Tea & Chocolate: Liquorice & Fennel

I had odd hours today, with no lunch, and all I wanted when I came home at 4:30pm was a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate.

I've had the bar of chocolate in my fridge a few weeks.  I opened it to try one square as soon as I bought it, but didn't have a proper beverage to wash it down with at the time.  It was chunky and chewy, filled with fennel seeds, crushed almond and pieces of dried fig.  It's Fig, Fennel & Almond (70% cacao) by Theo Chocolate.  Theo has such interesting flavor combos in their Fantasy Flavors collection, with adorably-illustrated labels, and all are organic and fair trade certified (a few are vegan, this one included).  Fig, Fennel & Almond has so few ingredients (cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, almonds, figs, fennel, ground vanilla bean).

The tea is an herbal one, which I got in the goodie bag from the NYC Coffee & Tea Festival this past weekend.  It's Sweet Liquorice Mint by Choice Organic Teas (all their teas are organic and fair trade certified, like the chocolate!).  The pyramid sachet came nearly full; more full than I've ever seen in fact.  It contains liquorice root, peppermint, spearmint, and cornflowers.  I'm not one for all-out minty teas, but I like mint in most blends.  I love liquorice root in teas (but I also like anise liqueurs such as Pastis... not everyone does).  The liquorice root lent its sweetness and viscosity for a full, "velvety" texture, which mellowed out the mints. 

I figured I should take a caffeine-free herbal infusion with my slightly caffeinated chocolate, since I do want to relax this evening.  The first time I'd tried the chocolate I was unsure about it, but knew I'd need to retry with a hot beverage to aid in its mouth-meltyness.  I thought the mint in the tea could've been a stretch for pairing with fennel-laced chocolate, but not so.  This was quite a lovely combo!

NYC Coffee & Tea Festival

I've just spent the day steeping in coffee, teas, tisanes at the NYC Coffee & Tea Festival.  What a fun day!

The event was definitely not large enough to warrant attending both days, unless you really wanted to see all of the presentations.  Though it's on from 11am-5pm, we were ready to leave after the last presentation finished at 3:30.  I'll report the highlights for now.

Upon entering we received a goodie bag full of fun samples and coupons. With Mum being the coffee-drinker she is, I thought we should stop in for the first presentation of the day, given by Anne Nylander of TampTamp, Inc.  She was explaining how to get the most out of your brew, your method, and also listing some of the best coffee places in NYC... many of them right in my own neighborhood! That's right, the East Village now seems to be epicenter for good coffee in the city.  One of the places she mentioned is right across the street from my apartment! Will have to take Mum on a neighborhood coffee tour soon.

Later, at TampTamp's table, we were able to try a brew from Dallis Coffee, based out of Ozone Park, NY!  It seems that Hole Fools (not a typo) carries this brand... I wouldn't know, since I am not a regular coffee consumer.  I'm pretty sure the one we tried was the Nossa Senhora Aperacida Peaberry linked above.  I quite liked it.  It was brewed in a Chemex, and tasted light and slightly fruity.  I think it would be great iced, so I definitely want to seek some out. (When I do drink coffee, it's always black, and mostly iced.)

At noon, Tea Master Yoon Hee Kim performed an abridged Korean tea ceremony.  It was hard to understand fully, since normally there would be more participants--a host and a preparer/server, from what I gathered, as well as guests--but in this example Kim was acting as both the preparer and host.  In short, graceful movements she made a process many of us "perform" every day into something lavish, ceremonial, and beautiful.  The rest of the ritual is quite structured.  If you are ever invited to a Korean tea ceremony, you could end up making a fool of yourself, or worse! Study up first. 

Afterward we came across Hancha Tea's post, one of Yoon Hee Kim's tea companies.  There were many herbal "teas" ready to try.   I first tried the Persimmon Leaf, which had a bright, pungent green flavor that I liked.  I came away with packages of Sweet Indulgence (Hydrangea leaves) and Mulberry Leaf, both stunners.

At 3pm, Chris Cason, tea sommelier of Tavalon made a short presentation on tea-infused cocktails.  He made an Earl Grey-infused vodka, and used it to make an Earl Grey martini.  He poured samples, but the line was more than I could handle.  Mum and I decided we'd go back to my apartment and make our own tea-infused vodka.

In the interim I tried Turkish coffee, which I've had before, and several people marveled that I'd finished my cup as fast as I did.  I actually enjoy the sweetish chalky-sludge that is Turkish coffee, what can I say!

We also came across Deborah's Kitchen,  purveyor of spreadable fruit and relishes in an abundance of flavors... I liked her savory-spicy ones best and got a jar of Hot Hot Cranberry (cranberry with chili pepper).  Mum got a small jar of Mango Sunshine (mango, peach, ginger). 

I look forward to attending next year, even though it seemed low on exhibitors.  I would have liked to see some mate represented, too! In my next posts I'll share impressions on the lovely teas I came away with.

Valentine's Tea for Two

This year Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday.  What better way to begin or end the day with your sweety, than to share a romantic cup of tea meant to inspire feelings of love? 

First there's Harney & Sons Valentine's Blend.  I was once given a small tin of this as an opening-night gift for a play I'd worked on.  It is a simple chocolate-scented black tea with tiny pink rosebuds and petals mixed in.  It's lightly flavored of chocolate with rosy undertones.  Something about it makes me a bit nostalgic... it could possibly remind me of the Avon chocolaty lip balms I got for Valentine's day as a little girl.

Back in December I went to a Tay Tea tasting at ABC Carpet & Home, as mentioned in my first post of the year.  Nini, the super-cool blender, makes several amorous blends.  That night, her Better Than Sex was my favorite.  A mix of Belgian dark chocolate with peppermint in Rooibos; it is heavier on the chocolate with the sweetness of Rooibos, while the mint uplifts the blend.  All of her blends are visually something to behold.  Be sure to check out her online store for some "swatches."

And lastly, as well as leastly, there is a questionable new chain called Argo Tea.  Coming home from the gym I noticed some poor girl standing outside on a freezing day, hawking free samples of some kind of tea outside this new shop on Broadway and.... like, 21st Street.  I crossed the street to check it out.  It looked just like a Starbucks inside, except with tea as the main beverage (there is also some coffee).  They sell pastries and salads and sandwiches just like a Starbucks.  There are tall dispensers on the wall of many varieties of herbals, greens, whites, blacks, chais, you name it.  You can buy them prepackaged as well.  They informed me that they just opened the day before, and let me try their current special, ValenTea Passion, a passionfruit and hibiscus juice-like "tea" that was already super sweetened and annoyingly tart.  It tasted like a bad redition of Celestial Seasoning's classic Red Zinger added to a Capri Sun drink pouch.  They were also letting patrons sample a "Tea Sangria" which pretty much tasted the same, but less tart.  I wouldn't call this one passion-inspiring.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Making Masala Chai

I've recently made the switch back to freelancing from a full-time job designing jewelry.  I am grateful to be back in theatre, making costumes, and scouring the streets for one absolutely necessary accoutrement or accessory or fabric that probably doesn't exist; not to mention for the novelty this kind of work brings to my life.  

My first venture this time 'round is as Assistant Costume Designer and Wardrobe Supervisor for a great organization, Making Books Sing, with whom I've worked several times in years past.  They bring culturally significant musical plays to kids in NYC and around the country, all based on childrens books. 

This year's play is Tea With Chachaji, based on the book Chachaji's Cup by Uma Krishnaswami.  It tells the tale of a young Indian-American boy, Neel, his Indian-born, American-educated mother, and his Great Uncle (Chachaji) who came from India to live with them in Jackson Heights after Neel's father dies.  While Neel just wants to be a "normal kid," Chachaji is trying to keep Neel connected to his Indian heritage by telling him the fantastical stories of the deities they worship over chai tea every afternoon.

To work on this play is to be immersed in Indian culture: Countless beautiful saris, embroidered kurtas, dhotis, glittery vests, turbans and masks of Hanuman, Sita, Rama, and a seven-headed demon comprise the costumes.  The set includes projections of video of everything from Jackson Heights to the Indian Partition of 1947 to Bollywood posters.  And members of the band play tabla and sitar. 

All of this has of course given me a voracious appetite for typical Masala Chai, whatever that is.  From asking around (yogis, Bollywood stars) and searching the internet, I found there is great variance in the recipes.  The main components are black tea, spices (most always including cinnamon), milk and sugar.  And the method is usually to infuse the herbs in water for a while, then add milk and sugar, THEN add tea, then strain and pour, though some might add the milk and sugar last.  Common spices are fresh ginger, cardamom, allspice, cloves, black and/or white peppercorns.

I'm lucky to live a block over from one of NYC's Little Indias, in the East Village.  There is a small Indian convenience store/spice shop located on First Avenue between 5th and 6th Sts that I frequently pass.  I had no idea how well-stocked they were until today.  It's heartening to know that I'll no longer need to travel uptown to Kalustyan's the next time I want to pick up fresh turmeric or any kind of lentil or couscous imaginable.  This shop near me, called Dual Specialty Store, Inc, even had several varieties of quinoa and some organic bulk loose herbs!

I picked up organic green cardamom pods, whole allspice berries, and fresh ginger.  They also had a 1lb, 13 oz can of chickpeas for $2 and change! Then I ran home and boiled 2 c. water.  I added about 10 cardamom pods, 10 cloves, 2 allspice berries, a 2-inch section of cinnamon stick, a few white and black peppercorns, and between 5-10 pink peppercorns, covered it and let it begin to simmer while I shaved off a few pieces of ginger to throw in as well.  I allowed it to continue simmering for 10-15 minutes.

My Masala Chai was destined to be to be different.  I have a large canister of China white tea leaves that were beckoning me.  I also don't drink cow's milk or half and half, as is typically used.  I had wanted to use soy milk or soy creamer for a fuller, smoother tea, but didn't feel like going to another store.  I think a nut milk (almond, cashew) would also be a great substitute, but my boyfriend is nut-allergic so we don't normally keep nutty stuff in our kitchen.  And so it was that I used thin, watery rice milk in my chai.

After the spices were simmering for a bit, and some of the water had evaporated, I added 2/3 c. rice milk and a few swirls of evaporated cane juice.  I let that go for another 5 minutes or so, when I turned off the heat and added about 3 tablespoons of my adorable, furry, silvery white tea leaves, and watched them unfurl in the liquid as they steeped for 5 minutes.  In the pot, the infusion still seemed altogether dim, so I added another swoosh of rice milk.  The tea was then poured into teacups topped with a strainer, leaving a beautiful fragrant pile of herbs and spices in its wake.

My chai was perfectly sweet and spicy.  The rice milk ended up being a good choice for use with white tea leaves; it kept it lovely and light, and actually allowed the white tea's very mild character to shine through.  I felt a pleasant, dull burning in my throat.  Next time I will use even more ginger, perhaps nutmeg too, and make a larger quantity in general.  This yielded about two full (small) teacups, but I totally wanted a refill!

Making chai is super easy and I love that it's adaptable.  I make an Ayurvedic tisane in the same manner that is similar except not sweet, and includes coriander and fennel seads as well.  I also think of adding flower petals and playing with the flavor profiles more.  I might try a different herb blend next time for a sort of fusion chai.  The definitive components will always be spice, sugar, and milk.

Adventures in Monoï

For my birthday, I was given a gift certificate to Beautyhabit.  I cruised the site for a while, naturally finding a lot I was interested in.  This time of year, lilacs, mimosas, peonies and tea scents are all calling my name.  Anything to transport me from grey winter is welcome.  Then I clicked on Ensoleille moi from André Gas.  Gas is the high-end costume jewelry designer of Gas Bijoux, based out of St. Tropez.  Working in mass-produced fashion jewelry, I have been given clippings of his pieces and been asked to mimic it.  I already liked his style of costume jewelry.  I didn't know he had a fragrance, though.  I was intrigued. 

Fittingly, his fragrance, I discovered, contained one of my most favorite notes: Tiaré flower; the Tahitian gardenia which, when infused in coconut oil, is known as Monoï in French Polynesia.  If you buy the real-deal monoï (easy to find in Hawai'i, Guam, or on the West coast, as well as Polynesia), there is a single tiare flower floating at the bottom.  

This brings me back to my first-favorite scent as an "adult" (say, 20) and the thing that got me obsessed with perfumes and future travel to Tahiti: The original version of Tiare by Comptoir Sud Pacifique (now reformulated, sadly), that came in a beautiful deep turquoise frosted glass bottle.

Tiare flower has a rich, buttery, volupt personality with a somewhat dry and powdery aspect.  It is often described as sultry and intoxicating.  Mixing with coconut oil both smooths and slightly deepens its scent.  Comptoir Sud's discontinued eau de toilette is still the ultimate tiare fragrance, to my nose.  It seems pure, without other flowers like jasmine or ylang-ylang to obscure the gardenia.  The addition of Tahitian vanilla in it makes the effect all the more languorous.  This past summer I simply slathered myself (and my hair) in the traditional Monoï oil from Tahiti, whose sent is long-lasting and softly radiates.  Monoï, in Polynesia is typically used for everything: hair, skin, body, face.  You could bathe in the stuff.  And so you should, since coconut oil is one of the best oils for your skin. 

Compared side-by-side to the original Tahitian-made Monoï, Andre Gas' eau de toilette is quite similar in its beautiful starchy-floral qualities.  Aside from the monoï accord, in Ensoleille moi I detect slight marine notes and hints of jasmine, added, I presume, to fully complete the picture conjured by the title of the perfume, meaning, "shine upon me," or "shine light on me." It is also, I'll bet, a bit of an homage to the French Riviera, which makes up a lot of the Gas Bijoux clientele, and where monoï is readily available and often used by its denizens.  It is not as deep or lasting as that of the Comptoir version or the original Tahitian oil, which is a much simpler formula and not necessarily a "perfume" at all, though perfume's a happy side effect (ingredients being only coconut oil, tiare flower, fragrance and vitamin E).  Ensoleille moi is brighter, lighter, conveying breeziness and water.  Its lasting power is minimal, and for upwards of $80 for a 1.7 ounce (very pretty) bottle, I would stick with the original oil which cost me only $10 in San Francisco this past summer.

Monoï is traditionally an incorporation of tiare flower with coconut oil and has been for likely over a thousand years.  Its name means "scented oil" in the archaic Tahitian language reo-maohi.  It has been part of Ra'au Tahiti, traditional Tahitian medicine, since ancient times.  It's used on babies, and on embalmed corpses; in rituals and in every day life; to protect one from the sun and to keep one warm on cool nights; to relieve migraines and to treat wounds.

The French government assigned its Appellation d’origine contrôlée to the production of monoï, making it the first "cosmetic" product to have that label (typically reserved for wines, cheeses, and the like).  Manufacturers must adhere to rigid standards of production.  These include the type of soil the coconut trees and tiare bushes must be grown in, when the buds and fruits are harvested, how many flowers go into a litre of oil, and how long they infuse.  

The only caveat is not being in Polynesia right now, but being in miserable New York winter and getting the now-solid oil out of the narrow-necked bottle it comes in.  In summer, monoï is a beautiful pale golden liquid.  Below 68 degrees F, it hardens like most coconut oil.   In these winter months, one must warm their monoï prior to application.