Global Tea Time

Expensive Tea Qatar was hard to pin down for a specific type of tea. Most of what I found was that Indian style tea was popular there. Then I found an article about gold plated tea leaves being used to make a cup. (My first thought was how they recovered the gold after brewing). Thanks to a quick Google search, I saw a price of $178.00 quoted for a cup of tea. Not going to happen. It kind of reminded me of an article about a $400 machine that brews your tea for you. I think it's one of those where you have to buy their tea pods, then it will brew you the perfect cup at the perfect temperature for best flavor. I can never remember the name of the contraption, but if you Google "overpriced tea brewing machine", it pops right up. (It's called teforia if you ever wanted to know.) I guess I'm not the only one holding that opinion of this gadget. While this contraption is not popular in the Middle East (or anywhere else that I can tell), I thought an aside to mentio...

I'm giving you 2 posts this week. I have several posts built up, so I'm giving you a post about specific countries, and a generic post about the region. I hope you enjoy them. Today we dive back into more variations on black tea. The only loose leaf black tea I have left is Assam which has a very strong flavor. I recently decided to buy some Lipton brand tea bags because I really don't remember using them, and Lipton is a popular brand in the region. I thought about cutting a tea bag open for my loose leaf, or just brewing it in the bag. I've also thought about going to the Indian grocery for the last few weeks, and I know that they have tea. Lots of tea. So yesterday I went, and realized that I know a lot more about tea now when I was looking at the boxes and bags. There was Lipton. Yellow Label Lipton, which I've seen a lot of reference to. I don't know what the difference between this and regular Lipton is. It's kind of like when I went to Kenya and a...

Turkish Tea When I think of Turkey, I think of bath towels. Strange, I know, but hear me out. When my mom was in high school, she made friends with a girl from a big city when they were participating in one of those boring extra curricular things that adults love to encourage kids to do to make them look better on college applications. Her friend came from a poor family, and joined the Air Force after she graduated high school- so she could get enough to eat, and medical care. Yeah, that's the reality of several of the people I know who joined the military or National Guard. Anyway, mom's friend spent some time stationed in Turkey, and sent a bath towel to mom as a gift. The towel has never been used, but it is big and thick. It is brightly colored with a bold design. It's probably been well over 22 years since I've seen it, so I don't remember it exactly. I think there was a blue border, and the main part of the towel was orange with I think kind of a leafy, vine...

I really couldn't think of a title for this one, other than "more black tea". Uh, oh. Is there a little boredom seeping into my trip through tea? I remember reading early on that black tea is the most popular tea in this region. I guess that was an accurate statement. I'm actually combining a couple of different styles in this post. Iraq I had originally chosen to make a dried lime tea for Iraq. (Click here for more info about Iraq) I could have bought some dried limes, cracked them open, removed the seeds, and boiled them. I think it is a tea that would require some sort of sugar in it. I really didn't feel like buying a bunch of dried limes online (I don't remember seeing them in the Middle Eastern grocery I visited). The thought of using my own dried limes did cross my mind. I have a tendency to buy a bag of limes (they are cheaper that way), and not get them all used up with cooking before they turn into little, brown golf balls. While I have a bag of...

Afghani Pink Milk Tea ...and inadvertent lessons in chemistry. If you look up Afghani tea, you will find some really pretty pictures of a pink tea ranging from vaguely pink to really bright pink. How do you make it? Well, here are the ingredients for the tea portion: Ah yes, the usual. Some sort of tea (this time green tea), good old cardamom with the mortar and pestle waiting in the background, and baking soda. Wait a minute, WHAT?! Are we making tea or cookies today? Well, I'm just following directions. A little skeptically at this point, but here we go. I read some blogs about gross retro recipes , and I feel like I'm looking at a contender, but I will trust that the people in Afghanistan know what they are doing, and make it. After all, for the people who like to actually cook those recipes and taste them, some really do work quite well. I went with the instructions with the shorter video. The one that can be brewed in less than an hour. I started with 2-3 cups (5...

Coconut date rolls I decided to give you a bonus recipe post. Since dates are a popular food in the Middle East, I'm giving you my favorite recipe involving dates. Right now this is one of my favorite potluck recipes. They are kind of healthy because they are fruit based, and sweet enough that most people will eat them. Since dried dates are a seasonal item, I went a little nuts picking up dates at the grocery store last winter. Yeah, that's the only kind of dates I get at the grocery store, or anywhere else for that matter... The ingredients are pretty simple. Dried dates and coconut. I like to use unsweetened macaroon coconut, but any sort of shredded coconut will work. There are a lot of different ways to prepare them. Just eat them as is, make buttered dates. rip them in half, and roll them so the sticky part faces out, or grind them up and make rolls. The best method I have found is to soak them in hot water for around 15 minutes, drain them, then dump them i...

Apple Tea Lebanon For some reason Lebanon was a hard nut to crack. My first searches all brought up an iced tea recipe with rose water that was attributed to a Lebanese restaurant in New Orleans. I wasn't interested. Then I found reference to herbal teas made from local plants. Unfortunately those plants are not local where I live. I have no clue what some of those plants were, never mind where to find them (other than the internet). Then I found a spice tea recipe: star anise (yuck!), nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, poured over almonds, walnuts, pistachios, or pine nuts. I thought about making this without the star anise. Again, the nuts in the bottom of the cup sounded pretty good. However, this is a pretty common combination of spices (minus the usual tea leaves), so I kept looking. Then I found apple tea. Again, sounds kind of suspect. Lebanon is not known for apples. I looked up their climate. Mediterranean. Hot, dry summers, cool, rainy winters, and heavy snow in the ...