Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

Today we go to Equatorial Guinea, which consists of "Rio Muni" - Continental Equatorial Guinea, and 5 small islands known collectively as Insular Equatorial Guinea. When researching this country, I found "osang" tea. I found the name only, no instructions on how to make it.
Mystery tea
Upon doing some research, osang is a generic name for African milk tea. I couldn't pin down any specific flavors used for this region, just a general description of how people all over Africa make this tea. The base is black tea with milk. The suggested add ins are shown below.
Tea Masala (thank you Indian food store), ginger, cardamom, or lemongrass. No, don't use them all together. Today I'm in the mood for cardamom, so that's what I used. The one blog I found about making this suggested a 1:1 ratio of milk and tea. I used 3/4 cup (about 200 ml) of each, with 3 cardamom pods. As usual, you can add sugar to taste.
I decided to add the cardamom pods to the mixture when it was cold, and heat them together to allow the cardamom to steep longer. So I stirred, and stirred, and brought this to a simmer. Then this particular person said to remove the tea from the heat to add the tea leaves.





I used 1 tsp of tea (2 grams), and let it steep covered for 5 minutes.












Then I strained it into my cup (thinking that this looks a little light, but oh well). I actually made this a second time with maybe 1/4 of the mixture being milk (unsweetened vanilla almond milk), and liked it much better. Overall, it is a tea I will surely make again.




Comments

  1. Poppy CrockerOctober 11, 2017 at 9:25 AM

    Cardamom smells so good! I'm never sure what to do with it, though. (And you KNOW I'm not going to put it in tea.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lace makerOctober 11, 2017 at 4:12 PM

      I sprinkle it over oatmeal with cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. I also made cardamom bread once for Christmas.

      Delete

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