So I’ve started planning out the tea selection for our next ‘Modern Tea’ event at Q Haute Cuisine. Generally the focus of ‘Modern Tea’ is education of the tea and fundamentals on how it’s paired with a good example (dinner). The last event we did in February included an information sheet for everyone to take if they wished. I got a pretty positive response from it. This time I’ll post it here in segments as I go.
Omija / Schisandra Berry / Wu Wei Zi (5 Flavor Berry), Ji’An, Jilin, China
Native to Russia and Eastern Asia, our preparation of this spice will focus on the Korean cold brew method
The name is translated to the berry with 5 flavors, possessing fruitness, bitterness, sourness, spiciness, and astringency.
My perception of its flavor begins sour, akin to hibiscus or lemon juice. The sourness goes through a transformation first becoming bitter like stale turmeric but then become spicy like pink peppercorns and fruity like cranberry juice. All the aforementioned qualities bind together and finish with a mild astringency.
I thought this tea was very special; it has so much potential to mingle with qualities of food. With the maxim ‘similar flavors cancel each other out’ it might be ideal to present this dish alongside high acid ingredients like pickles to make the tea seem less sour by comparison. Unfortunately I feel that to overcome the sourness you would have to drink straight white vinegar, or eat lemons. Harnessing the acidity and using it with the food seems more appropriate. What kind of foods benefit from having lemon juice or vinegar as a condiment? Would any of those foods be nice with pink peppercorns, juniper berries, or caraway seeds? This was the direction we took to get started.
The reason for calling an impromptu tea dinner was in fact to do the following 4 way comparison. I brought in a lot of samples this season (from which the harvest was just 3 months ago), and I don’t know what to do with them. The teas are great but I can only drink so much.
Gunpowder Tea
I asked one of my suppliers in China to send me the cheapest tea he has, this is what I got. I sell it for $40 for 1 kilogram. Which means it costs about 18 cents to make a pot of tea; not bad but there’s a reason it’s so cheap. To some people there is a lot more to tea than the flavors of the liquid. The color, clarity, aromatics, backstory, health benefits, picking season, prestige, and of course supply and demand all create the value for tea. This tea doesn’t really have any of those and on top of that it’s mass produced by heavy machines and agriculture practices — that’s why it’s so cheap! The origin is Zhejiang, China which is close to Shanghai, a very populous and industrial area. Morocco buys most of this tea in the world and they mix it with honey and fresh mint. The aromatics are pungent and invoke bitterness, the flavor is smooth but tastes like uncooked stale jasmine rice? I want to reiterate that this is a tea detached from anything that gives tea value, and in a way I think that’s pretty cool.
Dog Head Tribute Tea
This was one of the 2018 spring teas that I enjoyed so much that I brought in a few packages before they sold out. They sell out fast. I think it’s a good comparison to gunpowder because it does everything gunpowder does but better. The aromatics are like egg noodles in a rich fatty broth. It’s vegetal like snap peas and has a familiarity of stir frying snow pea leaf and garlic in sesame oil. It’s like it captures the essence of Chinese cooking in a cup.
It has a peculiar name due to where it comes from. The shape of the mountain looks like a dog’s head. Remember when we used to lay on the grass and watch the clouds roll by calling what they look like? Dog’s head mountain is something like that. A long time ago at the base of said mountain, there was a young man in the village who passed the imperial court exam to become an Imperial Official. He sent/gave the emperor tea from his village, when the Emperor tried it and liked it, he bestowed it the title of Dog Head tea. Due to the circumstances of it being a tribute to the emperor it is acknowledged as a ‘tribute tea’.
Its origin is from Hunan, China and while it’s not an international superstar for our 4 way comparison it will show the rich vegetal side of what spring can bring.
Supreme Jade Green Snail (Cui Luo)
I’ve had many ‘snail teas’ throughout the years, and always felt that they kick ass. Whether they are green or black they always impress me with their powerful distinctive flavors. For unknown reasons and against logic, I almost never buy them.
Cui Luo or ‘Jade Snail’ is a pretty famous tea from Guangxi, China. One of the great tea stores in the world likens it to a Chinese version of first flush Darjeeling.
Guangxi is one of the big producers of Jasmine flowers in China. Due to the amount of Jasmine exported to Europe the Guangxi government encourages farmers to go organic for ease of business with western markets. This ‘organic culture’ spreads throughout the land and due to that many producers of tea are also certified. This tea is Organic, if it matters to you.
Supreme Grade White Monkey
One of my big regrets of this season was not buying more of this tea. I did my last big order of tea in the middle of April. I was recommended to try this tea out and see what I thought. I tried it, thought it was good but had a lot of similarities to Japanese sencha albeit with less texture. Very light and refreshing. The issue is that when I went to reorder it was maybe the beginning of June, the tea was long sold out. I was recommended to act faster next year, as most of the tea like this is gone by the end of April.
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