Tea history, terroirs & varieties

Iranian New Year came early this year.

Today was a beautiful spring day so with the sun shining and breeze blowing I set off to enjoy the weather. I walked to my mom's house, it's only about two blocks away by the way. I went over there for a little visit because surprisingly as busy as life is I don't see my mom, stepdad and younger siblings as much as I'd like even though we're so close. Anyway, Iranian New Year is the first day of spring but my mom surprised me with a tea book!

Of course the nerd in me was so excited and I came home and started reading it on my balcony (again, it's gorgeous outside). This book is really cool because I've always loved tea but I didn't really know much about the origins.

One thing that I always wondered was about what word is used for tea. In the US and much of Europe, the word for tea starts with a "t." English is Tea, French is The etc. In the eastern part of the word the word for tea starts with "Ch." Chayee in Farsi, Cha in Chinese. The reason for this is a no brainer but one I didn't know. The difference is based on whether tea was delivered by sea or by road and therefore the word was different because of the different influences of the language of the transporter. Cha is tea in Mandarin and so the countries that are closer and received tea through a ground route adopted this sound in their vocabulary for tea! 

Reading about the different plants variations and how they are cultivated. Excited to share more information with you as I read!

More green tea!

My aunt generously sent me some more green tea and it is so beautiful. It has a different shape then the other one.

The first green tea I tried that she sent was curiously similar to the regular black tea that I drink, not in smell but in both taste and look. This one is more similar to the type of tea you might drink at a Chinese restaurant. 

As sad as I was that my honey from Capital Bee Co was finished it makes a great container!

A tea and chocolate filled Valentine's day!

Baking up a storm. 

I decided to make a bunch of heart shaped treats for my family this valentine's day. I used silicone baking cups to make the mini heart shaped brownies. Marshalls provided an excellent decorating tool! I used all sorts of sprinkles and shapes. Check out what I made!

For breakfast I made my sweetheart some loving breakfast :) 

I went with a group of couples to Max Brenner's chocolate bar after dinner and had the most delicious treats! I tried a white chocolate chai tea which is essentially chai tea with white chocolate ganache. Although I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate this tea was so delicious. I highly suggest it!

The cutest superbowl sweet treats

Football shaped brookies. 

Oh my. Do you ever have trouble choosing between cookies and brownies? Brookies are here to save the day! 

Check out yet another amazing recipe from A Cozy Kitchen! Am I a fan girl? Kinda. Yes. 

After putting a mound of batter on the parchment paper I simply took my fingers and shaped it into a football. Not to worry, the batter isn't as solid as you'd like but even if the shape looks messy they still come out pretty well!

I let these cool completely before taking some store bought icing (I know shame on me) and made little football designs. 

These are super rich, sweet and delicious!

The Superbowl wouldn't be complete without plenty of beer! Flying Dog is a local MD brewery and they just keep knocking it out of the park with their new beers! These two were exceptionally good.

Send me a comment with your favorite superbowl treat or drink!

The most fragrant Rooibos

Fruity.

Here's another tea from Rumi Tea & Spice called "provence". A first glance this doesn't even look like tea!

This is rooibos base and  laden with fruits! The smell of dried apricot is abundantly apparent but there are definitely dried cranberries and blue berries as well. 

With the addition of lavender seeds and other flower petals, this truly smells like perfume. I had the pleasure to enjoy this tea with Rob's (my bf) mom who is South African. She taught me a few important things about the centrality of rooibos in South African culture.  

"We put flowers in everything"  

Maryke, Rob's mom asked me if I had a special pot for rooibos. Confused, she elaborated that in South Africa many people are particular about their tea and that they have a special pot only for rooibos. Many people cringe at the thought of their rooibos being brewed in the same pot at other teas...as if it will taint the flavor! This  was such a delightful piece of tradition I learned, I hadn't even thought about brewing different teas in the same pot. 

Being particular about tea is nothing new to me. This reminded me of how many Iranian homes have a specific type of teapot to brew and other teapots won't do. I talked about this in a previous post...the samovar! My dad laughed when he read the post about how I like my cast iron pot better :D

Maryke also told me that her mother's taste was so keen on the rooibos that she could taste if it had been brewed in a pot with other teas! 

As far as taste, I was not a fan of this rooibos. It smelled beautiful but upon tasting it really did taste like I was drinking perfume. I much preferred the red chai rooibos I tried previously!

Tea has always been a passion of mine so learning traditions and particularities of other cultures is thrilling! 

Do you have any similar stories like this? I wanna hear them! Please comment below or email me teathoughtsandsweets@gmail.com 

Rumi Tea & Spice

The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere they're in each other all along

~Rumi

A few month before I started my blog I came across a lovely tea shop near my work called Rumi Tea & Spice. I saw the sign for the store and was intrigued. Upon entered and greeting the shop owner I found out that the store was in fact named after one of my favorite poets! 

The shop is owned by a delightful Persian family who shares my passion for Rumi's words, as do many Persian people. My initial visit consisted of buying some essential spices and herbs, namely dill and turmeric which I use almost daily in my cooking. I saw that they had an incredible selection of teas as well. 

I needed to get new teas to try so I went back to visit Rumi Tea & Spice. 

One of the teas I bought was a Ti Kuan Yin Iron Goddess of Mercy oolong. The tin the tea comes in (which is free!) has brewing instructions. I brewed two teaspoons of this tea for 7 minutes. The tea dried has an herb like aroma, not like most teas I've tried! 

It came out a golden yellow color. The flavor of this tea was smooth and sweet! Legend has it that the goddess of mercy told a farmer to nurture this single tea plant to bring his village prosperity! 

The tea also looks really cool once it's been brewed. Dried, the leaves are tightly bound and they expand when brewed. 

If you're local to Bethesda, check out this wonderful tea shop! If you aren't local you can order online! I think it's very important to shop local and support small businesses! 

Miso White Chocolate Chip Cookies - Baking Failure

Sometimes I fail. 

I took an interest in baking back in middle school. At the start, I failed all the time. I soon discovered that baking is a lot like chemistry, you have to be precise. There is a reason to add baking soda versus baking powder or both etc. Once I got the hang of it I usually did well, except last night. EPIC FAIL :)

The last time I remember messing up was making my mom a raspberry torte. It was an extremely complicated recipe and I did not bake the genoise correctly, it was delicious but it was no genoise. 

I had come across A Cozy Kitchen's miso white chocolate chip recipe and was intrigued. Not really a fan of white chocolate but in cookies it's usually YUM. I have also never baked with miso before. The recipe was simple enough but in the process of baking I messed up. 

The bottom of the cookies kept burning. Thankfully the batter was a large batch so that I could experiment. Here is what I tried and what finally worked. 

-First I tried doubling up on the parchment paper...burned bottoms

-I tried lowering the oven temp to 300 from 350 and bake the cookies for 10 minutes instead of 12...burned bottoms

-I kept the above changes and moved the baking rack down a notch. This was the closest I got so far, the bottoms were browned instead of burned but the cookies weren't the right shape. 

-FINALLY, on my last batch I increased the size of the balls I was putting on the sheet and flattened them a bit. I checked them after 8 minutes and left them in for 9 total I believe. They finally came out right, on the last batch :( 

Of course it was frustrating to fail so many times but humbling as well. I took a few pictures to show you the process and difference in cookies!

The ones on the right were still yummy yummy but a bit too browned. 

Lesson learned. 

Cardamom spiced Flourless cake.

Winter storm Jonas 2016 baking. 

The east coast was hit by a blizzard this weekend and in Takoma Park we got a bit over 2 feet!

My boyfriend and I bravely went outside in an attempt to dig out our cars (which were completely buried) while it was still snowing. We gave up and I came in and started searching for a recipe!

I went back through Bake and found a flourless cake recipe which was perfect because I didn't have a lot of flour. 

Here's the recipe!

Basically, you melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler first. If you don't have a double boiler you can easily make one. I used a pot of hot water and placed a sauce pan on top, worked perfectly. 

In a separate bowl you mix all the other ingredients together. Once the melted chocolate and butter has cooled for 10 minutes you mix them together. 

If you don't have parchment paper I buttered a cake pan (or you can use spray) and the cake came out nicely. 

This recipe says to bake for and hour and 10 minutes at 325 but I would check it before hand. I think mine was cooked through at about 40 minutes!

My cake came out a little broken but it was still delicious! I think what happened is that the pan I was using was a bit too small. My boyfriend, sister, brother in law and I ate this with whipped topping. The cake is very rich so don't forget to pour yourself a glass of tea !

NOTE: I ground the cardamom by hand and the smells brought back memories of my childhood. It was so wonderful. We used to eat this hard candy Ahb-Nabat and it had cardamom seeds in it. So cool how this smell reminded me of that memory. 

Freshly ground cardamom.

Cardamom candy!

Let it snow!

Blooming tea. 

My aunt recently gave me a little package containing a blooming tea! For those of you who aren't familiar, this is a tea that is dried and opens (blooms) when put in hot water. 

There's a huge snowstorm coming my way this weekend so I thought it was only appropriate to try this blooming tea that happens to be called, Let It Snow!

You can get the same exact one I tried at Teaposy .

Here is what it looked like dry. I would suggest using a bowl to brew this or a glass teapot if you have one. This little ball is enough to brew 6-8 cups of tea so brewing it in a small glass is a waste, I think. 

This thing really is compact! It looks like a little mushroom. I couldn't put my finger on the smell, it was It almost had the same aroma as a fig. 

I attempted to take a video of it brewing and of course my phone crapped out on me at the beginning which is the coolest part to watch!

Once bloomed out fully, it started to release parts of the top as if it was spitting out little leaves to brew, it was beautiful!

According to teaposy the tea actually contains chrysanthemum, coconut fruit fiber, silver needle white tea and is scented with jasmine flower.

This tea had a surprising nutty flavor, sort of like macadamia nuts!

Look at this beauty!

I took the flower out after brewing, love how beautiful it is. I'm thinking about drying it out and putting it in a mason jar as decor!

Cinnamon Swirl Muffins

Cinnamony swirl goodness. 

I was looking in my bake magazine and found a recipe for muffins! 

I didn't have pecans so I used walnuts. I didn't have buttermilk so I combined one teaspoon of lemon juice with almond milk. 

Check out the ingredients below!

Preheat oven to 425. 

Combine the baking powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl combine the sugar and butter. Once that's light and fluffy add the eggs and vanilla. Alternate mixing in the dry mixture and the buttermilk. 

Making the topping mixture with sugar, cinnamon and pecans (or walnuts). 

Fill the baking cups half way then spoon in some of the toppings mixture. Fill in the rest of the batter then take a toothpick shaped tool and swirl the ingredients. Top off everything with the cinnamon sugar mixture. 

Bake for 5 minutes then lower heat to 350 and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes. 

Let cool on a wire rack. 

DEVOUR.