As much as I love my iced tea (there’s always a glass pitcher of some flavor of tea in the refrigerator), hot tea is what I turn to when I need a beverage that will relieve stress and provide a measure of comfort. Just the process of brewing and then sipping is calming.
A steaming mug of chamomile tea is my idea of the perfect bedtime beverage. Many months ago, I took a tea blending class with Brandi Shelton of Just Add Honey in Atlanta, so as 2020 was ending, I called to talk chamomile with Shelton.
One of the more than 40 blends she keeps in her shop is “Good Night,” a mix of three dried ingredients: chamomile, lavender and lemongrass. The proportions are 1 ounce of dried chamomile, 1 1/2 tablespoons dried lavender and 1/2 tablespoon dried lemongrass. You can buy the blend premade or purchase the ingredients and vary the proportions to suit your palate. Think you won’t like one of those ingredients in your tea? Customize to your taste. Just Add Honey keeps at least two dozen individual ingredients available, making it easy to customize a blend.
We chatted about how to go about creating your own tea blend. “Think about tea ingredients like taste textures. They can be floral, savory, sweet, fruity, spicy, tart or herbal. Pick no more than three. Chamomile is floral and herbal. Add something from one of the other textures. Try lemongrass. Or licorice. People give licorice a bad rap, but when you infuse it into tea, it offers a beautiful sweetness and a calming effect. Dandelion is another good addition to chamomile. It’s very relaxing. Or dried red raspberry leaves to help with anxiety. Make your blend, then brew a cup. Give it a taste. Love it? You’re done. Not so great? Start over.”
It wasn’t until I talked with Connie Miller of Chamblee’s ZenTea that she convinced me tea was a great ingredient for cooking.
Her shop offers more than 200 whole loose-leaf teas as well as teas in sachets and tea bags. Miller’s shop has built a loyal clientele of both locals and people who travel longer distances to enjoy her teas. Pre-pandemic, the shop was a community gathering spot and offered formal teas and tea tastings. During the pandemic, she’s moved to a takeaway model like her recent to-go New Year’s meal of black-eyed pea veggie soup, a savory cheddar and chive biscuit, a chocolate pecan scone and the diner’s choice of one of seven teas selected to complement the food.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Miller loves helping people along on their tea journey, turning people who only drank fruity herbal teas to what she calls “real tea drinkers,” but she also enjoys helping people think about using tea in their cooking and she offered three basic ways to get started.
Infusions: Use tea to infuse the richer component of a dish. Steeping tea leaves or tea bags directly into dairy products like milk or heavy cream is an easy way to add flavor to desserts like ice cream or panna cotta, or a savory cream-based sauce like bechamel. Using a strong-flavored tea like Earl Grey or chai to infuse milk or cream will add additional flavor when you’re baking cupcakes or muffins.
Marinades and rubs: Make a rub with a smoky tea like Lapsang Souchong along with spices and salts and use as a rub. Or brew a strong tea and use it as a marinade.
In place of broths or other liquids: Use tea as the broth for soups or as the liquid when making rice. Use a tea like genmaicha, a brown rice tea, as the liquid in your stir-fry or to cook vegetables, which gives dishes a natural nutty flavor.
RECIPES
Whether you want to change up your hot tea habit just a bit, or look at tea as a way to add another layer of flavor to your cooking, we’ve got the recipes to get you started.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Chamomile Latte
You’re used to thinking of coffee lattes. Try one made with tea. You can use this recipe with the tea of your choice.
— Adapted from a recipe from Brandi Shelton, Just Add Honey.
Credit: Connie Miller
Credit: Connie Miller
Genmaicha Green Tea Sauteed Green Beans
Genmaicha is one of the most popular teas in Japan. Connie Miller of ZenTea says it was originally blended with roasted brown rice and popped rice to make the tea last longer in hard economic times. It has a savory, nutty flavor, which makes it a great ingredient for cooking. Use it in a recipe like the one here, or use the tea in place of water to cook rice or add to any veggie casserole that has rice or nuts in it.
Some people are stymied when working with loose-leaf tea instead of tea bags. Follow the directions here, brewing the tea and then straining out and discarding the tea leaves.
— Adapted from a recipe from Connie Miller, ZenTea.
Credit: Connie Miller
Credit: Connie Miller
Chai Twice Baked Savory Sweet Potatoes
Recipes abound for twice baked white potatoes, but sweet potatoes can be prepared with the same treatment. This recipe from Connie Miller of ZenTea infuses milk with her Café Spiced Chai, a black assam tea base with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves and vanilla. Miller suggests making a pot of this tea to enjoy after dinner and serving it with cream and brown sugar cubes.
Turn this into a make-ahead dish by assembling ahead of time and refrigerating. When ready to serve, heat the oven, sprinkle the stuffed potatoes with feta and heat.
— Adapted from a recipe from Connie Miller, ZenTea.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Asian Noodle Oolong Tea Soup
Using tea as a base for soup is brilliant. In this recipe, Connie Miller of ZenTea uses Oolong Organic DaHongPao Wu-Yi. It’s a roasted tea with a dark leaf and a smoky flavor.
Rice sticks generally come in 14-ounce packages. You’ll only need part of a package for 4 servings.
— Adapted from a recipe from Connie Miller, ZenTea.
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