Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Freshness in Tea

I've been obsessing on the freshness of coffee, and I started wondering if the same issues apply to tea.  When does tea ... peak?  Does it have an optimum flavor period, after which it begins to degrade in the same way that coffee does?  It seems appropriate to end Hot Tea Month with some answers to these questions.  Not from me, mind you, I only had questions.  These answers posted to the Teamail list came from Cindy, the Tea Fairy who sent me all those wonderful yunnan teas to try, with contributions also from Jill of Special Tea Pots.

How Old is Too Old?

Green teas need to be as fresh as possible to be flavorful. After a year, they're probably too old. Indeed, some would argue that once the picking season has passed, they've already lost much of their flavor.  I believe that white teas are the same but am not as familiar with these. I'm also not very well-versed in Japanese greens, which are processed differently than Chinese. Oolongs are best fresh, and I find that mine lose much of their flavor after a year. I tend to toss any left after 2 years.  I'm assuming that those greener oolongs, such as baozhongs, are more susceptible to fading flavor. Black teas last longer (I suppose this is due to roasting?). I've read that 2-3 years is probably the time limit. I think that some black teas actually need to sit for a bit before the flavor is full. At last year's Tea Expo, I was thrilled to try some Nilgiri that had just been picked and processed the week before (the plantation manager/owner was giving a tea-tasting). He noted that this was much too soon to be sipping, but he wanted us to try it. Very raw-feeling and not something I'd want to drink much of, but a great learning experience! Aged teas, like puerh and aged oolongs, are meant to be stored for quite a while. I have several puerh cakes and touchas that are stuck in the dark nether-regions of my cabinet drawers (or tucked in a dark closet), waiting for another decade or two. I believe that aged oolongs are re-roasted(?) annually, so I tend to purchase rather small amounts of these pricey teas from superior vendors who deal with them for me. Scented teas are good for 9 months for optimum flavor, depending on how they are scented.  Some teas like Market spice have a 2 month shelf life. Herb teas - Some herbs like Rooibos do not expire.  Some herb blends keep their flavor longer than the teas. Of course, all of the above depends on some really important factors: If the tea is sealed in airtight containers and kept out of the sunlight, it will last much longer. This is how a quality vendor would store the tea. How many times the tea has been moved from one container to the next (as it passes from processing to retailer, importer, retailer, shops) can impact the quality of the tea. Harvest and processing dates.  Teas are processed soon after picking, so the harvest date should be similar to processing date -- these dates are important for two reasons. First, so you can know how fresh the tea is (especially relevant for greens/oolongs). Second, it lets you know that vendor is nowledgeable, cares about the tea, and has a good relationship with the company/farm/plantation the tea is purchased from. Here in the U.S., it can be hard to get greens and oolongs during the harvest season, except from those vendors who actually travel to the country's tea farms.

So I guess I need to check the tea in my cupboard for dates. But I honestly don't know if I'd recognize staleness in tea. I've done quite a lot of tea tasting this last month, now I just need to get a little more refined about it. I've decided I need to do the same thing with tea that I did with coffee... compare.  Eddi-cate myself.  Get some fresh, and compare it to some old stuff, and calibrate my tongue.  Ok, then.  Ready, set, shop!

My Coffee's Better Than Theirs Is ...

There was this ad jingle, back in my youth.  It went "My dog's better than your dog, my dog's better than yours, my dog's better 'cause he eats KenLRation, my dog's better than yours."

If you never saw or heard this commercial, you just have to imagine it.  If you have heard it, I'm sorry in advance, because now that song will be stuck in your head ALL day.  And maybe the rest of the week.  It's been in my head for two days now, and it WON'T go away.

It all started with coffee.  Waking up and realizing I didn't have enough freshly roasted coffee beans to last my morning.  I only had enough to jump start my engine.  Now, I could have just roasted some, but, well, right out of the roaster ... not so good.  Better if they sit overnight and breathe a bit.  So I inhaled that smidgy of coffee I was able to make, and then dashed off to the store and the coffee shop for a double shot.  Ohmigod, I'm here to tell you - c'mon sing along with me now - my coffee's better than their's is, my coffee's better than theirs, my coffee's better 'cause mine is fresh roasted, my coffee's better than theirs!!!

S'truth. 

For a long time now I haven't made a big deal about this with my friends and family, because I was afraid they'd think I was turning into one of those [grimace] coffee snobs.  You know the kind, the ones who sash-aaaay into Starbucks and rattle off their order at lightning speed, and then look down their noses at you when you can't figure out what the options are.  I really don't want to become a [grimace] coffee snob.

But s'truth.  Freshly roasted coffee is so-way-much better.  Don't take my word for it.  Read these articles: Part 1, and Part 2, written by the great Tonx, all about the selecting your beans, and the issue of freshness.  (A list of more articles can be found on this blog post.)

The bad thing about roasting your own - you can't settle for stale coffee, you're completely ruined.  So, my next endeavor is to research coffee shops in my area that do roast their own.  I'm sure there must be a few.  Because the next time I run out of freshly roasted, I won't be going to THAT particular coffee shop again, unless it's to jingle them with "My coffee's better than yours is..."  Heheh.

Choco-Bloggers Around the World

My BlogRoll badly needs to be updated.  I suppose I could just use one of the bloglist services and have it update automatically, but I kind of like having my fingers right IN the linky-pie, so to speak.  I'm gonna get to it, really I am.  In the meantime, here are some of the chocolate and foodie blogs I've been enjoying recently:

Chocolate Obsession - I blogged about William's site a few weeks back (see post here), but it's worth mentioning again. 

Chocolate in Context - Emily Stone, a native New Yorker, now living in Australia, writes about chocolate and travel.

Chocolate & Zucchini - Clotilde Dusoulier, a Parisian woman who lives in Montmartre shares her passion for all things food-related.  Jump directly to the most important category: Chocolate.

Ice Cream Ireland - Kieran Murphy lives and blogs about chocolate (and other things) from Ireland. 

Brownie Points - She calls herself McAuliflower, from Eugene OR.  Is that her real moniker?  No matter, the posts are wonderful, recipes mouse-waddling.

Sweet Pleasure - or plaisir sucré belongs to Sam, of Toronto, Canada.  Another foodie blog that leaves me drooling.

And this, just discovered: Food Porn Watch- for food blogs, shows latest updates and such.

Tarts in Parts: Down to the Crust

My grandmother was the queen of crust.  Her pie innards weren't always stellar, but she had superlative skill with a crust; everybody said so. 

When I was younger I tried to get her to teach me, but the first thing she said was, you have to do this a lot to get good at it.  Which was not exactly what I wanted to hear at the time.  At nineteen, I wasn't THAT interested, and how many nineteen-year-olds do you know that like to hear "Practice Makes Perfect"?  Vomititious.

Now, of course, I am.  Interested, that is.  I wish now I had taken advantage of her tutelage, and it's too late.  What a dim-bunny.  The written instructions she gave me, and my sketchy memory of the time we spent together baking pies just aren't enough.  My pie crusts are dense, tooth-breakers.  Or they fall apart, the ingredients apparently having declared war and refusing to bond.  So when I started on tarts, I wasn't sure I was ready to tackle that behemoth "The Hand-Made Crust" again. I did a lot of searching the net for recipes and advice, and wow, I had no idea there were so many options for tart crusts.  The alternative crust list is below.  But to begin, here are two basic recipes for "from scratch" tart crust:

From Fabulous Foods 1 1/2 C flour 1/4 C sugar 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 C butter 1 egg yolk 1/4 C cold water

From Epicurious.com 2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water 2 tablespoons chilled whipping cream

Differences: egg yolk in one and whipping cream in the other.  The destructions are pretty similar too, although Epicurious assumes you have a food processor, which I don't, and puts emphasis on not over-mixing.  This is the primary thing my gramma said too, cutting in the butter only until clumps form, not mixing it too thoroughly, was very important.  That, and working quickly, which I never could do.  But yeah, I know, practice makes perfect.  Basically:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in shortening thoroughly with a {pastry blender or food processor, or two knives or big fork, as my gramma did it} until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, stir {egg yolk or cream} together with cold water. Pour this mixture into the flour/butter mixture and mix until a ball of dough forms. Shape the dough into a disc and refrigerate at least an hour before rolling out.

Fabulous Foods also has a page of destructions for rolling out and baking the crust here, complete with pictures (one of which I stole here).  I just love a site with pictures.  Generally speaking, no matter what kind of pan or tin you use, just roll out the dough, cut into rounds that are a bit bigger than your pan/tin, press the dough down into the pan, and trim the edges if desired.

Now if you want to try some other (or some easier) alternatives:

• Crust made with a tube of refrigerated crescent rolls, like this recipe.  You just roll crescent dough out on a lightly floured surface; seal seams and perforations. Cut into 2-inch circles. Place in prepared muffin cups.
• Crust made with phyllo dough, a thin Greek pastry, like this recipe.  You can find more tips on working with phyllo at Ellen's Kitchen, but the basic idea is to layer, oil, sugar, and then cut the stacked dough and press into muffin cups.
• Crust made of shortbread, like this recipe.  Now this sounds delish, must try.  Perhaps a bit more forgiving than the traditional pie/tart crust recipes.
• Crust made from cookie dough - like this recipe.  Hmm, I wonder if you could use refrigerated cookie dough...
• Crust made of graham crackers, like this recipe.  The graham cracker crust is pretty easy, it's just sugar, graham crackers and butter.  But you can also buy these ready-made.

The dough you use really should depend on what your filling will be, as I discovered with my chocolate marshmallow tarts.  I used a pre-made graham cracker crust that worked very well with chocolate filling, but tasted awful when I used lemon curd as a filling. 

Most grocery stores and specialty food shops carry pre-made pie shells in various sizes, if you don't have time to make your own crust, or if you're a chicken-poop like me.  Now, don't get me wrong, I AM going to do some from scratch.  But pre-made shells are a wonderful thing.  I found these wonderful little sweet tart shells (appetizer size) from Clearbrook Farms that tasted a lot like little shortbread cookies.  I filled them with a variety of stuff, some of which worked, some of which didn't.  But more on fillings in my next tart post!

What Say, Lady Grey

More from the tea tasting front!

In spite of my growing preference for loose teas, I still occasionally enjoy a cup of something in a bag.  I found this one by accident.  I was going to try this recipe for Earl Grey Tea Cookies (recipe is actually HERE, but go see the original post anyway, for the wicked tea porn), but I realized I had no Earl Grey tea.  So, while at the store, I noticed Twinings had a tea called Lady Grey.  Citrusy, it said, which I love, so I bought some.  I may try the tea cookie recipe with this tea instead, and then I can call them Mrs. Grey Tea Cookies. 

S'wenyway, this is a really nice, light tea, citrusy but not overwhelmingly so.  It reminded me in some ways of Constant Comment by Bigelow (hey, they've got a blog now, check it out), which I still keep on my shelves because it's my aunt's favorite.  The box says bergamot, oranges and lemons for flavoring.  Which is the same as the Earl Grey, so I wonder what the difference is between the two.  The first cup I steeped was waaay too strong.  Very bitter.  This tea only needs a very short steep time, at least for me.

I topped this cup off with a lemon scone, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I dunked.  I dunked, and I slurped; I made a mess and it was wonderful.  Fortunately I was alone, so there were no witnesses.  And if you tell anybody, I'll deny it all.

Carnival of the Recipes #126

I just realized why I blocked out this last week's Carnival of the Recipes.  It's hosted at Diabetic Recipes, and the theme is, naturally, recipes for diabetics. 

Well, there you go, ain't that just a shiny bit of Freudian lingerie, typical subconscious mental block.  Firstly, I was married to a diabetic, and for years I watched his diet way more diligently than I did my own.  Classic co-dependent behavior, which thankfully I evolved out of.  Secondly, I have no diabetic-safe recipes in my recipe box.  In fact, most of my recipes are guaranteed to KILL a diabetic.  So it's probably best that I didn't post something.  Heh.

Anyway, go have a look-see, there are plenty of recipes to try!  And, interesting, the authors Kathy and Bill were snowed in here in Arizona.  I didn't get to see any of the snow we got - hugely disappointed about that! - but then there was one year (about 12 years ago) when I saw it snow in the wee hours and nobody else saw it.  In some weird way, I guess that evens things out.

Tarts in Parts: What IS a Tart?

I'm kind of doing this backwards.  I should have started my tart series with this bit of research, instead of doing recipes first.  Oh well.  Sometimes I'm not very linear.  The first thing I needed when I decided I wanted to be a Tart Queen, was to get clear on my definition of TART. 

According to the Joy of Cooking:

Tart is defined as a single-layered base of pastry (plain or puff) with a sweet or savory filling baked in either a shallow tart pan that has straight, fluted sides and a removable bottom or a metal tart ring placed on a baking sheet.   The tart is removed from the tart pan or ring before serving. Broadly, the term 'tart' encompasses flans, quiches, and pies.   Depending on the type of tart made they can be served as appetizers, entrees or desserts.  Their size ranges from bite-size (hors d'oeuvre), individual-size (tartlet) to full-size (tart).

But Baking 911, in their intro to pies and tarts, says the definition/distinction goes thusly:

PIES: A pie is American in design and can be both sweet or savory and is served directly from its pan. Most pies are usually baked with a layer of pastry dough or other crust doughs and mixtures, lining a regular 9-inch or a deep-dish 8-inch round pie pan, both with sloping sides.

TARTS: A tart, on the other hand, is a European open-faced cousin of the pie. Tarts seem to be more refined than pies, which are homier in nature. The Strawberry Tart with Pastry Cream is one of my favorites.  Tarts are usually baked in a 9- or 10-inch straight, short-sided pan with a removable bottom and fluted edges, the pan being half the depth of a pie pan. They are also baked in a pastry ring placed on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Is anybody besides me confused?  Pies are just taller than tarts, then, right?  And pies are sometimes covered with a layer of crust/dough, but not always.  The other thing I don't get is the removeable bottom.  I actually bought some tart pans with fluted sides and removeable bottoms.  I can't figure out why the bottoms are separate.  I gather it has solely to do with being able to remove the entire thing to serve it. Pie pans don't have removeable bottoms because pies are served directly from the pan.

All tarts end up being free-standing because after baking, they are taken out of the pan and put on a platter for serving, as the pan's removable bottom helps to facilitate this.

I always thought tarts were just smaller versions of pies.  I had never seen a 9 inch crust-and-filling confection that was called a tart.  But since many of the recipes I found on the net talk about just such an animal, I gather it's not that unusual.  The kind of tart I usually think of - anywhere from 2 inches to 5 inches in diameter - is more traditionally called an Individual Tart, or even "Tartlet", which calls to mind a certain Friends episode in which the food critic gets stoned.  Hilarious.  The word Tartlet can send me into peals of hysterical laughter, so don't get me started.  We'll just call these little-uns TARTS, and leave PIE for the big-uns, ok?  Ok.

So, anyway.  I've got these removeable-bottom tart pans, but I don't much like the shape.  So I went shopping this morning for a product that I saw on this post at Mekuno Cooking. 

I stole Faith's picture of the pan, to show you what I was looking for, because although my grocery store had a huge display of these silicone type pans, guess which one they did NOT have?  You got it, Murphy's Law loves me.  The only thing I wanted, they didn't have.  No tart pans.  I really want to try these, so I may have to order some online somewhere.

The tart recipe sounds delish too.  I think Faith must be a 3-dot cook.  I'm still working at becoming a two-dot cook.

The resulting tart crust would look something like this:

Pretty, huh?  I love the shape.  As opposed to the fluted-but-flat pans I have that turn out something that looks more like this:

My SIL just uses muffin tins.  She makes a pretty good crust from scratch, so that just shows-ta-go-ya, you don't HAVE to have fancy-schmancy pans to make cool tarts.

Now the subject of crust is another whole thing, and a major source of frustration for me, so I'll leave that for another post.

Imperial Red Tea

I have managed to miss two Carnivals!  I totally spaced that yesterday was the deadline!  Must do better this week.

I do have another new tea to report on though.  Imperial Red, from In Pursuit of Tea, is a rich black tea from the Fuijan Province of China.  The first thing I noticed on opening the packet was the smell of the leaves.  Sweet.  Cocoa-ish, and sweet.  That augured well; I love to follow my nose.

Even the smell of the steeping tea was a bit cocoa-ish, so I was a little disappointed that it wasn't as strong in the taste.  The strongest flavor is smoky.  Not overwhelmingly smoky like a lapsang souchong, but definitely smoky.  The cocoa remained only in the after-breath, that flavor that lingers after you've swallowed, as you breathe with your mouth closed and the aroma and tatste of the tea combine.  I'm sure there's a tea-expert word for that phenomenon, but I don't know what it is.  I just call it the after-breath, and it's one of the things I love best about tea.  About some teas.

The other most noticeable thing about this tea is the color, which certainly lives up to its name - definitely red, as you can hopefully tell from the picture here, and quite different from the Délicat White Tea which has a lighter, yellowish color.

This is a good tea for sipping on a cold winter evening, which I just happen to have handy at the moment.  It's brewing up to be quite a storm outside my window, but this tea sort of says, cuddle in, snuggle down, all is safe and warm here.

An Unusual Talent

People are so wonderfully creative.  Susan Stockwell, UK artist, specializes in ... well... many things, but at the top of the list I would put "creative use of unusual materials".  And she uses a lot of coffee and tea, which I think is just grand!

Check out these exceptionally cool items:

This goes in the category of "dress work" - the train of this life-sized dress was stitched together from used coffee filters.  The dress itself is coffee stained waxed paper cups, sewn together. 

Pretty amazing.  And if you ever run out of coffee filters... no, I guess you wouldn't want to pilfer from this piece of art.

She's also fashioned a beautiful Victorian style dress (can I borrow this for an afternoon tea party?) made out of old maps of the British Isles.

She does a lot of map-art.  Stuff made out of maps.  Maps made out of ... stuff.

In addition to this map of India, made entirely of tea bags stitched together, she's got several versions of the world:  here is a map of the world, painted with coffee on coffee filter paper and here's the world painted with tea on tea bag paper.  Here's a map made with a tea stain.  And here's a map of the America's made with coffee filters glued together. 

Cool stuff. 

Check out her website: http://www.susanstockwell.co.uk/

found via Gadling, the travelers weblog

A Century of Kisses

I'm a Kiss fan from way back.  No, not Gene Simmons' Kiss ... altho they're ok too.  I'm talking about Hershey's chocolate kisses, of course.

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of Hershey's Kisses, and in honor of the event, The U.S. Postal Service has released a With Love and Kisses stamp.  So now you really can send off your letters with a kiss.  The post office is also running a sweepstakes.  All you have to do is guess how many Hershey®’s Kisses® Brand Chocolates will fit inside a U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail® flat-rate box.  Submit your guess online at  www.guessandwinsweeps.com before Feb. 15, and you could win $10,000 for a romantic getaway of your choice.

Hershey's Kisses have been around since 1907, when they were hand-wrapped.  Can you imagine, wrapping all those little chocolates one at a time by hand?  They finally got the whole thing automated in 1921, and with the exception of a brief period from 1942 to 1949 when silver foil was rationed during the war, we've been enjoying milk chocolate Kisses in pretty much the same shape and appearance for a whole century.

We can now enjoy Hershey's kisses in a variety of holiday wrapping.  Kisses chocolates wrapped in red and silver foil were introduced in 1986 in honor of Valentine’s Day.  At Christmas I always have red, green and gold kisses in a bowl, and added as filler to my gift baskets.  And they come in a huge variety of fillings now - caramel, almond, macadamia nut, peanut butter, and even a limited edition cherry cordial.  Check here for a full list from Hershey.

I enjoy the chocolate mint kisses, and I occasionally will go for a nut filled.  But honestly, my all-time favorite is the plain old milk chocolate.  I guess it reminds me of my gramma, who had a secret jar full of kisses on a shelf in the kitchen.  When mom wasn't looking, she'd sneak that jar down and let us kids grab a handful and dash out the door.  We felt like we were really getting away with something grand.  The joy of stolen chocolate can't be beat.