Cook with Tea

Tea Seed Oil is on the market now!  I've been reading about how popular it is in China and Japan for cooking, as well as other uses.  Tea Seed Oil (not to be confused with Tea Tree Oil) is cold-pressed from the seeds of Camellia oleifera, a close cousin of Camellia sinensis (the variety which tea leaves for drinking come from).

Seeds!

 In China, tea seed oil is used in dips, sauces, marinades, and dressing as well as to make soap, lubricants, and rustproofing oil.  In Japan it is used to make tempura and to slick back the hair of Sumo wrestlers.  Lastly, the Emerald Harvest Tea Oil  website boasts these advantages:

1. The Highest level of monounsaturated fat of ALL oils 2. The Highest smoke point of ALL oils 3. One of the lowest levels of saturated fat of ALL oils 4. Vitamin E, Omega 6 and 9 essential fatty acids 5. No Transfat

Tea and Tarot

Our most recent Cloyne tea pouring also included some Tarot card exploration.  On Thursday we had a Sencha from Norbu, Royal Garland Oolong from Samovar, Tie Guan Yin from Chan Teas, and Ryokucha from Samovar.  We loved the electric green color of the Ryokucha as well as the grassiness of the Sencha.  

Aaron, Vince, and Taylor

Freddy, Chris, and Zoe

 Freddy and Zoe with Nate

Black Tea Week

This Tuesday, we tasted Black tea in the Teacal.  It wasn't the most extensive tasting in comparison to Greens and Oolongs, which are much more plentiful in Chinese tea production.  However, we tasted some nice teas from Norbu Tea and Numi Tea.

We tasted Numi's Aged Earl Grey.  It's a black tea flavored with Bergamot oil.  It's a strong one, with nice citrusy flavors and the bite of the high quality black tea.

Bergamot

We also had a Feng Qing Gold Tips variety, from Norbu.  It's from the Yunnan province and it's leaves are a lighter color, and very thin and fuzzy.

Jonathan and Richard

Black tea tasting

Shout out to Root'd Tea

Root'd tea donated a bunch of tea and teaware for the class this semester.  We've tasted their delicious Yellow Phoenix in class, a well as their Rock Oolong, Misty Tips, and Tie Guan Danks.

This was a favorite when we tasted the oolongs.

Teacal 

Thanks to Nick and Miles from Root'd!

Teaware to go

I love these thermoses!  Pylones has some silly patterns.  It's a French company.

                                                

These are coffee mugs:

    

Extra tea tastings

I've been holding extra tea pourings for the Teacal (the Cal tea class).  This week we had one at Cloyne with a small group.  Madison and Frank started off an then several others joined as well.  We had Root'd Tea's Rock Oolong and a Jasmine Pearl from Samovar.  The oolong, also known as Rou Gui, is a twisted oolong (not rolled) and is dark, roasty, chocolatey, and slightly sweet.

Jasmine Pearl is a classic favorite.  We watched the leaves unroll with each powerful floral infusion, and even ate some at the end.  I like noting how the pearls vary in their buoyancy in the first couple infusions.  Some float, some stay in the middle, and some sink to the bottom of the gaiwan - a sign of high quality leaf.

Madison and Danny

Ryan and his tea cup.

The tea session was accompanied by some Shel Silverstein poems from A Light in the Attic, which I uncovered from the free pile at Cloyne.  

Tasting some Ryokucha

Today, I had a wonderfully delicious afternoon tea called Ryokucha.  It is a Japanese green - a mix of Genmaicha (green tea with roasted brown rice) and Matcha (ground green tea).

Ryokucha is extremely aromatic - grassy, roasted, and grainy from the pieces of rice in it.  The Matcha makes it a beautiful electric green color.  I loved the look of it in the white cups.