A Nice Cuppa

Sublime recipes for cool summer tea infusions…

Take off your shoes, shut your oven off for at least a tiny bit and let nature soothe you with some a cool brew fresh tea leaf infusions. One summer, when my air conditioner was not in the mood to be cool, I wanted to make some iced tea and could not even dare myself to turn the oven on to boil water for my usual summer late afternoon rescue of chilled iced tea. Having no gumption to prepare it in advance? I took my usual lazy grasshopper promise of surely preparing some tomorrow when I had the heart to turn the stove on.

Then I recalled a seminar I went to at the former Toraya tea house on making Japanese teas with a certified expert of Japanese Tea Ceremony 1994. It was a seminar on using the finest tea leaves in a myriad of alternative methods. The instructor was a hearty woman who could not speak English at all! The audience was filled with an international group of tea enthusiasts and none of us spoke the same language.

Here is one recipe that came to my mind like a mirage in a Manhattan desert of heat. I am afraid, I cannot remember her name. She was the Martha Stewart of Japanese tea in her tea infusion colored kimono of tawny beige tinged with little flowers and wooden sandals. She pointed to her head as if to say, “Don’t think… this is a straight from your heart easy way to make the most delicate tea delightful.” She filled a beautiful crystalline long tunneled glass with cool clear spring water. We all sat there transfixed as if a crystal ball were to reveal our secret message within the cool water.

She made sure we were all eyes on the glass and put some beautiful green pine needle shaped tea leaves in this undulating vessel of bewitching pure water and suddenly she spoke. She said “no good to use your head, just let the tea and water fall in love.” She pulled out the vessel from beneath the silk scarf and said “leave it and come back and drink it and you will be fulfilled.” I thought, “Oh, a lazy way to make iced tea!”

Here is a recipe without as much drama of silk scarves however, I did fill several pitchers of my Martha Stewart wares with any tea I could find and simply let them to cold infuse in my fridge overnight. I used fruit infusions of hibiscus, rose hips,and dried fruits for the children and the Seniors. I had small rather neglected and forgotten parcels of assorted loose tea leaves of anything from a precious Gyrokuro (expensive high grade Japanese tea pre-stone ground for Chanoyu) to Earl Grey and even High Mountain milky silky oolongs.

I took out all the mason jars like my Grandfather from Louisiana would. Grandpa from the South was one whipper snapper of alchemy making concoctions. I used to close my eyes to drink and scream “Please, Grandpa, make ‘Kool Aid’ See the smiling happy pitcher like on T.V.?” He was not having it. So, I may be getting a bit like Grandpa but with my tea. I filled them with leaves, poured over the crystal clear Volvic bottled water and left them in the fridge. My own Fred Flintstone Zen Rock bedrock den of Lazy tea. The next day, I was sitting pretty with a yabba dabba do feast of fancy pretty drinks with even cat nip tea for my kitty!

What is all this about? Here is a beautiful recipe from J-Tea International. Josh Chamberlain is another adventurer like David Hoffman I wrote about below who combs the high mountains of Taiwan for gorgeous teas. Put your passport away as the hard work is already done. Here is a recipe I really love from Josh of J-TEA International. Good stuff! Might sound a bit serious this recipe, but once you learn the rules, you can break them like me! “Gotta be in the box box first Fumiko, before you try to get out of it!” that’s what my Dad, a classical and Jazz musician, always said.

If you want to experience the undisputed King and Queen of Tea in USA experts, some serious tea sipping from an all around expert of classical Chinese teas, try Michael and Winnie Wong of “The Tea Gallery” here in New York City. Gotta try The Tea Gallery - just got a shipment of pristine dew drop kissed Japanese varietals for summer sweet soothing tea. Hibiki-an’s got lots of easy precise recipes here but you’ll have to wait for the tea all the way from Japan! Until then? Enjoy and everybody have an iced tea named desire down South lazy grasshopper jazzy sippin’ summer.

Iced Tea
Making great iced tea is easy and rewarding. The following method of extracting a brew from your leaf is called “cold brew.” The cold brew extraction process is done slowly over time and, as a result, it is considered the best method for extracting all of the goodness that the tea leaf has to offer. It also will extract all of the caffeine, which is good or bad, depending on your individual preference. But consider that the caffeine in tea is much nicer than caffeine in coffee (as many of you already know).

Supplies and Equipment
One or two large glass jars
A strainer for draining tea from one jar to another
Water for tea
Refrigerator
Timing device

Steps for Delicious Iced Tea

Loose leaf tea (use 1g of loose leaf tea per 100ml of water).
Add water, cold or room temperature.
Apply lid, shake one, two, and three, and place upright in the fridge for six to ten hours.
Remove jar and strain.
Enjoy, or reseal in a clean jar and refrigerate. Drink within 10 days.

Helpful hints:
What teas work best for cold brewing?
I have had the best experience with twisted oolongs and green oolongs. I recommend Formosa oolong or eastern beauty, Gui fei mei ren, Dan chong, Jasmine pearls, Green oolong, and Wen shan bao zhong.

What type of jar should I use and how many milliliters does my jar have?
I use mason jars with nice snug lids. You can also use plastic and I have used plastic several times before, but mostly out of convenience. I prefer glass. Mason jars are good because there are markers on the jar indicating volume in ml. The ratio is one gram of tea for every 100 ml of water. So for my 2000ml mason jars, I use 20g of tea. I dump the tea into the bottom of the jar and then fill the jar with carbon filtered water. One ml is also defined as one cc.

If I don’t have a scale, how do I determine the amount of tea to use?
Use a level teaspoon. A level teaspoon of tightly rolled oolong is about 3g of tea, so for my 2000ml jar, I would use 6 or 7 level teaspoons.

“Cold Infusion” iced Tea is now available at the J-Tea Leaf House and at Latitude 10 (in the Friendly St. Market).