How to Make: Thai-style iced tea

When Thai iced tea is listed on a menu I usually order it so I was excited to see a recipe for Thai-Style Iced Tea in the June 2013 issue of Bon Appetit.  Now that I have prepared and drunk the tea, I realized that I overlooked a key word in the recipe, i.e. "style". While the BA tea is tasty, it does not taste like restaurant Thai iced tea.  I do not know what is missing. (I did cut the recipe and substituted half and half for the cream.)  In any case, this iced tea is refreshing - warm weather predicted for the remainder of the week - and you cannot go wrong with condensed milk.

Bon Appetit's Thai-Style Iced Tea
(8 servings)

10 star anise pods
3 Tbsp sugar
1 cup water
1 vanilla bean
15 black tea bags
7 cups cold water
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Combine the first three ingredients in a small saucepan.  Scrape seeds from the bean and add the bean to the saucepan.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.  Transfer to a large pitcher.  Add the tea bags and 7 cups of cold water.  Cover and chill for at least 4 hours.  Strain into a different pitcher.  Add the last two ingredients and stir until dissolved.  Serve over ice.

Tea Review: Tea for Tyrants Gyokuro Superior

Tea for Tyrants is a brilliant concept: order tea, collect artwork, discover new music! And the idea is well executed. My tea, art, and music arrived in an appropriately sized cardboard box. The two tins of gyokuro were cushioned with biodegradable "straw" material (which I will reuse in a bird craft project for a sweet group of preschoolers). The digital download is a QR code printed on 3" x 5" card. Above the code are brewing instructions and information about the musical artist. On the reverse is the art. The card is index sized so it's perfect for cataloging.

I participated in the Tea for Tyrants Kickstarter campaign and for my level of donation I received two 2-ounce tins of Gyokuro Superior paired with music by Lovely Tyrants. Each tin contains 50 grams of tea. Gyokuro is one of my favorite types of green teas.

The perfume of the dry leaves is wonderful.  Sweet like caramel and banana bread. It reminds me of my favorite childhood ice cream: grape nuts ice cream.  (Here's a recipe for grape nuts ice cream via Serious Eats.)  The color of the steeped leaves darkens with each steep and as you lengthen the steep.  My first steep is usually 30 seconds followed by 1 minute steeps.  I prepare the gyokuro using a gaiwan.  The first steep is usually fresh tasting, like a likely steamed vegetable.  Subsequent cups taste and smell like asparagus and there's a little hint of nori.  I really like asparagus.

Thinking about ordering tea?   Try Tea for Tyrants.  The company offers several other teas: another gyokuro (Karigane), two senchas (Houjicha bancha and Fukamushi), and an organic matcha.

(As for the music, I haven't listened to it yet.  My devices and a couple of browsers are out of sync with soundcloud.  By the way, Tea for Tyrants founders, Phil Lomac and Andy Angelos, are the Lovely Tyrants.)

Tea posters

I collect stationery and have several tea-themed pieces but I don't have any tea posters.  Here are several posters I like from around the web.  Would love to hear about your favorite(s).  Enjoy the round-up!


Drinking tea is a good way to recover from a crisis. 

Here's a "Drink More Tea" spoof on the Uncle Sam "I Want You" poster.

You've probably seen the "Keep Calm and Drink Tea" postcards; you can buy the sentiment in poster form, too. Here's another version.

I agree with the sentiment of this poster: "Everything Stops For Tea"!

And here's a good one for a laugh.

And finally, this "Tea & Music" poster reminds me of the tea and music package I received from the Tea for Tyrants Kickstarter project.  Stay tuned for a review of the Gyokuro Superior.

P.S. A selection of my tea stationery can be seen here.

Tea in Children's Books V

Welcome to the fifth installation in this series of tea scenes from children's books. Last time, Sophie served tea to a hungry tiger in The Tiger Who Came to Tea, by Judith Kerr; the old wizard's cat Get Well, Good Knight, by Shelley Moore Thomas read with a cup of tea nearby; and Tea Rex attended a tea party in a book of the same name by Molly Idle.

Miss Mary Mack enjoys tea with an elephant in Miss Mary Mack, by Mary Ann Hoberman with illustrations by Nadine Bernard Westcott.

Princess Hyacinth enjoys tea with the boy with the kite in Princess Hyacinth: the Surprising Tale of a Girl who Floated, by Florence Parry Heide with illustrations by Lane Smith.

Can you spot the teapot in This is My House, by Richard Scarry?

Let me know if your favorite children's book has a tea scene. You can also tweet the title with the #teainbooks tag.  Catch up on the series here.