Rwanda

Rwanda

Today we travel to Rwanda. Rwanda is a small, landlocked country south of the equator. It is just north of another small country in the region, Burundi. I wasn't able to find any information about Tea in Burundi. Apparently they have an extensive coffee industry. Among interesting things I have learned about Rwanda, they have a national ballet and orchestra. The ballet borrows from traditional dances for their choreography. I think that would be really interesting to see. The orchestra is described as more modern in their musical style. Burundi sounds very similar in description. I know a couple who runs a music studio locally, and they record for a group that is originally from Burundi. They gave me a CD, and while I don't normally listen to religious music, most of it is not in English, so it sounds like traditional African music to me. It is a very bright, joyful sounding collection. 

Now, on to the tea! I was intrigued by the method I found for making tea in Rwanda. They use the same ingredients of many other countries in the region, but they use a different method. After trying this, it is a great social tea. The ingredients are simple. Water, tea, milk, ginger, and sugar if desired. 

Yes, I went out and bought some fresh ginger for this one. I didn't want to deal with the dried ginger, and I normally store fresh ginger in the freezer which makes it easy to work with, but I didn't want to put ginger ice in my tea. 

I used 1 cup (250 ml) water, simmered for about 5 minutes with about 1.5 teaspoons (2 -3 grams) of Kenyan black tea. Then I added 1 cup (250 ml) of milk and brought back to a boil. 

What do we do with the ginger you ask? It's sliced into large coins and a couple of them are put in the bottom of your cup. 

I really had to wonder how well this would work for flavoring the tea since it is steeped at a lower temperature, and only for the amount of time it takes you to drink a cup of tea.  

I strained my boiling hot tea mixture into the cup and tried to sip a bit. It tasted of milk tea. Really, really hot milk tea. So I sat a bit and let it cool off. Next sip, ginger milk tea. The ginger did still infuse into the tea nicely as it was cooling down. The further down you drank, the stronger the ginger got. It wasn't a harsh, bitter ginger flavor either (even though I didn't add any sugar). The ginger had a sweet, fruity scent. For some reason, the scent of the ginger reminded me of Trix cereal (don't ask me where that came from - ginger and very synthetic fruit flavors have absolutely no similarity whatsoever). 

Overall, I really liked this method of brewing. The ginger imparted a really nice flavor to the tea, and created more interest as each sip was a little bit different. It is a method that really encourages taking your time, and lingering over your tea. It's a nice weekend tea. Something special that makes you slow down and enjoy your time.