeping. So is it that odd to expect an institution serving premium tea to provide access to the infused leaves? And this begs a larger question. How does one define “American Tea Culture”?

Culture can be defined as “the sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another.” (Dictionary.Com, 2014) We are dominated by a coffee culture in this country now, but that hasn’t always been the case. Early in our history we were primarily tea drinkers, dating back to the early days of the nation and beginning the transition to coffee with the Boston Tea Party at which point it became unpopular to drink tea, lest you be seen as supporting the British. Over time came wars involving Asia, further eroding the tea as a part of the American way of life.However, tea didn’t fully fade away, and throughout our history we have opened our doors to large numbers of immigrants, a number of which were displaced from their homelands during political upheaval. For example we helped relocated nearly a million people from Vietnam in the 1970’s after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. Immigrants from Vietnam moved primarily to Southern California but also Houston, TX, the Washington DC suburbs and a variety of other cities. The Vietnamese brought with them their language, beliefs, and consumption of hot and iced tea. (Peter Cody Hunt, 2002)

Today the American Tea Culture is hard to pin down, involving a variety of different things. On the one hand we have tea in a restaurant atmosphere. We have a growing number of tea houses with fancy tea pots and cups as well as light fare or coffee & tea establishments offering a trendy atmosphere where you can get coffee, tea, bagels, and other food from a counter to sit in or take out.

Sun Tea by flickr user SanFranAnnie, CC BY SA 2.0

There is sweet tea, iced tea, and sun tea. As far as tea in the United States goes it is overwhelmingly iced. Iced tea is featured nearly everywhere in the south and served up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In some parts it is sweet tea with a good helping of sugar or sweetener added, while in other areas its straight black. For Hillary, growing up in Arizona only a few miles from Mexico, her favorite was sun tea made simply by adding a few teabags to a jar of cold water and setting outside in the Arizona sun. A few hours later simply pour over ice and enjoy!

Bubble Tea by flickr user ohallmann, CC BY 2.0

An alternative for many in this country is tea as occasional “get well” drink, often from grocery store teabags, including tea, lemon, and honey to relieve a sore throat, or herbal remedies purported to help overcome sickness. In fact America, being the melting pot that it is, sees different uses based on different cultural backgrounds. For many Hispanics “traditional practices include using home remedies (e.g., drinking herbal or spiced teas) and seeking care from relatives, neighbors, community members, or traditional health care providers.” (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012) Haitians “drink lots of water and homemade fruit juices, coffee in the morning, and tea only when sick.” (Jessie M. Colin) And there is a significant Asian population in Southern California with shopping catering to the population and bubble tea shops for younger generations. (Medina, 2013)

We have portions of the population who seek benefits from green tea in the form of food ingredients, dietary supplements, facial masks, and a whole host of other uses.

Lastly, there are those of us who enjoy loose leaf tea, the myriad varieties, the historical significance, different brewing methods, blends, scenting, baking, and more. We can get our fix from specialty tea shops sprinkled throughout the country, online, and regional festivals ranging from the Pacific Northwest and Los Angeles International Tea Festivals to the NYC and Philly Coffee and Tea Festivals.

In the end I’m not sure one can really pin down “American Tea Culture”. Like America there are options for everyone and plenty of room to explore, no matter what your preference. Is one aspect wrong and another right? Is one a more worthwhile aspect of tea on which to focus? What is your preference? Did we leave out your favorite aspect of American Tea Culture?

Tell us what you think and share this blog with another tea lover…

– David at Dominion Tea

Works Cited

Dictionary.Com. (2014, 01 22). Culture | What is the dfinition? Retrieved from Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture?s=t

Jessie M. Colin, P. R. (n.d.). Cultural and Clinical Care for Haitians. Betty Hastings, LCDR US Public Health Service, Indian Health Services.

Medina, J. (2013, April 28). The New York Times. Retrieved from New Suburban Dream Born of Asia and Southern California: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/us/asians-now-largest-immigrant-group-in-southern-california.html?_r=0

Peter Cody Hunt, M. (2002). An Introduction to Vietnamese Culture For Rehabilitation Service Providers in the U.S.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Building Our Understanding: Cultural Insights – Communicating with Hispanic/Latinos.

American Tea History

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Tea traveled to America with the colonists who arrived from all European countries, with some colonies like New Amsterdam (modern day New York) being heavier tea drinkers than all of England at the time_{(Smith & Kraig, 2013)}. The British implemented a mercantile system, as with its other colonies, which focused on trade to increase its wealth. With this system London based businesses were protected through the use of trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies but it also required the British government to fight smuggling and illegal trading with other countries, especially by American merchants.

Early American Tea Experience

American Tea consumption is tied tightly to the early ship building in the colonies. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were both major ship building colonies, where craftsman took advantage of the abundance of local resources, craftsman, and cheap labor to build more and faster clipper ships than the British. Many of these clipper ships were put into use by the American merchants to trade directly with other countries, bypassing the British government. Smuggling was extremely common in the American colonies and tea was high on the list of illegal goods.

American Tea drinkers are less familiar with asian teapots and accessories.

Small Yixing Teapot

The colonists adopted many of the British customs like tea drinking both at home and in public coffeehouses (Yes, coffeehouses did exist 300 years before Starbucks). It should be noted that much of the tea consumed in the colonies and Britain was green tea_{(Smith & Kraig, 2013)}. The social demand for tea, and the additional taxes levied on tea from the British East India Company made smuggled tea a very common commodity in the colonies, most coming from the Dutch East India Company. The loss of revenue by the British East India Company did not go unnoticed and in 1767 the tea tax was levied. This tax became one of many levied on the colonists in the ten years leading to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution. As Joseph M. Walsh noted in 1892, “The birth of the greatest nation of all time due to a three-penny tax on tea!” _{(Walsh, 1892)}

After the revolution, American merchants used their clipper ships to go direct to China for trade, bringing tea and other goods legally into the United States without British involvement. These merchants became the first of the American millionaires, with tea being a dominant contributor to their wealth. This wealth was later used to give loans to the fledgling American government to purchase arms for the War of 1812 other ventures necessary to stabilize and expand the country.

American Industry and Tea

Tea consumption thrived in the United States through the 1800’s with farmers experimenting with growing tea plants in the country. The US Department of Agriculture even published a study about using tea as a commercial crop in 1897. There is still a commercial tea plantation in South Carolina, new tea farms in Hawaii, and the US League of Tea Growers working to increase the growth of tea in America.

It was in the early 1900’s that America made perhaps its largest contribution to modern tea culture, first through the large scale introduction of iced tea and then through the invention of the tea bag. While iced tea has been documented in American cookbooks dating back to 1870’s, it was at the World’s Fair in 1904 that iced tea was introduced in a big way to the public. With the warmer US climates, iced tea still remains the most consumed tea in the US. The second was the accidental invention of the tea bag by an American, Thomas Sullivan, who sent small samples of his tea in silk bags to his clients in 1908. Those clients went on to ask Thomas to send their tea in bags going forward and since silk was expensive he created his bags out of paper.

American Tea drinkers love beautiful European inspired teapots.

Antique Teapot

American Tea Consumption and World Wars

American tea consumption saw significant declines around World War I (1914-1919) and then again around World War II (1939-1945) because of significant disruption in trade with China and Japan.. Trade with China did not resume after WWII until 1971. As green tea was produced predominantly in China and Japan, this left black tea from India to satisfy the US market. Current tea consumption in the United States is 85% iced tea and still overwhelmingly black.

As loose leaf tea becomes easier for the US consumer to get and consumer awareness of options increases, the growth in the specialty loose leaf market will mirror that of coffee and wine bringing a large variety of tea to market. I am looking forward to having more options in the high quality tea market, are you?

– Hillary

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Works Cited

Smith, A., & Kraig, B. (2013). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Walsh, J. M. (1892). Tea – Its History and Mystery. Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Co.

A Brief History of Tea

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Lu Yu – In Xi’an on the grounds of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda by Nat Krause, July 26, 2005, CC – 2.0

The history of tea is too long for a single blog post, but here we try to hit the highlights and key milestones in time. Tea has been consumed by humans for a really long time and has influenced international relations for centuries. According to legend, tea was discovered in 2737 BCE in China when the leaves of a nearby evergreen fell into the boiling water of the Emperor Shen Nung creating a beverage that reinvigorated him. The first credible texts referencing tea plantations and the consumption of tea appear around 1000 BCE. However, it took until the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE) for tea to become China’s national beverage. It was during this dynasty that Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea called Ch’a Ching, The Classic of Tea.

Tea appears to have first travelled beyond China during the late 500’s CE to Japan by way of Japanese Buddhist monks who utilized tea during their meditation rituals to maintain alertness. Tea was first offered to the Russians in 1618, but the Czar did not like the taste, so tea failed to take hold there until the middle of the 1600’s. Once the taste did develop in Russia, tea traveled thousands of miles in a caravan and was most likely the same Pu-erh tea that was traded with the Mongolians and Tibetans. Even though European explorers like Marco Polo mention tea in their logs as early as the 13^th century, Europeans did not come into contact with tea in any large scale until 1627 CE by way of a Portuguese trading vessel. As an American, tea is considered to be British, but it was the mainland of Europe that adopted tea first and it wasn’t until Charles II married a Portuguese princess, some forty years later, that tea took hold as fashionable in Britain with the British East India Company placing its first order of tea in 1664_{(UK Tea Council, 2014)}. Today, Europe still maintains a significant role in the tea trade with parts of the continent exporting more tea than some of the countries that actually grow it commercially.

Painting by Lai Fong of an American Clipper Ship

Portrait of an American Clipper Ship by Lai Fong (Lai Fong of Calcutta, fl. 1870-1910) currently at Childs Gallery, Boston, MA

Tea traveled with the colonists to America and it is the tax on tea that is credited as pushing the colonists to their breaking point with the British monarchy, helping to instigate the American Revolution. While America was trying to figure out how to be a country, the Chinese emperor decided that foreign trade was to be paid for with silver, putting a very large burden on the British East India Company. In response, they began to heavily export opium to China at the time to off-set the silver requirement, since the Chinese government did not stop the merchants from accepting opium instead of silver. Simultaneously, the British began trying to figure out how to cultivate tea in India.

At about the same time that the British had success in growing tea in the Assam region of India, 1839, the First Opium War broke out between the British and Chinese. At the start, it was estimated that the amount of opium flowing into China had increased to 40,000 chests annually from the pre-silver requirement level of 4,500 chests, prompting the Emperor to have local government officials arrest opium merchants and seize their stocks to be destroyed_{(Greenberg, 1951)}. In response, the British sent troops from India both decimating the Chinese coast and ultimately giving Britain control what is now Hong Kong.

It is the consumption of tea by the British, and later the thirst for ready-to drink and iced tea by Americans, that fueled cultivation of tea not just in India but into Africa and then South America by some of the largest tea producers in world. While China and Japan may produce more tea, this is mainly for domestic consumption rather than export.

A Brief Timeline of Tea by Dominion Tea

Since tea cannot be commercially grown in every country and it continues to be the second most consumed beverage on the planet, I suspect it will remain a factor in international relations. I can only hope that it brings more peaceful relationships in the future. Do you think it can?

Let us know by commenting here, or sharing on Twitter or Facebook.

– Hillary

Works Cited

Greenberg, M. (1951). British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-42. In M. Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-42 (p. 113). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

UK Tea Council. (2014, January 5). Tea – A Brief History of the Nation’s Favourite Beverage. Retrieved from UK Tea Council Web site: http://www.tea.co.uk/tea-a-brief-history-of-the-nations-favourite-beverage

Tea Travels: How Does Tea Get to Market?

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As we noted in an earlier blog about where tea is grown, tea comes from a large number of countries around the world, though only a relatively small number including China, India, Japan, and Kenya produce it in large scale. But we were curious, how does the tea actually get into our hands for consumption?

Tea, of course, starts with the plant, Camellia sinensis. Tea plants begin life as cuttings in a nursery before being planted in fields for commercial growing. These fields may be corporately owned or those of smallholders which makeup a substantial, if not the majority of growers around the world. (United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization, 2012). After a flush of new growth appears, pluckers will pick leaves ranging from a bud only to a bud and two or three leaves, collecting the leaves in a basket or other container. While manual labor is used for most plucking, some tea is harvested by mechanical means.

After plucking, tea immediately begins to loose moisture and begin oxidation and must quickly get to a manufacturing plant. So the farm and the manufacturing plant must be close enough to allow raw leaves to be delivered immediately. Farmers rarely own manufacturing facilities themselves, so after tea is picked in the field it is carried to a factory on foot, car, truck, bicycle, or motorcycle depending on what happens to be at hand. This may be done by the farmer or by middlemen who purchase the raw tea leaves and transport it to the factory for processing.

Tea Chests by Flickr user mikecogh, CC BY-SA-2.0

Once at a factory the tea leaves are processed and turned into one of the major types of teas. This may be done using CTC or Orthodox methods, ultimately resulting in a finished tea product that is ready for packaging and sale. At this stage tea is packaged in large containers made of a variety of types including polypropylene, jute (vegetable fiber spun into threads), or paper sacks or in tea chests. Tea chests are made of plywood lined with aluminum foil and parchment paper to ensure they resist absorption of other aromas and, when full, may weigh 75-160 lbs while foil lined tea sacks may weigh 55-130 lbs. (TIS-GDV, 2013)

Depending on country and local arrangement, tea may be sold directly to distributors and wholesalers or may go through auction. There are well established auction houses in Colombo, Mombasa, Calcutta, and cities in other major tea producing countries of the world. In some cases the tea is actually packaged and leaving port before money has traded hands!

Shipping Containers by Flicker user wirralwater, CC BY-2.0

Packaged tea is shipped in a variety of methods although excessive handling is not desired as sacks and chests are easily damaged resulting in loss of the tea within. It is normally placed on pallets and then moved by forklift into a shipping container to be shipped around the world. When it gets to the destination port this container may be emptied and the contents re-shipped, or the container itself may be forwarded on to the end buyer.

Upon reaching the distributor or wholesaler the shipment of tea is then split up, sold in existing packaging, or repackaged into smaller sizes for purchase by retailers and in some cases direct to consumer. At this point some tea may become the base of a blended tea or may remain as is. Finally, the retailer will repackage the finished product into sizes that are manageable for consumers and sold directly or sold to other retailers, tea houses, or hospitality establishments.

Since tea does have a shelf life it is important to get the tea to retailers and consumers quickly. Some aspects of shipping can be done faster, especially with air shipping and consumer purchase direct from the grower. However, these are generally niche solutions with low volume, appropriate for specialty teas and buyers who really know what they want and are willing to deal with some added risk of placing orders with a company overseas.

So where do you buy your tea? Physical tea store, on-line retailer, farmers market, other?

Like what we have to say? Let us know, follow the Dominion Tea blog or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

David @ Dominion Tea

Works Cited

TIS-GDV. (2013). Tea. Retrieved from Transport Information Services – GDV: http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/genuss/tee/tee.htm

United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization. (2012). Contribution of Smallholders to the tea sub-sector and policies required to enhance their livelihood. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Intergovernmental Group on Tea.